It’s not news that there are changes afoot in the world of education. You’re probably already well aware of the closure, over the past few years, of schools with a long history. There are concerns with loan debt that have been an issue since Obama was president. Most recently, the changes to student loans that not only fundamentally affect the acupuncture trade, but will change the landscape for graduate education in a notable way. In this conversation with Bex Groebner we untangle the intersection of education, accreditation, federal student loan programs and professional accountability. We explore how changes in funding will put financial pressure on schools that built a business model based on the higher loan caps of GRAD+ loans. How student debt affects those who are mortgaging their future on loans that many cannot pay back. Along with what could happen if the levels of student enrollment drop to the point where our accreditor (ACAHM) and certification organization (NCBAHM) lose the funding needed to sustain their business activities.Bex suggests that in an uncertain world, it’s best to have a back up, and that is a large part of the motivation behind her work at the Acupuncture Workforce Alliance. Most of all, she’d like to see an acupuncture education be accessible, affordable and within reach of anyone who’d like to learn this medicine so they can serve their communities, and be able to support themselves and their families.

Some teachings are preserved in books. Others are preserved in people.In this episode we visit with Johann Hausen, translator, publisher, practitioner, and long-time student of Daoist traditions in the Wudang Mountains. What begins with martial arts and Chinese medicine quickly opens into a wider conversation about cultivation, character, and the responsibility of carrying knowledge forward.We explore the foundations of internal alchemy, not as a collection of techniques, but as a lifelong process of refining oneself through everyday life. Why difficult people may be our greatest teachers. How attachment can hide in the things we love most. And why the real work often happens far from the meditation cushion.Along the way we discuss preserving traditional teachings, the role of books in a digital world, and Johann’s work translating and publishing texts that might otherwise be lost. Beneath it all is a simple but challenging question: what does it mean to become a better human being, rather than simply a more knowledgeable one?

We tend to think of the acupuncture profession as something fixed and stable, but the reality is that it is always in motion. The practice of East Asian medicine in North America has been shaped by decades of effort—by practitioners, educators, regulators, and advocates working to create a place for this medicine in the American healthcare system.In this conversation with Valerie Hobbs, we take a historical look at how the profession bootstrapped itself into being. Along with how the creation of educational standards, accreditation, certification, and professional organizations, helped to give the profession the form it has today..We also discuss some of the tensions shaping the present moment. Questions about educational requirements, student debt, declining enrollment, professional identity, integration into mainstream healthcare, and the uncertain future of acupuncture education. This conversation is an invitation to consider the forces shaping our profession and to consider how we might respond. Beneath the challenges is a recurring theme: the future of this medicine will not be determined by any single institution or idea, but by our willingness to listen, engage thoughtfully, and find ways of working toward our shared goals.

As the Fire Horse year reaches its peak, many practitioners are noticing shifts in both the environment and the clinic.In this conversation with Christine Cannon, we explore the interaction of fire and water through the lens of Wu Yun Liu Qi, and how these energies may be influencing respiratory health, anxiety, fatigue, and emotional resilience.We also discuss the importance of protecting Wei Qi, creating restorative space, and finding balance during periods of heightened activity and change.Listen in for a practical discussion on seasonal influences, constitutional health, and navigating the energetic themes of the year.

What if the very things that seem to be pulling our profession apart are actually the forces that will finally condense it into something more resilient? We’re in a moment of choppy waters—school closures, shrinking enrollment, and a shifting financial landscape—where the successes of what have brought us to this moment will not take us into the future. .In this conversation with Kathleen Lumiere, co-president of the Seattle Institute for East Asian Medicine (SIEAM), we discuss how we might make changes to our educational models that both streamlines and strengthens East Asian medicine. We discuss the integration of business education into clinical training, the disappearance of Grad Plus loans, and the effect that has had on a system that came to be dependent on them. Kathleen also introduces the idea of using the "wisdom of crowds" to define the irreducible core of our profession—a shared set of competencies that could protect our identity while opening new doors for collaboration.Listen into this conversation about what it means to be adventuresome and iconoclastic in a moment of crisis. It’s a look at how we can protect our infrastructure while remaining flexible enough to evolve, ensuring that the next generation of practitioners doesn't just survive, but finds a path to true gainful employment.

Many of us experience life through schedules, deadlines, and calendars, yet beneath them are deeper patterns that shape how we grow, adapt, heal, and change.In this conversation with Peter Firebrace, we explore Chinese perspectives on time, timing, and the timeless. Through seasonal cycles, the Chinese calendar, and the rhythms observed in nature, we look at how a deeper awareness of time can inform both clinical practice and everyday life.We also touch on what may be lost when we become disconnected from the natural patterns around us, and why reconnecting with those rhythms can offer a different way of understanding ourselves and our patients.Listen in for a conversation that weaves together Chinese philosophy, clinical insight, and the enduring relationship between human life and the cycles of nature.

We’re at a moment where the structure of loans and professional education is changing. Not just for the acupuncture profession, but across the entire educational landscape. While it seems the storm has suddenly blown in, it’s been brewing for a while.In this conversation with Ryan Hofer we discuss the reality of Grad Plus loans, the true cost of them in terms of the interest they generate, and why the "math doesn't math" for a lot of people entering the field right now. We explore the various ways loans can be resolved, and the shame and anxiety that graduates experience when they realize they are in over their head financially.There’s also this uncomfortable question about how we got here—how a business model based on student debt became the default, and what happens when that faucet finally gets turned off.Change is coming and our profession is going to have to find a way to work with far less money coming for student loans. And we also need to reckon with the unsustainable debt that practitioners of an earlier generation did not need to face.

Clinical practice asks us to recognise patterns, trust experience, and make decisions under uncertainty. But what happens when discovery comes not from certainty, but from staying open to surprise?Dr. Neil Theise is a liver pathologist, stem cell researcher, Zen practitioner, and one of the scientists behind the discovery of the interstitium. In this conversation, he joins Michael to explore the tension between expertise and beginner’s mind, and how curiosity itself can become a path to deeper understanding.Listen into this discussion as they explore the body as both structure and living continuum; how fascia, fluid, electricity, and awareness may be more interconnected than we realise; why perception changes depending on the “scale” we look from; and how science, meditation, and direct experience each reveal different truths about what it means to be human.

The acupuncture and East Asian profession is facing a number of critical challenges as long-established schools close, new federal guidelines on graduate education loans will dramatically change how much students can borrow, and fewer students consider a career as an acupuncturist.How to wayfind through these troubled times? That is the question explored in this series with practitioners, researchers, and educators in the field of East Asian medicine.In this conversation with Danielle Reghi we follow the arc of her career from acquiring and dealing with upwards of 200K in debt, to building a multi-location practice and learning how business acumen is as necessary as clinical skills.She is the president of the Oregon Association of Acupuncturists. She played a key role in drafting the Oregon Acupuncture Workforce Sustainability Proposal, which considers the effect of the new RISE and AHEAD metrics from the federal government and how those affect the amount graduate students may borrow. Additionally this proposal looks at other educational options and alternative pathways that can lead to licensure in the State of Oregon.Any discussion of the future requires a clear eyed view of the present. You’ll get that in this conversation with Danielle, along with some innovative thinking about what’s up around the bend in the road..

Medicine is never only about treatment. It also carries culture, identity, and memory. Sometimes preserving a medicine is a way of preserving a people.In this episode we visit with James Flowers to explore a potent moment in the history of Korean medicine and how Hanbang became part of Korea’s cultural resistance during the Japanese colonization. Not through politics or violence, but through preserving ways of healing, thinking, and living.We discuss how medical ideas moved between Korea, China, and Japan, the role of Yangsheng in everyday life, and how Korean medicine resisted separating mind from body in the way modern systems often do.This conversation also touches on the deeper question of how medicine lives within culture—not only through practitioners and institutions, but through families, daily habits, stories, and collective memory.Listen into this conversation that weaves together history, medicine, identity, and the enduring cultural force of East Asian healing traditions.