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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

Michael Max

Acupuncture and East Asian medicine was not developed in a laboratory. It does not advance through double-blind controlled studies, nor does it respond well to petri dish experimentation. Our medicine did not come from the statistical regression of randomized cohorts, but from the observation and treatment of individuals in their particular environment. It grows out of an embodied sense of understanding how life moves, unfolds, develops and declines.

Medicine comes from continuous, thoughtful practice of what we do in clinic, and how we approach that work. The practice of medicine is more — much more — than simply treating illness. It is more than acquiring skills and techniques. And it is more than memorizing the experiences of others. It takes a certain kind of eye, an inquiring mind and relentlessly inquisitive heart.

Qiological is an opportunity to deepen our practice with conversations that go deep into acupuncture, herbal medicine, cultivation practices, and the practice of having a practice. It’s an opportunity to sit in the company of others with similar interests, but perhaps very different minds. Through these dialogues perhaps we can better understand our craft.

Qiological Podcast

Words shape the world. But they also limit it. Especially when we mistake translation for clarity—when really, it’s an act of interpretation, adaptation, and sometimes… a kind of poetic guesswork.

In this conversation with Sarah Rivkin—a clinician, scholar, and longtime student of language—we talk about what it means to translate not just texts, but meaning itself. Sarah brings a thoughtful lens to the edges where language meets medicine, where history presses against the present, and where the clinical meets the poetic.

Listen into this discussion as we explore the unseen weight of choosing one word over another, the challenges of translating classical Chinese into modern context, how diagnosis itself is a kind of translation, and the subtle power of bias in everything we do—from clinic to scholarship.

422 Language as Border, Language as Bridge • Sarah Rivkin

Sometimes a few needles and a willingness to help—that’s enough to start a quiet revolution.

In this conversation with Richard Mandell, we trace the roots of the Global Acupuncture Project, a training-based initiative that brings simple, effective acupuncture protocols to underserved communities around the world. What started as a gut feeling and an internet search has become a decades-long effort to empower local practitioners across Uganda, Mexico, and Guatemala.

Listen into this conversation as we explore the early days of the AIDS Care Project in Boston, how addiction treatment shaped a community-style model, the decision to train midwives and laypeople instead of doctors, and what it means to offer acupuncture as a “people’s medicine.”

Richard’s story is a reminder that healing doesn’t need to be complicated to be profound—and that with commitment, collaboration, and a bit of boldness, even a modest idea can ripple across the globe.

421 Global Acupuncture Project • Richard Mandell

What if the first step in healing wasn’t a pill, a treatment, or a diagnosis—but dinner?

In this deliciously nourishing conversation we sit down with Andrew Sterman, a practitioner of tai qi and nutritional arts, lifelong musician, and author of Diet is Medicine for Home Cooks and Other Healers. We discuss how our health is shaped not only by what we eat—but how we live, digest, feel, and listen.

Andrew shares how a simple bowl of carrot-ginger soup can profoundly shift the nausea in early pregnancy, and how learning to say “no” to particular foods might unlock better digestion. He takes us through the lived reality of dietary change—from resistance to revelation—and reminds us that health isn’t just delivered in the clinic; it’s built at home.

From his intertwined career as a touring musician and Chinese medicine practitioner, Andrew weaves together insights on energy, food therapy, the role of emotions in healing, and how music and medicine are both about tuning what’s gone off-key.

420 Nourishing Mystery • Andrew Sterman

Some treasures aren’t just hidden—they’re buried, wrapped in mystery and legend, and waiting for the right moment to surface and return to the world of human affairs. What’s astonishing isn’t just that these Dunhuang scrolls survived—but that they journeyed from caves to libraries, and fell into hands that knew enough to recognize them for what they are: threads of ancient medicine waiting to be rewoven into our present.

In this conversation with Dr. Qiang Cao and Dr. Yun Xiao, we trace the surprising journey of the Wu Zang Lun—an early text attributed to Zhang Zhongjing that was unearthed in the Dunhuang caves and made their way to London and Paris. More surprising are the texts from Korea and Japan that contain the same material. This discussion is part detective story, part historical odyssey, and a glimpse into how older medical cosmologies continue to whisper through the written perspective of doctors of the past.

Listen in as we follow the wandering path of this ancient manuscript, hear the emotional moment of seeing it in person, explore how it connects pulse and physiology, and consider its relevance for clinical practice today.

419 History Series, Wu Zang Lun • Qiang Cao & Yun Xiao

Long before “cold damage” became a checkbox on exams or a buzzword among classical enthusiasts, Dr. Liu Du-Zhou was quietly doing the work—teaching, treating, and writing from a mind steeped in both lineage and clinical experience. He wasn’t just preserving tradition; he was refining it. His approach to the Shang Han Lun was rigorous yet poetic, grounded in clinical realities and shaped by decades of upheaval in 20th-century China. There’s a humility to his voice—a self-proclaimed “still-learning” doctor in his seventies—and a precision that cuts through theory to show how fire and water, yin and yang, truly move through the human body.

In this conversation with Eran Even, we explore Dr. Liu’s remarkable clarity and how it comes through in a slim but potent book that Eran has translated into English. Eran walks us through the experience of engaging deeply with Liu’s thinking, from the literary style of Zhang Zhong-Jing to the physiological relevance of Qi transformation.

Listen into this discussion as we trace the importance of channel theory, the overlooked presence of water pathologies in the modern clinic, the inner workings of fire and fluid dynamics, and how Liu Du-Zhou’s reflections on the six confirmations can shift the way we understand both health and disease.

418 Fire, Water and Qi Transformation—Essential Insights from Liu Du-Zhou • Eran Even

Microcurrent offers acupuncturists another way to help their patients.

Encore Episode • Nuts and Volts of Using Micro-current in an Acupuncture Practice • Charlie Braverman

Stacey Whitcomb, the guest of this conversation was on Qiological, at the beginning of 2018, she was just graduating from Chinese medicine school and thoroughly psyched about building a business. 

 

In this episode we check in and see where she's at 8 months down the road. What's working, what needs some tuning and how the "practice of practice" informs her days and decisions.

Encore Episode, Building a Business: On The Path • Marketing Mini Series 3

Chinese medicine does not have an immune system in the same way that we think about it with modern bio-medicine. It’s not that there is a lack processes that help the body to maintain its integrity and function— there are. But those processes are less about identifying and killing intruders, and more about helping the body to adapt and respond. 

Each individual will response a little differently to infections or external invasion, and the state and strength of our vitality also plays a key role. 

In this panel discussion with Laura McGraw, Toby Daly and Chris Powell we take a look at the “immune response” from the Chinese medicine point of view.

Encore Episode, Immunity and Resiliency • Chris Powell, Laura McGraw, Toby Daly

In our last conversation with Poney, we talked about the neurological view of acupuncture points. In this Part Two conversation we’re exploring what got Poney interested in medicine in the first place and how he ended up becoming an acupuncturist when his first interest was in herbs, philosophy and metaphysics.

In this conversation we talk about the deep structure of Chinese medicine, kung fu movies, the Yi Jing, feng shui and how life takes unexpected turns. Poney also shares how Chinese medicine allowed him to grow as a person and how it helped him do things he never thought would be doing.

Check out the first interview with Poney about the Neurological View of Acupuncture

Encore Episode • Discovering What It Means to be a Doctor • Poney Chiang

How does acupuncture work? 

We hear this question all the time. From our patients, from someone we just met at a neighborhood BBQ, from out parents, and if we are honest— ourselves. 

The ancient Chinese mind that conjured up acupuncture did not consider nerve pathways, endocrinological response or brain chemistry. 

The ancient Chinese mind looked out into nature and used that reflection to dream into the body. They considered the natural tides of expansion and contraction. The formed and the unformed, and how physical form arises from an unseen patterning that leaves its trace, like wind on deserts sands. 

In this conversation with Ed Neal we discuss the importance of Chinese medicine terminology, the essential role of 理 a kind of patterning from which manifest reality arises and how the Nei Jing can help us orient to the constant unfolding of life through time-space and motion.

Encore Episode, Coherence and Resonance • Edward Neal

The first episode of Qiological aired at the end of August in 2017. I’d gotten more than a few emails from practitioners telling me how much they liked my previous podcast experiment…. Everyday Acupuncture, and that was surprising to me because I did not make that podcast for acupuncturists, it was aimed at the general public. So Qiological was an inquiry into seeing if acupuncturists and East Asian medicine practitioners might enjoy a podcast that goes more deeply into the medicine we share. 

Turns out…. Yes. As we are coming up on 300 conversations now. 

Starting today, the podcast is again freely available to all and will carry sponsorship advertising in each episode. 

I’ve got more details about the changes to the podcast in this short solo show that commemorates five years of Qiological, along with some thoughts on medicine, practice and this new Gutenberg Press we call podcasting.

Five Years of Qiological, Thoughts, Observations and Appreciation • Michael Max

Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst

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