Press the button above, and you will be initiated into a world in which scientists pretend to be Vikings, nuns wield axes, and antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” get a kick in the butt from a one-thousand-year-old folk remedy. And yes, it does call for ox bile.
Presenting “Staph Retreat,” from Radiolab.
I met Kelley on a chilly morning at her booth at the Saratoga Springs farmer’s market in New York. Pickles and ferments with colorful labels shouted to me from the table. Kelley was deeply engaged in a conversation about health and nourishment, and–despite the cold–I stopped and edged in closer. I eventually asked her if she would continue the conversation with me, and with you. Here is what she said. Continue reading
The din of my mind overwhelms the ache of my heart, and I walk, tearing myself from this awful psychic place. I go to the only forest I can get to before dark–a few acres at the edge of town.
This is a guest post by my mother, Prudence Tippins.
Nicholas asked recently why I’m no longer a raw vegan. It’s a complicated subject for me, and one I’m hesitant to summarize simply. I loved eating raw food. I did it exclusively for almost ten years. There were so many benefits, which I feel compelled to list here again:
But, as it turns out, it stopped working for me right around the decade mark. Continue reading
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
by Wendell Berry
“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
Varanasi, India. On the cement floor of a crumbling apartment, I sit before an ancient gas burner, wondering if I should add more turmeric. I decide I should, and pour in a little too much. As I stir it in, I listen to the voices of my companions, sitting in a circle around me.
One day in 2009, LA Times Staff Writer Laurie Buckland found out she was dying.
She was stuck in traffic when she got the call. She pulled over into an elementary school parking lot, and received the news: she had breast cancer that had spread to her bones, liver, lungs, and brain. Continue reading
“Many Indians have told me that the most basic difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that Westerners view the world as dead, and not as filled with speaking, thinking, feeling subjects as worthy and valuable as themselves.”
–Derrick Jensen
Isn’t it interesting that as we become more civilized, we surround ourselves with more things that are not alive? Continue reading
One of my guilty pleasures on the internet is looking at a particular type of ad.
They’re usually found below news or special-interest articles, and they’re designed to be sensational. I’m sure there’s a guy somewhere whose boss told him, “Say anything you want, just get them to click.”
The plants on this list changed the way I see autumn. Before, I thought everything was just dying. I now know how much energy is being stored in roots, preserved in seeds, and housed in nuts. Fall is a brilliant time to search for wild edibles for just that reason—there are lots of nutrient-dense foods available. We just have to know how to look for them.
