Sep 9, 2026 · 48 min · 12 segments
In this episode, we are sharing the space with our guest Raquel Minh. An opportunity to explore possibilities to expand curiosity and empowerment. We begin our sharing starting from her education…
Raquel MinhGuestDiniHost
Um, what feels most important for me and sh- and is thinking about trauma, right? 'Cause it is like a, quite a loaded word, and trauma-informed especially, um, and plant medicine, is I think first acknowledging the history of plant medicine, specifically the cultures, um, um, and ancient ancestral and indigenous ways that were celebrated and, um, in working with plant medicine that have been completely lost.
So we don't live in a trauma-informed world, right? There have been systems at play that have overpowered people's agency.
Um, and so with that, traditions have been lost, medicines have been lost, uh, spiritual practices have been lost.
Um, and- So with plant medicine, especially mushrooms, um, one of the ways that I really like to, it's begin to invite sort of where you've been taken over or where your control has been, um, um, lost, um, is by starting to think about who in your lineage was working with plant medicine.
And with mushrooms, because they're found on pretty much every continent, um, a- y- and you're being called to it now, I always like to say, like, "There's probably an ancestor of yours that was on mushrooms [laughs], and this is a remembrance of that, of you coming back and working with it." Um, and who were they? Who were they when they were working with this plant medicine? Who were they before Christianity said that these pa- uh, you know, these practices were sinful? Who were they before the climate began to change and the medicine, you know, was became less abundant? Um, and these are all those bigger systems at play that don't, you know, haven't fostered community, haven't fostered connection, haven't fostered safety for cultures or people.
So when I think about how does trauma-informed and plant medicine, you know, relate, that's the first piece I think is really acknowledging that it's a, l- you know, all medicine 200 years ago was plant medicine.
It just takes a little bit of digging in the dirt to remember those parts of us, those parts that have been essentially traumatized or taken or, or are, are, are broken off of us.
That's sort of the more, uh, larger system at play, and I just wanna recognize that there are many indigenous and ancient cultures whose traditions have been able to keep kept alive, but then there's also so many that have been lost.
But it would be pretty silly to then, then make the assumption that they didn't know.
Um, when many Tohunga practices were kept secret, the, the Tohunga, the spiritual guides themselves, their identities were kept secret, and with the Tohunga Suppression Act, of course no one was gonna be talking about the power of these medicines.
So I really love that right now there's a revival within, um, Rongo- um, within Ma- uh, Rongoa of, okay, well based off of what we know of the Maori worldview, what would we do today with these really sacred, um, medicines? And I think we all have that potential of remembering, how would we work with this medicine? Um, guess the second layer when I think about trauma and plant medicine specifically around psychedelics is that there's a lot of research right now around, um, how psychedelics are basically treating everything.
Everything from, um, you know, really high-risk individuals of, uh, treatment-resistant depression, end of life care, um, anxiety, um, to, you know, sort of every day mood enhancement, a little bit of focus, a little bit of creativity, um, to somewhere in between.
There's even more citizen research or anecdotal data around the, the power of this medicine, and I think it's because we are living in a time that feels really sticky.
[laughs] Um, and it's presenting itself in our bodies in a way that is really activating our nervous systems in unhealthy or unhelpful ways.
And so it's no wonder that people are kinda coming back to plant medicine or having this hope that they can shift their state of being by relating to an ancestral way or with this, this medicine.
Um, and so I guess to put bluntly, you know, we're all starting to feel the effects of trauma, whether that's the larger systems of play such as war, displacement, um, to, to those, you know, um, more personal moments of trauma, to even starting to hold compassion of someone else's trauma that then feels alive within you.
Um, and I think as we develop more of a language and more of a self-awareness, we need to learn how to grow the capacity to be with that ickiness, because it's gonna take a lot of shifting and changing for us to kinda orient towards peace and stability as a collective.
We gotta start with ourselves, and it seems that plant medicine is, is showing up for us in that way.
Um, what feels most important for me and sh- and is thinking about trauma, right? 'Cause it is like a, quite a loaded word, and trauma-informed especially, um, and plant medicine, is I think first acknowledging the history of plant medicine, specifically the cultures, um, um, and ancient ancestral and indigenous ways that were celebrated and, um, in working with plant medicine that have been completely lost.
So we don't live in a trauma-informed world, right? There have been systems at play that have overpowered people's agency.
Um, and so with that, traditions have been lost, medicines have been lost, uh, spiritual practices have been lost.
Um, and- So with plant medicine, especially mushrooms, um, one of the ways that I really like to, it's begin to invite sort of where you've been taken over or where your control has been, um, um, lost, um, is by starting to think about who in your lineage was working with plant medicine.
And with mushrooms, because they're found on pretty much every continent, um, a- y- and you're being called to it now, I always like to say, like, "There's probably an ancestor of yours that was on mushrooms [laughs], and this is a remembrance of that, of you coming back and working with it." Um, and who were they? Who were they when they were working with this plant medicine? Who were they before Christianity said that these pa- uh, you know, these practices were sinful? Who were they before the climate began to change and the medicine, you know, was became less abundant? Um, and these are all those bigger systems at play that don't, you know, haven't fostered community, haven't fostered connection, haven't fostered safety for cultures or people.
So when I think about how does trauma-informed and plant medicine, you know, relate, that's the first piece I think is really acknowledging that it's a, l- you know, all medicine 200 years ago was plant medicine.
It just takes a little bit of digging in the dirt to remember those parts of us, those parts that have been essentially traumatized or taken or, or are, are, are broken off of us.
That's sort of the more, uh, larger system at play, and I just wanna recognize that there are many indigenous and ancient cultures whose traditions have been able to keep kept alive, but then there's also so many that have been lost.
But it would be pretty silly to then, then make the assumption that they didn't know.
Um, when many Tohunga practices were kept secret, the, the Tohunga, the spiritual guides themselves, their identities were kept secret, and with the Tohunga Suppression Act, of course no one was gonna be talking about the power of these medicines.
So I really love that right now there's a revival within, um, Rongo- um, within Ma- uh, Rongoa of, okay, well based off of what we know of the Maori worldview, what would we do today with these really sacred, um, medicines? And I think we all have that potential of remembering, how would we work with this medicine? Um, guess the second layer when I think about trauma and plant medicine specifically around psychedelics is that there's a lot of research right now around, um, how psychedelics are basically treating everything.
Everything from, um, you know, really high-risk individuals of, uh, treatment-resistant depression, end of life care, um, anxiety, um, to, you know, sort of every day mood enhancement, a little bit of focus, a little bit of creativity, um, to somewhere in between.
There's even more citizen research or anecdotal data around the, the power of this medicine, and I think it's because we are living in a time that feels really sticky.
[laughs] Um, and it's presenting itself in our bodies in a way that is really activating our nervous systems in unhealthy or unhelpful ways.
And so it's no wonder that people are kinda coming back to plant medicine or having this hope that they can shift their state of being by relating to an ancestral way or with this, this medicine.
Um, and so I guess to put bluntly, you know, we're all starting to feel the effects of trauma, whether that's the larger systems of play such as war, displacement, um, to, to those, you know, um, more personal moments of trauma, to even starting to hold compassion of someone else's trauma that then feels alive within you.
Um, and I think as we develop more of a language and more of a self-awareness, we need to learn how to grow the capacity to be with that ickiness, because it's gonna take a lot of shifting and changing for us to kinda orient towards peace and stability as a collective.
We gotta start with ourselves, and it seems that plant medicine is, is showing up for us in that way.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.