Season 2: Episode 1 of Herbal Action Podcast – Herbalists Without Borders

Finn

Season 2 of the Herbal Action Podcast is now launching! We have many new speakers this season and will be building some of these great topics into live and recorded webinars.

Our first guest of the new season is Finn, the HWB Grassroots Public Health Coordinator.

In many free people's clinics, if we want to reach impacted communities - especially for disaster relief - we must work with or alongside the public health system to reach those in need.

Finn is working with HWB to help Organizers connect those dots to utilize the tools needed to integrate into PH systems.

"I am a paramedic, an herbalist, a yoga teacher, a public health professional, an alcoholic in recovery, a survivor of homelessness and domestic abuse, a nurse, an author, a Cannabis advocate, and an activist. I even had a brief stint in the Army, but was never deployed. I am also queer, prefer to use pronouns They/Them, and manage an herbalism business I call, â€œThe Sovereign Health Project.â€ In my professional life, I work at the state level to improve health systems through coordinated integration projects, education and training, and continuous quality improvement.

Primarily these days, I work in cancer prevention (which actually covers everything in public health, from nutrition to access). My professional framework is health equity, and I am a member of several professional organizations that work to improve equity for marginalized or disparate groups. In the rest of my time, I produce literature, herbal products, and other knowledge on anarcho-herbalism, anti-capitalism, and academic critique of the existing healthcare world, which includes reflections on racist origins, the reciprocating power dynamics between medicine and capitalism, and embodied resistance to the social control perpetuated through the medical institution in conjunction with the military-industrial complex.

The Sovereign Health Project (TSHP) started out as a general goods apothecary, but quickly became an activist activity after the 2016 election. I found myself frustrated that despite working in a professional capacity on health equity, precious little was being done to actually make a difference in the lives of the most marginalized people. I enrolled in a medic-to-RN program and discovered the American Herbalist Nurse Association, and became a member of that (and plan to continue primary nursing care through herbalism when I finish -- I have one test left that I am on a waiting list to take!). My partners was a member of Iraq Vets Against the War (VAW) and became a resource for me to find social media support for my cause, in the form of other groups such as Bayou Action Street Medics and ACAB. I discovered Herbalists Without Borders after this fashion.

My goal with public health, and, indeed, any health service that I have performed over the past 10+ years, has always been to create better systems, enable more education and knowledge building, and empower people to take action on the health front. In this capacity, I hope to bring together my passions -- public health and activist herbalism -- and help your organization create robust, integrated, and sustainable clinics that serve the underserved and invisible."