Plant Cunning Podcast

Plant Cunning Podcast brings together people wise to the ways of plants, fungi, healing practices, & the natural world to explore the mysteries of Nature. Co-Hosted by astrologer, gardener & musician, Isaac Hill and herbalist & educator A.C. Stauble-Hill. We invite herbalists, mages, mycologists, gardeners, community organizers, healers, spiritual seekers & all kinds of other interesting people to the microphone to share their wisdom. We like to bridge different worlds, make connections, inspire, and at times, have our minds blown by our amazing guests. Enjoy!

Plant Cunning Podcast is a health podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 242 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Plant Cunning Podcast, a health show with 242 episodes published.

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  Episode #242

  Ep. 242: Becoming Mushrooms with Madison Murphy Barney

  Aug 12, 202649 minS1

  Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast we welcome Madison Murphy Barney—doula, two-spirit Indigenous sister, public health storyteller, and author of Our Ancestors Want Us to Be Mushrooms: Wisdom for Living in Balance with the Planet and Each Other. Madison shares how mushrooms offer blueprints for reconnecting with ourselves, community, and the planet through traits like connection, decomposition, adaptability, and humility, emphasizing moving forward with “original instructions” rather than trying to return to the past. They discuss relating to ecosystems anywhere (including cities) through curiosity and noticing, mushrooms’ role in composting and rebuilding systems, and how doula work applies beyond birth and death to divorce, career change, and other transitions by honoring grief, support networks, and cycles. Madison also mentions ceremony, favorite mushrooms, and where to find her work online. 01:19 Meet Madison and Book Launch 02:27 Plant Path Origins 04:05 Why Be Mushrooms 06:26 City Nature Connection 09:00 Why Mushrooms Matter 12:53 Doula Calling and Expansion 17:20 Guiding Change and Grief 22:38 Ancestral and More-than-Human Support 24:33 Living in Cycles28:51 Cycles and Comfort 29:27 Native Plants Debate 30:37 Love of Place 32:05 Mushrooms and Protection 33:33 Adaptability and Neighbors 37:18 Humility in Ecosystems 42:01 Fungi Favorites Today 44:13 What Comes Next 45:25 Who the Book Is For 47:25 Connecting and Closing

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  Episode #241

  Ep. 241: Telesmanica with Christopher Warnock

  Aug 6, 20261h 48mS1

  Today on Plant Cunning, Christopher Warnock returns to discuss his new book, Telesmanica, an comprehensive, operative manual of astrological magic. He explains how the book expands beyond technique into worldview, methodology, causality, and the internal logic behind elections, arguing that many contemporary approaches are “bricolage,” mixing techniques without coherent structure or testing. Warnock contrasts modern atheistic materialism with traditional spiritual-first worldviews, using models like ecological “patterning” and mapping to explain how models are tested for usefulness. He outlines his approach to talismans—prioritizing timing, images, and mathematical ratios over materials—emphasizing practical constraints, rigorous selection of key chart factors, and a devotional practice focused on relationship with celestial spirits rather than guaranteed outcomes. 01:04 Why did Christopher Warnock write Telesmanica? 08:59 Worldview and Spiritual Reality 15:02 Models, Meaning and Belief 26:40 Bricolage in Modern Astrology 33:20 Astrology as Language and Intuition 37:32 Getting Readings Wrong 38:25 When Magic Doesn’t Fit 39:17 Worldview and Causality 40:10 What a Talisman Is 41:05 Picking the Right Election 42:41 In Picatrix, Context Matters 45:50 The Cookbook Perspective 52:57 Devotional Angel Practice 54:46 Reality Warping and Limits 56:02 Camouflage Magic Explained 57:54 Modern Anxiety and Ritual 59:10 Problematic Images and Archetypes 01:02:16 Ducks and Spiritual Freedom 01:08:24 Hermetic Lineage History 01:12:52 Reviving a Lost Tradition 01:15:16 Robert Zoller's Advice 01:16:10 Daily Devotional Power 01:17:09 Tradition Beyond Social Media 01:18:36 What Traditional Really Means 01:20:20 Medieval Renaissance Lineage 01:23:32 Applying vs Separating Aspects 01:24:58 Bricolage and Chart Noise 01:26:28 Meta Perspective and Meaning 01:30:00 Why does Christopher Warnock prioritize election and image over materials in the creation of talismans? 01:32:35 Occult Virtue and Platonic Ideas 01:36:43 Practical Talisman Use and Care 01:41:58 Meaning, Nihilism, and Collapse 01:45:37 Preserving Esoteric Texts in an age of Decline 01:47:20 Consciousness Beyond Humanity

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  Episode #240

  Ep. 240: William Padilla-Brown

  Jul 21, 202653 minS1

  Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026 MycoSymbiotics Mushroom & Art Festival July 29- August 2d, 2026 Today on the podcast, AC & Isaac Hill interview mushroom citizen scientist and community builder William Padilla-Brown about his path into mycology, from early curiosity about consciousness and “plant medicine” to diet-driven health struggles that pushed him into growing his own food, foraging, and functional mushrooms. He credits discovering online superfood and medicinal-mushroom content (including David Avocado Wolfe) as a turning point, then explains how mushroom videos took off on YouTube and led him to start MycoSymbiotics and launch MycoFest in 2015 to create a lasting community and legacy for his family. Will recounts cultivating cordyceps after finding a specimen at the first festival, rejecting the idea that it was “impossible,” and learning through observation—treating life as a readable language. He describes MycoSymbiotics’ cutting edge work: wild strain selection, DNA barcoding, cultivation, extraction, third‑party analytics, and making potent products affordable. The conversation also covers ecological literacy through mushrooms, conservation concerns like Pine Barrens development and matsutake habitat loss, the importance and diversity of native truffles (including training a dog to find tuber canaliculatum), aroma as a form of “medicine,” modern distraction and nervous-system hijacking, and adapting to AI by leaning into uniquely human creativity. He closes with MycoFest details (first weekend of August; July 31–Aug 2; MycoFest.net; Artemis, PA; code MYCOMMUNITY), plus MycoSymbiotics sites, classes, a farmer co‑op, and local projects. 00:00 Meet William Padilla-Brown 01:55 Origins in Plant Medicine 06:03 Health Wake Up Call 09:09 David Wolfe and Medicinals 11:28 Myco Symbiote to MycoFest 13:12 Nothing Is Impossible 15:30 Learning From Living Signs 21:05 Mycology Cutting Edge Today 23:44 Matsutake and Habitat Threats 25:29 Truffles as Ecological Gateway 27:16 Native Truffles in Pennsylvania 30:14 Truffles and Sensory Depth 30:41 Overstimulation and Numbness 31:54 Aroma as Medicine 33:58 Capitalism and Responsibility 36:16 Distraction Casino Reality 38:53 Using the System for Good 40:53 Social Media and Rage Bait 44:27 AI Music and Human Spark 48:55 MycoFest and Community Wrap

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  Episode #239

  Ep. 239: Dreaming Herbs & Scientific Inquiry into Astrology with Will Morris

  Jul 15, 20261h 14mS1

  Today on the Plant Cunning Podcast, Isaac and AC welcome back Will Morris, PhD, DAOM, MSEd, LAc, RH, a interdisciplinary healer and scholar whose work spans traditional Western and Vedic astrology, Chinese medicine, pulse diagnosis, sound healing, and education. Will explains his compulsive, spiritually driven path across traditions and how transdisciplinary study reveals shared underlying structures, including medical frameworks of location, process, and severity and recurring 12-fold patterns across nature and culture. He critiques mainstream scientific testing of astrology as method-driven, politically shaped, and often logically flawed, arguing the right assessment depends on the question and may require qualitative approaches. The conversation explores intuition, divination versus science, horary use in clinical settings, dreamwork and oneirobotany, mugwort’s shamanic origins, catnip’s “wind” associations, and Will’s upcoming books, including Evidence Ecology: Science and Astrology. 02:10 Why Study Many Traditions? 03:39 Life Path Music to Astrology 08:36 The Benefits of Transdisciplinary Studies 12:00 The Science Industry and Astrology 13:13 Is Astrology Divination or Science? 19:31 Testing Astrology Properly 27:59 Clinical Astrology in Practice 31:07 Book of Dreams and Yesod 32:48 Dreamwork Pulse and Herbs 36:59 Sedative Herbs Mix 37:10 Catnip and Wind Pathology 39:08 Eight Winds and Charts 40:32 Wind as Science Debate 41:23 Dream Plants: Mugwort 42:17 Dybbuk Clearing Story 44:58 Artemisia and Dreamwork 49:08 Cycles and Plant Motion 51:47 Pan Celestial Thesis 01:01:24 Land, Climate and Relocation 01:05:16 Universalism vs Relativism 01:08:15 Books and Future Projects 01:13:45 Closing Thanks

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  Episode #238

  Ep. 238: Ceremonial Magic in Mexico with Jorge Nájera

  Jul 8, 20261h 2mS1

  In this episode of the Plant Cunning Podcast, Isaac and AC interview Jorge Nájera in Guadalajara about Mexico’s ceremonial magic scene and his role leading the Fraternidad del Círculo Dorado ( Circulo Dorado Web ) a mystical and magical school founded in 1986. Najera recounts how a small study group grew through work with BOTA, Golden Dawn-style ritual, Freemasonry, and later affiliation with the Servants of the Light (SOL) lineage of Dion Fortune and Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki. He describes meeting Ashcroft-Nowicki, trips to Egypt, learning to build an “astral temple” and inner contacts, then adapting SOL material for Spanish-speaking students by creating their own structured curriculum centered on astrology, Hermetic and Sephardic Kabbalah, and coherent symbolism. He explains the school’s three-degree model, its emphasis on lived experience and service, and how COVID shifted much of their work online, including new digital tools. 01:04 Meet Jorge in Guadalajara 01:55 Founding the School in 1986 03:08 Early Growth 05:02 Joining Servants of the Light 08:11 Egypt Trip and London Temple 11:06 Astral Temple Training 13:11 Adapting SOL for Latin America 14:56 Building the Curriculum 16:07 Kabbalah as Foundation 19:22 Courses and Temple System 21:05 Jorge’s Early Influences 25:10 Astrology Awakening and Teaching 29:58 Fruits and Mission of the School 33:26 From Rituals to Creativity 34:57 Information vs Wisdom 37:34 Mystery Schools Go Digital 42:14 How does a Mystery School work in the Age of Aquarius? 46:10 The Importance of Coherent Symbolic Training 50:52 The Degrees of Initiation 56:24 The Ideal Student 01:00:02 How to Connect and Closing

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