Microbes + Spirituality with Asia Dorsey

Explicit content warning

01/04/22 • 98 min

Asia Dorsey (she/her; they/them) writes Afrofutures into existence by reweaving Black bodies into relationship with the earth through the fabric of food. She studied food and sociology at New York University but extended her education to include public health nutrition in Accra Ghana, seed sovereignty in Northern India with Vandana Shiva, and biological agriculture and ancestral nutrition with Kay Baxter in New Zealand. After healing her depression with bones, bugs, and botany, Asia took the helm of Five Points Fermentation Company in 2016 in order to bring probiotics to the people. As a bioregional herbalist apprenticing with Herbal Elder, Susun Weed, an organizational ecologist with Regenerate Change, and permaculture instructor with the Denver Permaculture Guild, Asia deciphers and reintegrates the sacred instructions of microorganisms, plants, and animals to bring the patterns of ecosystems into our people systems. You can also find her curating educational programs at the Seeds of Power Unity Farm, bone-deep in soil, balancing botanical chaos long enough for her people to rise together in power and step into the wholeness that is their birthright.

In this episode, Asia and Brandi talk about the intersections of Microbes + Spirituality, including:

The wild notion of sugar as healing.
How our thoughts and beliefs affect the way we “metabolize” food, people, and everything else.
Microbes as spiritual impulses and deities.
Sanitization, inoculation, war, and allowing ourselves to be changed by the “Other.”
Becoming that which we resist.
How phases of activism follow similar ecological phases and inflammatory responses in the body.
Fermentation as a type of ancestral “inheritance” and what ancient dairy practices teach us about generational wealth.
Viruses as adaptation advantages.
Claiming both science and spirituality in all their complexity without devaluing either but also not ignoring each of their flaws.
The beauty of not belonging.
And so much more.

Listeners can find Asia online, at bonesbugsandbotany.com, and can support her and her creations on Patreon and Instagram. Listen to her on The Petty Herbalist podcast, as well.

Get more This Plus That:
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Follow along on Twitter: @thisplusthatpod
Follow along on Instagram: @thisplusthatpod
Check out the Website: thisplusthat.com

Music: The in-house musicians at Slip.stream
Audio Engineering: The team at Upfire Digital

In this episode, Asia and Brandi talk about the intersections of Microbes + Spirituality, including:

The wild notion of sugar as healing.
How our thoughts and beliefs affect the way we “metabolize” food, people, and everything else.
Microbes as spiritual impulses and deities.
Sanitization, inoculation, war, and allowing ourselves to be changed by the “Other.”
Becoming that which we resist.
How phases of activism follow similar ecological phases and inflammatory responses in the body.
Fermentation as a type of ancestral “inheritance” and what ancient dairy practices teach us about generational wealth.
Viruses as adaptation advantages.
Claiming both science and spirituality in all their complexity without devaluing either but also not ignoring each of their flaws.
The beauty of not belonging.
And so much more.

Listeners can find Asia online, at bonesbugsandbotany.com, and can support her and her creations on Patreon and Instagram. Listen to her on The Petty Herbalist podcast, as well.

Music: The in-house musicians at Slip.stream
Audio Engineering: The team at Upfire Digital

Previous Episode

Nature + Communication with Ashley Eliza Williams

Ashley Eliza Williams (she/her) is a painter, sculptor, and amateur ecologist exploring new ways of interacting with nature and with each other. She received a BA from UVA and an MFA from The University of Colorado, Boulder. She is a recent MASS MoCA North Adams Project grantee and has been a resident artist at Vermont Studio Center, Anderson Ranch, Millay Colony, Alte Schule Germany, the Shangyuan Art Museum in China, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally at museums, galleries, and scientific institutions. She is a member of the research-focused NYC art collective Sprechgesang Institute. Williams has taught painting, sculpture, and color theory for six years. She currently lives in Massachusetts.

In this episode, Ashley and Brandi talk about the intersections of Nature + Communication, including:

Anxiety, awkwardness, and “failed” communication attempts.
The dialogue between plants, animals, and even celestial bodies.
The “mutual aid” practices of nature, like lichen and trees.
Why Ashley became an environmentalist at an early age.
What lichen communicate to us about pollution.
How our language about the natural world shapes our engagement with it.
The Western perception of time as scarce.
Ashley’s dad and his creative way of conjuring up original bedtime stories.
Her fascination with magical beings and the history of monsters.
Why we might pray to pollinator deities in the future.
The ancient memory of rocks and trees.
And much more.

Listeners can find Ashley online, at ashleyelizawilliams.com, and on Instagram @ashleyelizawilliams.

Music: The in-house musicians at Slip.stream
Audio Engineering: The team at Upfire Digital

Next Episode

Why I Talk About Purpose

In this second solo episode of the show, I explain why I speak and write so consistently about the idea of “purpose,” and give context that will set the stage for the next episode of the podcast—releasing on February 1, 2022—with Charles Eisenstein and Lauren Buckley, called “Purpose + Illness.”
Here’s what you'll hear me talk about in this episode—

My search for “purpose” until now.
The portions of Charles’s work that helped me begin to make real connections between work, purpose, and health.
A reading of my essay, “A Sick Society + An Individual Burden,” which gives extra context to the connections I see between work and illness, and my upcoming conversation with Charles and Lauren.
Why you might be born to heal a divide between two worlds.
A reading of my essay, “Wisdom Teeth + Chronic Illness,” tells the story of finding dental cavitations in my mouth, and much of what Charles, Lauren, and I discuss in the upcoming episode.
How doing work you don’t enjoy is a kind of “toxic load” on your body.
And, why we need to start saying “This isn’t normal.”

Get more This Plus That:
Sign up for the newsletter.
Check out this episode's show notes.
Follow along on Twitter: @thisplusthatpod
Follow along on Instagram: @thisplusthatpod
Check out the Website: thisplusthat.com

Music: The in-house musicians at Slip.stream
Audio Engineering: The team at Upfire Digital