38 episodes listed below
One plant per episode, and a guest who knows it.
The Plant Report gives each episode to one plant, from figs and hops to tulsi and lemon balm, and hands the conversation to a guest who knows it well. Jill Cloutier hosts and produces it as a Sustainable World Radio project, keeping the questions curious and framing the herbal talk as education, not medical advice.
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The Plant Report runs on a simple rule: one plant per episode, and a guest who knows it well. Jill Cloutier hosts and produces it as a project of Sustainable World Radio. The opening sticks to a pattern, naming the plant of the day and then introducing the guest with a short sketch of their work. Most of those guests work hands-on with plants. Acadia Tucker, a regenerative farmer, climate activist and author, talks hops. Javin Bernakovich, a regenerative land designer who founded Permaculture BC, takes spilanthes, and organic farmer Elena Steen, co-owner of Night Heron Farm, covers tulsi. Community herbalist Lindsay Colassa handles albizia, while herbalist and herbal medicine instructor Cammie McBride speaks for lemon balm. Jill Cloutier plays the eager questioner. In 'The Fabulous Fig', the host hears about a female pollinator scurrying around a Smyrna-type fig, unable to lay her eggs even as the fig gets pollinated, and cuts in to say she has questions before letting the explanation continue. The same conversation gets to the idea that a fig is less a fruit than a stem that swells around its own flowers, and that some figs set an early and a late crop, only one of which needs pollination. The growing advice comes with stories. The hops episode includes a grower's account of plants that looked gorgeous going into harvest, then browned and dried from the top down for no obvious reason. After spotting a small hole and some sawdust-like frass, a slit with a pocketknife turned up a fat caterpillar, the European corn borer, living inside the stem. The tulsi conversation offers a tip that runs against instinct: the plant held up even in foggy coastal Northern California, and slightly droughty or bare soil can trigger more of the chemical responses that make it medicinal. The herbal episodes keep their cautions in. Albizia is described as a mood elevator, with the image of riding from floor one to floor five and a personal account of feeling the clouds part within minutes of a dropperful of tincture. The same episode names two precautions: research on its link to uterine contractions, which rules it out in pregnancy, and cases of people with a bipolar diagnosis slipping after taking it. The spilanthes conversation raises the possibility that the plant could help people who have lost their sense of taste, from COVID or otherwise, while admitting nobody fully understands how it would work. Right alongside that comes a reluctance to hype plants as superfoods, with goldenseal and echinacea raised as warnings. Lemon balm starts with its botany: Melissa officinalis, a member of the mint family, native to Southern Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean. The register is warm and openly delighted by plants, and the sign-off pairs an educational-only disclaimer with a request to thank the plants for everything they do.
Made for: Suits a listener who gardens, grows herbs or just likes knowing how a plant works, and who wants one species at a time explained by the people who grow it or use it, with the cautions about herbal use left in.
What sets it apart: It stays with one plant for a whole conversation and gives botany, cultivation and herbal use equal room, so a fig's pollination oddities, a hop pest and an herb's pregnancy precaution all come through the same patient, curious interview style.
Learn about the botanical world one plant at a time. The Plant Report is a new educational podcast from Sustainable World Radio about plants, herbal medicine, heirloom seeds, ethnobotany and the human/plant relationship. Learn from experts and the plants. Thanks for listening to The Plant Report....Because Every Plant Has A Story.
A fig becomes a botanical identity crisis, and Jill Cloutier asks the questions you were forming.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A fig becomes a lesson in hidden flowers, pollination, and how botanical vocabulary can change the way lunch looks.
This Plant Report episode takes the fig, a familiar snack, and turns it into a small botanical surprise. The story centers on the fig's swollen stem, the hidden flowers inside it, and the way different fig types handle pollination. Dr.
A hidden caterpillar turns Maine hop growing into a hands-on lesson in weather math.
Hops get a close, grounded look here, with Acadia Tucker showing how a familiar beer ingredient can become surprisingly vulnerable in the field.
A grounded Spilanthes episode that links taste, saliva, seed-starting, containers, and responsible cultivation.
Spilanthes gets a brisk, useful turn on The Plant Report, with Javin Bernakovich tying the plant's saliva rush and possible influence on taste to time spent around people recovering from lost taste.
A grounded Tulsi episode that connects low-water growing, broad medicinal context, and pollinator-minded gardening.
The Plant Report gives Tulsi basil a calm, practical spotlight through Elena Steen's experience growing it at Night Heron Farm in Santa Barbara.
British landscapes, patiently listened to.
Wildlife wonder, policy, and fieldwork in conversation.
Field conservation, told by the people doing it.
Conservation science and good news, from people doing the work.
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The Plant Report episode on hops centers on Humulus lupulus, a plant Acadia Tucker says smells relaxing but can also leave hop burn.
["The Plant Report episode on Spelanthes centers on Acmela oleraceae, a plant also called toothache plant, electric daisy, eyeball plant, lemon drop, and \"party in the mouth.\"", "Host Jill Cloutier speaks with Javin Bernakovich, who founded Permaculture BC and runs All Points Land Design, and he says he has kept Spelanthes tincture on hand for five years.", "Bernakovich describes the plant as a \"nine volt battery on your tongue,\" says it can cause heavy saliva and sinus drainage, and warns that too much can leave people lightheaded or panicked.", "He also says Richard Walker saw gum recovery after months of mouthwash use, including a 0.3 millimeter gain, while Bernakovich explains how he grows, harvests, and saves seed from the plant."]
Larry Candarian, who has farmed for 50 years in Los Osos, California, says ancient farro-type wheats (einkorn, emmer, spelt) differ from modern wheat in chromosome count, glycemic index and pH.
Jill Cloutier's The Plant Report episode on tulsi basil features Elena Steen of Night Heron Farm in Santa Barbara, California, and Elena says the Sanskrit name means incomparable one.
Albizia tincture can lift mood within minutes, but it is unsuitable during pregnancy and requires caution with bipolar diagnosis.
An educational podcast episode about Lemon Balm, featuring an interview with herbalist Cammie McBride.
An interview with Dan Jason about pulses, their role in sustainable food systems, and the human-plant relationship.
An educational podcast exploring the story of kalo (taro) through an interview at a botanical garden in Hawaii.
An interview with a seed-saving educator about winter squash, covering its botanical classification, cultivation, and cultural significance.