406 Evolution of a Throughly Modern Herb Shop • Thomas Leung

It’s a curious thing, sometimes you want to get away from something. Maybe it’s the town you grew up in, or a family business. You think you know it, and are not interested. But circumstances change and find your way back to it with new eyes.

In this conversation with Thomas Leung, we trace the arc of a family deeply rooted in Chinese herbal medicine. From his great-grandfather’s shop in Guangdong, to navigating the upheaval of the Chinese revolution, to adapting a Manhattan herb store to changing demographics, Thomas brings both a practitioner's and a business owner’s sensibility to the conversation.

Listen in as we talk about the evolution of Chinese medicine in America, what it means to modernize without losing tradition, the challenge of standardizing herbal language, and the precarious state of our profession in this current moment.

This conversation is about more than herbs. It’s about responsibility, reinvention, and how the future of our medicine depends not only on practice—but on stewardship.