Talia on Alchemy, Mushrooms, and Bringing Back Craft Culture – Creative Tea Podcast
This episode of Creative Tea Podcast we welcomed Talia, applied mycologist, practicing alchemist, and co-founder of Lacuna Medicinals. Talia’s work lives at the intersection of mysticism and science, crafting spagyric alchemical medicine from fungal and plant allies. In this conversation, they unpack what alchemy actually is, why they believe craft culture needs a comeback, and how community-building around ancient medicine is part of their life’s purpose.
Quick Takes
Alchemy as the Original Science: Talia explains that alchemy was science’s hands-on, soulful precursor, a physical practice rooted in nature rather than the sterile, standardized approach modern labs are known for.
Hot Take: Bring Back Craft Culture: Talia’s hot tea is a call to return to creating with our hands: cooking, sewing, pottery, ritual – as a form of resistance to capitalism and technology stripping away our connection to creativity.
Mushrooms, Taboo, and Mortality: Talia connects society’s discomfort with mushrooms and psychedelics to a deeper fear of mystery and death, suggesting that understanding life’s cycles could shift that relationship.
Building Community and Access: Through Lacuna Medicinals and monthly craft days, Talia is working to make ancient plant and fungal wisdom more accessible, especially for POC and queer communities often left out of these spaces.
Alchemy: Where Science and Spirit Meet
Talia opened by describing their path as an applied mycologist and alchemist, co-running Lacuna Medicinals, an apothecary specializing in spagyrically produced medicine. They explained that alchemy predates modern science and was never just theoretical. Alchemists ran real laboratories, working hands-on with nature to create potions and remedies. Where chemistry today aims for identical, standardized results every time, Talia finds beauty in alchemy’s countless variables, which they see as a more biodiverse, soulful approach than the sterile, fluorescent-lit labs most people picture when they think of science.
Mushrooms, Medicine, and Growing Relationships with Nature
Talia shared their love of cultivating mushrooms and plants directly, describing hands-on growing as one of the most meaningful ways to understand an organism and its natural environment. Current work at Lacuna Medicinals is shaped by listening closely to community needs, right now, that means focusing on plants that support nervous system regulation, helping people feel safe and grounded in their bodies amid the stress of modern life.
The Hot Take: Reclaiming Craft Culture
Asked for their hot tea, Talia didn’t hesitate: craft culture needs to make a comeback. They argue that capitalism has disconnected many people from what it actually means to create, and that even work like science or alchemy – not typically seen as “creative” can hold deep creative value. With technology on the rise, Talia sees real importance in returning to things made by hand: home-cooked meals, tea rituals, and tactile practices that, as they put it, AI could never take away. Co host, Matra, connected this directly to trends like the resurgence of pottery and sewing through social media, proof that the pull toward hands-on creation never really disappeared.
Confronting Taboo: Mushrooms, Mystery, and Death
The conversation turned to why mushrooms and psychedelics still carry stigma despite growing curiosity around them. Talia frames this hesitation as rooted in humanity’s broader fear of the unknown, and specifically, our relationship with death. They suggest that shifting how we understand death, as something followed by continued life rather than an ending, could help soften that fear and open the door to a healthier relationship with these plant and fungal allies.
Education, Access, and Building the Temple
Talia emphasized that education is central to their work, rooted in the belief that deeper understanding creates deeper love and respect for a subject. They’ve already run a hands-on practical alchemy course and are looking to expand in-person classes and gatherings. Talia also spoke to a gap they’ve noticed in San Diego: a lack of spaces that intentionally welcome POC and queer communities into mycology and plant medicine education. Alongside this, Talia and their household have been hosting monthly craft days, low-key gatherings where people bring whatever craft they already carry (sewing, claywork, jewelry-making) and create together, off their devices.
Connect with Talia
Learn more about Talia’s work and Lacuna Medicinals at lacunamedicinals.com, follow on Instagram @lacuna.medicinals, or sign up for their newsletter to stay updated on upcoming in-person classes and gatherings.
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