Beloved Futures

S2 E14 | Jason Grechanik – Listening to the Plants: Apprenticeship, Dieta & the Medicine of Remembering

Season 2 Episode 14

What if the intelligence we seek is living all around us – in the soil, in the trees, in the quiet, patient spirits of the plants?

What becomes possible when we slow down, listen deeply, and allow the natural world to re-teach us who we are?

In this episode of Beloved Futures, host Aubrey Morgan Yee sits down with Jason Grechanik, a plant-medicine practitioner, tabaquero, and host of The Universe Within Podcast. Jason’s life’s path has been shaped by devotion to the plants, deep listening, and a humble willingness to let nature lead. Together, Aubrey and Jason explore what it means to walk a path of apprenticeship – the patience it requires, the honesty it reveals, and the profound transformation that unfolds when we meet the world with reverence.

About Our Guest

Jason Grechanik is a plant-medicine practitioner and tabaquero whose path began with a curiosity about plants as food, life, and medicine. In his early twenties, he studied herbalism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and healing traditions from around the world. This exploration eventually led him to the Amazon rainforest, where he spent nearly ten years working at The Temple of the Way of Light, one of the most respected ayahuasca healing centers in Peru.

Jason currently leads dietas and plant-medicine retreats in Peru and abroad, working with Amazonian tree medicines as well as trees native to North America and Europe. He is also the creator and host of The Universe Within Podcast, which features interviews with elders, healers, teachers, and practitioners from around the world.

What We Explore in This Episode

In this expansive conversation, Aubrey and Jason explore the profound relationship between humans and plants – what we learn when we approach them with humility, and what they reveal when we quiet the mind long enough to listen.

Key Takeaways

  • The path of the dieta – understanding isolation, silence, and fasting not as deprivation, but as gateways to clarity and deep communion with plant spirits.
  • Apprenticeship as devotion – why true learning requires patience, humility, and a willingness to be transformed.
  • Plants as mirrors for consciousness – how vegetal intelligence reflects the parts of ourselves we are ready to see and heal.
  • Healing as remembering – the insight that plants don’t “fix” us; they help us recover our inherent wholeness.
  • Safety, ethics, and lineage in medicine work – the importance of proper guidance, preparation, and integration when entering plant-medicine spaces.

For anyone drawn to plant wisdom, spiritual apprenticeship, or the subtle terrains of inner healing, this conversation offers a grounded, honest, and illuminating glimpse into the heart of the vegetal world.


With Love & Gratitude,
Aubrey Morgan Yee

GUEST INFO

Learn more about Jason’s work:
Website: https://jasongrechanik.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasongrechanik/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UniverseWithin
Podcast: The Universe With

FOLLOW AUBREY'S WORK

Website: www.ourbelovedfutures.com
Instagram: @aubrey.morgan.yee
Substack: ourbelovedfutures.substack.com
Book: Our Beloved Futures