Kinship Medicine
Wendy Johnson, MD, MPH
North Atlantic Books (2025)
ISBN: 979-8889842736
Reviewed by Paul Knobloch for Reader views (12/2025)
In author and medical doctor Wendy Johnson’s new work, Kinship Medicine, the public health care expert starts with a quote from W. S. Merwin’s “Before the Flood,” the last couplet of which reminds us of something that seems, to me at least, to be getting more evident every day: no one believes the floods are coming, or else they or too overwhelmed to face it. Johnson certainly knows, and in this valuable new tome, which is part memoir, part ecological-historical-medical examination of the current state of affairs, she shows us just what we have done to the planet and how we can change, adopt new coping strategies, and heal the land and ourselves in the process.
In the first chapter, Johnson talks about her home in Chupadero, New Mexico, where she’s a sort of “parciante,” someone who works with the neighbors to get them to help with the stewardship of the land, taking care of the ditches, working together, and most importantly, establishing relationships and bonds with others in the community:
My responsibilities as a parciante include contributing to the upkeep of the whole network, as well as caretaking my portion. In spring, we come together with our shovels and rakes and pruners for the lower ditch cleaning, ‘la limpieza.’ The limpieza is the great equalizer. All neighbors, rich and poor, are required to participate, all of us equally scratched and dirty after a day of battling the overgrown elms, Russian olives, and wild roses and raking the winter’s detritus from the acequia floor.
It’s nice to see an author recognize that work, in this case cleaning, is the great leveler, and that in community activity, we come to recognize the humanity of the other.
The book consists of 13 chapters and an epilogue, with each chapter touching on an important aspect of the author’s thesis. Chapter 2 is extremely important, and it does a great job of explaining how we got here. Understanding causes helps us conceive of solutions, and Johnson identifies many. Bad policy, ignorance, and the loss of invaluable indigenous knowledge are just a few of these factors:
Going back to our web of causes, we’ve already uncovered many culprits for the unthinkable fire season of 2022, from fire-suppression practices to the loss of Indigenous knowledge, to overpopulation and colonization, to drought and high winds, to global warming and climate change…
There are more great examples, including an entire chapter on possible futures, as well as an explanation of the Gaia hypothesis, reminding us of the fact that the earth is one big organism, and when humans toss a monkey wrench into the works and mess up the fragile balance of this system, the results can be catastrophic. But overall, what most impressed me was the author’s sense of civic responsibility and the fact that she emphasized the importance of connecting, creating solidarity, and working together in order to have any sort of chance at turning the tide. She reminds us that our culture needs to change this ridiculous “individual-first” mentality that seems to be the driving philosophy of most human beings in the 21st century. This mentality often obscures the truth and helps propagate the lie:
They [bonds] are hard to see when so much in our society supports the myth that each person is the sole architect of their own fate, and when billions of dollars are spent each year reinforcing this lie.
I like the fact that Johnson does not sugarcoat things: those with money and influence are powerful foes, and I am glad she concedes this and focuses so strongly on solidarity and community involvement. Anytime a book like this makes it to print, it is a victory, for we truly are facing a major turning point as a species, and we are hardly ready for what is coming. Kinship Medicine: Cultivating Interdependence to Heal the Earth and Ourselves is a reminder of that fact, and a roadmap for recovery that is firmly rooted in solidarity. Highly recommended, and a great stocking stuffer for the curmudgeonly cynic in your family.