Listen: on our site, PRX, Mixcloud, AudioPort (login required) — complete track list

This week on Earth Eclectic Radio Hour, host Laura Dedelow presents “Music as Medicine,” an exploration of music’s healing properties across cultures and generations. The journey begins with Guatemalan duo Elya Lûn and Hérthor Gan’s “Embracing Peace,” setting a ceremonial tone with its invocation of tranquility. Michigan’s The Vital Hive honors “All of Our Ancestors” while Nick Barbachano from Totnes, UK, reminds us we are each a “Child of the Earth.” Sophie Wren’s “Blessed Are We” and Stefan Pulsaris’s brief but potent “Children of Heaven and Earth” complete the first set of contemporary “medicine music”—songs consciously crafted for ceremonial healing contexts. Bridging worlds, David Byrne and Ghost Train Orchestra pose the profound question “Who Is the Sky?” before we pause briefly to absorb these medicinal sounds. Returning, Laura offers musical medicine from her youth—Bob Dylan’s searing indictment “Masters of War” and the Grateful Dead’s ecological warning in “Throwing Stones,” both protest songs that once helped process collective trauma. We then circle back to contemporary medicine music with Luciano Fraga y Habitantes celebrating “El canto de la tierra” (the song of the Earth) from Argentina, followed by Ti Coca’s traditional Haitian folk healing in “Fey Nan Bwa.” Italy-based Sil Sol transports us to a “Mundo de Selva” (Jungle World) before Sāmi Brothers’ “7 Directions” concludes our healing journey with a prayer to the cardinal directions. Throughout this sonic pharmacy, Laura reveals how music serves as both personal balm and cultural medicine—helping us process grief, celebrate joy, and reconnect with the Living Earth that sustains us.