Cold and flu season shows up right on time every year. Patients arrive with that familiar not-quite-well feeling—and if we’re listening closely, we can trace how the pattern shifts and settles. The body will tell us where the pathogen has landed, how it’s moving, and what strategy it’s calling for.

In this Shoptalk episode, part of the larger series on colds, cough, and flu, with Eran Evan, we look at colds through a Jing Fang lens while also acknowledging the realities of modern living. Those classical progressions described in the Shang Han Lun still show up—often because very few people intervene at the very beginning of an external invasion. Eran, trained extensively in the Jing Fang lineage and a long-time student of Dr. Huang Huang, has a gift for translating classical theory into modern clinical relevance. Our conversation ranges from everyday colds to the lingering, destabilizing patterns we now see in long-COVID.

We explore why a sore throat might signal a Shaoyang presentation, what Zhang Zhongjing’s short postscripts still reveal when read carefully, and how formulas like Chai Hu Gui Zhi Gan Jiang Tang or Xiao Chai Hu Tang are not simply prescriptions—they’re snapshots of physiology in motion, inviting us to meet the pattern where it actually is.

Listen in as we bridge classical insight with contemporary clinical terrain—and follow the thread of how this medicine stays alive when we practice it with precision, humility, and inquiry.