Legacy Podcast — The History of Wellness and Wellbeing | The First Treatments and Cures | Episode 2

Original Legacy Productions, January 20, 2026
Hosts: Afua Hirsch & Peter Frankopan

Episode Overview

This engaging installment of the Legacy podcast explores humanity’s earliest attempts at healing, the roots of holistic wellness, and the social history of cures and health. Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan revisit ancient wisdom—from food-as-medicine to the ritual power of water—while tracing why contemporary wellness trends echo long-standing traditions, and where modern societies diverge. The episode also critically considers how access to health, remedies, and wellness has shifted, touching on inequality, community, and what we can learn from the past.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Stories & Entry into Ancient Remedies

[00:35–03:30]

• Afua’s Sore Throat: Opens on Afua’s lost voice, skepticism toward modern cough medicines, and a remarkably effective Japanese folk remedy: soaking red onion in honey and inhaling the vapor.
  • “...my cough is gone in one night, so I'm feeling very, very motivated to talk about, as we're going to in this episode, food and ancient healing techniques and what their legacy might be today.” – Afua [00:51]
• Peter’s Schooldays: Recounts “disparate gargle” cures in school, reflecting on the persistence and sometimes ineffective methods of healing.

2. The Fusion of Food and Medicine Across Civilizations

[04:15–11:54]

• Early Empiricism and Experimentation:
  • Both hosts stress that ancient civilizations were true empiricists, trialing and modifying herbal and dietary cures.
  • “Isn't it interesting how we kind of regard science as something over which modern society has a monopoly? But actually these ancient ancestors were complete empiricists.” – Afua [06:14]
• Archaeological Finds:
  • Evidence from the Fertile Crescent, Egypt, China, and Anatolia shows early humans using yarrow, sage, mint, black cumin, and other plants for medicinal effects.
• First Medical Texts:
  • Peter recounts the Ebers Papyrus (Egypt, ~1500 BCE) with 700 remedies, half using edible items: honey for infections, figs for digestion, and onions for congestion [06:54].
• Transmission of Knowledge:
  • Written records enabled lasting transfer of healing wisdom, not just among healers but also across generations and cultures.

3. Global Superfoods: Honey, Herbs, and Fermentation

[08:14–11:54]

• Honey as Ancient Panacea:
  • Both hosts call honey a universally revered “superfood,” used in Egypt, the Indus Valley, ancient Greece, and beyond for its antimicrobial, soothing, and preservative qualities:
    • “If modern wellness culture has a favorite superfood, so did the Neolithic, and it was honey.” – Afua [09:36]
  • Discussion of modern manuka honey as marketed example of returning to old wisdom.
• Herbs & Spices:
  • Archaeological evidence shows cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, frankincense, and myrrh moved thousands of kilometers in ancient trade; prized not only for flavor, but for health properties.
  • “...You find turmeric and ginger residues in the Indus Valley, but also later in Mesopotamia… The Egyptians are using frankincense and myrrh, which are very Christmassy obviously... they've got antiseptic qualities.” – Peter [09:59]
• Fermented Foods and Mood:
  • Beer, millet drinks, and kimchi cited as ancient medicinal ferments, believed to influence both physical and mental health.

4. Early Medical Philosophies & Food as Preventative Medicine

[12:58–14:44]

• Four Major Traditions—All Food Focused:
  • Greece: Hippocratic texts on diet, climate, and lifestyle.
  • India: Ayurveda distinguishes foods as hot/cold, heavy/light.
  • China: Hyang di Neijing prioritizes diet as frontline defense.
  • Persia: Achmaenid & Sasanian texts view food as a divine resource for bodily balance.
  • “I also want to just add, because this happens a lot, Africa gets left off the imagined ancient world civilizational approach...” – Afua [14:44]
• Continuity & Holistic Understandings:
  • These systems universally tie environment, body, mind, and food together—no meaningful separation between medical, environmental, or spiritual wellbeing.

5. Water, Ritual Purification, & Sanitation Innovations

[17:04–21:56]

• Water in Ancient Civilizations:
  • Neolithic bathing platforms, Jomon hot springs, and drainage systems evidence advanced communal hygiene, even thousands of years ago.
  • “It becomes part of behavioral ecology... making sure your society is well regulated and well ordered...” – Peter [18:05]
• Regressions in Europe:
  • Medieval Europe’s move to beer instead of water for daily drinking cited as a step back from ancient sanitary wisdom.
• Indus Valley Superiority:
  • Advanced brick-lined drains, household bathing, and soak pits outpaced Mediterranean sanitation by centuries.
• Water in Ritual & Religion:
  • From Mesopotamian apsu to Egyptian temple baths and purification rites, water’s symbolic, therapeutic, and social roles are underscored.
  • Modern echoes: contemporary Londoners “pilgrimaging” for healing springs on Wimbledon Common—an enduring need for ritual and community in wellness practices.

6. Contrasts in Heating, Cooling, and Community Wellness

[24:45–28:11]

• Contrast Therapy then and now:
  • Ancient sweat huts, saunas, and hot/cold rituals have become boutique therapies in the modern gym (“contrast therapy”), often losing the original communal and spiritual context:
    • “…in ancient societies, these were communal activities that were part of ritual and group ideas about healing. So it's not just you being well, it's wellness in the community. It's everyone being well together.” – Afua [27:06]
• Commercialization and Individualism:
  • Modern wellness is largely privatized and individualized, stripped of collective wellbeing ideals.

7. Wellness, Class, and Inequality—A Modern Reversal

[28:11–31:52]

• Access and Elitism in Modern Health:
  • Afua critiques how health, exercise, and access to quality food are now privileges of the wealthy, contrasting with historic universality.
  • “And I think that is one of the most perverted things about modern society, that we've separated food from nature and we've separated work from activity, and we've all become separated from community.” – Afua [28:48]
• Changing Markers of Privilege:
  • Shift from labor as a marker of poverty to exercise as a luxury; in some societies, paleness or obesity has been status markers, based on who has (or is distanced from) manual labor and food scarcity.
• Global Perspectives:
  • African, and specifically West African, societies sometimes maintain a less stratified model of labor and health; the episode hints at future discussions exploring these contrasts further.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Isn't it interesting how we kind of regard science as something over which modern society has a monopoly? But actually these ancient ancestors were complete empiricists.”
  – Afua [06:14]

• “If modern wellness culture has a favorite superfood, so did the Neolithic, and it was honey.”
  – Afua [09:36]

• “You can't be well unless the community is well. And you can't separate wellness from these more social ritual ideas about healing. And no matter how many plunge pools you get into, you will be missing a trick if you don't understand that.”
  – Afua [27:06]

• “It's a very modern idea that access to good food, exercise, and natural remedies with light and water are a luxury that the rich can afford. And I think that is one of the most perverted things about modern society…”
  – Afua [28:48]

Important Timestamps

• Personal wellness stories & folk cures: 00:35–04:15
• Plant medicine experiments & ancient empiricism: 04:15–06:54
• First medical texts & transmission: 06:54–08:14
• Honey, ancient superfoods, and spice trade: 08:14–11:54
• Philosophical medical systems (Greece, India, China, Persia): 12:58–14:44
• Africa's legacy in global wellness traditions: 14:44–15:50
• Water, cleanliness, and purification rituals: 17:04–24:45
• Contrast therapy (ancient and modern), communal healing: 24:45–28:11
• Wellness, inequality, and socioeconomics: 28:11–31:52
• Preview of next episode: Sleep and exercise in antiquity: 31:52–33:10

Tone & Style

The episode balances scholarly detail with humor and lived experience. Both hosts weave archaeology, anthropology, and a bit of self-aware skepticism through their discussions, aiming for reflection as much as information. Afua’s candid approach (“personal hell” of cold pools) adds a relatable, modern angle, while Peter supplies the deep-time context—both are attuned to social justice and critical of modern trends’ departure from communal roots.

Takeaways

• Ancient societies globally practiced experimentation and holistic healing, highly valuing food, water, and community for personal and collective health.
• Many so-called modern trends in wellness are rediscoveries or repackagings of old knowledge—often, however, shorn of the communal or ritual context that gave them power.
• The inequalities of access to wellness and medicine in the contemporary world are a stark reversal from more egalitarian historical norms.
• Water’s power—practical and sacred—remains central to the story of wellness.
• Next episode will investigate ancient sleep, exercise, pain remedies, and personal fitness philosophies—continuing the journey from past to present.