Drawing Health

Today’s show features Maureen Burdock!
Maureen holds a doctorate in Cultural Studies, and now teaches and creates Graphic Medicine comics. Her memoir, Queen of Snails, is incredibly lush and deep — and now she’s got a new book, Sleepless Planet, that weaves a well-informed, personally-driven sleep ecology. It’s practical, informative, beautiful, and very, very needed.
We talk about Maureen’s new book, the health term “exposome,” colonial-capitalist inventions of health and disease, perimenopause mistakes, neglected powers of breathing, birthing, sleeping, and MORE.
Maureen gives us a lovely exercise to try for nighttime anxiety, so you can put this episode to use right away! Just listen to the end of the interview and you’ll have a new practice to help you sleep better.
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Episode Links & Resources
Maureen’s website: www.maureenburdock.com
Sleepless Planet: https://www.graphicmundi.org/books/978-1-63779-093-9.html
Maureen Burdock’s Graphic Medicine Deep Dive course: https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/graphic-medicine-deep-dive-with-maureen-burdock
Graphic Memoir & Medicine Working Group: https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/memoir-medicine-group
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About the podcast
Drawing Health is a podcast about the intersection of comics and health, also called Graphic Medicine. Through community interviews and guided audio practices, we explore the worlds within ourselves and without, nurturing your creative practice, inspiration, and personal health journey. Health and creativity are not at odds, they are two expressions of you.
About the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)
The Sequential Artists Workshop is a grassroots, non-profit comics school and creative community. At SAW, we teach people how to tell stories and make comics in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and around the world via our online courses and resources. Go to www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org or www.drawinghealth.com to join our community of learners and artists today!
Disclaimer
This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

What movements do you do every day? What shapes and motions do you NEVER make?
What about when you're drawing?
This practice is a gentle space to observe your movement habits in drawing, to not judge them, and to play with other possibilities of motion and feeling.
This practice aims to teach your brain that moving, and drawing, can be safe from tension and pain.
Let me know how it feels by leaving a review - I read them all, and I'd love to hear your experience!
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Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves . Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.
Disclaimer
This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

My first guest is YUMI SAKUGAWA!
Yumi is a comics artist, meditator, creativity leader, and lovely human being. On my first ever podcast interview, she kept asking ME questions! Such is her curiosity and supportive nature.
Our conversation roams between our (villain) origin stories, meditation, activism, personal and collective healing, and the many forms of creativity that happen in every day life.
In each episode, I ask our guest if they have an offering for the listener, something to try themselves to explore and experience. Listen to the end to hear Yumi’s offering!
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Episode Links & Resources:
Yumi’s Website: https://www.yumisakugawa.com
Yumi’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/yumisakugawa
Yumi’s new COSMIC AFFIRMATIONS deck! https://www.yumisakugawa.com/cosmic-comfort
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About the podcast
Drawing Health is a podcast about the intersection of comics and health, also called Graphic Medicine. Through community interviews and guided audio practices, we explore the worlds within ourselves and without, nurturing your creative practice, inspiration, and personal health journey. Health and creativity are not at odds, they are two expressions of you.
About the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW)
The Sequential Artists Workshop is a grassroots, non-profit comics school and creative community. At SAW, we teach people how to tell stories and make comics in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and around the world via our online courses and resources. Go to www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org or www.drawinghealth.com to join our community of learners and artists today!
Disclaimer
This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

If you’re just starting to listen to your body, it’s gonna hurt.
Why? Because your body has been trying to get your attention, crying out in pain or numbing out in helplessness. The first thing you’ll hear, when you start listening, might be aaaaaaaallll that pain at once.
It takes strength and patience to face that pain, and hear it, and feel it, and keep coming back. So this is a practice to build your strength, to start with acknowledging the pain, and to not shame yourself for how hard it all is.
Get comfortable. Really, really cozy. Don’t hold back on comfort now — it’s your first resource of strength to face the discomfort of feeling.
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This is the Drawing Health podcast, a resource for your wellbeing and inspiration. I’m offering you ways to connect your creativity and your body, so that your health is never at odds with your art.
Every Sunday, a new episode, alternating between graphic medicine interviews and guided audio practices. Listen, subscribe, and most of all: give feedback. Tell your stories, and experiences, by leaving a review or comment or sending an email.
What I say doesn’t matter nearly as much as what you hear, feel, and learn about yourself. Your story matters, and sharing is a gift!
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Music acknowledgement
Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves . Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.
Disclaimer
This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.

Why Drawing Health, or graphic medicine? Why now?

Tom Hart and I have been working together for years, and as Founder and Director at SAW, Tom is the reason this podcast exists at all. What better way to start than to hear us in conversation, as we often are but with microphones this time, discussing what Drawing Health, and our passion in graphic medicine, is all about.

Topics include: Can comics heal? Do I hate making comics? What if I don't understand what's happening in my body? What if I draw the feeling? Drawing, sudden death, disability, capitalism's grind, the importance of noticing our health when it's GOOD, and more.

Reflection questions:
What is YOUR definition of health?
What would it be like for you to draw with some simple constraints?
Are you interested in learning more about graphic medicine, with support?

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Episode links!
SAW's website: www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org
Tom's favourite book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/blossoms-and-bones-drawing-a-life-back-together-kim-krans
Georgia's book, Dumb:Living without a Voice: https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/dumb
Graphic Medicine Summit 2025 Playlist: https://youtu.be/0dSWiatkUjU
Maureen Burdock’s Graphic Medicine Deep Dive course: https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/graphic-medicine-deep-dive-with-maureen-burdock
Graphic Memoir & Medicine Working Group: https://www.sequentialartistsworkshop.org/memoir-medicine-group

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Music acknowledgement
Our theme music is Magic Hours by Aaron Comeau made for the Main St. Music Library. The Main St. Music Library hosts instrumental music created with simple parameters, with scores and instructions for listeners to recreate the music themselves . Musicians, artists, & listeners are encouraged to borrow freely from the library and return the materials in a different form than they found them. Find out more at mainstmusiclibrary.com.

Disclaimer
This podcast is for information and exploration purposes only and is never intended as medical advice. Every viewer and listener is encouraged to seek medical attention at their own discretion. This podcast and the guided practices are tools for listeners to support their whole health, and should be used with care.