Dimitri Mugianis Talks

In this week's episode, we talk to Dr. Julie Holland. Dr. Holland's a psychiatrist, activist, mother, musician. We talk about her work in the emergency room, her work with psychedelics and her advocacy for cannabis, women, and marginalized groups.

On this episode we talk to David Nickels. David is an underground researcher, moderator for the DMT-Nexus community, and glassblower. He has offered cultural commentary on psychedelics and radical politics and participated in numerous harm reduction efforts.

On this episode, our guest is Allan Clear. Allan is the Director of New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute’s Office of Drug User Health, former Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, and longtime activist. We discuss the roots of the harm reduction movement, the opioid epidemic, what is to be done and what has been done.

As a kid growing up in Detroit in the 60's and 70's interested in drugs, politics, and music, the 6'4" bearded, hairy, revolutionary poet, scholar, activist, musicologist, and self-described, “race traitor,” the figure of John Sinclair loomed large. John is the man behind the MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, and the Founder of the White Panthers, later the Rainbow People’s Party. Their platform: A total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including Rock n’ Roll, dope…and fucking in the streets. John was a hero of mine, and still is. At 77, he still writes columns, does poetry, and lives life according to his ethos, “a vow of beatnik poverty.”

This week's episode features a conversation with Richie Ogulnick. Richie is a pioneer of underground treatment with ibogaine in the United States. We talk about his mystical journey from being influenced by Howard Lotsof's serendipitous discovery of ibogaine's addiction interrupting effects, to traveling to Africa and finding a source for ibogaine HCL, and adapting Chilean psychiatrist and early psychedelic research Claudio Naranjo's protocol for using ibogaine during psychospiritual sessions to instead treat addicts. Other topics include harm reduction, discovering Heantos (an herbal combination from Vietnam) as a tool for addicts to mitigate their tolerance to opiates without detoxing, getting shutdown by the FDA, and his vision for treatment of opiate use disorder.

Nicholas Powers is a poet, journalist, and professor. His books, The Ground Below Zero and Theater of War, were published by Upset Press. He has also written for the Indypendent, Alternet, and The Village Voice, and has spoken and read all over the country. He teaches literature at SUNY Old Western and co-hosts the long-running New York City College Poetry Slam at the Nuyorican Cafe.

In the fourth episode of DMT we speak with Katherine Maclean. Katherine is a research scientist who conducted clinical trials of psilocybin at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is the cofounder and director of the Psychedelic Education and Continuing Care Program in New York, where she leads training workshops and monthly integration groups focused on increasing awareness and reducing risks of psychedelic use. We call this episode "What is something happens?"

Lex Pelger is the host of Psymposia. He’s also a drug writer and scientist based in Brooklyn. His current project, Anandamide or: the Cannabinoid is a graphic novel about cannabis based on Moby Dick. He graduated from Boston University with a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Kenneth Alper, M.D is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at New York University School of Medicine. He is author of over 70 peer-reviewed publications, books and book chapters, and his research and has been supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. His research on iboga alkaloids has spanned the disciplines of neuropharmacology, toxicology and medical ethnography.

Britta Love is a writer, somatic sex educator and multi-dimensional healer based in Brooklyn, NY. A graduate of the London School of Economics and Goddard College, she wrote her thesis in Consciousness Studies on the healing and spiritual potential of altered states, specifically those induced by conscious sexual practice and the ritual use of psychoactive plant medicines. She writes for Alternet, Psymposia and Reality Sandwich, gives regular talks at Tarot Society and the Alchemist’s Kitchen in NYC, and blogs on sex, drugs and consciousness.