Stoner

Stoner is taking a hiatus so I can write a book for Ten Speed based on this podcast! Gonna re-run some of my favorite Season 1 episodes over the holidays, then back with new episodes in 2019 after the book is turned in.

Ross Simonini is the the author of The Book of Formation and the longtime interviews editor of The Believer. We talked about touring in bands, cults, and self-restrictions.

Elise McDonough is the author of *Bong Appétit* and *The High Times Cannabis Cookbook.* She lives in Santa Cruz.

Matt Taibbi discovered a longtime acquaintance had a secret life as a marijuana kingpin, sending product all over the United States in car trunks. With his anonymous co-author, he collaborated on 'The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing,' an intimate and detailed account of the business of grey legal marijuana.

Ann Friedman is a longtime "casual but committed " marijuana fan and a writer in Los Angeles. She co-hosts Call Your Girlfriend with previous Stoner guest Aminatou Sow.

Peter Watts discusses the life and collections of Julio Santo Domingo who filled his homes and warehouses with the world’s largest private collection related to the subjects of drugs, sex, magic, and rock and roll.

Amanda Mac from Terp School talks about how terpenes tell you a lot more than sativa and indica labels. We also got into chronic pain and the differences between full spectrum and "gateway" CBD.

Paul Flannery is a sportswriter and a serious runner who went to the Colorado mountains to train with a championship ultramarathoner who runs stoned.

Alexis Coe is a historian and the author of " Alice+Freda Forever." We talked about setting weed rules for yourself, why it's hard to leave a legalization state behind, and which Presidents she thinks might have smoked weed.

Justin Ouellette of Portland's Lightscale Labs returns to talk about why strains are a bad way to sort weed, experimenting with CBD and micro-dosing LSD, and why he's starting his own cannabis garden.

Ashley Brooke & Tahirah Hairston talk to women about their weed habits at The High Ends.

Director Eduardo Sanchez and Producer Gregg Hale of Haxan Films talk weed and their longstanding creative partnership which started with The Blair Witch Project in 1999.

Anja Charbonneau is the editor-in-chief of the free weed magazine Broccoli and former creative director of Kinfolk.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer has represented Oregon's 3rd Congressional District since 1996. He is a co-founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus which was formed in 2017. He doesn't smoke marijuana but has "no problem with people who do" and predicts marijuana will be legal within 5 years.

Buzzfeed tech reporter Charlie Warzel returns to discuss Elon Musk hitting a blunt on the Joe Rogan Experience and whether we're ready for a stoner CEO.

Adam Lisagor directs commercials for the internet and TV. We talked about life before the internet, when weed takes you to a dark place, and discovering CBD.

Stoner is back for Season 2! Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker who wrote recently about the teen vaping sensation Juul. We talked about her intention to die on the moon, the etiquette of sharing popcorn with a complete stranger during a stoned viewing of Beauty and the Beast, and how she navigates her weed life.

[Amanda Conley](https://twitter.com/imperfectsonnet) and [Shabnam Malek](https://twitter.com/shabnammy) are Bay Area lawyers who co-founded the [National Cannabis Bar Association](http://www.canbar.org/). They also maintain their own practice, [Brand & Branch LLP](http://www.brandandbranch.com/), which provides intellectual property services to cannabis businesses. We talked about the importance of attorneys sharing notes across state lines, California's confusing legal history around medical and recreational legalization, and why first-hand experience can be important for lawyers who want to work within the industry.

[Mira Gonzalez](https://twitter.com/miragonz) is a poet and writer in L.A. She got a job at a dispensary when she was 19 and she once drank an entire bottle of weed lube.

[Benjamin Dickinson](https://twitter.com/BrainDickinson) is a director whose most recent film is [Creative Control](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3277624/). We talked about being a movie director in the age of TV, his daily writing routine, and his experiences with seeing a dream therapist.

[Tao Lin](https://twitter.com/tao_lin) is is the author of the novel [_Taipei_](https://www.amazon.com/Taipei-Vintage-Contemporaries-Tao-Lin/dp/0307950174) and a forthcoming book _Beyond Existentialism_ about Terence McKenna and psychedelics. We talked about:

Amanda Chicago Lewis returns to the show to discuss her new GQ story "The Great Pot Monopoly Mystery" about a shadowy business group that is trying to patent marijuana strains.

[Ian Vanek](https://twitter.com/Japanther) spent 13 years in the art project duo Japanther. He's currently touring the country by himself on a dirt bike as part of his new project [Howardian](http://ianvanek.com/). We talked about the challenges of solo motorcycle touring, frosted weed milkshakes, and why Japanther called itself an art project instead of a band.

[Matt Haughey](https://twitter.com/mathowie) never touched weed as a teen, despite being a competitive BMX rider in Southern California. He didn't smoke any weed in his 20s either, busy founding [Metafilter](http://www.metafilter.com/) one of the internet's first collections of "cool shit people find on the internet." By the time he was in 30s, Matt was curious to try marijuana but didn't know anyone who had any. Finally, a decade later, legalization came to the West Coast and he set off for Washington State to acquire some weed so he could smoke his first joint, age 42. We talked about the lack of beginner's weed-smoking information on the internet, touring elementary schools and churches performing in a D.A.R.E. BMX show, and why he gave Metafilter away after 16 years.

Samantha Miller does research that informs the formulation of the special vape pens that hmbldt makes branded not by strain but effect: sleep, bliss, calm, relief. Prior to becoming HMBLDT's in-house scientist, Miller founded Pure Analytics, one of the first cannabis testing labs in the country. We talked about the value of anecdotal evidence in testing, getting feedback from a seniors group, and why she grew well before it became her job.

Max Temkin is a co-founder of Cards Against Humanity, a "party game for horrible people," and Chicago comedians Joanna Feldman and Julia Weiss are its head writers. After a successful Kickstarter in 2011, Cards Against Humanity was released independently, reaching #1 in Amazon's Games section and spawning numerous expansion packs and copycats. We discuss flying while stoned, what makes a card work in the Cards Against Humanity writers' room, and why Max was dreading coming on the show.

In 1973, Digby traveled from England to Morocco seeking out villages that practiced traditional hashmaking. Forty-six years later, he's still there.

[Benny Blanco](https://twitter.com/itsbennyblanco) has produced twenty-six #1 hits and his records have sold over 100 million copies (or so Wikipedia tells me.) His writing credits include Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream,' Rihanna's 'Diamonds,' Justin Bieber's 'Love Yourself,' and Maroon 5's 'Moves Like Jagger.' He was nominated for the 2017 Producer of the Year Grammy. Benny is only 29 and keeps a relatively low profile. We talked about growing up music-obsessed in suburban VA, why the secret sauce to the '90s hip-hop sound may have been "dogshit weed," and recording Ed Sheeran on a transcontinental cruise ship.

[Dope Girls Zine](http://www.dopegirlszine.org/)'s editor [Beca Grimm](https://twitter.com/becagrimm) and art director [Rachel Hortman](https://twitter.com/rachel_hortman) discuss why they made a zine for women who "can still get shit done while getting high," living in Atlanta during a rap golden age, and Beca's monthly weed dinner parties.

### [Sebastián Silva](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2928364/) is a filmmaker and grew up in Chile. He directed [Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7nInvUzAI8) about a group of Chileans and Americans on a road trip seeking the mescaline-bearing San Pedro cactus. He also has directed [Nasty Baby](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3121332/), and [The Maid](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/la_nana/) and lives in New York.

Emma Chasen quit her job doing research trials at Brown and took her degree in Medicinal Plant Research to Portland. Within a week she had a job at Farma, where she was first a budtender and now focuses on cannabis science education.

When he was in college, Jake Lodwick was brought on as one of the original developers of [CollegeHumor](http://www.collegehumor.com/). Shortly thereafter he co-founded Vimeo and three years later he posted [a photo of himself taking a bong hit](http://www.tvsnob.com/pictures/jakoblodwick.jpg) after he was fired by Vimeo's new owners, IAC. Jake's a pretty different person now, pouring his energy into a company that [makes tactile and joyous music creation software](http://keezy.com/). He's not totally comfortable with the internet he helped create, and had a lot to say about flow mindstates, the relationship between art and technology, and taking the long view.

Ricardo Baca is the founding editor of The Cannabist, a site from the _Denver Post _that covers the "marijuana industry like it was the oil industry" and the subject of the documentary _Rolling Papers_. He recently left The Cannabist to found Grasslands, "a content agency for cannabis."

Francis Starlite is behind [Francis and the Lights](https://twitter.com/andthelights?lang=en), who in 2016 alone released the album _Farewell, Starlite! and_ worked collaboratively with [Bon Iver, Kanye West](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wScYn10D2vo), [The Weeknd](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot1Dy58FWWU) and [Frank Ocean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O15e_ktO2-4). He performed extensively with Chance the Rapper and last week released a video for a [remix of his song 'May I Have This Dance' featuring Chance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhtoDhlffsE). Francis and I have been friends since elementary school and have been writing songs together for the last 15 years. We talked about why Francis spent the majority of his life avoiding marijuana, what made him give it a try during a rut in his 30s, and the time he unexpectedly ended up in a studio with Kanye West and Jay-Z.

Alexandra Chasin is an associate professor at The New School. Her new book [Assassin of Youth: A Kaleidoscopic History of Harry J. Anslinger's War on Drugs](https://www.amazon.com/Assassin-Youth-Kaleidoscopic-History-Anslinger%C2%92s/dp/022627697X) is a biography of America's first drug czar who popularized the term 'marijuana' and ushered in the Reefer Madness period of drug prohibition. A master propagandist prone to demonizing ethnic and immigrant groups, Anslinger's ideas laid the foundation for the modern drug war and brought awareness of cannabis to the American masses. Alexandra and I talked about the Harrison Act, how America was scandalized by wild 'marijuana parties,' and the analogues between coming out as queer and coming out as a stoner.

In 2015 longtime activist Bill Levin founded the First Church of Cannabis in Indianapolis. He is currently suing for the right to use the "sacrament of cannabis" as part of his church's religious practice. Despite being frequently written about online, the First Church of Cannabis has no website. I called the number listed on their Facebook page and a woman picked up. She gave me Bill Levin's cell number and I called him.

Charlie Warzel is a technology reporter who spent the last two weeks sitting right behind America's favorite conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in an Austin, TX courthouse. At stake in Alex Jones' custody dispute is whether the unhinged character he plays on _InfoWars_ is real or as he claims "political satire." On 4/20, his ex-wife's attorneys asked him about an incident wherein he was "unable to recall the names of his children's teachers after eating a big bowl of chili" and another incident where smoked a joint on the air while appearing as a guest on Joe Rogan's podcast. Jones explained that he used marijuana nearly yearly "to monitor its strength, which is how law enforcement does it" and that marijuana was too strong as a result of a mind control conspiracy backed by billionaire George Soros.

Amanda Chicago Lewis is a journalist in Los Angeles. Amanda has spent the last few years covering the entrepreneurs, charlatans, and weirdos who make up the largest weed market in the world for LA Weekly and Buzzfeed. We talked about California's legalization vote in November and why we won't really know how it's going until 2020.

Krishna Andavolu is the host of Weediquette, a TV show on Viceland in which he travels America and the world telling the stories of people whose lives are are deeply impacted by marijuana. Weediquette's third season kicks off as part Vice's Weed Week on April 19th. We talked about being asked to drive extremely high on a closed track for an episode of Weediquette, his parents reaction to him smoking weed on camera with the President of Uruguay, and how the election of Trump changed the direction of the show.

Nick Denton founded Gawker Media in 2004. In 2016, Gawker's portfolio of sites were either sold off or shuttered after a lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan bankrupted the company. This lawsuit, over the posting of Hulk Hogan's sex tape, was financed by Peter Thiel. But Nick and I didn't talk about any of that. We talked about discovering marijuana later in life, his obsession with internet forums, and his post-lawsuit plans.

[Justin Oullette](http://jstn.cc/) was a major programmer in New York's technology scene, working on Vimeo, [Muxtape](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muxtape), and Tumblr, before leaving it all behind to start a marijuana testing facility, [Lightscale Labs.](https://lightscale.com/) We talked about growing up with kids whose mothers grew weed on the side, what happens when a project you've spent your life savings on literally catches on fire, and how advanced lab machines might unlock the secrets of terpenes, which control the smell and possibly the psychoactive effects of marijuana.

Aminatou Sow is the co-host of the podcast 'Call Your Girlfriend' and consults extensively in the technology industry. Her family is Guinean and she grew up in Nigeria so I was curious to hear about her experiences as a weed-enthusiast, immigrant, and woman of color. We talked about weed culture in Nigerian prep schools, what happens when your dealer forgets to BCC, and why legal marijuana is so terribly branded.

Stoner is a freewheeling conversation that often starts with "when was the first time you ever smoked weed?" and can end up anywhere. Guests range from artists to musicians to those working in the marijuana economy. Host Aaron Lammer is also the co-host of the Longform Podcast and has co-written songs with Francis and the Lights for artists like Chance the Rapper and Drake.