POPULARITY
Join us for an enlightening episode of the MindHack podcast with special guest Matt Zemon, author of 'Psychedelics For Everyone' and a leading voice in the psychedelic movement. Dive into the fascinating world of psychedelic therapy, as Matt shares his personal journey, insights on the therapeutic use of psychedelics, and the future of mental wellness. Explore how these powerful substances are transforming lives and expanding consciousness, and discover the potential they hold for healing and personal growth. Tune in to uncover the transformative power of psychedelics and their role in shaping a new paradigm for mental health.More on Matt Zemon:WebsiteTwitterInstagramLinkedInPsychedelics For Everyone: A Beginner's Guide to these Powerful Medicines for Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Expanding ConsciousnessOther books hereBooks and other interesting mentions:PsychableJoe Rogan EpisodeTerence McKennaStoned Ape TheoryEleusinian MysteriesThe Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name by Brian C. MurareskuMDMA (Ecstacy)PsilocybinMicrodosing CollectiveA Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet WaldmanDr. Ben Malcolm | Spirit PharmacistPsychedelic Pharmacist Associationthe dharmacist | Dr. Trina NguyenMAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)Heroic Hearts Project
The Business of Meetings – Episode 140 - All About Psychedelics with Matt Zemon Today, we are speaking with Matt Zemon, the Founder, and CEO of HAPPŸŸ. He is joining us to discuss a fascinating topic most of us know nothing about, even though many are curious about it. Matt has just written a book called Psychedelics for Everyone. He has a degree in psychology and neuroscience and is a member of EO. He joins us today to share his knowledge, experience, and understanding- and some unexpected and eye-opening statistics, on psychedelic treatment for PTSD! Matt's entrepreneurial journey Matt is good at building businesses. He built several before qualifying for EO and a few more while in EO. However, nothing changed after hitting different goals and milestones, and it did not satisfy him. Then, about three years ago, some trusted friends suggested trying a guided psychedelic experience. He liked the idea of learning about himself differently, so he took part in one, and it blew his mind wide open! That sparked his interest as an entrepreneur, and he wanted to learn more about it and get involved. Psychedelics for Everyone Matt dove right in, getting a Master's in psychology and neuroscience and attending many different psychedelic conferences and webinars. Then, about a year ago, he built a company called Psychable to create a directory of psychedelic-friendly practitioners with hundreds of pieces of easy-to-find relevant content. Then he put that content together in a medically-reviewed book, Psychedelics for Everyone, along with some personal stories, to give those who know nothing about psychedelics an understanding of how psychedelics could impact them, the people they love, or their communities. Ketamine Ketamine is the only psychedelic that is legal in all fifty states in the US. It is a powerful medicine that we can use for depression, anxiety, OCD, and substance-use disorders. Clinical trials The FDA allows MDMA (Ecstacy) and psilocybin use in clinical trials. MDMA There has been a 67% success rate in clinical trials using just two sessions of MDMA for people with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder. So MDMA should be legal federally as a medicine within two years. Psilocybin Psilocybin is the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms”. There have been some incredible results in clinical trials using psilocybin for people with treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. It has also been proven effective with terminal patients and substance abuse. Drugs In the 1970s, there were campaigns to lead people to believe that all drugs, including psychedelics, were addictive and bad. Those campaigns were not truth-based, however. They were just a political tactic that had nothing to do with science. Research Before 1970, researchers were doing thousands of studies on the power of psychedelic medicine. But they were forced to stop due to the prohibition. In the last ten years, however, there has been a resurgence of academic research, and currently, 309 institutions are studying the benefits of psychedelics. Anti-depressants Anti-depressants are ineffective for 40% of those who try them. Even when they do work, there are lots of side effects, including sexual dysfunction, gastrointestinal problems, and suicidal ideation in young people. So another option is sorely needed, especially for veterans returning from wars unable to function normally. The side-effects of psychedelics There are very few short-term side effects from psychedelics. Sometimes, people may experience some nausea, and there is always dissociation which is a necessary feature. But they have no long-term side effects, and many psychedelics have no lethal dose. Risks Drugs like ketamine are serious and must get treated with respect. Recreational use has led some people have become addicted to it. However, it is the only psychedelic with an addiction risk, and no one using it medicinally in clinical studies has become addicted. Danger Psychedelics are unlikely to cause any danger for those using them or for others. How ketamine works in the brain Ketamine alters glutamine activity and increases BDNF in the brain. That increases neuroplasticity and synaptic strength. It also turns down the default mode network in the brain. So it can provide relief from worry and anxiety. Disassociation side-effects unlock subconscious thoughts and repressed memories, and emotions. So it removes shame, blame, and guilt, and with some people, it also awakens a spiritual effect. Connecting and caring Psychedelic medicines can help people to connect better with one another and care more for others. Different models Many different models are available for entrepreneurs to provide psychedelic therapy through business-controlled health centers. Various financial and ethical issues still have to be ironed out. But Matt believes that thousands of opportunities exist for entrepreneurs to create businesses to provide mental health care in America. Microdosing Microdosing means taking a minute dose of mushrooms or LSD. It is very popular. If done correctly, you will not feel it, so you can still work and do whatever you usually do. Download Matt's free guide to microdosing to learn about the different protocols and the latest research. Connect with Eric On LinkedIn On Facebook On Instagram On Website Connect with Matt Zemon On LinkedIn Download Matt's free guide to microdosing https://www.happyy.me Instagram Recommended books: A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage My Life by Ayelet Waldman
Today, Debbie talks with Dr. Bree Johnston, a geriatrician and a palliative care physician who is also certified in psychedelic therapies.In case you haven't noticed, the topic of psychedelic therapy has gone mainstream in the past several years. Taking a guided psilocybin trip is now viewed as a highly effective way to ease fear of dying. But it's complicated. It took Debbie several months to find just the right person to interview about the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. Her research led her to Dr. Bree Johnston who is perfectly credentialed for this topic as well as being a notably clear and wise teacher for [B]OLDER podcast listeners. She's been a practicing physician for 35 years and recently became certified in Psychedelic Therapies and Research through the California Institute of Integral Studies.They talk about:- The problem of legality (she predicts psilocybin therapy will be legal in a few years)- Why psychedelic therapy is especially useful for older, dying patients- Her own psychonaut experiences- The dissolution of "self" and becoming part of a whole (a common experience on a psychedelic trip)- The current studies being done at Johns Hopkins and NYU- Microdosing- And her evaluation of which psychedelic therapies are currently most useful: psilocybin, MDMA (aka ecstasy), ketamine (not illegal but results can vary widely).They also explore the complexity that comes with medicalizing psychedelics as well as the ethics surrounding legalization. This is a highly informative conversation with a knowledgeable physician. Mentioned in this episode or useful:Dr. Bree Johnston on LinkedInThe Trip Treatment by Michael Pollan (The New Yorker; February 5, 2015)How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press; 2018)The Pied Piper of Psychedelic Toads by Kimon de Greef (The New Yorker; March 21, 2022)Berkeley Center for the Science of PsychedelicsPsychedelic Therapy Training Certificate | California Institute of Integral StudiesThe Microdose NewsletterNew York Magazine Investigative Podcast: Cover Story: Power TripJohns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness ResearchCenter for Psychedelic Medicine | NYUA Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldman (Knopf; 2017)Brian Anderson - Studies at UCSFSacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences by William Richards (Columbia University Press; 2015)Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies - MAPSMAPS NewsletterHandbook of Medical Hallucinogens by Charles Grob and Jim Grigsby (The Guilford Press; 2021)Note from DebbieIf you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than two minutes and it really makes a difference. It makes me feel loved and it also attracts new listeners.Subscribe to my newsletter and get my free writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.Connect with me:Website: debbieweil.comTwitter: @debbieweilInstagram: @debbieweilFacebook: @debbieweilLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/debbieweilBlog: Gap Year After SixtyEmail: thebolderpodcast@gmail.comDebbieWe are looking for a sponsor or a podcast networkIf you are interested in reaching a smart and thoughtful audience of midlife, and older, listeners, contact Debbie Weil.Media PartnersNext For MeEncore.orgMEASupport this podcast:Leave a review on Apple Podcasts: it will help us find a sponsor! If you are interested, contact Debbie WeilSubscribe via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or SpotifyCredits:Host: Debbie WeilProducer: Far Out MediaPodcast websiteMusic: Lakeside Path by Duck Lake
In this episode of The Mama Psychedelia Podcast, with Zuri Snow, we touch on variety of topics deeply interwoven through the mycelial web of consciousness. A touching conversation on mental health healing with psilocybin and other earth medicines, free birthing, sovereign led living, holistic childbirth continuity of care, normalizing altered states in western culture, mental health and diagnosing of children, and so so much more! Zuri is a holistic childbirth consultant, a student birthkeeper, an earth medicine advocate, and an unschooling mother of two wildling toddlers. She is passionate about bringing “the sacred” back into the rites of passage that define our human existence, and inspires this through practical ritual, earth-based wisdom, and accessible education. She is currently focused on assisting families through the transformational initiation of pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum through education, advocacy, and soul counselling, both in person and virtually. Her work emphasizes reclaiming sovereignty through connecting to the intuitive wisdom that lies within us all. She is passionate about de-stigmatizing the use of entheogenic medicines for mothers and families through storytelling. If you have a personal story you'd like to share anonymously, you can email zuri.mamabearth@gmail.com. Each share helps to break the stigma and normalize the use of these sacred medicines during such transformational times. Intro Music "Waters of the Earth" by Satori covered by me, Mackenzie. (For more of her music, check out her Spotify) Resources: Where you can find Zuri's offerings: IG: @mamabearthhttps://www.instagram.com/mamabearth/or reach out via email: zuri.mamabearth@gmail.comThe Entheogenic Midwife https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-entheogenic-midwife/id1466848671https://open.spotify.com/show/29FupYiykkuS4IeePyTU9n?si=etsCUPKTTJms-383qeZlQAA Really Good Day… by: Ayelet Waldman https://www.amazon.com › Really-G...A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood ...Paul Stamets https://fungi.comFungi PerfectiJames Fadimanhttps://www.amazon.com › Psyched...The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred ...Whapio -The Matronahttps://thematrona.comIna May Gaskinhttp://www.midwife.org › ina-may-...Ina May GaskinMackenzie's offerings: https://snipfeed.co/hunnywombIG: @mamapsychedelia https://www.instagram.com/mamapsychedelia/ @hunnywombdoulahttps://www.instagram.com/hunnywombdoula/
Gift Guide Round 1: Moms, Dads, and Significant (or Formerly Significant) Others It's gift-guide season around these parts, and here we are with the first of three—three!—installments to help you along with the hardest-to-shop-for people in your life (hopefully). If you need more ideas, subscribing to Secret Menu might be just the answer. Moms and Mothers-in-Law! Single mom by choice to an amazing little girl. Since it's just the two of us and she's a toddler, I need to help her buy her a gift for me. I realize that buying a gift for one's self shouldn't be difficult but I'm saving to buy us a condo and this will be my one quality and/or impractical spend for the foreseeable future. So I want to make it count and I'd love your help. I am willing to spend up to $400.00. I appreciate smart function in design and I have lost zero baby weight, so anything that involves sizing has the potential to make me cry, which feels like it would defeat the purpose. I work about 75 hours a week and am currently doing so remotely. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks! Fused bracelet like a Fewer Finer Eternal Bracelet or an Ochre Objects Permanence one Birthstone earrings—maybe one of your birthstone and one of hers. White/Space Francesca studs are sold as solos. Earrings/necklace you could build on each year: Scosha charms, Lizzie Fortunato mood necklace with an alphabet charm, and Fewer Finer vintage charms Kinn Studio locket A break! A one-night staycation or spa day 76 yo mom, super practical, can't throw stuff away, just lost her husband of 60+ years. Tidy Tova Virtual Tidiness Organizing accessories: Hay, Open Spaces, and Yamazaki Home POJ Studio Kintsugi Kit Mending kit: Merchant & Mills Rapid Repair Kit and Purl Soho Cotton Mending Thread Yuns Hardware gift certificate Dims Watering Can + Via Citrus tree Monthly flower delivery—you can make any bouquet a subscription with Farmgirl Flowers Miriam Toews novel: Fight Night or Women Talking Donation to her local library My new step mom who has very good taste and loves thrifting Summersill & Bishop alphabet napkins Vintage calendar from 2011, 2005, 1994, 1983, 1977, 1966, 1955, 1949, 1938, or 1927 Greystone Needlepoint book cover Back issues of a favorite magazine—Gourmet? Berea College Student Craft Machete Apple Watch band Misette colorblock collection Beata Heuman: Every Room Should Sing The House that Pinterest Built by Diane Keaton Vintage piece from French Larkspur or One Day in France Do thrifting for her—splatterware, jadeite, or Fiestaware? Frumpy MIL that you can't stand Ember mug (now a travel one, too) Eileen Fisher brushed recycled cotton cashmere scarf Hillery Sproatt blanket Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout Psychic Outlaw quilted stocking Farmhouse Pottery gift set Mutual aid org My southern mom who thinks NYC made me snobby Magnolia Bakery banana pudding Oliver Pluff Southern Style Iced Tea Cookbooks by Southern female chef: Black, White, and the Grey by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano and Mosquito Supper Club by Melissa M. Martin Chara's BBQ sauce These Precious Days by Ann Patchett Alabama Chanin sewing kit Dads and Fathers-in-Law! My dad! A very intelligent man. Passionate about baseball but has season tickets. Very covid cautious. Has read all books. Doesn't drink. Isn't handy (no tools). Plays scrabble and has all the boards, no other games. Very fashion apathetic and I always get him clothes. Likes to bike but has a very nice bike and all accessories. Has snow shovel service. Really only cares about his grandkids but spends tons of time with them. Still works (lawyer) and tends to buy anything he needs which is very little! Always a conumdrum. Equal Justice Initiative donation Argo attachment for front of bike to haul grandkids (group gift potential) Non-alcoholic bevs: Ghia, Non, Acid League Wine Proxies, Hella Cocktail Bitters & Soda variety pack, Avec NYT Crossword/Spelling Bee subscription StoryWorth Black Champions in Cycling by Marlon Moncrieffe My dad! Buys himself everything he needs, likes rock and roll bios and mushrooming. and wine! Smallhold mushroom grow kit Mushrooms in the Middle: A Smallhold Cookbook How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage and My Life by Ayelet Waldman (paired with this Yelp review??) Acid for the Children by Flea and donation to Silverlake Conservatory of Music Rose Los Angeles x Gossamer CBD Rosin Delights Cure Crate Maison Noir mix case Coda Collection subscription Eden Reforestation Projects donation Last Prisoner Project donation FIL: widower, engineer, spotless home, not into design, kinda into fitness & cooking Blue Hill charcuterie picks Tapas the José Andrés Way Allday knife Spices: Burlap & Barrel and Diaspora Co. Omsom Everyone's Table: Global Recipes for Modern Health by Gregory Gourdet & JJ Goode The Essential New York Times Cookbook: The Recipes of Record (Anniversary) Top Drawer reversible slippers Future gift certificate Andree Jardin duster and/or Saint Olio cleaning spray and room spray Engineers without Borders donation Romantic Partners (and Former Ones)! A NFT-obsessed new dad who wants to be a lumberjack but actually buys Aimee Leon Dore King Kennedy Rugs bag or bomber Corridor plaid shirt Drake's check work shirt Fear of God thermal pant + henley Clark's Wallabees Blackstock & Weber loafers Garagiste gift certificate Blockchain for Babies (to read to the kid!) Best Made axe Melanie Abrantes DIY plate set Woodworking classes: Makeville Studio in Brooklyn or LA Woodshop in L.A. I need help with my 49-year-old, male, partner. He's a commercial architect, but is super judgey about architect stuff. He constantly scrolls Zillow and vintage car sites. He drinks bourbon, but doesn't want whisky stones and we have an excellent set of glasses. He likes luxury, but won't wear a logo ever. He loves art - folk, sculpture, modern (sometimes the weirder the better) and he created about half the pieces in our house. We live in Atlanta, watch garbage TV and eat/cook good food. Help! Cameo from garbage TV cast member announcing an experiential gift Glaze Studio matchboxes Meet Your Matches commission Pedersen + Lennard bird feeder George Jensen bottle opener or cocktail shaker The materials for a Self Assembly project Do It Yourself by Thomas Barnthaler Vinty vintage/classic car rental Banner Butter Old soul male significant other who manages to find all the wilderness in nyc (birding in prospect park, surfing in the rockaways) in his 20s. Matuse wetsuit—or gloves or booties Merch (or sauna time or a haircut) from Almeda Club, a cute Rockaways surf shop Overnight stay in the Rockaways at The Rockaway Hotel or the vintage 1963 Shasta camper on Hipcamp Trip to Mohonk Mountain House (also does daypasses) Bose Soundlink indoor/outdoor speaker Field Guide to the Neighborhood Birds of New York City by Leslie Day Donation to Laru Beya Collective Girlfriend who is super Catholic but also super woo and into crystals, energy, etc. Cool cross necklace from Pamela Love, Chan Luu, or Erica Weiner (coral, turquoise, etc.!) Spur—if there's a crystal that means something to her, get it made into jewelry! PIA jewelry Vintage books on herbalism Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood Golde Complete wellness and beauty kit Crockd Pottery Kit Donation to DignityUSA My ex husband who doesn't deserve a gift but we share a daughter together Something for them to do together—tickets to a basketball game or a museum, a video game, etc. A friend who I had a thing with (years ago) and has a jealous girlfriend Nothing! This person does not need a gift from you! If you want to win her over, something consumable for them: Westbourne snacks, Zingerman's noodle kugel, Pizzeria Bianco pizzas, Loria Stern something, or Blackberry Farm biscuits three ways For last year's gift guides, head here and here. Keep those VMs and DMs coming at 833-632-5463 and @athingortwohq! Shop all of our favorite gift picks at MoMA Design Store—so much stunning stuff, and it's 10% of now through November 24 with the code ATHINGORTWO online or in store. Escape with Dipsea's hot ‘n heavy audio stories—you get a free 30-day trial when you use our link. Get cookin' with Made In's professional-grade cookware. 15% off your first order with the code ATHINGORTWO. Dabble in CBD with Cure Crate and take 20% off your first order with the code ATHINGORTWO. YAY. Produced by Dear Media
I hope you're hungry, Bookworms – this episode is going to give you the munchies. Today's guest Nikki Furrer is the author of “A Woman's Guide to Cannabis.” She is also a cannabis lawyer, yoga teacher, and cannabis product developer. Nikki joined me today to talk about bookstores and cookbooks, learning to cook well instead of simply following a recipe, and the joys of a just little bit too much salt. Support the Best Book Ever Podcast on Patreon Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website Host: Julie Strauss Website/Instagram Guest: Nikki Furrer Website/Instagram/Bend and Blaze Yoga Do you know a young person who'd like to appear on the 2nd Annual Kids/YA Gift Guide Episode? GO HERE! Discussed in this episode: Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat A Woman's Guide to Cannabis: Using Marijuana to Feel Better, Look Better, Sleep Better, and Get High Like a Lady by Nikki Furrer A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldman Yoga Nidra The Colombia Publishing Course Tana French Gillian Flynn Where'd You Go, Bernadette? By Maria Semple Salt Fat Acid Heat Netflix Show Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen Nancy Pearl Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Alice Waters Cookbooks (they're all brilliant) We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution The Art of Simple Food II: Recipes, Flavor, and Inspiration from the New Kitchen Garden Chez Pannisse Cooking Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook My Pantry: Homemade Ingredients That Make Simple Meals Your Own The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes and Stories of My Life The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy (Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning I get a few bucks off your purchase at no extra expense to you. Anytime you shop for books, you can use my affiliate link on Bookshop, which also supports Indie Bookstores around the country. If you're shopping for everything else – clothes, office supplies, gluten-free pasta, couches – you can use my affiliate link for Amazon. Thank you for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)
I hope you're hungry, Bookworms – this episode is going to give you the munchies. Today's guest Nikki Furrer is the author of “A Woman's Guide to Cannabis.” She is also a cannabis lawyer, yoga teacher, and cannabis product developer. Nikki joined me today to talk about bookstores and cookbooks, learning to cook well instead of simply following a recipe, and the joys of a just little bit too much salt. Support the Best Book Ever Podcast on Patreon Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website Host: Julie Strauss Website/Instagram Guest: Nikki Furrer Website/Instagram/Bend and Blaze Yoga Do you know a young person who'd like to appear on the 2nd Annual Kids/YA Gift Guide Episode? GO HERE! Discussed in this episode: Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat A Woman's Guide to Cannabis: Using Marijuana to Feel Better, Look Better, Sleep Better, and Get High Like a Lady by Nikki Furrer A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldman Yoga Nidra The Colombia Publishing Course Tana French Gillian Flynn Where'd You Go, Bernadette? By Maria Semple Salt Fat Acid Heat Netflix Show Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen Nancy Pearl Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Alice Waters Cookbooks (they're all brilliant) We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution The Art of Simple Food II: Recipes, Flavor, and Inspiration from the New Kitchen Garden Chez Pannisse Cooking Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook My Pantry: Homemade Ingredients That Make Simple Meals Your Own The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes and Stories of My Life The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy (Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning I get a few bucks off your purchase at no extra expense to you. Anytime you shop for books, you can use my affiliate link on Bookshop, which also supports Indie Bookstores around the country. If you're shopping for everything else – clothes, office supplies, gluten-free pasta, couches – you can use my affiliate link for Amazon. Thank you for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)
This episode features our interview with Dr. Balázs Szigeti. Dr. Szigeti is a neuroscientist from Imperial College London who recently published a study (https://elifesciences.org/articles/62878) with his team investigating the placebo effect in psychedelic microdosing. In this interview, we talk about how this unique ‘self-blinding' microdose study was designed, the benefits of using a citizen science approach in psychedelics research, and ultimately what his findings reveal about microdosing. We even discuss how the effects of microdosing might be similar to the positive experiences reported with homeopathic medicines. This episode was produced and edited by Brendon Campbell. Original music and audio engineering by Andrew Illmann. We'll be back on June 21st with our first Canadian History of Psychedelics episode! MAPS Canada is a registered non-profit; we rely on the generosity of our supporters to fund our life-changing research. Please visit mapscanada.org/donate (https://mapscanada.org/donate/) to become a monthly donor or to make a one time donation today! Feedback? Feel free to email us at: podcast@mapscanada.org (mailto:podcast@mapscanada.org) Links: Self-blinded microdosing paper: Self-blinding citizen science to explore psychedelic microdosing (https://elifesciences.org/articles/62878) MDMA imaging study Dr. Balázs mentions he critiqued at a conference in 2016: The Effects of Acutely Administered 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine on Spontaneous Brain Function in Healthy Volunteers Measured with Arterial Spin Labeling and Blood Oxygen Level–Dependent Resting State Functional Connectivity (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4578244/) Published reinterpretation of those MDMA imaging results: Are ecstasy induced serotonergic alterations overestimated for the majority of users? (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269881118767646) MyDelica app: MyDelica | Charting a path to wellness (https://mydelica.com) Ayelet Waldman's book on microdosing: A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30212082-a-really-good-day)
Welcome back! Today we are talking about microdosing! This is a very popular topic and method of consuming psychedelics. In fact, microdosing a gentle entry into the world of psychedelics for many. Hit play to hear about our experience with microdosing in this short and sweet micro-episode! We chatted about: What is a microdose?What is a microdosing protocol?Who typically microdoses?How microdosing “lifted the veil” of depressionOur personal experiencesProductivity in relation to microdosingPrecautions for microdosing / the dark side of microdosingMicrodosing as a spiritual bypassMicrodosing while working with other medicinesMicrodosing as an integration toolHow to use these medicines intuitivelyMentioned in the episode:The Psychedelic Explorers Guide by James Fadiman [book]Fadiman protocolStamets StackIs microdosing a placebo? [article]You Are the Placebo by Dr. Joe Dispenza [book]Learn more about microdosing:The Third Wave's Ultimate Guide to MicrodosingA Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldma [book]The Science of Microdosing Psychedelics by Torsten Passie [book]Microdosing Psychedelics by Paul Austin [book]Donate to the podcast via PayPalHave you gained new insights and perspectives from us and our guests? Consider sending financial energy our way to help support to cost of creating this powerful content.If this episode sparked something within, please let us know and leave us a review!More Modern Psychedelics: Instagram | Facebook | WebsiteMore Lana: Instagram | YouTubeMore Zoey:Instagram | YouTube
Today's episode features Shelby Hartman and Madison Margolin from DoubleBlind, a psychedelic magazine and media company founded in 2019 covering timely, untold stories about the expansion of psychedelics around the globe. Focused on how the industry can engage in sacred reciprocity and ethical psychedelic therapies, DoubleBlind is a for-profit company working on becoming a fully licensed certified B corporation.Links to topics discussed in this episode:What It's Like to Have Sex on Different Kinds of Psychedelics How Oregon is Leading the Country in Drug Policy Reform Entheogen: Definition and History How Psychedelics are Reigniting JudaismMichael Pollan's book How to Change Your MindAyelet Waldman's book: A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My LifeMDMA Testing Kits from DanceSafeRead the transcript here.Watch episode 2 on YouTube.Created by Greg Kubin and Matias SerebrinskyHost: Greg KubinProduced by Jonathan DavisFind us at businesstrip.fmFollow us on Instagram and Twitter!Theme music by Dorian LoveAdditional music: Plasticity by Blue Dot SessionsIsEbOcbXwtgQS6Jzz1Eb
This time I talk to Ayelet Waldman who talks refreshingly open about her microdosing experience with LSD and becoming a modern empath through the experience: she just founded FeedER to support health workers with food during the Covid19-Crisis. Ayelet is a very successful Israeli-American novelist and essayist, has written many novels, TV Shows like “Unbelievable” on Netflix. Her book “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life” is a fascinating diary about that little blue bottle in Ayelets fridge: LSD in a microdose.
This episode features a panel that I moderated in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Milken Institute's Global Conference 2019. It includes a great overview of psychedelic science, investing opportunities, anecdotal personal benefits, legal challenges, and much more. I think it’s one of the more comprehensive panels ever done on the subject. Here are the participants:Matthew Johnson — Principal Investigator, Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research UnitAyelet Waldman — Author, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My LifeRobin Carhart-Harris — Head of Psychedelic Research, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College LondonChristian Angermayer — Founder, Apeiron Investment Group and ATAI Life SciencesPlease enjoy!***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss
Ayelet Waldman is a former federal public defender, current adjunct professor at UC Berkeley Law School, and a bestselling author. Her books include Love and Treasure, Daughter's Keeper, and A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Ayelet about the practice of microdosing with small quantities of psychedelic drugs in order to treat mental health conditions. Ayelet shares her own story of microdosing with LSD and how it helped her climb out of a pit of suicidal depression. Tami and Ayelet discuss the legal limitations on microdosing, the difficulty of researching the effects of psychedelics, and the possible future of the war on drugs. Finally, they talk about the many clinical applications of MDMA, including a surprising application for couples therapy. (59 minutes) Tami's Takeaway: Research! Research! Research! If we are to understand how to effectively microdose with LSD and other psychoactive substances, we need open minds and quality research to guide our way. Let's move beyond any preformed biases we might have (pro or con) and pursue research that will give us the data, proper protocols, and safeguards we need.
What if a highly illegal drug could be used, far more successfully than prescribed pharmaceuticals, to help people with depression and bi-polar disorder? Who would be willing not just to experiment on themselves, but also to spread the word? LARB Radio's Medaya Ocher talks with just such a brave soul, Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. Recorded in front of a full house at Scripps College, it's a fascinating dialogue full of surprises: Ayelet relates her own personal struggles, her frustration with anti-depressants, her traumatizing years as a Federal public defender appalled by the War on Drugs, her full knowledge of the severity of the law she was breaking, the whimsical arrival of a package from Lewis Carroll, the pharmacology of LSD, the precision of micro-dosing, and then, magically, relief. Ayelet acknowledges that her social privilege (as a prosperous white woman, a Harvard Law graduate, married to Michael Chabon, herself a successful mystery writer and novelist) allowed her to take a huge risk, as such she feels compelled to announce her discovery of happier trails ahead.
Host Dr. Richard Louis Miller interviews Ayelet Waldman on her recent book: A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. Ayelet Waldman, former Federal Public Defender, is a bestselling author, married to bestselling author, Michael Chabon, and mother of 4.
Dr. Drew and Dr. Bruce discuss the topic of LSD microdosing with author Ayelet Waldman, who practiced the controversial technique for a period of one month as a treatment for her unbearable mood storms. She describes the profound benefits she experienced from taking sub-clinical doses of the drug, which she chronicles in her new book, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage and My Life. Afterwards, psychiatrist Dr. John Sharp weighs in the subject. Sponsored by Bergamet, Hydralyte, RefillWise.
LSD immediately made a positive impact on Ayelet, an author and mother of four. She wrote the book “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. Hear her story. Toby appears on one of the leading NPR podcasts and almost gets destroyed by a tornado on the same day. Also, Joey and Toby’s friend passes away from a motorcycle accident. RIP Bronson Rash. Sponsors and Links: Harry's Razors - http://harrys.com - use code "BCPOD" at checkout Legacybox - http://legacybox.com/BADCHRISTIAN Demon Hunter - http://solidstate.merchnow.com/ Emery on Tour - http://emerymusic.com/ Join the BC Club - http://thebcclub.com/
Download Kyle and Joe speak with, Paul Austin, psychedelic educator, founder of The Third Wave and Psychedelia. Paul is a super fun guy to talk to. He tours both in the US and internationally to speak about microdosing. Microdosing is becoming incredibly popular and seems to be making psychedelics more popular in the mainstream. Microdosing can help with creativity, therapy and many other things without any of the burden of a "full" dose. What is the psychedelic Third Wave? Paul describes it as: A new era of psychedelic use. It is an era of psychedelic use defined by practical, measured use for specific purposes. It is an era, not for ‘dropping-out’ of society, but for integrating psychedelics into the mainstream. It is an era, not to fear psychedelics for their possible negative repercussions, but to embrace psychedelics for their tremendous upside. Some insight from DR. JAMES FADIMAN “For some people, it is helpful to identify your goals. Your goals may be spiritual: to have direct experience with aspects of your tradition or another tradition, to transcend prior beliefs, even to transcend belief itself. You may hope to have what is called a “unity experience,” in which there is no separation between your identity and all else. Your goals may be social: to improve relationships with your spouse, children, siblings, parents, colleagues, friends, and spiritual and secular institutions. Your goals may be psychological: to find insight into neurotic patterns, phobias, or unresolved anger or grief.” We get into some great psychedelic topics such as: ThirdWave's infographic guide to Microdosing. What is microdosing? Ayelet Waldman's book, A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life Global legal status of various substances in Europe, Latin America and Jamaica Microdosing as a leverage point for Psychedelics to become legal Tim Ferris's interview with Jim Fadiman that seemed to shift the conversation on microdosing towards the mainstream Pollan's The Trip Treatment Guild of Guides Symbio Life Sciences - Incubator (McKenna) About Paul Austin: As an entrepreneur and avid psychedelic explorer, Paul believes in the power of rational dialogue and community engagement in stripping away the stigma around psychedelic use. He understands the power of responsible psychedelic use in aiding psycho-spiritual development, and believes in sharing this message with others. When not ruminating on his next psychedelic project, Paul enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time outside.
Ayelet Waldman, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and activist, talks about her new non-fiction book A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life, in which she describes a month long experiment treating her unstable moods with minuscule doses of LSD. Finding psychotropic med prescriptions of little help, Waldman became intrigued by the work of Dr. James Fadiman, a psychologist and researcher who has chronicled the positive effects of microdosing LSD. Waldman is also a lawyer, an accomplished former federal public defender and former teacher at Boalt Hall, U. C. Berkeley's law school. Her legal career includes working to rescue women from prison and advocating for drug-policy reform.TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Method to the madness is next. You're listening to method to the madness, a weekly public affairs show on k a l expertly celebrating bay area innovators. I'm your host, Lisa Kiefer, and today I'll be talking with novelist and essayist. I yell at Wildman. We'll be talking about her new book, a really good day. How microdosing made a mega difference in my mood, my marriage, and my life. Chris, your pleasure to be here. It's great. After I first [00:00:30] got lost on campus, which I will probably do till the end of time, it's on your used to teach on camera. Speaker 2:I taught here at the boat law school for seven semesters yet I want to talk about your new book. I really liked it and so glad the superficial level of it. It's a diary of you microdosing for 30 days, but yes, it's so much more than that. It's about how the war on drugs has failed drug reform policy. It's about psychedelic research. It's about your family. Yes. It's about mood disorders and how they affect family. So you're a legal professional. Yes. And you are a a federal public defender. A criminal defense [00:01:00] lawyer. Tell us the journey of how you got to a schedule one illegal drug for your mood disorder. So it was really a matter of desperation. So I have a mood disorder, but I have a mood disorder that was for many, many years, very well controlled. You know, I'm not one of those people who doesn't take our medicines. Speaker 2:I took my medicine and I took it regularly. My mood disorder was diagnosed as premenstrual dysphoric disorder and the easiest way to understand that is just pms on steroids. It took a while to get the diagnosis. I had a lot of misdiagnoses [00:01:30] first, but eventually I got the diagnosis. I was treated by a psychiatrist who had an expertise in women's mood and hormones and she put me on a very easy to follow very specific medication regimen. I took a week of antidepressants right before my period and for many years that worked great. It was life altering. I mean it was amazing there. I was one month, didn't know what to do, cycling uncontrollably the next month, popping a pill and feeling much better. But then of course I got older [00:02:00] and when you hit your forties when you're a woman, you enter into this protracted period of peri-menopause, which isn't menopause when you stop getting your period, but it's kind of like the build up to that and there's so little literature on it. Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought you'd just like some, one day you're stopped getting your period. I didn't know that. For years I would get two periods a month, three periods a month, no periods, skip a bunch, get one, skip four again, another one, you know, it was just completely unpredictable and crazy. So your mood is fluctuating madly because your hormones are fluctuating madly [00:02:30] and my specific medication regimen required me to know exactly when I was going to get my period and I didn't know anymore and that catalyze this kind of mood disaster. I became a very, very depressed, but my kind of depression is an activated depression, so it's not like I crawled into bed and went to sleep. I was still very productive, but I was very quick to anger, very irritable. I was very difficult to live with and I would get into these spirals where I would be horrible to the people in my family and then I would feel shame and depressed [00:03:00] and I ultimately became suicidal before I began the microdosing experiment, I had left the place of ideation and was more into a kind of more planning phase. Speaker 2:At one point I was standing in front of my medicine cabinet, kind of evaluating its contents to see what was the most dangerous drug in it. Spoiler alert, Tylenol. I have a lot of stuff in my medicine cabinet, but that is a dangerous drug and that's when I decided to try this crazy thing. That's illegal schedule one. I decided to try micro-dosing with LSD. Tell us how you did that. You, you met [00:03:30] James Fadiman. I reached out to James Fadiman. I use an old time researcher on psychoactive drugs. The 60 60 the sixties he, yes, he was a Stanford t and a couple of other people had a study specifically designed to evaluate the effects of LSD on creative problem solving. Fadiman and his colleagues invited these 28 engineers, architects, people in those sort of beginnings of the computer industry because this was like 1966 right? Right. Speaker 2:Yeah, right. LSD was illegal. Right? They said to these people, bring a problem. You're not, [00:04:00] we're not, we're not inviting you here to seek God. We're asking you to bring, you know, a math problem and engineering problem, a design problem, something that you've had really a hard time figuring out. Bring your intractable problem to this experience and we'll see what happens. And so these people came in and they got dosed with LSD and the researchers watch them. And what was remarkable is that many of them not only solve their problems, but went on to have these profound insights into their work. Very few of them had kind of spiritual awakenings. [00:04:30] The study was, he said to bring in to problems that you have been unable to solve for one reason or another. Exactly directed it to problem solve. It was all about sort of set and setting. Speaker 2:It was like intention, right. You know that stupid thing they say before you do your yoga. Having the intention to solve your problem actually resulted in some number of these individuals solving their problems, going on to file patents and and create in some cases, companies based on these. Then of course that research was shut down and if adamant describes it, he says that he had just dosed [00:05:00] a subject group. The LSD was about to hit and they get this letter informing them that their specific permit was going to be rescinded. And so he looks at the letter and he looks at his colleague and he says, I think we got this letter tomorrow. But you know, it was really, it's a shame that that research was shut down because I think what we're seeing now with this resurgence of interest in LSD and particularly micro-dosing, which are to define it for your audience, a microdose is a small dose, a dose that's too small to elicit [00:05:30] any perceptual effects. Speaker 2:But so sub psychedelic thing. Yeah, new tripping. But it's large enough to have metabolic effects. So in a sense we're looking for something that can act in a way that you almost don't notice. If I had slipped it into your coffee right now, you would not know that you were micro-dosing except at the end of the day after our interview, after the rest of your work, you might go home and think, Huh, that was a really good day. Okay, so, so, so I know [inaudible] yes, she's written a book by Psychedelic and spiritual journeys. I said, but that's [00:06:00] not the kind of book that I'm likely to read because I'm not a particularly psych psychedelics or spiritual personal. Great is you're not. So I'm very practical. I was raised by atheist parents whose atheism was as dogmatic as a Hasidic Jews, Judaism. I mean we were, my parents raised me to have disgust for religion and for spirituality of all kinds, which I struggle with, you know, I'm trying to overcome. Speaker 2:We all try to overcome the biases of our parents. So I'm, I'm looking on the Internet. I'm in this place of profound depression, Anhedonia. [00:06:30] And I see this talk that Jim is giving and he talks about microdosing and he says that at the end of the day, people report that they had a really good day. And I felt like I'd been hit in the head with a mallet, like a real echos all. I wanted a really one really forget really good. I just wanted a good day. I wanted a day where I didn't feel this kind of sense of despair and inability to take pleasure in my family and my husband did my [00:07:00] marriage and my surroundings and so I reached out to him and he is the most loving, generous man. I mean, look, I'm a person with daddy issues. I get that. I have a very typical, my father's much older than my mother, and you talk about this in the book. Speaker 2:I was 40 when I was born, so he was older, which in the 60s that was really old, but he was a very uninvolved father and he also had his own mood disorder, so he was, it's hard to live with a parent with a mood disorder as my children can likely attest. Dr Fadiman's generosity, his warmth is his willingness to [00:07:30] talk on the phone with me for hours about my issues, about my problems, about, you know, what I tried was really, it was an, it was a novel experience for that's what you wanted. Yeah. In a, in a way or my dad and I have known one another's mood disorders forever and we've literally never spoken about it once. So one day I'm a visiting my parents and my father comes out of this room, this kind of junk room and he hands me this stack of micro cassette tapes and he says, here, do something with these tapes of my [00:08:00] psychotherapy sessions from the 80s so I have this pile of tapes of my dad's therapy and for years I just couldn't even look at them. Speaker 2:I was just like, Ugh, you know, you want to tell me how you're feeling, just talk to me. But then eventually I actually did a whole story for this American life about these tapes cause I did eventually listen to them hoping for great profound insight and got nothing. But what you did get, it's so hilarious in the history of communism, all my dad will ever talk to you about is like the history of Zionism, the history of communism, [00:08:30] Stalin's five year plan, like seriously anything you want to know about Stalin's agrarian policy. And so I put in the tape, you know what I really wanted to hear as I love my daughter, I was expecting to hear insights into his problematic relationship with his children, his terrible marriage, all that stuff. But what I ended up getting was, let me tell you a little about Stalin's five year plan. Speaker 2:I mean, he, his therapist just sat and talked about that for hours at a time. You know, you talk about how you don't get so worked up about these very issues. You just mentioned that your father, you're more circumspect [00:09:00] during that 30 days. I certainly was during those 30 days, I had a capacity for equanimity that I had not had before. I had a resurgence in my ability to enjoy beauty, my family to feel loved, to feel connected to the world. Um, I was less irritable. I didn't less judgment, less judgmental. I didn't lash out. It was really like cognitive behavioral therapy in a pill. You know, I had been in cognitive behavioral therapy, I had been in all these treatment modalities and they just hadn't worked [00:09:30] because I couldn't make myself do them. And with the LSD I was more receptive and I was more able to do that work that was necessary to maintain my mood. Speaker 2:I also incidentally, and you know this hearkens back to Jim's work in the 60s I was more productive, way more productive. This was not hypomania. This was like sit down, get to work, focus, make interesting connections, which is again not a surprise. We know that large doses of LSD, sort of more typical [00:10:00] doses cause different parts of your brain that don't normally communicate to communicate in new ways and they want to talk about that. The default mode network. Yes. So the default mode network, I mean in the most simplistic way, this is that part that like Rut that you are in your head that tells you to react in certain ways and it's kind of that directive mode. That was the voice in my head that told me I was worthless and I was useless. I was unlovable and it was a very old, very familiar set of reactions [00:10:30] and patterns, patterns and thoughts and beliefs. Speaker 2:And you know the brain develops patterns. It's what the brain likes to do. An LSD in a large dose takes your default mode network offline. It allows new patterns to form an old patterns to be kind of exploded. I'm too afraid to do an LSD trip. I was still too afraid, but in micro doses, based on my experiment and based on all of my reading and based on the research I've done on the neurochemistry of LSD and on the anecdotal evidence of many, many, many people who have now been micro-dosing [00:11:00] is that a similar function seems to occur with regular micro-dosing. It doesn't take the default mode network offline, but it allows you to develop new thought patterns and new ways of reacting. It takes you out of those traditional unproductive reflexes. And that's the neuroplasticity that you know, neuroplasticity means, you know, the way that your brain grows and changes. Speaker 2:You want a neuroplastic brain. A neuroplastic brain is a good brain. Babies' brains, very neuroplastic old ladies [00:11:30] brands, old dudes, brands less neuroplastic. You want your brain to change and grow and to constantly be, be able to think in new ways. And so you can teach an old dog new tricks with microdosing as an old dog. Look, I always resist anything that comes off as a panacea. You know, anytime you go to like a new age therapist who says, I'm going to work on your job muscles and that's going to solve your ankle pain, your back pain, your issues with your father and your flatulence problem. I see. I always [00:12:00] feel like that's the sign of a charlatan if like one thing can solve all your problems. So I, I'm very careful about making claims about microdosing, but I do think that the way that LSD and other psychedelics work on the brain holds great promise for mental illnesses that are particularly related to patterns of thinking, which, you know, a mood disorder, depression. Speaker 2:There are studies going on now, and I'm curious where they're gonna go with Jeff sessions as I knew both, uh, UCLA, NYU [00:12:30] and Johns, John Hopkins there, I think clinical stage two, two and into three. So they did a very smart thing in those research facilities. They said, we're going to study depression and anxiety in people with fatal illnesses confronting the end of their lives. And it's still Simon, not LSL Simon, not LSD. First of all, most people don't even know what psilocybin is. It's actually the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms. But LSD, you know, LSD. Ooh, everyone's scared of LSD. It has terrible connotations. Timothy Leary, Ken Casey, you know, summer of love, blah, [00:13:00] blah, blah. Siliciden what's that? Nobody really knows that I, I can't spell it. I mean, yes, I'm dyslexic, but seriously, I wrote a whole book about this and I cannot spell silicide, but to saved my life, it was easier to get permission to study psilocybin and is a lot easier to get permission to give a psychedelic drug or any schedule one drug to someone who's dying anyway, so the studies were designed not because there's something unique about the depression at the end of life, but rather because that was the way that permission could be granted from the FDA and DEA. Speaker 2:The results have been remarkable, really remarkable. [00:13:30] I know they're unprecedented. Michael calling radar. The New Yorker about a couple of articles can is coming out with a book. I said to Michael Dell, I wonder if it's okay that like, I'm, my book's coming out before yours. He's like, oh no, no baby. You go ahead and let's see what happens. First. Mine was constructed as this experiment and then it goes off into the research, into the law. I mean, I, I talk, I spent a lot of time talking about the law and the war on drugs and I want to talk about that. Let's talk about the, the, the racism. I mean, there's never been a war on drugs that hasn't been race based in this country. It's all, I think [00:14:00] the best way to think of the war on drugs as it is a warm people of color. Speaker 2:The very first drug law in the United States was targeted at Chinese opium dens. At that point in time. There were a lot of people using opium, but the typical opium user was a white southern woman who tippled from her laudanum bottle all day long. That's opium mixed with alcohol. People gave opium to their babies to make them sleep. You know, there are all of these medicines, patent medicines that were opium based, but the law targeted Chinese immigrants in opium dens and it was really about [00:14:30] them. It wasn't about the opium per se. If you're of, you know, a wave of immigration, it's, it's characterized as, you know, fear that they'll rape white women, but it really is just, it's financial panic as xenophobia. Marijuana got tied closely to Mexican Americans. And you can see all this rhetoric at the time in the Hearst newspapers about how marijuana crazed were raping white women. Speaker 2:Alcohol is closely correlated with sexual violence in our culture but not marijuana. So again, cocaine [00:15:00] gets tied to African American communities, not because they used cocaine more, absolutely not, but it's a way to target and link and criminalize you're, there were these myths that cocaine use made African-Americans, although of course at the time they said Negroes immune to lower caliber bullets. So somehow, you know, snorting some cocaine would make a person immune to a bullet. And so that's why police departments, at least the theory is to police departments use higher caliber guns. That became the standard. So again, and [00:15:30] again, you see the war on drug tied to criminalizing communities, communities of color. And the latest iteration of this, which began in the 60s and which I thought was ending or at least drawing to a pope full close, was this rabid began with Nixon, went through Reagan, amped up with Clinton. Speaker 2:Let's be very clear targeting of communities of color with draconian prison sentences for drug crimes. So in a world where white people [00:16:00] use drugs more than people of color, you had far more people of color being arrested and incarcerated. You know, in America you go to jail for longer for marijuana in some cases, then you go to jail for murder in Europe, I mean our drug laws are out of control and we saw this massive increase in incarceration rates as a result of people of color, but also women suddenly, you know, women have had very rarely been incarcerated. The numbers were very low because women don't commit violent crimes. There's one genetic marker that you can pretty much use to evaluate [00:16:30] the likelihood of somebody committed and violent crime. And it is the y chromosome. The population of women in prison increased dramatically because of all these drug laws in these mandatory minimum sentences. Speaker 2:And I thought we had started to understand that, you know, across party boundaries, I've, I've had conversations with Senator Orrin Hatch about the injustices of the mandatory minimum sentences and the over incarceration rate. But with the election of Donald Trump in this, most schizophrenia of elections were, on the one hand, there are a bunch [00:17:00] of states that decriminalized marijuana for recreational use. Marijuana is a schedule one drug. At the same time, we elected Donald Trump who put a as attorney general, the most retrograde, racist, malevolent, incompetent, cruel and vicious white supremacist. He says he's going to go after marijuana. Yeah, that's what he's going to do. If I were in the legal cannabis business, I would be terrified to ask you about that. We don't really know yet what you're going [00:17:30] to die or what about those clinical trials that we were just tying back? Will they be shut down? Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know if they're flying under the radar enough. If they have DEA, you know the results that you know the subjects are white. By and large, people are much more inclined to be sympathetic when the subjects are white. I don't know. But here's, I do know the United States has imposed its drug policy on the world through a very aggressive campaign that involved pox, Americana treaties and a kind of putative moral [00:18:00] leadership. So we've dictated to south and Central America. We've dictated to Europe. So when England for example, began a very small but very, very effective heroin distribution program that cut overdose rates, cut crime, and also incidentally got people off heroin. But the United States put so much pressure on the British government that they shut that program down. All the people that participate in that program, most of them went on to die. Speaker 2:So we've managed to impose our draconian prohibitionist view of drugs on the world. But the only benefit that I can see [00:18:30] to having a Cheeto, dusted mad man is our president, is that we have no moral authority. We have no claim to moral authority. Portugal, which decriminalized drugs is not going to pay any attention to a Donald Trump said the American war on drugs has destroyed Latin America. In rich, the cartels, Columbia for a long time was a country that was simply controlled by more in cartels and people lived in this kind of state of incarceration and terror [00:19:00] and this was all caused by the United States war on drugs and now countries have started to reject it. And I think that that is the one benefit of having this America first platform is that the rest of the world can go on and do good cause we haven't used our moral authority very well. Speaker 2:We spend so much money on this war on drugs like up to a trillion now or something. This lunatic for what drugs are cheaper and easier to get, which tells you that they're coming into the country more often. You're not winning a war if drugs are easier to get. You know, LSD is a non-addictive [00:19:30] drug in the entire history of LSD usage. There are two cases, human fatalities that have been attributed to LSD and those are actually suspect. So basically there's no fatal dose of Ellis, no addiction, no addiction. But you know what's more dangerous right now is that we have a situation where we have an opioid crisis in this country. Many of the states that voted so vigorously in favor of Donald Trump are littered with bodies of people dying from opioid addiction, and that is a direct result of the failed war on drugs. Speaker 2:If [00:20:00] you want to treat people and save people's lives, you have to have a harm reduction approach to drug addiction. Not at not a prohibitionist approach. You have to get in there and provide services and help and safe injection sites and safe drugs. This is typically what happens. Someone gets a prescription for O for Oxycontin, for say back pain for which it is not useful. They take it, they take it, they take it, they get addicted. Then their doctor says, well you can have any of oxycontin anymore cause you're an addict. And then they don't have any oxycontin. [00:20:30] So they go out on the street and maybe first they try to buy some pills and they get some and, but eventually pills are hard to find. They're harder to buy. They're more expensive, you know, it's cheap heroin deep, you know, it's fast, heroin's fast, then their heroin addict, and then they're criminalized. Speaker 2:Then they're criminalized. Then they're in the underground market. Then there's no FDA checking the quality of their drugs, and now heroin is quite often cut with much stronger fentanyl, hundreds of times stronger, and people are overdosing because they take an amount of drugs that they, [00:21:00] they think is a heroin, but it actually turns out to be fentanyl. It is a white epidemic in many ways. There are many, many white victims. Certainly the vast majority, maybe Jeff sessions will be willing to listen to some reason. Although again, this is a man who said that no good person has ever smoked pot. This is a man who made a quote unquote joke about the KKK, which he said he was until they, he found out I had smoked. He went there. He was fine with them until he found out they smoked pot. I wanted to ask you about how you approach drugs in your family, but you used the term harm reduction. Speaker 2:Yes. Yeah. [00:21:30] So we have, that may be the most radical thing in my book, not the taking of the LSD. I have four kids who range in age from 13 to 22 so these are our rules. We don't lie to our children about drugs ever. And they know we never lie to them. We don't allow others to lie to them. So when they are given misinformation in school programs, school programs on dare, which for many, many years taught all of this ridiculous and misinformation, it's now been improved. But you know, it basically said to kids, you know, marijuana will kill you. And then a kid will hear that message and [00:22:00] then think of their cousin who's a freshman at Yale and an ace student and a wake and bake smoker. And then they reject the whole message of dare. But anyway, they're better now. But like we educate our kids, we inundate them with information and then we have some very specific rules when it comes to pop. Speaker 2:For example, we talk a lot about the effects of marijuana on the adolescent brain. I think there's compelling evidence that the, that that that is not great that it, it does cause damage to developing brains in particular. But we are realistic. They live in Berkeley. There's no way they're going to wait till [00:22:30] their frontal lobe is fully formed before they smoke pot. So after much negotiation, we reached the agreement that nobody could smoke pot. So there were 15 only on the weekends. And if your grades drop at all, you are not only grounded but I will drug test you and you get your drug tests from Amazon, right? Yes. I can test my kids urine. I buy your intestines. I tested my LSD from a kit that I bought on Amazon. Basically I have a supply cabinet in my house that's full of MTMA testing kits. Speaker 2:Cause MTMA is the drug that I'm most concerned [00:23:00] with right now. It, it causes your body to overheat and if you have heart issues or high blood pressure, it's, you shouldn't be taking it. Basically the stupidest place to do it is like in the desert while dancing. Yes. Or at a rate where there's some thousands of people and you don't want your body temperature to be raised. And it also does this peculiar thing. It makes me more susceptible to water toxicity. What people are selling is MTMA isn't, most of the time kids will buy drugs and they'll think they're buying Molly. And it turns out that they're buying something much more toxic. So my daughter's a student at Wesleyan University and [00:23:30] half, 11 kids, I think ended up in the Er having taken something they thought was m DMA that turned out to be a synthetic called Ab Fubu, NACA Spice or k two. Speaker 2:And it was very toxic. And one of them had to be intubated and defibrillated before he, um, and he, he survived thankfully. So I keep testing kids in my cabinet and I say to my kids, those are there, if you ever are inclined to take a pill and put it in your body, first you have to test it to make sure that what you're taking is what you think you're taking because it is not safe to [00:24:00] just, and this has been a success in your household. Yes, and and in fact there have been instances where pills were people, not my own children, but others have taken a testing kit and then reported to me that it was not in fact what they thought it was threw it away. I count that as a life save. If your kid ever overdoses on heroin year, will you want your kid to be around my kid? Speaker 2:Because if your kids around a kid who has him had this kind of harm reduction education, what they're probably going to do is throw them in the bath tub with some cold water, maybe dump them in the parking lot of [00:24:30] an er and they're going to overdose and die. My kids, they know exactly what to do. They make two phone calls, they call nine one one and they say, comment with Narcan. Now we have a heroin overdose and that can cure an overdose instantaneously and they call mommy and mommy comes and deals with the legal consequences. Your last book, love and treasure was about the Holocaust. There is a character in your memoir about your microdosing Laszlo, who I think you met when you were working on love and treasure. Yes, that's such a beautiful [00:25:00] story. So allowing lowered design, his real name is a holocaust survivor, a Hungarian holocaust survivor who became very wealthy in America. Speaker 2:Very problematic relationships, difficult relationships. I'm very depressed and he went on a an Iowaska journey until I met Lazo. I, I never understood the appeal of Iowasca, but Laszlo had this incredible experience. He went to Latin America, I don't know where he's okay, but he had a guide and they had a guide and it was all very safe. So [00:25:30] his father died in the Holocaust. He and his mother survived and he had always felt this sense of, of shame and guilt for having survived. And in a way was angry the way his child was angry at his father for not having said because saying goodbye to him and had felt, even though he knew his way, he wasn't abandoned, that his father was murdered by the Arrow cross in the Hungarian fascists. He still felt the sense of, you know, a child's feeling of abandonment. Speaker 2:And he spoke to his father and he had this incredible spiritual experience that resolve that [00:26:00] pain for him. To this day I became obsessed with this idea of like, did you really speak to your father or is it saw in your head? I mean, and when I was talking to researchers about this, they would always say to me, why is that the question you're asking? I mean, isn't the interesting question that this experience resolved his pain and yet you're obsessed with whether it was real or not, and what do you even mean by real? And that's when you know, it's like, look at the results instead. I have high hopes. I think micro-dosing is kind of, it's like training wheels, right? [00:26:30] I mean microdosing for those of us who are not interested in tripping, we're talking about using a medication, the way people use antianxiety medications, but it's a medication that's actually much safer. Speaker 2:Say yes and less addictive my, but it's not an option. And that's the sad thing, right? And my message for this book is we need decriminalization. And we need research. And first the research, let's do the microdose study at the University of South Carolina. Mike met Hoffer's doing research on MTMA and PTSD with patients who have treatment resistant PTSD [00:27:00] and he has had astonishing results, which makes sense, right? MTMA is a drug that works on memory. It disconnects traumatic memories from the trauma so that you can explore the memory without the the traumatic feelings associated with it. And instead from a place of love and support, empathy, empathy, the MTMA research has the tentative preliminary support of the VA because they know that soldiers are committing suicide at astronomical rates and they have to do something. So my hope [00:27:30] is that the Pentagon and the VA will look at this research and say, we can't afford not to continue this. Speaker 2:You know, my husband and I have used MTMA at the suggestion of Sasha and an Shogun to Sasha was, it was a chemist, a local Berkeley chemist who was famous for bio as saying different drugs or synthesizing drugs and then taking them on him to himself to sort of assess their facts. And though he wasn't the first person to synthesize MTMA that honor goes to Merck. He was one of the first people to try it on himself. [00:28:00] But, um, my husband and I have used MGMA as a marital therapy tool, which is what we would, and it was initially used as, as a therapeutic tool and it's very profound and very effective and it allows us to sort of discuss the problems of our, in our relationship in a supportive and loving way. So I've been doing a lot events around the country and at every event there are a bunch of people come up and tell me they're microdosing and they say it loud and they say it proud and they're not ashamed and they're micro-dosing with LSD or psilocybin. Speaker 2:And that's great. And then there are a bunch of people who come up to me and they asked to speak to me privately [00:28:30] and they confess with great shame and embarrassment that they have a mental illness. And the idea that in our society, you don't need to be ashamed about using illegal drugs, but you need to be ashamed about being mentally ill. That's heartbreaking. And that's something we need to change. So that's one of the things that I as a person with a mental illness feel like it is my job to be public because this is not something to be ashamed of and I won't allow others to experience that shame. [00:29:00] Okay. Running out of time and I wanted to ask you, what is next on your plate? The Vallejo novel to my publisher, I'm working on a TV show that it's based on a true story but it's an it's narrative. Speaker 2:It's not documentary and it's basically about why we don't believe women who have been raped even when they do everything right and I'm working on another TV show about the first women combat soldiers in a legal combat soldiers in United States military history team, lioness in the Iraq war and because I feel like now for the next [00:29:30] four to eight to forever years, the work that I do has to have meaning and it has to have greater purpose and I'm trying to figure out what that means for me right now. If somebody has a about your book, they can go to our website, which is ILR, waldmann.com and there's lots of resources there. There's lots of articles about the research, and I have lots of resources for people with mental health issues, and I have lots of articles about the drug war, all sorts of things. Twitter, Facebook, email, and I'm easy to reach. [00:30:00] That was, I yell at Waldmann, novelist, SAS, former federal public defender and criminal defense lawyer. We'd been talking about her new book, a really good day. How microdosing made a mega difference in my mood, my marriage, and my life. You've been listening to method to the madness. We'll be back next Friday. Speaker 3:Yeah. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Show #156 | Guest: Ayelet Waldman is the author of the novels Love and Treasure, Red Hook Road, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, and Daughter’s Keeper, as well as of the essay collection, Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace, and the Mommy-Track Mystery series. She was a federal public defender and taught a course on the legal implications of the War on Drugs at the UC Berkeley law school. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, Michael Chabon, and their four children. | Show Summary: Bestselling author Ayelet Waldman joins In Deep’s Angie Coiro for a conversation on micro-dosing, family, marriage and how it all ties together (or sometimes doesn’t). Coiro sits down with Waldman for a special one-hour edition of In Deep to discuss the problems facing parents today, the underground community of micro-dosers across the country, and her new book “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life.”
Every day scientists go to work and make discovers, or at least observations, that help make the world a better place. The ongoing expansion of our knowledge of chemistry, of physics and of biology should be the holy grail that we look to to make all of us better. Yet as an overlay to this ideal notion of pure science there are the prejudices, constrains, shames, and social covenants, which to some seem more important than truth. Author, lawyer and mother Ayelet Waldman recently threw off those constraints to use science and chemistry to make her life better. She shares that story in A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. My conversation with Ayelet Waldman:
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
