Good PizzZa Podcast

Ben of Humboldt Seed Company rode freight trains for a decade, then built Bob Marley's official cannabis strain from the ground up.
Ben co-founded Humboldt Seed Company after spending nearly a decade hopping freight trains across America, funding every mile through cannabis. Now he is building official Bob Marley strains from Lamb's Bread genetics in Nine Mile, Jamaica, documenting hash cultures that predate written history, and figuring out how a California seed company operates ethically on a global stage.

This episode goes places most cannabis podcasts never reach: Moroccan villages making full melt hash from ice trucks and gravity-fed vats, a Grateful Dead show handshake that became the Bob Marley genetics project, Ed Rosenthal's campaign to re-legalize cannabis in India through landrace preservation and Ayurveda, and the cold DM to a filmmaker's wife that turned into terpene fog-machine smell-o-vision across 28 movie theaters nationwide. Ben also breaks down why global legalization is right now threatening heritage hash producers who have been doing this for 6,000 documented years, and what it actually means to carry California genetics into traditional cultures without turning it into a colonization project.

This is the kind of conversation Good PizzZa was built for: a real person, a life that cannot be explained in a press release, and the plant running through all of it.

Chapters below.

Connect with Ben and Humboldt Seed Company:
Website: https://humboldtseedcompany.com/Instagram: @thehumboldtseedco

 (https://www.instagram.com/thehumboldtseedsco/)Follow Good PizzZa:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodPizzzaInstagram: @_goodpizzza_ (http://instagram.com/_goodpizzza_) | @goodpizzzapodcast
 (http://instagram.com/goodpizzzapodcast)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/2HHXF0ijATYi8eHIq0rDTo) | Apple Podcasts

 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-pizzza-podcast/id1622059263)#goodpizzza #humboldtseedcompany #cannabisgenetics
CHAPTERS
00:00 Humboldt Seed Company Ben Returns
01:44 Life at the Farm: Seeds, Reversals, Remodel
05:04 How a Girl Got Ben onto His First Freight Train
09:03 Danger on the Rails: The Monongahela Bridge Story
13:51 Living Home Free: Cannabis Funded a Decade on the Road
23:50 From Black Bear Commune to Humboldt Seed Company
28:52 The Antigua Documentary That Got 2 Million Views
34:00 Morocco: 6,000 Years of Hash Culture Under Threat
45:36 Jamaica: Building the Island's First Licensed Cannabis Farm
51:00 The Grateful Dead Handshake That Became a Bob Marley Strain
1:07:08 Ed Rosenthal's Mission to Re-Legalize Cannabis in India
1:15:55 Smell-O-Vision: Terp-Fogging 28 Movie Theaters Nationwide
1:26:00 Breeding Talk, Strain Conversation, and JP's New Drop
1:43:46 Peak Froth, Maui Wowie Origins, and a Hawaii Plan

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Y’all know what time it is…
Roll ‘em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants, do what you gotta do because we’re about to take this journey with Ben! 

JP

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Episode 203: Fake Toad, Real Lessons: Preferred Gardens Founder Dave on the Grind Behind the Brand

Preferred Gardens' Dave tells the full Fake Toad story, breaks down building a 70-person team, and reveals what's next for the red brand.
Dave is the founder and lead cultivator behind Preferred Gardens, a Sacramento-based cannabis brand running three cultivation sites, roughly 70 people across four states, and one of the most recognized identities in the craft cannabis space. He has been building in this game for over 20 years. This conversation is about what that actually looks like from the inside.

The episode opens on the Champelli seed hunt, a years-in-the-making project to bring back a legendary cultivar with its original keeper. From there, Dave goes into the full Fake Toad story: how he bought what he believed was the real cut from a trusted source, went all-in across thousands of lights with no tester batch, took the financial hit when it turned out to be a candy cut, and then watched the content he made about it accidentally drive the real Toad market price higher for everyone who did have it. He closes with no foul toward Archive, because he has made the same nursery mistake himself. The story is one of the most candid grower-to-grower accounts in the episode catalog.

The second half of the conversation covers the Preferred Gardens brand from every angle that matters: why they sold out $300-a-gram rosin at PuffCon as a team-motivation exercise rather than a flex, how they built a culture where the hire-people-better-than-you philosophy is operational reality rather than a slogan, what the East Coast cannabis market taught Dave about business that California never will, and where the multi-state expansion is heading with grows active in New York, Florida, Illinois, and more. Dave also walks through the Z-Lish breeding project, the Blue Zushi terp challenge, the Purple Medusa lineage, and the upcoming Drama Series crosses that put the most hyped genetics in cannabis into one breeding program.

Good PizzZa documents the people who are actually building this culture. Dave is one of them.

Chapters below.

Connect with Dave and Preferred Gardens:
Instagram: @preferred_gardens
 (http://www.instagram.com/preferred_gardens)Email (wholesale and licensing): [email protected]

Follow Good PizzZa:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodPizzzaInstagram: @_goodpizzza_ (http://instagram.com/_goodpizzza_) | @goodpizzzapodcast
 (http://instagram.com/goodpizzzapodcast)Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HHXF0ijATYi8eHIq0rDToApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-pizzza-podcast/id1622059263#PreferredGardens #GoodPizzZa #podcast

CHAPTERS
00:00 Good PizzZa Intro and Episode Teaser
01:55 The Champelli Seed Hunt with Pelli
06:00 Global Cannabis Smuggling Culture Before Legalization
09:00 Old-School Strains, Skunk Terps, and What the Market Lost
11:00 Z as a Genetics Problem and How MSOs Secretly Source Heady Cuts
13:07 Growing The Toad: Characteristics, Potency, and What Makes It Different
19:07 The Full Fake Toad Story: Archive, the Mix-Up, and the Financial Hit
34:27 PuffCon, the $300 Gram Drop, and Motivating the Team
42:13 Building a 70-Person Cannabis Operation and Hiring People Better Than You
46:39 Boxing Coaches, Discipline, and the 4 AM Farm Mentality
1:10:27 East Coast vs. Cali Business Culture and Multi-State Expansion Strategy
1:19:01 Z-Lish, Blue Zushi Terps, Purple Medusa, and the Drama Series Breeding Projects

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⸻
Y’all know what time it is…
Roll ‘em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants, do what you gotta do because we’re about to take this journey with Dave!

JP

Support the show

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CJ Humboldt flatlined in Barcelona, grew up homeless in Humboldt County, and still chose authenticity over everything. Here is what it cost him.
CJ Humboldt built his name in the legacy cannabis world of Northern California before anyone was handing out licenses. He grew up in Eureka surrounded by four Native American reservations, navigated homelessness as a kid, broke into houses to eat, and was done with school by 5th grade. By the time the legal market existed, he had already been through most of what it could throw at a person.

This episode goes deep into the philosophy behind his content, his 8-year run as a creator since getting out of prison in 2018, and the specific moment he chose authenticity over consistency, and what that choice actually cost him. CJ walks through how he went from six figures a year in sponsorships to nearly losing everything, and why he would do it the same way all over again. He also breaks down the state of the cannabis industry in 2026 with the kind of clarity you only get from someone who has skin in the game: the good (ever-changing menus forcing real connoisseurs to the top, old genetics coming back), the bad (impossible taxation and rising competition from Michigan and Maine), and the ugly (the wrong people at the top and a culture being colonized by permanent negativity).

And then there is the Barcelona story. A butane tank cut went septic on the flight over. By the time CJ landed, his arm looked like Hellboy. His friend Germ gave him CPR in an Airbnb while the crew finished a blunt. CJ came back to life looking for his phone. He survived, paid $110 at a Barcelona hospital covered as a tourist, drove south to Valencia, and watched the most theatrical bullfight of his life.

This is Good PizzZa doing what it does: real people, real stories, nothing cleaned up for anyone.

Chapters below.

Connect with CJ Humboldt:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BlackmarketvikingsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cjhumboldtInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cj_humboldt
https://www.instagram.com/blackmarketvikings_backupFollow Good PizzZa:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodPizzzaInstagram: @_goodpizzza_ | @goodpizzzapodcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HHXF0ijATYi8eHIq0rDToApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-pizzza-podcast/id1622059263#goodpizzza #legacycannabis #blackmarketvikings
CHAPTERS
00:00 CJ Humboldt Is Back: What This Episode Is Really About
01:43 Tortas, Gorditas, and Setting the Tone
05:07 Why Carbonation and Seed Oils Are Making Americans Sick
08:10 Deer Antler Spray, Peptides, and the Over-40 Men's Health Stack
19:28 New Jack City Was a Bay Area Story: History Nobody Tells
32:29 Consistent or Authentic: The Choice That Cost CJ Everything
38:35 Permanently Negative Canna Bros and Why CJ Is Done With Them
50:20 South Africa, Vallejo, Connecticut: Where CJ Comes From
51:52 Homeless at 11, Out of School by 5th Grade, 2 DUIs at 14
57:15 Flatlined in Barcelona: Sepsis, CPR, and a $110 Hospital Bill
1:18:50 Good, Bad, and Ugly: The Cannabis Market in 2026
1:32:36 Stop Calling Yourself a Trapper: Advice From a Legacy Operator

CJ Humboldt is back.

The Eureka-bred legacy operator and Black Market Vikings creator sat back down with JP for the second time, and this one goes places the first one did not.

The authenticity-versus-consistency breakdown that every creator needs to hear. The state of the California cannabis market in 2026, broken down into good, bad, and ugly by someone who has been in it since before it had a legal name. The Barcelona story where he flatlined from sepsis in an Airbnb and his friend Jerm brought him back. The childhood in Humboldt nobody handed him a way out of. The weed man versus the trapper conversation that is going to make some people uncomfortable and they should be.

This is what Good PizzZa is for. Real people with real stories who do not clean it up for the room.

New episode out now. CJ Humboldt and JP on Good PizzZa Podcast. Link in bio.

#goodpizzza #podcast #interview #westcoast
#goodpizzza #podcast #interview #westcoast #storytelling

Y’all know what time it is…
Roll ‘em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants—do what you gotta do because we’re about to take this journey with CJ Humboldt!

JP
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Anonymous That Dude built Head Stash during the founding era of exotic weed. Here is how he got there, and what it cost him.
Anonymous That Dude was in the cannabis game before the industry had a name for what he was doing. An upstate New York kid who hit the road at 18 on Grateful Dead and Further Fest tours, learned to source and move exotic work across state lines, and eventually built Head Stash into one of the first dessert-era cannabis brands, right alongside Runtz, Cookies, and Sherbinskis.

This conversation covers the full arc: the early tour hustle and door-to-door sales career that taught him how to sell anything to anyone, the first California plug connects and car-for-packs trades in Ukiah, a Pennsylvania traffic stop that ended in extradition and 29 days in a gang module, and how a single validation post from Ray Bomb turned Head Stash from a brand nobody would stock into one shops were calling about within hours. He also breaks down the 90-acre Oklahoma outdoor operation he built in the first wave, the supply chain decisions that separated his harvest from everyone else's, and what happened when the market collapsed, a close friend died, and a spinal tumor sent him to emergency surgery on the same farm where he was trying to rebuild.

This episode also gets into the pheno hunt series he is running now: 60-jar limited drops in different cities and countries, no strain information at point of sale, scan-code feedback from buyers, and a December reveal party in Los Angeles where every numbered jar becomes a ticket. It is one of the more creative community engagement plays in the current cannabis market, and he explains the whole architecture.

JP and Anonymous That Dude also get into what the early Haight Street Cookies scene actually looked like from the inside, how Berner shaped his understanding of what a cannabis brand could be, and what it meant to watch the branded bag era go from $4,500 packs to $20 eighths in what felt like no time.

Chapters below.

Connect with Anonymous That Dude:
Website: headstashnow.com
Instagram: @anonymousthatdude | @headstashonly

Follow Good PizzZa:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodPizzzaInstagram: @_goodpizzza_ | @goodpizzzapodcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HHXF0ijATYi8eHIq0rDToApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-pizzza-podcast/id1622059263#goodpizzza #headstash #podcast
CHAPTERS
01:45 Cold Open: The Festival Story That Explains Everything
07:50 Growing Up in Upstate New York and the Opiate Epidemic
10:00 First Dead Show at 18 and Learning to Work the Lot
12:30 The Arizona Play: Sending Money, Getting Robbed, Driving Out Armed
22:30 Landing Homeless in Tucson and Building Up From One Ounce
37:31 The Fugitive Years: Fake News Paranoia and Bootleg Clothes as Cover
47:00 Door-to-Door Meat Sales and the Sales Philosophy That Carried Into Cannabis
55:00 First California Trip, the Sir Francis Drake Okie-Doke, and Cars for Packs
1:00:00 The Pennsylvania Stop, Extradition, and 29 Days in a Gang Module
1:17:00 Becoming a Rapper as a Cover Story That Turned Real: Berner and Kevin Gates
1:55:57 Pipe Dreams on Haight Street and the Birth of Head Stash
2:03:30 The Runtz Cut, Ray Bomb's Validation Post, and Breaking Into the Rec Market
2:20:00 Oklahoma: 150,000 Clones, 90 Acres, and the First Legal Money
2:27:00 Cookie Monster's Death, the Bird Omen, and Buying Land on the Lake
2:44:00 Spinal Tumor Emergency Surgery and Making a Will in a Moving Car
2:55:30 Getting a License After 16 Years and Going Fully Legal in Oklahoma
3:09:30 Hash Hole Island, Berlin, and Relaunching Head Stash
3:31:00 The Pheno Hunt Series: 60 Jars, No Info, Crowd Feedback, Party Reveal
3:36:48 Top 3 Strains of All Time and Closing
e describes as his personal forever strain. According to this episode, multiple early candy-era brands used Head Stash's Granita genetics, sometimes rebranded under names like Razzles, Sheesh, and Certz, without attribution. He named his dog Nita after it.

Connect with the guest: Instagram: @anonymousthatdude | @headstashonly
Website: headstashnow.com
Spotify: Good PizzZa Podcast   |   Apple Podcasts: Good PizzZa Podcast
Follow Good PizzZa: goodpizzza.com   |   Instagram @goodpizzza and @goodpizzzapodcast
#goodpizzza #headstash #podcast

JP
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Ed Rosenthal wrote the grow book that changed everything. Then the feds arrested him. This is the full story.
Ed Rosenthal has been in this longer than the modern cannabis industry has existed. He wrote his first grow book in 1973, co-founded High Times, and watched the New York Times review the guide that taught a generation how to grow. Then, in 2002, the federal government arrested him for doing exactly what the city of Oakland had officially asked him to do: grow cannabis for medical patients. The trial that followed became one of the most extraordinary legal moments in cannabis history, and Ed has never stopped since.

In this episode, Ed walks through the full arc: growing up in the Bronx with no clear direction, discovering cannabis at 21 and knowing immediately it was going to be a lifelong relationship, building the first grow tents, co-founding High Times, and writing the books that shaped how American growers think about cultivation. He goes deep on his 2002 federal trial, including why the jury was never allowed to hear that Oakland had deputized him, and what happened when nine of those jurors came back three days after the verdict to hold a press conference saying they were duped, slimed, and felt dirty. He then shifts to where the plant is going: breeding cultivars specifically designed for the coming consumption lounge era, preserving landrace genetics in the Arunachal Pradesh region of India, and the science of transferring THC-producing genes directly to yeast for industrial concentrate production.

Good PizzZa episode 200 exists to document the real history of cannabis culture. There is no more fitting guest for that than the man who has been in it longer than almost anyone alive.

Chapters below.

Follow Good PizzZa:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodPizzzaInstagram: @_goodpizzza_ | @goodpizzzapodcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HHXF0ijATYi8eHIq0rDToApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-pizzza-podcast/id1622059263#EdRosenthal #GoodPizzZa #CannabisHistory

CHAPTERS
00:00 Ed Rosenthal on Good PizzZa Episode 200
06:09 Ed Rosenthal's Origin Story: From the Bronx to Cannabis
11:04 Writing the First Cannabis Grow Book in 1973
14:44 Co-Founding High Times and the Yippie Movement
19:17 Oakland Deputized Him. Then the Feds Arrested Him.
27:29 Nine Jurors Returned to Apologize After the Verdict
45:40 Grateful Dead, Bay Area Music, and Cannabis Culture
48:28 Going to India to Preserve Landrace Cannabis Genetics
57:45 NL5 Haze: The Strain That Locked Into His Brain
01:01:00 Skunk Number 1 Changed Everything and Then Disappeared
01:07:40 Breeding Cannabis Specifically for the Lounge Era
01:20:47 Gene Transfer, Yeast-Grown THC, and the Future of the Plant
01:34:00 Top Strains, Overrated Picks, and Judging Cannabis on Effects
01:43:10 Billy Kimber OG, Get a Firm Contract, and Closing Wisdom

Y’all know what time it is…
Roll ‘em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants—do what you gotta do because we’re about to take this journey with Ed Rosenthal!

JP
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Please help our brother Jade with Buck Mountain fight his battle against cancer! Anything helps. Much love!
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Support the show

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Elusive built his California grow operation when there was no competition, no playbook, and no real rules. He survived a fake dispensary, staged police robberies, a seven-figure rebuild that ended with a blown transformer, and a market that has changed completely around him more times than he can count.

What he built out the other side is a 200-light boutique operation with 40 proven genetics, platinum baked onto glass, and a name that people in Berlin knew before he got there.

The full story, from Baltimore to the Prop 215 era to Prop 64 to the world stage, is on Good PizzZa Podcast right now. Elusive sits down with JP for the whole thing: legacy market realities, the genetics hunting process, the Toad market warning, what it costs to build a real cultivation operation, and the advice he would give the young him the day before he jumped in.

New episode. Link in bio.

#goodpizzza #elusivela #podcast #entrepreneur #culture
#goodpizzza #podcast #interview #westcoast #culture

Y’all know what time it is…
Roll ‘em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants—do what you gotta do because we’re about to take this journey with Elusive!

JP
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Errl Hill built one of California's last craft BHO live resin operations out of Humboldt. Here's what it actually took.
Scott and Harry of Errl Hill came up through the legacy market before most people had heard the word legalization. Scott started in Humboldt in 2006, running grow teardowns every 90 days to beat landlord walkthroughs. Harry left Atlanta at 16 and found his footing on Grateful Dead tour before spending two decades in the California underground. The brand they built together is one of the few craft BHO live resin operations left in the state that is doing it right, and this conversation is the unfiltered version of how that happened.

They break down why BHO live resin still produces a more flavorful extract than live rosin for certain strains, how CRC color remediation chromatography strips terpenes and passes off adulterated product as quality hash, and why fake terpenes added back into low-grade extract have quietly damaged the entire live resin category. They also explain how the Blueberry Muffin strain from Humboldt Seed Company became the product Errl Hill is known for, and why some cultivars simply do not wash well but shine under BHO.

The conversation goes deep into what the 2021 California cannabis market crash cost the Humboldt community, how Prop 64 shuttered more farms than any law enforcement raid ever did, and what it means for a legacy operator to build a branded product instead of wholesaling into a broken market. This is the part of the California cannabis story that almost never gets told from the inside.

Chapters below.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Good PizzZa Podcast Errl Hill Introduction
04:50 Scott's Origin Story: Sacramento, SoCal Dealing, Glass Blowing
09:20 Scott's Dad Gets Busted Under Prop 215 in 1996
11:29 Moving to Humboldt: The Rental House Grow Teardown Game
13:54 First Outdoor Busts, Trinity Partnership, Fresh Frozen Begins
17:40 Compliance Letters, Four Years to Go Legal, Building Errl Hill
26:15 Harry's Story: Atlanta, Military School, Grateful Dead Tour at 16
33:10 Oakland Indoor Grows, Everything Falls Apart, Finding Errl Hill
42:20 Blueberry Muffin: Meeting Nat from Humboldt Seed Company
1:08:30 BHO vs Rosin: CRC Explained and Fake Terpene Fraud
1:25:00 Howard Buffett's Private Helicopters Over Humboldt
1:30:50 Top Strains, Dream Cypher, Advice, and Where to Find Errl Hill


Connect with Errl Hill:
Website: errlhill.com
Instagram: @errlhillhumboldt

Follow Good PizzZa:
YouTube: goodpizzza.com
Instagram: @_goodpizzza_ | @goodpizzzapodcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HHXF0ijATYi8eHIq0rDTo
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-pizzza-podcast/id1622059263

#goodpizzza #errlhill #humboldt

Y’all know what time it is…
Roll ‘em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants—do what you gotta do because we’re about to take this journey with Scott and Harry (Errl Hill)!

JP
⸻
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Always Faded built his cannabis brand from Queens street corners to a Lil Baby collab that moved 200 units in one day. Here is how.
Always Faded grew up in Woodside, Queens, started selling at 12 years old, and moved to Sacramento in 2012 with a plane ticket and a mission. Ten years later his brand has landed rapper collabs, moved serious volume without gimmick packaging, and survived everything the market has thrown at operators who refused to cut corners.

This conversation goes deep into the Always Faded story: from running the Humboldt dep era with his New York crew, known throughout the county as the paper boys who showed up 10 deep and bought everything, to getting Connected Cannabis black bags in Sacramento during the Gelato 41 and Biscotti golden era, to pivoting south to LA and going back to ounce routes to rebuild from the ground up. JP and Always Faded also break down the Lil Baby Babyland collab from the first phone call to 200 units gone in a single day, reveal the Trippie Redd collab in the works for 2026, debate whether Toad Venom displaces candy as the next dominant market wave, and call out gimmick packaging as one of the biggest problems in the game right now.

This is the Good PizzZa Podcast doing what it does: real access to operators who built something, told in their own words, with nothing cleaned up for a mainstream audience.

Chapters below.

Connect with Always Faded:
Instagram: @alwaysfaded

Follow Good PizzZa:
Website: goodpizzza.com
Instagram: @_goodpizzza_ | @goodpizzzapodcast
Spotify: goodpizzza.com
Apple Podcasts: goodpizzza.com
CHAPTERS
00:00 Always Faded Cannabis Brand Intro
04:08 Old School New York Street Culture vs the Instagram Era
06:00 Queens Upbringing and Puerto Rican Family Roots
07:48 Selling Weed at 12 in Queens
09:47 Spofford, Rikers, and Staying Slick
14:33 The Decision to Leave New York for California
17:44 Landing in Sacramento and Running Humboldt Dep Farms
28:07 California Cannabis Regional History: SF Exotics, LA OGs, Humboldt
30:44 Meeting Doja Pak and the Connected Cannabis Black Bag Era
46:26 New York Market Explodes: The Za Era and Brand Scaling
51:05 The Always Faded Name Origin and Brand Founding 2014 to 2015
59:07 The Lil Baby Babyland Collab: 200 Units Gone in One Day
1:08:51 Trippie Redd Collab 2026 Announcement and Candy Drop Strategy
1:12:00 Toad Venom: Best Batches, Trusted Camps, and Who to Watch
1:19:44 Five-Year Vision: Clothing Line and Raising the Bar
1:22:01 Why Gimmick Packaging Is the Biggest Problem in Cannabis 
Right Now
1:23:56 Top 3 Strains: Sour Diesel, Biscotti Era, and Toad Venom
1:36:27 Dream Cypher: Big Pun and Jeff Bezos
1:43:47 Advice for the Youth: Do Good Business, Keep Your Face Clean
1:45:23 The Hardest Thing He Ever Overcame
1:46:36 Advice to His Younger Self: Trust Less, Wall Up
1:48:22 Where to Find Always Faded and What Is Coming Next

LINKS
Connect with the guest: Instagram: @alwaysfaded
Spotify: Good PizzZa Podcast   |   Apple Podcasts: Good PizzZa Podcast
Follow Good PizzZa: goodpizzza.com   |   Instagram @goodpizzza and @goodpizzzapodcast
#goodpizzza #alwaysfaded #podcast


Y’all know what time it is…
Roll ’em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants — do what you gotta do… because we’re about to take this journey with Faded!

✌🏼❤️🍕

JP

⸻

🔥 Big up my sponsors!

@dr.dabber
@buckmountaincannabis
@cadre.verde
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@OCBofficial
@grovebags

Please help our brother Jade with Buck Mountain fight his battle against cancer! Anything helps. Much love!
https://gofund.me/e27f086a1

💸 Get a DISCOUNT at:
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PROMO CODE: GOODPIZZZA

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Support the show

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Show some love: patreon.com/goodpizzza

Ted Lewis built Ted's Budz into California's top flower brand. He started with no money, no corporate background, and a distribution license he wasn't sure what to do with.
Ted Lewis grew up between Omaha, Nebraska and half a dozen cities across California, attended six high schools, and landed at Cal State Northridge on a biology track before a Bay Area roommate showed him what the game actually looked like. He opened a Prop 215 dispensary in South Central, lost around $60,000 learning the hard way, slept on a futon in the back to hold it down, got broken into twice, and never stopped.

What came after is the real story. Ted pivoted to growing in a Victorville rental house with 15 lights and his cousin Trey, chased genetics obsessively through online seed communities, connected with Dubz Garden and Backpackboyz, and handed Juan a Cookie  sample through a car window that changed everything, and eventually landed a California distribution license with zero corporate experience and one mandate: only sell what you would smoke yourself. He did his own driving. Thursday routes from LA to San Diego, 4am runs north to the Bay, a MacBook in hand for manifest corrections at every shop. That footwork built the budtender relationships that still hold Ted's Budz up today.

On this episode, Ted breaks down how he built a cannabis distribution company from nothing: the three-way collab with Dubz and the Goonies that produced the Horchata and Oreoz jars in 2020, how meeting Doja Pak through Hi Tek changed the direction of the brand, the QC process behind every drop, the marketing philosophy that nobody in the industry predicted would work, and why putting his grandfather's name on the bag means he cannot afford to put out anything subpar. He also gets into his music, his plans for retail and a members-only concept, and exactly what he thinks is wrong with the industry right now.

This is what Good PizzZa Podcast is built for: the full story, told by the person who lived it.

Chapters below.

Connect with Ted Lewis:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tedsbudzco_Websites: https://tedsbudzgoods.com/https://tedsfest.com/Follow Good PizzZa:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoodPizzzaInstagram: @_goodpizzza_ | @goodpizzzapodcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HHXF0ijATYi8eHIq0rDToApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-pizzza-podcast/id1622059263
CHAPTERS
00:00 Ted Lewis and Ted's Budz: Intro and Zalympix Sellout Story
04:05 Growing Up in Omaha: Segregation, Mids Culture, and Nebraska Pride
05:50 Six High Schools and a Nomadic Childhood Between Nebraska and LA
11:18 Cal State Northridge, the Bay Area Roommate, and the Turn
20:10 Opening a Prop 215 Shop in South Central as Husker Boy Associates
25:35 Grow House Life: Victorville, 15 Lights, and Cousin Trey
30:37 Genetics Obsession: Thug Pug, Peanut Butter Breath, Backpackboyz, and the Cookie Wreck Handoff
36:39 Going Legal: Applying for Cultivation and Distribution Licenses
43:00 The Three-Way Collab: Dubs, the Goonies, Horchata, and Oreoz
47:45 Ted Was the Driver: Thursday Routes, 4AM NorCal Runs, and MacBook Manifests
59:09 Ted's Budz Today: 15 Strains a Week, QC Process, and a Team of 18
01:05:44 Marketing, Music, Acting, and the DMX Energy Behind the Brand

Y’all know what time it is…
Roll ’em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants — do what you gotta do… because we’re about to take this journey with Ted!

✌🏼❤️🍕

JP

⸻

🔥 Big up my sponsors!

@dr.dabber
@buckmountaincannabis
@cadre.verde
@bambinas.sac
@OCBofficial
@grovebags

Please help our brother Jade with Buck Mountain fight his battle against cancer! Anything helps. Much love!
https://gofund.me/e27f086a1

💸 Get a DISCOUNT at:
www.grovebags.com
PROMO CODE: GOODPIZZZA

🌿 Grab a Flower Mill with the Good PizzZa discount:
https://www.flowermillusa.com/discount/GOODPIZZZA?ref=GOODPIZZZA
Promo Code: GOODPIZZZA

⸻

💨 Dr Dabber Discount
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PROMO CODE: GOODPIZZZA15



🍕 GRAB SOME SWAG
www.goodpizzza.com

Support the show

Shop Merch: goodpizzza.com
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Instagram: @goodpizzzapodcast
Show some love: patreon.com/goodpizzza

Michigan's Growing Pains bred and grew the Banana Taffy, entered it last minute, and beat every California grower in the Proper Smoke League.
Tom and Seth of Growing Pains came up through Michigan basements, illegal caregiver traps, and the gray market years before a single license existed in the state. They built a 300-light indoor operation, bred their own genetics, and then flew to California and won. This is the full story.

In this episode, JP sits down with the Proper Smoke League champions to unpack what it actually took to get here. They break down why the Banana Taffy nearly did not get entered, how harvest timing and their in-house dueling process shaped a Michigan craft cannabis operation that now competes with the best growers in the country, and what separates a craft cultivator from a production farmer in the current market. If you have ever wondered how Michigan cannabis growers stack up against California, you will have your answer by the end of the first hour.

Tom tells the real GMO origin story on record for the first time: three Chem Cookies seeds popped by his buddy Billy in a Michigan basement, the corn-stalk structure that gave it the name, and why Ann Arbor dispensaries refused to sell anything called GMO and renamed it Garlic Cookies. They also get into the Motorbreath 15 history, the genetics game-changer moment that shifted Seth's entire growing approach, and what the cannabis industry loses when people consume the product wrong. This episode covers the craft, the business, and the culture that built Growing Pains from the ground up.

Good PizzZa documents real cannabis culture, the growers, the breeders, the legacy operators, and the stories that do not get told anywhere else. Growing Pains is exactly what this show exists for.

Chapters below.

Connect with Growing Pains:
Website: growingpainsofficial.com
Instagram: @growingpainsofficial

Follow Good PizzZa:
YouTube: youtube.com/@GoodPizzza
Instagram: @_goodpizzza_ | @goodpizzzapodcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2HHXF0ijATYi8eHIq0rDToApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-pizzza-podcast/id1622059263#GrowingPains #ProperSmokeLeague #MichiganCraft
CHAPTERS
00:00 Growing Pains Michigan: Proper Smoke League Champions
01:48 LANTZ Rosin Pen and First Impressions of the Grow
05:15 Building a Cannabis Team: Empowering People to Own Their Role
08:12 Tom's Origin Story: Ohio, Skateboarding, and Action Sports Sales
12:45 Learning to Grow Illegally: Michigan Basements and the Code of Silence
17:45 The Decision That Built Growing Pains: Doubling Down on Cannabis
21:50 Work Ethic, Delayed Gratification, and Turning Down $10 Million
34:03 Seth's Origin Story: Tennis Instructor to Michigan Cannabis Grower
39:44 First Warehouse, City Politics, and Linking Up with Tom
47:00 Connecting with California: Zalympix Michigan and the Genetics Shift
50:44 Harvest Timing, the Flush Debate, and Growing at 300 Lights
55:10 How Long Does Great Weed Last: Strain Longevity and Preservation
56:28 The Real GMO Origin Story: Michigan Basement, Three Seeds, Two Names
01:01:15 Motorbreath 15 Michigan History and Legacy Genetics
01:02:48 Terpene Profiles, Regional Taste, and Joe's Genetics Library
01:10:00 White Ash, Water Activity, and What Actually Measures Quality
01:17:15 Sacramento, North Jersey, and Growing Pains Reacts to NorCal
01:20:45 Top 3 Strains of All Time: Old School, Desert Island, and New
01:26:43 Cannabis Industry Pet Peeves: Pay Your Bills and Mean What You Say
01:29:05 Mary Jane Berlin, International Markets, and the Hash Conversation
01:34:08 Resurrect One Person from the Industry: A Question from the Last Guest
01:41:00 Cannabis Education, Pheno Hunt Parties, and Why Community Matters
01:42:32 Final Life Lessons and Where to Find Growing Pains

LINKS
Connect with the guest: Website: growingpainsofficial.com
Instagram: @growingpainsofficial
Retail: Refinery, Detroit / Kalamazoo / New Buffalo, Michigan
Partners: King of Buds, Bloomery, Vibe, Herb, Cake House, Da Cut, Bo's, Jars, Puff Bodega
Spotify: Good PizzZa Podcast   |   Apple Podcasts: Good PizzZa Podcast
Follow Good PizzZa: goodpizzza.com   |   Instagram @goodpizzza and @goodpizzzapodcast
#GrowingPains #ProperSmokeLeague #MichiganCraft

Y’all know what time it is…

Roll em fat, torch your rigs, pack your bongs, bag up some work, water your plants, do what you gotta do because we’re about to take this journey with Tom and Seth from Growing Pain!
✌🏼❤️🍕

JP

⸻

🔥 Big up my sponsors!

@grovebags
@buckmountaincannabis
@cadre.verde
@bambinas.sac
@OCB
@flowermillusa
@dr.dabber

Get a DISCOUNT at http://www.grovebags.com
PROMO CODE: GOODPIZZZA

Grab a Flower Mill with the Good PizzZa discount:
https://www.flowermillusa.com/discount/GOODPIZZZA?ref=GOODPIZZZA

Promo Code: GOODPIZZZA

Support the show

Shop Merch: goodpizzza.com
Instagram: @_goodpizzza_
Instagram: @goodpizzzapodcast
Show some love: patreon.com/goodpizzza