Rod Benson is a native Californian who grew up in San Diego and Los Angeles. After four years playing College Basketball at UC Berkeley, he began a 12-year professional basketball career that would take him all over the world. At the same time, he built a career as a writer. Upon retiring from his athletic career, he decided to go in a different direction; he began to explore his talents as a fine artist and quickly found his purpose.

He has also immersed himself in the wildly unpredictable art form of improv comedy. As a part of the LA-based improv team Lemon Pepper Wet, he has performed in a way that he never anticipated. Improv by its nature is the sort of mental activity that demands split-second adaptation and a heavy degree of vulnerability, a mind-manifesting of absurd reality after absurd reality.

Rod shares with us about the role microdosing psilocybin has played in his wellness regimen, the effort to find a Black therapist who could relate on specific levels necessary for what Rod was looking to accomplish, why he wears giant headphones in public and much more. 

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Website: www.rodbensonart.com

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Austin Cress is a dude who moved to LA to become an actor. in doing so he recognized the importance of understanding his "type" and playing to that type in order to experience success with being cast. Austin is the stoner/surfer/hippie type. A true thespian, in researching the role he immersed himself in the wild world of weed. The fusion of a real-life affinity for cannabis, and training in developing big characters through The Groundlings helped give birth to the TikTok sensation known as STONEY MCBLAZE, who at the time of this writing has 2.2 million adoring stoned followers. Austin speaks here about the role cannabis plays in his life, his struggles with alcoholism, what the point of funniness is, what is a tiktok, and several ridiculous anecdotes from his experience of psychedelic drugs (what is a drug?,) specifically mushrooms. Put a heart and soul to the eyebags and bowl of your favorite TikTok stoner.   Follow Austin Cress IG: @kress_austin Website: linktr.ee/Stoneymcblaze   Follow MINDBEND IG: @mindbendpodcast Website: www.mindbendcreative.com   This is an Operation Podcast production, connect with us @operationpodcast on Instagram

Acacea Kailen Lewis is the Founder and Teacher of The Divine Master Alchemy school for Entheogenic Cultural Literacy and Ethnobotanical Naturopathy. I met her at the first Awakening of Consciousness Conference, from the Psychedelic Institute, held here in Los Angeles on September 30th, 2022. She was featured as a speaker on a number of panels. I was enrapt, listening to Acacea share her knowledge with such candor, clarity and scientific scholarship.   Acaea has processed intense pain and joy in her life and reflects upon it with reverence and humor. A true psychedelic investigator, she was also a student of Kilindi Iyi, himself a student teacher and advocate for the hallucinogenic experience as an explorer and researcher of high-dose psilocybin mushroom journeys.   It was one of her comments about something Kilinidi had said, about there often being no hard and fast delineation between the natural, and the supernatural in Africa, that really resonated for me. Supernatural is a term that I've always been interested in, and many of the anecdotes she shared with me, of her own experiences with non-ordinary states of consciousness, have an otherworldly/supernatural feel. Most importantly, Acacea's brilliance and love shine exceptionally bright through her message, which centers around the necessity of understanding how to properly honor, evaluate and process the many facets of the psychedelic experience. Follow Acacea Kailen Lewis  IG @acacea_lewis Website: linktr.ee/acacea

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When I met Leonard Smith, Jr., he was a guest on a podcast called Florida VS., a show where comedian Peter Murphy compares his experiences of growing up in wacky FLA with those of his guests. Leonard mentioned "energy" a couple times, and drugs several more times. All signs pointed towards his being willing to speak about all that and more on my show.

Additionally, I could tell that he was a big lover, smooshed into the caustic case that comedians can frequently inhabit. My own supposition is that it's this protective barrier that helps enable them to engage in what they do, which is lay their personal and often messy truths bare for the art of comedy, which I've always thought is a pretty trippy and brave endeavor.

Among other things, we get into growing up in the conservative south, the perception of psychedelics by Leonard's peers in the Black community, his relationship to a multitude of mind-altering substances, the unique challenges posed by the pursuit of a career that demands constant vulnerability, how not to get cynical to the point of despair, and why he just might be smoking too much weed.

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Danny Santos is an astrologer through and through, a Zodiac Zeus among humans. When you meet Danny, he will certainly inquire as to what your sign is, and then regale you with details about how that’s meant to be reflected in your character, and as a bonus, whether or not he’s interested in being your best friend. He’s also a huge fan of butterfly pinning. No, that’s not a sex thing. (It may be a sex thing.)

Danny is also training in the ways of a Curandero and identifies strongly with the idea of the shaman or medicine man. Danny envisions a world in which he is able to use his passion for the psychedelic experience of the fascinating plant medicine of ayahuasca, to help others in transcending their trauma and growing into actualized lives of empowered joy.

The fusion of astrology and ayahuasca is captivating and Danny outlines for us his vision of tools of divination being utilized in the integration of necessary understanding leading up to, during, and post a maximally meaningful psychedelic experience.

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IG: @santoscrystalvisions

Website: linktr.ee/santoscrystalvisions

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Ginger Banks is a sex worker and influencer. Her candid and genuine demeanor and ethic in sharing details of her own life have endeared her to millions of fans. The way she talks about our sexuality, specifically, is powerful in that it destigmatizes issues and topics that can often still feel so constrictive, where certain forms of expression are still considered taboo and gender norms and puritanical mentality remain dominant forces. 

Ginger has also utilized psychedelics in her life, in both a recreational and more ceremonial manner. She speaks to the role that our psyches play in our experience of being sexual beings, how psychedelics may be utilized through intentional usage to augment and enhance sexual intimacy, and the mystery and fluidity of having an open mind and heart when considering the power of eroticism, community, and play.

Ginger is the type of person you can’t help but feel sex-positive around, and we hope that this conversation might enable you to broach topics with your partner that could deepen your understanding, and enjoyment of one another.

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IG: @thegingerbanks

Website: linktr.ee/GingerBanks

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