In this episode, Victoria interviews Cory Firth: Chief Storyteller at the Nikean Foundation, a non-profit passionate about storytelling, and aiming to build the largest collection of transformational psychedelic stories online. www.psychedelicstoday.com

PT362 – Cory Firth – Psychedelic Storytelling: Transforming Out Loud

Psychedelics Today is the planetary leader in psychedelic education, media, and advocacy. Covering up-to-the-minute developments and diving deep into crucial topics bridging the scientific, academic, philosophical, societal, and cultural, Psychedelics Today is leading the discussion in this rapidly evolving ecosystem.

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In this episode, Joe interviews Philip Wolf: writer, member of Rolling Stone's Culture Council, founder of Cultivating Spirits (the first company in the U.S. to offer legal culinary cannabis experiences), and founder of CashoM, an education company offering a certificate in cannabis stewardship. He discusses his recent Rolling Stone article about the need to divorce ourselves from the colonial mindset that pervades the psychedelic movement, and he talks about the difficult conversation that came about when he asked a very critical group of psychedelic leaders how they felt about the article, and how it taught him just how powerful having these difficult conversations can be.  He also discusses:   The importance of asking questions and not making assumptions Why we may need to abandon the "no justice, no peace" attitude if we ever want to move forward The idea that instead of endlessly battling the establishment, maybe it makes more sense to change our consumer mindset and allow capitalism to do its thing The importance of reaching out to local Indigenous tribes and allocating resources to go to them, not make them come to you The challenge of merging spirituality and science, especially for a regulatory model focused on profit  and more!  For links, head to the show notes page. 

PT506 – Decolonization, Difficult Conversations, and the Challenge of Merging Spirituality and Science, with Philip Wolf

In this episode, Joe and Kyle interview Lenny Gibson, Ph.D.: philosopher, Grof-certified Holotropic Breathwork® facilitator, 20-year professor of transpersonal psychology at Burlington College, and the reason Joe and Kyle met many years ago. He talks about his early LSD experiences and how his interest in the philosophy of Plato and Alfred North Whitehead provided a framework and language for understanding a new mystical world where time and space were abstractions. He believes that while culture sees the benefits of psychedelics in economic terms, the biggest takeaway from non-ordinary states is learning that value is the essence of everything. And as this is being released on Bicycle Day, he discusses Albert Hofmann’s discovery and whether or not it’s fair to say that Hofmann intentionally had the experience he did on that fateful day. He also discusses:  The end of Cartesian thinking and the need for a new understanding of reality that incorporates the insights of quantum mechanics How philosophy has been taught as an intellectual endeavor, and how we need to embrace the practical and conceptual side of life John Dewey and quantitative thinking, William James and pragmatism, and was Aristotle a Platonist? The novelty of the creation of LSD, and how it gave us a path to a mystical experience that wasn’t culturally bound  and more!  For links, head to the show notes page. 

PT505 – Bicycle day Reflections, Quantum Mechanics, and the Value in Studying Philosophy to Understand Psychedelic Experiences, with Lenny Gibson, Ph.D.

In this episode, Joe interviews Joey Lichter, Ph.D.: professor in the Chemistry & Biochemistry department at Miami’s Florida International University, and one of the few professors in the U.S. teaching a course about psychedelics at the collegiate level. He talks about his path towards the course, the challenge of creating a curriculum that covers everything in a few months, and the importance of teaching young minds about psychedelics the right away; shifting drug education from the “Just say no!” D.A.R.E. model to a more balanced, honest, and evidence-based approach. He aims for his students to think critically, ignore the hype, and see all possible angles with a fairly simple approach: Present the full story. He discusses:  The importance of teaching history, from Stan Grof to MKUltra The work of David Nichols, David Nutt’s drug harm scale, and the greatest lesson William Leonard Pickard took from LSD The representation of Spravato as a new drug, and his concerns with the over-medicalization of psychedelics Teaching about the complexities of Timothy Leary: Was he a positive or negative force? Decriminalization, legalization, and how he gets students to think about drug policy  and more!  For links and more, head to the show notes page. 

PT504 – Rethinking Drug Education: From D.A.R.E. Scare Tactics to an Evidence-Based Approach, with Joey Lichter, Ph.D.

In this episode, Joe interviews Devon Phillips: community & partnerships officer for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Phillips works on strategies to tackle the questions: How do we responsibly mainstream psychedelics? And how do we get culture engaged? He's focusing on being the bridge to psychedelics outside of research, facilitating workshops and psychedelic coming-out stories at music festivals and conferences. He talks about harm reduction and drug checking at festivals, the concept of training big names to become trustworthy resources, the differences found in a hop hop crowd compared to EDM, and the power in using psychedelics for pleasure and celebration – not just healing and growth.  He also discusses:   MAPS' involvement with the NFL for their 'My Cause, My Cleats' campaign, and how the San Francisco 49ers' Jon Feliciano is bringing awareness to psychedelic healing Details about MAPS' first responders training, fiscal sponsorship program, international therapist education program, and upcoming membership program (launching in June) The success of MAPS' Psychedelic Science and his hopes for the 2025 edition, taking place June 16 - 20 at the Denver Convention Center Dr. Carl Hart, drug exceptionalism, and the importance of creating safe containers and inclusive drug policy   and more!  For links and more, head to the show notes page.

PT503 – Updates from MAPS: Current Initiatives, Psychedelic Science 2025, and Music as a Bridge, with Devon Phillips

In this episode, Joe interviews Keeper Trout: archivist, author, photographer, co-founder of the Cactus Conservation Institute, and creator of Trout’s Notes, a website compiling personal research and collected data to help ethnobotanical researchers. From an interest in cactus taxonomy, Sasha Shulgin urged Trout to go through his files, resulting in a friendship, and eventually, an 8-year project of digitizing all of these files into the ever-evolving Shulgin Archive. Trout discusses:  His relationship with Sasha and The Shulgin Farm project, which aims to make the farm a community resource for therapy, research, events, and more The messiness of cactus taxonomy, and how he believes we’re nearing the end of being able to properly identify cacti The perception of LSD as unnatural and why the natural vs. synthetic argument is largely political Why repealing the Controlled Substances Act is the path we should take over decriminalization or legalization  and more! For links and more, head to the show notes page. 

PT362 – Cory Firth – Psychedelic Storytelling: Transforming Out Loud

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