The Secret Story of Nutmeg - A psychedelic history

The Secret Story of Nutmeg: A Psychedelic History apologises for some missing history, enters the nut, looks at the chemistry inside- methylenedioxy compounds and gets distracted by his own cousin, The Zues, not The Zeus, who relates to Andy the feelings of Ecstasy and Empathy and chooses love over the alternatives from his Ayahuasca experience.

Andy gets out the Healing Journey by Claudio Naranjo- Pioneering approaches to Psychedelic Therapy and discovers myristicin and Saffrole, chemicals inside the nutmegs, links to MDA, MMDA and possibly MDMA. 

Title music 'Monkey Puzzle ' and some other tracks by The Zues

 https://thezues.bandcamp.com/

additional tracks Isaac Haines

https://isaachaines.ca/apps/digital-downloads/orders/7274557440227

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

Nutmeg leads us to dig deeper into altered states of consciousness — not just psychedelics, but the many doorways into them. All ways our normal thinking gives way to something new, where ordinary things feel unfamiliar and awe returns to the everyday.

We trace this thread through Albert Hofmann's accidental discovery of LSD and the story of Bicycle Day, then further back to ergotism outbreaks. We sit with the late ethnobotanist Terence McKenna's ideas on plants, fungi, and the evolution of the human mind — and ask whether nutmeg belongs on that same list of consciousness-altering plants: cacti, nightshades, cannabis, opium, salvia, iboga, mushrooms, and more.

This isn't about proving or disproving the theory — it's about following the mycelium of the story wherever it leads, because stories themselves are a kind of altered state. They're how we make sense of where we come from and where we're going.

Topics covered: altered states of consciousness, LSD and Albert Hofmann, Bicycle Day, ergotism and the Salem Witch Trials, Terence McKenna and the stoned ape theory, nutmeg's psychoactive history, mythology and empathy, ethnobotany.

Title music 'Monkey Puzzle ' and some other tracks by The Zues

 https://thezues.bandcamp.com/

additional tracks Isaac Haines

https://isaachaines.ca/apps/digital-downloads/orders/7274557440227

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

Do we receive Empathy from our parents? The Four Virtues?  From chemicals in a nut? Stay with us on this journey as we decipher the mythic storyline that Trad left us with and contemplate the big question he posed... did human beings evolve from an untold storyline, one that originated closer to Middle-earth? 

Title music 'Monkey Puzzle ' by The Zues

 https://thezues.bandcamp.com/

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

If the story of Nutmeg were a repeatable lesson in life, what are we learning? 

Andy sees links between the current strife and trade wars and the past story of nutmeg and ponders its meaning.

Bandar, Banda, Muscat, chokepoints, the Strait of Hormuz, and Toponymy.

One of Trad's Books, 'The Lost Piece of Peace' is available here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

After six episodes chasing proof across maps, wars, and trade routes, Episode 7 breaks the contract. The history falls away—and something stranger takes its place.

A voice steps in. Not to convince you, but to unsettle you.

What if the story of nutmeg was never about spice… but about empathy?
What if something ancient—biological, mythic, or engineered—once shaped how deeply we could feel one another?
And what if we forgot?

From the lost islands of Wallacea, the Hobbit people nibble on Nutmeg and the idea of Homo Floresiensis and Erectus exchanging vows, this episode blurs science, myth, and memory into a single, dangerous question:

What are we meant to remember… ?

This isn’t a conclusion.
 It’s an opening.

Nibble… or devour.

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

Speedboats in the Caribbean. The Dragon’s Mouth. A national flag bearing a split fruit — Grenada is the only country in the world with a nutmeg on its flag.

Why would a spice sit at the heart of a nation’s identity?

Following that question pulls us back to the Banda Islands — and into older stories of trade, monopoly, resistance, and ambition. Companies acting like nations. Nations acting like corporations. Islands traded for other islands. Forts built. Routes redrawn. Power shifting hands across oceans.

Somewhere along the way, nutmeg becomes more than cargo. It becomes symbol, leverage, obsession.

Trad insists it has always been more than a spice — that it carries something psychological, even mystical. Courage. Empathy. Wealth. Control.

Is that history?

Or projection?

Episode 6 traces the movement of nutmeg across maps and empires — and asks what really transfers when we trade, and is there something we need to know about this spice contained in this golden apple?

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

some links to get you involved...but we urge you to explore on your own, find the trail yourself... :)

Giles Milton — Nathaniel’s Nutmeg https://www.gilesmilton.com/historybooks/nathaniels-nutmeg
Amitav Ghosh — The Nutmeg’s Curse https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo125517349.htmlEncyclopaedia Britannica — Spice Trade.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/spice-trade
Encyclopaedia Britannica — Dutch East India Company (VOC)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dutch-East-India-Company
Encyclopaedia Britannica — Treaty of Breda (1667)
https://www.britannica.com/event/Treaty-of-Breda
Encyclopaedia Britannica — Grenada https://www.britannica.com/place/Grenada

https://mamakan.com/press/138-the-nutty-story-of-nutmeg-myristica-fragrans/

https://new.artsmia.org/stories/17-days-two-curators-one-red-hot-asian-art-scene-part-ii-jogja/

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1849/the-early-history-of-clove-nutmeg--mace/

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

In this episode, we follow the trail of one of history’s most prized spices — nutmeg — from its remote birthplace in the Banda Islands to its central role in the expansion of European empires. We begin with the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511 and their first voyages to the Banda Islands, the only source of nutmeg and mace at the time. Along the way, we encounter Enrique of Malacca — a Malay man who sailed with Magellan’s expedition and may have been the first person linked to a global circumnavigation. 

We also explore the unique biogeography of Wallacea, a biodiverse crossroads identified by Alfred Russel Wallace, where Asian and Australasian worlds meet.  The episode begins to trace the formations of the  British and Dutch East India Company, the brutal struggle for monopoly over the spice trade.

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

explore some links...

Banda Islands — History & Spice Trade (Wikipedia) . Banda Islands (History)Nutmeg — Production & Global Trade Context (Wikipedia) — Covers the uniqueness of nutmeg, its source in the Banda Islands, and European efforts to monopolise it. Nutmeg (History and Trade)
Spice Migrations: Nutmeg (AramcoWorld) — Long-read article on Bandanese mariners, Portuguese, Dutch, and English struggles for control, and the Treaty of Breda. Spice Migrations: Nutmeg (AramcoWorld)European Discovery & Conquest of the Spice Islands (World History Encyclopedia) — Scholarly overview of how the Spice Islands were incorporated into global networks and the VOC’s later dominance. European Conquest of the Spice IslandsEnrique of Malacca (Wikipedia) — Verified entry on the Malay man taken by Magellan, his role in the expedition and the debate around possible early circumnavigation. Enrique of Malacca (Explore)Alfred Russel Wallace — The Malay Archipelago (Royal Geographical Society summary) — Information on Wallace’s observation of distinctive faunal boundaries (Wallace Line). Wallace, The Malay Archipelago (Summary)
Wallacea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallacea

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

Nutmeg. A forgotten spice at the back of the cupboard… or the hidden key to how our world really works?

In this episode, we follow the spice routes not just across oceans, but deep into the human psyche. From ancient trade networks and espionage to modern wars, global trauma, and the fragile mechanics of empathy, nutmeg becomes a lens through which everything sharpens into focus.

As MDMA re-emerges as a tool for healing the mind, we ask unsettling questions:
What links a fragrant seed, empathy, and the cycles of violence we keep repeating?
 Is trade the antidote to war—or its quiet architect?
 And what happens when confidence, self-worth, and compassion disappear from the exchange?

Through Trad’s riddles, lost histories, Portuguese conquests, Sumerian proverbs, and a journey that threatens to unravel the storyteller himself, Trauma and Trade reveals an uncomfortable truth: follow the trade routes, and you follow the trauma.

This isn’t just the story of nutmeg.
It’s the story of us—and why we keep returning to the same crossroads.

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

-Adams Smiths 1776 ’s An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.rrojasdatabank.info/Wealth-Nations.pdf

 — Evidence of ancient spice presence (cloves) outside Southeast Asia as early as ~1700 BCE (Terqa archaeological finds) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terqa

 — Archaeological spice trade insights across Asia and the Near East (PMC) — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10361603/

 — Overview of spice trade networks linking Asia, Arabia, and Europe (Britannica) — https://www.britannica.com/topic/spice-trade

 — Arab maritime spice routes pre-European voyages — https://samplecontents.library.ph/wikipedia/wp/s/Spice_trade.htm

 — Early Portuguese sea route to India (Vasco da Gama) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_discovery_of_the_sea_route_to_India

 — Portuguese contact with the Spice Islands (Moluccas) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_expedition_to_the_Moluccas

 — Malacca Sultanate pre-Portuguese spice hub — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca_Sultanate

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

Layer upon layer. Nutmeg reveals itself in history; the closer we look, the more we see that its story is a metaphor. Trad says the original metaphor. We look at how the Western world, starting with why and how the Portuguese started to look for the source of Nutmeg, hidden for millennia, on the other side of the world...

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Myristica fragrans
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myristica_fragrans

Myristica fragrans  https://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/plant/pim355.htm

Pliny the Elder
 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137

History of India: Trade Relations
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Trade-relations

 History of China: Foreign Trade https://www.britannica.com/place/China/Foreign-trade

Banda Islands https://www.britannica.com/place/Banda-Islands

Austronesian Peoples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austronesian_peoples

Peter Bellwood (abstract) — Austronesian Expansion
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2847094

 Constantinople https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople

Bosporus Strait https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus

 Fourth Crusade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade

 Republic of Venice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Venice

 Fall of Constantinople (1453) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople

Ottoman Empire https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire

Black Death https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death

Miasma Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory

 Prince Henry the Navigator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Henry_the_Navigator

Caravel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravel

Age of Discovery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery

Vasco da Gama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama

Christopher Columbus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

Finally, we meet Trad, Nutmeg's keeper of secrets, a man who has studied the histories and mysteries of Nutmeg for two decades. Trad's dedication has led him down rabbit holes, but he has emerged a changed man...

In Episode 2 of The Secret Story of Nutmeg, Andy follows an idea repeatedly voiced by Trad: “Nutmeg is the original metaphor.” Not just a spice, not just a commodity—but a symbolic lens through which power, trade, belief, empathy, and human pattern‑making can be examined.

As Andy recounts his first long phone call with Trad, the story expands rapidly—from the Banda Islands to ancient trade routes, colonial genocide, and the psychological dangers of pattern‑seeking itself. Nutmeg becomes a stand‑in for larger forces: monopoly, obsession, bravery, knowledge, and the risk of knowing too much.

Along the way, Andy encounters modern retellings of the nutmeg story, this episode wrestles openly with apophenia and confirmation bias and asks where the line lies between meaningful metaphor and dangerous projection.

If nutmeg is the original metaphor, then perhaps the forgotten jar at the back of the shelf is not just history—but a mirror.

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Nathaniel’s Nutmeg by Giles Milton —
https://www.gilesmilton.com/historybooks/nathaniels-nutmeg
Nutmeg (historical overview, Banda Islands, colonial period) —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutmeg
Banda Islands & Dutch conquest —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banda_Islands
Treaty of Breda (1667) —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Breda_(1667)
Run / Rhun Island (historical spellings and context) —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_(island)
Metaphors We Live By – George Lakoff & Mark Johnson
(foundational work on metaphor as a cognitive framework)
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3637992.html
Apophenia (pattern perception and meaning‑making) —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia
Confirmation Bias —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
Weird Explorer — Nutmeg (feature‑length exploration)
Independent travel‑history documentary tracing nutmeg from Malaysia to the Banda Islands
https://www.youtube.com/@WeirdExplorer
Portuguese & Dutch spice trade in Southeast Asia —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company
Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus) & Roman world maps —
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy
Ptolemy’s Geography (ancient mapping of Asia) —
https://en.wikipedia

Support the show

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

One of Trad's Books, The Lost Piece of Peace can be bought here https://www.amazon.com.au/Lost-Piece-Peace-Tradittori-Trudittori/dp/1545290571

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.