Voices in the Dark

We need to talk about drugs.

Not a shouting match; not a series of threats. We need a real, unemotional and scientifically-based conversation which places harm reduction and a respect for personal sovereignty at its core.

So we spoke to Jason Reed to do just that.

Jason is Executive Director at LEAP UK (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition); a producer on the superb documentary film, The Culture High; the host of the Stop and Search podcast; and an acclaimed author in his own right.

From sniffer dogs to media meltdowns to draconian laws, deterrence fails each and every time to reduce the harms of drug misuse. So what are governments actually trying to do? Why do people take drugs at all? And why should we, as a society, care about it?

In this no-holds-barred interview we get into all these questions and more. Along with personal stories from Jon and Jason about when the medical profession completely failed to help them, we go behind the nature of addiction itself.

People become addicted to drugs for a reason – usually trauma – so unless we can address and resolve that trauma, the addiction only mutates and never disappears.

Truth be told, we live in an addicted society: from reality TV to binge-eating, people are running away from pain and lack the tools to face and integrate these shadows healthily into their lives. How can we help them and ourselves without triggering guilt, fear, and further depressive spirals?

We need more conversations like this – and we need you to get involved if we want to live healthier, happier lives.

Oh, and we have a surprisingly enlightening discussion of what pro-wrestling can teach you about real life and how to make a positive impact in the world...

• LEAP UK's website
• Jason's brilliant podcast, Stop and Search
• Jason's Twitter
• The film, The Culture High – a powerful look at drugs and the absurd culture of prohibition
• Professor David Nutt's paper on the realities of drug misuse and drug harm
• Johann Hari's book, Chasing the Scream

When should we hold on and when should we let go? It's one of the most challenging questions we face in our lives, and it's never more difficult to know than when it comes to love and lust.

Charlie Robb's brilliant show, Romantic Encounters in a Darkened Room, is a darkly comic exploration of what it costs to place your self-worth in the hands of others and your future on hold for the sake of unrequited love.

Romantic Encounters is also a smart and skilful satire on how gadgets and social media screw up our personal lives, identities and self-worth. The show never officially gets going because of these (darkly hilarious) interruptions, but amidst the rubble of distractions, poor choices and personal rejection, a powerful and optimistic message of self-awakening gradually shines through.

We caught up with Charlie at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to talk about comedy, self-discovery, and what it takes to bring a one-man sketch show to one of the biggest cultural events in the world.

Does all comedy come from tragedy? Should humour ever be censored? And is the comedy world increasingly under the thumb of the Political Correctness Police? We dive into all these questions and more.

• Charlie's Twitter
• Romantic Encounters' Twitter
• A trailer for the show
• Our exclusive interview with the stars of another (award-winning) Edinburgh show, Trashed

Ever made a bad decision? Ever felt like life just wasn't playing fair?

In Trashed, the breakthrough, critically-acclaimed play hitting the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year, one man's life unravels as a few questionable decisions cascade into tragedy.

This riveting human drama blew us away and we knew we had to speak to the people behind it.

We sat down with the playwright and the star of the show, Sascha Moore and David Bryan, to find out how this brilliant, morally-challenging drama came about and what it takes to perform with honesty, intensity, and 7 cans of cider every day for a month.

Sascha wrote the play while working a full time job, while David left a promising career in rugby to pursue acting. We dig into their personal stories, the inspirations behind the play, and what it's like performing at one of the world's largest and most diverse cultural events.

• Trashed – the official website
• Theatre company Lab Rats on Facebook
• Sascha Moore on Twitter
• David Bryan on Twitter

Virtual Reality is the future – but do we know what we're getting ourselves in for?

This is a powerful conversation about technology, the future, and if we can remain human as we continue to evolve. What can we do now to steer our technological development towards a Star Trek rather than a Blade Runner future?

Visual artist, psychonaut and VR programmer José Montemayor joins us to talk near-death experiences; what cutting-edge technology can teach us about being human; and how psychedelics and VR are combining to create 'Cyberdelic Psychotherapy'.

We talk about how virtual and augmented reality are already being used to heal traumas, dementia and body dysmorphia, and the lessons we can take from psychedelic therapy to harness these new technologies.

Everything is changing – the content and the audience. In VR experiences, the viewer no longer experiences content, but becomes the medium itself. This is a paradigm shift not only in tech, but also in Art and our ability to share common human experiences.

José himself has designed a near-death experience which Jon and Dre both plugged into right before the show. We share our impressions of this experiential, artistic piece based on scientific research, and compare it to our most potent ego-destroying psychedelic experiences.

We also question the role of art in our personal and cultural lives; whether we need sex to be creative; and what happens when technology begins to remove our bodily desires.

José also previews his amazing next project – a massive VR experience blending Eastern mysticism and cutting-edge physics to help shift our perception of ourselves and our place in the universe, a project soon to be demoed at Sundance Film Festival.

• Find José on Facebook and on his website
• José's project: Virtual Awakening – look out for collaborative opportunities!
• Our interview with Chris Letheby on whether it matters if psychedelic experiences are 'real'
• The mind-expanding Everything game

Chris Letheby

Asking big philosophical questions about psychedelic experiences and what they mean

If a delusion leads to positive outcomes for us in life, does it matter if it's a delusion? Chris thinks it does matter, and that to say 'If it works, I don't care' isn't good enough.

Linking into classical, modern and Buddhist philosophies

Humans' quest for certainty and how far that serves or hinders us

Trying, through it all, to get just a little bit less wrong.

When we feel a deep connection with the cosmos

Unpacks the idea of 'epistemic innocence'

Psychedelic therapy ... mystical experiences .. but are these comforting delusions foisted on the sick and dying – what's the morality of it ... or a genuine insight into how things are.

Would you willingly plug yourself into the Matrix if it was designed to make you feel good?

Are we all living in a delusion – and if so, what sort of delusion? And is it one we share with other people?

• Find Chris on Twitter, and on his academic homepage
• Chris's paper at Breaking Convention
• Learn more about Dre's unusual, autistic brain in this special episode

The modern Renaissance man needs a drink with culture and heritage.

So Jon and Dre hit Cadenhead's whisky tasting rooms to learn all about Scotch malt whisky: the amber nectar, its rich history, and to try a selection of the very best from across Scotland.

We chat with Steve, who found a passion for whisky after a helping out for a weekend which turned into more than 20 years in the industry.

Who drinks whisky these days and why? Is the culture being lost in favour of market values or a cheap JD and coke?

We get into how whisky first came to be sold to the masses, how to taste it 'properly', and whether it's true that James Bond suddenly drinking MacAllan led to China buying out the warehouse...

Steve fills us in on the different whisky regions of Scotland; how the big brand names keep their taste consistent; and how he fared in a blind tasting challenge.

• Cadenhead's 175 year old whisky tasting rooms in London

Are you afraid to die? You don't have to be. You can overcome those fears – and in the process you'll unlock your truest potential.

This episode uncovers the real Robert Greene and gets right to the core of what it means to be human to the best of our potential: to live fearlessly, powerfully, and to be attuned to the beauty of the human experience.

We look at what happened when 50 Cent confronted his own morality; consider whether knowledge of our own morality helps or hinders us; and we drop insight bombs from physics, Buddhism, and personal experience.

There's a how-to guide to uncover your warrior spirit and harness it, rather than let it destroy you (and the people around you). We dismantle the current obsession with 'being present' and explain what it really means. And we ask: Is today a good day to die? If not, why not?

Jon shares his personal confrontations with mortality, both through suicide attempts and the most powerful psychedelic in the world.

Dre explains why contemplating his own morality just leads to paralysis and nihilism (and basically why he's too cool for death).

This is the final episode of the 50th Law, and in it we discover the sublime – the awesome threshold between life and death which empowers us like nothing else in creation.

• Overcoming the fear of death in order to embrace life
• Why Sci-Fi is vital
• Real Art – what is it?
• Finding your personal 'Fuck You!'
• Is suicide ever justifiable?
• Finding the sublime in everyday life

• Our mind-opening interview with the inimitable Cory Allen
• The brilliant world of Rick and Morty
• Doctor Who on how you truly measure human progress
• Hear the full story of Jon's revelatory psychedelic experiences in the Amazon
• Carsie Blanton's beautiful song, Smoke Alarm
• Jon's favourite performance of Moonlight Sonata

You are your own limiting factor. Who you think you are defines what you're capable of. If identity is an illusion (and it is), how do we set about changing it so we fulfil and surpass all our ambitions?

But big egos are a bad thing, right? It depends. This episode we deconstruct what 'ego' is all about and how to cultivate the strong, positive sort. The kind that doesn't need reinforcement and validation from others – the kind based in security of self and a mind that remains open to an ever-changing world.

We look at how 50 Cent built his vision and tribe in his grandparents' living room; how parents fuck their children up by praising them the wrong way; and how to become who we are without getting wrapped up in identity-labels.

Robert provides the tools we need to surpass our limits, but how can we put them into practice? We explore how to to turn dead time into learning time, but without deceiving ourselves that all those barista skills are magically going to help us later in life.

Should parents kick their kids out when they reach 18? Are babies and young children actually people? And how can we be strong without needing to show it?

Jon shares personal revelations uncovered by his counsellor and why he gave up ironing at age 18; Dre shares his plans to open his own Jurassic Park and his latest psychedelic insights; and we use the soon-to-be immortal phrase 'circle-jerk lubricated with tears'.

• Crafting your sense of self and your own value
• Why you should give your energy freely
• Taking criticism without making it about you
• Banning children from mainstream society
• Subverting your patterns
• What are regrets, and should we have them?

• A small taster of Dan Peña's prolific ranting
• Our take on Ryan Holiday's Ego is the Enemy
• The hugely popular interview with Rick Doblin
• The Jersey Shore headbutt
• The Amelia Earhart story, which since the episode has perhaps been disproven all over again
• RuPaul's song, Born Naked
• Doctor Who on remembering all the people you used to be
• Pema Chödrön's book, The Places That Scare You
• Georges Perec's A Void
• Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller
• Henri Bergson's book on humour: Laugher: A Essay on the Meaning of the Comic

What happens when you come back from a war-zone and try to reintegrate into everyday, humdrum reality?

For countless veterans, coming home can be worse than war: depression, alienation, anxiety, and PTSD. As many as 20 take their own lives every single day.

Recorded under the setting sun in the Amazon rainforest, Jon spoke with two former US Marines who've turned to the plant medicine Ayahuasca to overcome their mental health issues.

This is a raw, deeply human conversation. We talk about life, love, hopes, dreams and fears. We talk about family, comradeship, and the struggle to keep hold of a sense of self once you've left an institution that demands you craft yourself to fit its mould.

There's great advances being made in psychedelics-assisted therapy, particularly using MDMA, but Ayahuasca can be still more powerful. It tears away all the masks and all the stories we tell ourselves, leaving behind... love.

Tony and Buck explain what PTSD means in everyday life, the shocking failures of the state to support its veterans, and how hard it can be for tough military men to even admit they have a problem and to seek help.

They've started their own podcast to support veterans and those close to them – sharing tools and tactics to find healing and a meaningful life after the military. We talk about how Jiu Jitsu, float tanks, and even just sharing a smile with a stranger can make a profound difference.

Finally, we reflect on the lessons of Ayahuasca and how we plan to make lasting changes once we get back from the jungle.

This is a truly unique episode. Please share it with anyone you think would benefit from hearing about these issues.

• The failures of the US government to support its veterans
• When PTSD strikes
• How to help and speak to veterans
• Loving yourself without being in love with yourself
• When and how violence is necessary
• The powerful plant medicines Ayahuasca and Bobinsana
• Relationships, friendships and how to bring the wisdom of the plants back into daily life

• Tony & Buck's podcast is now live! Check it out here: Thanks For Coming Out
• SpiritQuest Sanctuary's website
• The wonderful interview with our shaman – don Howard Lawler
• You can hear about the rest of Jon's experiences, including Huachuma and Vilca, here
• US veteran suicide rates

Stop scrolling. You're bored. But what sort of bored are you?

Remember blackouts? Remember how you managed to have fun, play games, and actually talk to each other when all the electronic distractions were forcibly removed?

Remember tedious hours at work when you let your plans and ideas unfold? Or dull hours of practising something that mattered to you?

From Wi-Fi on planes to infinite newsfeeds, now more than ever we have to make the choice to focus our attention and get the deep work done. But it might not be fun.

This episode is all about changing our relationship to boredom. It's time to weaponise it and turn it into a training ground for the things we want to achieve and become.

We explore how 50 Cent turned his hustling days into an apprenticeship in business; how spending a couple of hours in a sensory deprivation tank actually gives you more time in your day; and how to turn the daily grind into the perfect opportunity.

From Michelangelo to BeeBop, Demosthenes to serial killing, this episode is packed with tales of creativity born from hardship and tedium.

We explain why kids don't actually learn languages quickly (and are pretty dumb, too); why 75% of doing a PhD is simply not giving up; and how reading can improve your breathing.

Jon reflects on his failure to learn to play guitar, but his persistence in learning how to ad lib on piano; Dre reconquers the Rubik's Cube; and we both discuss the continuing influence of toxic relationships on the present.

• Internalising the nuts and bolts... and then forgetting it all so you can actually play
• Cultivating discipline and refusing quick fixes
• Learning how to learn
• Calling 911 when you see the stars
• Discerning when the obstacle is the way, or when it's time to find a new obstacle

• Robert's other (excellent) book, Mastery
• Ned the cat's Instagram account @nedkitteh
• Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink
• Our friends at the hilarious Probably Offensive podcast
• Breaking Convention 2017 – the psychedelics research conference we attended