050: Entheogen in Quarantine – Spring 2020 Check-in from Joe, Brad, and Kevin

Hi everyone, we’re still here, we’re still producing Entheogen, and we’re looking forward to producing more! How are you doing? Let us know how you are managing in the “new normal” and what you want to hear about in future episodes of Entheogen.

In this episode, we discuss the current state of affairs with much of the world in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we try to stay positive.

Note that we recorded this back at the end of March 2020, and while things felt like they were moving quickly then, and the situation continues to evolve, the sentiment is fairly similar now as we finally post this episode. We’re staying positive and strong and hope you all are too.

Thanks for listening!

049: Leafly.com – Interview with William Hyde, Senior Subject Matter Expert

Introduction:

Today we are pleased to be joined by William Hyde, Sr. Subject Matter Expert for Leafly, and host of the What Are You Smoking? podcast. Follow Will, @the.avid.dabber on Instagram, and check out Will’s The Avid Dabber column on Leafly.com.

Topics:

• How much pot do you have to smoke to become a Senior Subject Matter Expert?

• Controlled dosing and increased access to various methods of consuming cannabis has been a benefit of legalization, which has allowed entirely new populations of people to be introduced or re-introduced to it, including Kevin

• Great resources available at Leafly.com - start by checking out the Recent News section

• Check out podcast ‘What Are You Smoking?’ Hosted by Will

• Another benefit of legalization and increased access: the quality of cannabis products are higher than ever

• More accessible formats of cannabis, like edibles, have in a sense pulled us out of the “dark ages of cannabis”, from the xenophobic associations of weed / drugs / drug paraphernalia / etc.

• What new forms / formats of cannabis that have emerged over the past 5-10 are the most exciting?

• Purported potential populace pleasing pro-pot politics

• Will hangs with the Broken Lizard crew and Cheech Marin! Cannabis has been Will’s “number one networking tool”

• Weed can bring people together, or bring people closer together - get high with your folks

• This is an industry ripe with puns, a blessing and a curse; this brand humor doesn’t resonate with everyone

• Cannabis: it’s fun, it can heal you, it’s a social justice issue

• “If Trump gets re-elected, I’m moving to Cannabis.”

• Thank you, Will, for hanging out and chatting with us!

048: Live at Burning Man 2018

sale

This is a very special episode recorded live at Burning Man on Thursday, August 30, 2018, in front of a live audience!

And we now have awesome handmade rainbow Entheogen T-shirts for sale!

All profits from Entheogen shirts go to MAPS and CoSM through January 31, 2019.

Topics:

• we discuss the origin of Entheogen

• we chat about what Burning Man is all about and what it means to us

• our live audience shares some vignettes of Burning Man

(Side note: please get in touch with us if you know @tferriss so we can send him a t-shirt, as referenced in the show.)

047: Stealing Fire, Part 3

Part Three: The Road to Eleusis

Chapter 8 - Catch a Fire
Chapter 9 - Burning Down the House
Chapter 10 - Hedonic Engineering

Topics:

• Burning Man: it’s a unique thing, and hopefully Donald Trump doesn’t know it exists

• How important is Burning Man after the event is over?

• For the individual, it’s akin to the idea of an ayahuasca ceremony where people often say, “the real work is after the ceremony.” Integration of the inspiration is the “work”.

• What about for the community or society at large? Burners without Borders, Black Rock Solar, and other indirect influences.

• Mount Hugmore

• Because Burning Man is so inaccessible and inhospitable, attendance requires effort, planning, and intention, which fosters a grateful and positive community.

• Summit Series: ski trip for the ultra successful

• Mindfulness: it’s big business!

• Yoga is bigger than football

• The internet is doomed to be a tool of hegemony

• Consequentialism vs. Intentionalism

• Social media’s ability to divide populations in half in order to increase the marketable population of consumers, even more effective than 24 hour cable news

• The term “conspiracy theory” was invented by the CIA

• Weapons designed to turn us all into masturbating monkeys

• Hedonic Engineering: get high with intention, and on a schedule that works best for you

• “After the ecstasy, the laundry.”

• Wabi Sabi - Japanese concept that values transience and imperfection

• “The world is full of magic things patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” - William Butler Yeats

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”

- Leonard Cohen

046: Stealing Fire, Part 2

Part Two: The Four Forces of Ecstasis

Chapter 4: Psychology
Chapter 5: Neurobiology
Chapter 6: Pharmacology
Chapter 7: Technology

Topics:

• Demystifying mystical experiences and the democratization of information, language, practices, and substances

• Alexander Shulgin, the “Johnny Appleseed of Psychedelics”

• Etymology of the phrase “hocus pocus” and its unexpectedly religious roots

• Regarding communion, specifically, consuming the body of christ, “That’s not a nice thing to do to Jesus.” - Kevin

• “I used to be a Catholic until I reached the age of reason.” - George Carlin

• Someday soon you will be able to use a 3D printer to print your drugs at home- weighing the possible benefits and risks

• What’s up with Landmark?

• “Capitalism is one amplifier for different movements.” - Joe

• Dangers of capitalism: proliferation of crap music and crap writing

• Are there aspects of psychedelic experiences that are anti-capitalistic?

• Sipping the soup of capitalism

• “When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” - Abraham Maslow. How does this idea relate to capitalism? How does this idea relate to our neurobiology? “Every issue we encounter we try to solve by thinking.”

• The gut-brain axis - do you know where most of your neurotransmitters are?

• Farting in yoga class

• Sugar addiction is addiction

• How much sugar is in a two-liter bottle of Coca-cola? 216 grams of sugar = 54 dang teaspoons!

• The Flow Dojo- get high on gravity! ...shake your snowglobe!

• Inventory of animals’ psychedelic-seeking behaviors and their respective preferred substances

• Closing montage of goats braying. You’re welcome.