Get Stoned and Listen to These Podcasts
Words by Alex Marinkovich-Josey (he/him)
One of the special things about podcasting is the ability to create a space for discussion about taboo topics. As discourse about drugs increasingly enters the mainstream media and pop-culture zeitgeist, the podcasting world is booming with drug-related content. Salient Podcasts are no stranger to altered states of consciousness. We’ve got episodes that dive into the world of intoxication—from clinical and safety perspectives, to just having a good ol’ time gettin’ buzzed.
Smooth Brain Society—“Drugs 101: Psychedelics”
Host Sahir is joined by now ^Salient Co-Editor Fran to chat with Professor Bart Ellenbroek, head of the VUW’s Behavioural Neurogenetics lab, about researching the use of psychedelic drugs as mental health treatment. They discuss the barriers to researching the positive effects of drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms, the history of psychedelics, and the direction the field is headed in..
“The studies, so far, have been very positive. Especially with psilocybin: the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. In patients with depression, [specifically] treatment resistant depression, [just one or two] doses a week [...] significantly reduces depressive symptomatology up to six months.” - Professor Bart Ellenbroek
Above Standard—“Know Your Stuff ft. Wendy Allison”
Ella and Alice talk to the former Managing Director of Know Your Stuff NZ. They chat about safe drug use, and the aims of detecting and eradicating dangerous drugs that circulate around the student community. They also discuss the legality of providing a drug testing service that explicitly handles illegal substances.
“What we did was we read the law [on drugs], we discovered what it meant. One issue is possession of substances, because the minute we touch them we can be considered in possession. So we just never touch them. We had the client handle all the substances, and we just read the results.” - Wendy Allison
20Somethings - “Chasing the Buzz”
Jolénna, Tahlia, and Nosiphi talk about their own experiences chasing that high. Whether it's from substances like drugs and alcohol, or from just a banging night out in town.
“I smoked weed in high school—my friend was a drug dealer. I had weed available to me consistently. It's funny to me because parents who try to be really, really strict miss out on the comfortable stage. The weird thing was that my parents were really open. I just think my rebellious phase of smoking was because I was such a goodie-two-shoes.” - guest host, renamed Mary Jane
Don’t forget to check out this week’s Unedited Session, where Co-Editors Fran and Maia chat with Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick about drug and alcohol reform.
“By the age of 21, 80% of New Zealanders would have touched cannabis, and that's under an illegal model. And under the illegal model, we have a status quo and a situation where you have unknown people in unknown places consuming unknown substances to unknown effect, and no opportunity to intervene.” - Chlöe Swarbrick