Ep. 16: The Future of Drugs Exploring Cannabis, LSD and Iboga; Choreographer & Director Holly Blakey; Author Nikesh Shukla

Supernova Women: Andrea Unsworth, Sunshine Lencho, Nina Parks, Amber Senter.

We explore the impact of recent legalisation of cannabis in California. We visit a local weed shop as well as look at who is benefiting from the recent legislation with Amber Senter who has co-founded Supernova Women and Eunisses Hernandez from the Drugs Policy Alliance. We also catch up with Ted Lichtenberger, CEO at Humboldt Legends, a business linking growers to consumers.

We explore LSD in California - from the Summer of Love to today’s microdosing trend. What do people come to California in search of? We meet with Mark McCloud at the Institute of Illegal Images aka The LSD Museum - the world’s largest collection of acid art, inside Mark’s home in San Francisco. Mark offers a window into San Francisco’s psychedelic past. We speak to former microdoser and writer, Ayelet Waldman from Berkeley, California, to hear about microdosing, the latest trend sweeping Silicon Valley and beyond.

Our special report on drugs concludes far away from North America and takes us to Gabon, a country along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa. In their forests, grows the dried root of a tree called Iboga. This root of the earth is believed to be one of the world’s strongest psychedelic drugs, but for centuries it was consumed in sacred ceremonies, with some believing it can help people overcome addiction. We meet with a couple who lead Iboga Ceremonies in the UK.

Holly Blakey is an award-winning director and choreographer whose work on Florence and the Machine’s Delilah won her the UK Music Video award for best choreography. Stance meets up with her ahead of her upcoming show, Cowpuncher where she is collaborating with iconic fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and Oscar-Nominated composer Mica Levi.

Lastly, we hear from writer Nikesh Shukla on his upcoming novel The One Who Wrote Destiny. Released this month, the novel tells the stories of three generations of an Indian family that moved from Kenya to Britain. Nikesh is an award-winning writer and editor of The Good Immigrant which gives a platform to some of the most prominent and emerging literary voices in the UK today.

Front Cover: The One Who Wrote Destiny by Nikesh Shukla