Great Moments in Weed History

Best known for distributing massive amounts of LSD , the Brotherhood of Eternal Love was an outlaw group of surfers, smugglers, and psychedelic evangelists who also exported so much hashish out of Afghanistan that they developed a game-changing new way to move the product at scale. Working with their in-house research-and-development team, the Brotherhood invented a highly innovative chemical solv...

In 2002, professional soccer player Ethan Zohn won Africa: Survivor, netting himself a $1 million dollar prize and overnight fame.  But it was his subsequent battle against cancer that made him a true survivor, and also opened his eyes to the therapeutic power of cannabis.  As you’ll hear in our interview, Ethan tried smoking herb just once as a college student, and liked it, but felt he had to pu...

Like many lifelong weed activists, Brian "Box" Brown’s radicalization began with a youthful arrest. His form of resistance? Brian is an acclaimed comics artist, whose works include Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America, a comprehensive, book-length graphic novel tracing the history of cannabis prohibition all the way back to the 19th Century.  He currently publishes a weekly syndicated c...

Simon Espinosa, a young comedy writer from Santiago, Chile, turned a stoned text message chain with his brother into by far the largest Spanish-language cannabis media platform on the planet.  En Vola (which literary translates to “in flight”) started in 2012 as a rudimentary website where stoners could post their most mind-bending and ingenious high-deas. Today, Simon and his collaborators have a...

Dr. Peter Grinspoon—author of the new book Aging Well with Cannabis: Feel Better, Sleep Better, and Live Better with Marijuana and CBD—explains that senior citizens are the fastest growing demo of cannabis consumers. But they often need help accessing information and safely ingesting the plant. Dr. Grinspoon is a primary care physician and educator at Massachusetts General Hospital, an Instructor...

This week saw weed history happen in real time when the federal government announced its officially rescheduling cannabis out of Schedule 1, the most restrictive category.  To be clear, so far much remains unclear about this process, which will happen in phases. Amid a lot of confusion, there’s cause for excitement, but also cause for concern.  So for a clearer picture of what the future holds, we...

Comedic 'heavy hitter' Jon Gabrus joins the year's weediest episode. Plus Bean shares details from 4x20 Quick Hits, a new Hulu original series he worked on that's dropping on April 20th, with episodes about High Times founder Tom Forcade, the history of functional art glass, the making of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and, last but not least, the Legend of Ganjasaurus Rex! MEGASESHTickets an...

Writer, actor and director Ben Sinclair is best known as co-creator and star of the HBO series High Maintenance. A recent New York Times headline asked: “What happens when TV’s favorite weed dealer tries to quit?” The article centered around Low Maintenance, Ben’s new Substack column, where he “delves into his complicated relationship with marijuana." I've known Ben a little bit, for a long time,...

Angela Dawson is a fourth generation farmer, albeit the first of her name to farm cannabis. She’s also a leading weed activist in the state of Minnesota, who's currently preparing for the 4/20 soft-launch of "The Garden on 26th," a new licensed retail dispensary in South Minneapolis that will sit just steps from where Alex Pretti was publicly executed by ICE agents in January. Angela and I discuss...

Gettin’ lit on 4/20 used to mean something special. And it will again.  So on this episode, to spark that return to glory, we’re going to trace the origin story of our annual high holiday all the way back to its roots, as the singular creation of a small group of stoners on an epic quest way back in 1971.  That’s right, it’s time recount the epic story of the Waldos—but with a twist.  This year we...

In 2019, Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur Tushar Atre met a tragic end after paddling out into the rough waters of the underground cannabis scene in surfer haven Santa Cruz, California, At once a love story, a crime drama, and a who-dun-it, this epic tale is chronicled in the riveting new book A Killing in Cannabis. My guest for this episode is the book's author, Scott Eden.

A prominent anti-weed editorial in this week's NY Times is just the latest attempt to resurrect the kind of government propaganda and media hysteria that helped make the plant illegal in the first place. So we talked with Kyle Boyar, a scientist with a background in neurology, microbiology, and analytical chemistry and an expertise in cannabis about the junk science used to discredit cannabis, the...

Rainbow Valentine is the creator behind Disorganized Crime: Smuggler’s Daughter, a first-person podcast series that explores her life growing up as the offspring of two psych*delic pioneers—as she calls them—who together operated a cross-country w--d distribution ring while living a life fully immersed in hippies, seekers, and counterculture luminaries.  After digging into our GMIWH interview, be...

Roll up for a special edition of the pod where Bean answers your w--d advice questions with a little help from green-minded journalist Mary Jane Gibson and the Reddit r/trees community. Think of it as everything you ever wanted to know about your favorite plant but were afraid to ask. Check out Mary Jane (yes, that's her real name) via her incredible "My Sandwich, My Choice" Substack and her video...

Harold Derber pioneered the modern narcotics trade with his groundbreaking invention: the mothership. By operating a fleet of clandestine motherships floating in international waters, Derber eventually became the most prolific supplier of illicit weed in American history. In this interview with David Tuch, author ofThe Wireless Operator: The Untold Story of the British Sailor Who Invented the Mode...

Get ready to experience a beloved annual tradition as we celebrate the many surprising ways that Santa Claus is based on old trippy traditions around psychedelic mushrooms. So please, buckle up your sleigh bells, roll up and get ready to take a wild reindeer ride with Santa, Bean and Abdullah Saeed, former co-host of Great Moments in Weed History.  PATREON Please ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠support Great Momen...

In January, Martin Olive was shot seven times outside the Vapor Room dispensary, which he co-founded in San Francisco in 2004.  Located in the legendary Haight Street neighborhood, the Vapor Room was known for its extensive compassion program offering free cannabis to patients in need, and for the vibrant community of mutual support that took root in its on-site consumption lounge. Over the past y...

The most heinous legal and human rights abuses of our current political moment all have their roots in the War on Drugs, from corruption and racism, to propaganda and mass incarceration. Our guest this week, Dr. David Farber, is a distinguished professor and the author of War on Drugs: A History. Together, we explore how the drug war served as a pilot program for American authoritarianism. PATREON...

In 1987, real life outlaw growers in Humboldt County, CA made a low budget monster movie called Ganjasaurus Rex, a cult classic that we explore in this episode with special guest Jon Gabrus (Staying Alive, 101 Places to Party Before You Die). Attention anyone currently in Humboldt County, where the film was made and the story was set, Bean from GMIWH will be hosting a Ganjasaurus Rex screening + H...

Fed up with finance d-bags enshitifying everything? Well, I can't stop them from trying to take over weed too, but I did just tell one of the worst offenders to hit the bricks, only with much more colorful language. Adam Bierman—co-founder and former CEO of a massive cannabis dispensary chain called Medmen—was originally pitched to me by his publicist, upon publication of his new book Weed Empire:...

An underground chemist, acid-soaked sound engineers, a bestselling author, and a psychedelic band all set out together in the 1970s in pursuit of audio perfection. Together, they created and destroyed a legendary sound system known as the Wall of Sound, which was as tall as a school bus is long and more than a hundred feet wide.  Author Brian Anderson explores this wild journey in his new book Lou...

Caleb Chen is a weed enthusiast, researcher, reviewer and academic, who runs "The Highest Critic," and is well on his way to earning a doctorate in the subject. He's also a Ganjier and a reviewer with Budist. Caleb joins the podcast for an engaging discussion of what's cutting-edge in cannabis, or "hype weed" as the young people like to say when it comes to our favorite plant. PATREON Please ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

From ancient traditions to the evolution of modern cannabis culture in Morocco, India, Egypt, Nepal, and other traditional hashish regions, get ready for a fascinating time getting high on history with Dr. Maziyar Ghiabr, Director for the Centre of Persian And Iranian Studies at the University of Exeter’s Institute for Islamic and Arabic Studies.  Maziyar is also the author of a fascinating new bo...

Amber E. Senter’s impressive legal cannabis career began with years of underground weed growing, hashmaking and edibles slanging. Amber is the founder and CEO of MAKR House, a cannabis house of brands, and she has served as the Chief Operations Officer of a prominent cannabis dispensary. In addition to her various business ventures, Amber is also co-founder and Executive Director of Supernova Wome...

When a bunch of vulture capital d-bags ran High Times into bankruptcy, the magazine's illustrious fifty year history appeared to be burnt out. But then, in June, Raw Papers founder Josh Kesselman announced that he’d bought the brand for $3.5 million. In this episode, Josh explains how and why he bought High Times, and his high hopes for a return to glory. Josh also shares his own weedy life journe...