Great Moments in Weed History

Nobody ever repped cannabis louder or prouder on TV than Laganja Estranja did on RuPaul’s Drag Race. An overnight weed icon, she's since become an advocate and activist dedicated to spreading knowledge about the plant's medicinal benefits. Our conversation with Laganja hits on all the highs and lows of this inspiring story, starting with her first puff of brick weed in Texas. PATREON Please suppor...

Turn on, tune in, and check out this special "joint" episode celebrating a selection of great TV weed moments as selected by writer, comedian and fellow stoner podcaster Ashley Ray of TV I Say! From the earliest positive depiction of cannabis on television, to the groundbreaking work done on shows like High Maintenance, Broad City, Insecure, and Workaholics, we explore how cannabis culture has evo...

Traditionally, two bitterly oppositional groups love sweet, sweet donuts—cops and stoners. So when news leaked that one of America's most beloved national donut chains is lobbying to prevent cannabis legalization, our hosts sprung into inaction by calling for a boycott. We're also asking the cannabis community to help us "high"-light all the great family-run, weed-friendly donut shops we can buy f...

For ten years, the Secret Sesh in Los Angeles has brought together true OGs from all walks of life to see, smell, smoke and celebrate their favorite plant. What began as a clandestine cannabis farmer's market—held in garages and back lots—has since grown into a stadium-sized weedy realm unto itself. At the center of it all: Our guest this week, podcaster and comedian Adam Ill, who takes on a journ...

The legalization debate reached the US Senate this week, prompting us to recall the time Tucker Carlson had to say the words "Great Moments in Weed History." Immediately followed by the biggest name on Fox News lamely spewing Reefer Madness nonsense while getting trounced in an on-air confrontation with our co-host. More seriously, in this episode we share an optimistic update on progress towards...

In 1976, a pair of Vietnam vets turned international weed smugglers loaded a twin-engine airplane with 6,000 pounds of primo sinsemilla bud known as Mota Magic. Unfortunately, the ill-fated smuggling run ended in disaster when the planeload of weed crashed into a remote frozen lake tucked away in Yosemite's rugged backcountry.  But from that tragedy arose the greatest "gold rush" in cannabis histo...

When police in black helicopters started descending on Humboldt County, CA to bring 'death from above' to illicit cannabis grows, the locals banded together and fought back.  As a co-founder of both the Citizens Observation Group and community-supported KMUD radio, Agnes Patak spent decades monitoring the cops and broadcasting real-time warnings about their raiding parties. She tells us how CAMP (...

Take a break from the world's troubles and get blazed with comedian Jon Gabrus upon the premiere of his new TruTV show 101 Places to Party Before You Die. Along with co-host Adam Pally, Gabrus travels the country to live it up, including getting lit early and often—as one would expect from the host of the stellar High & Mighty podcast. We talk about how becoming a stoner changed his approach to co...

To honor the high hashish holiday, we're celebrating the surfing, smuggling, LSD evangelists known as the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. That commune's international cannabis concentrate smuggling ring got them dubbed "the hippie mafia" and involved some of the most fascinating characters in the history of cannabis true crime. Including the largely unknown story of Ronald Hadley Stark, who has been...

In this special episode, we answer your burning questions about cannabis—from "How do I get my Mom high?" to "What will the world of weed look like in ten years?" Very special thanks to our backers on Patreon, who supplied the questions, and whose generous support makes this podcast possible. Please enjoy this slightly off-the-wall take on Abdullah and Bean as your personal "weed life coaches," an...

In 1996, Sweet Leaf Collective began bicycle-delivering donated cannabis to terminally-ill AIDS patients. By "running tight game," Sweetleaf's founder flew under the radar for decades while simultaneously expanding the operation to provide millions of dollars in free weed annually.  Abdullah and Bean share a sesh with "Sweet Leaf Joe" to hear his inspirational story firsthand, including tales of t...

Sour Diesel first surfaced at a downtown hippie rock club, and ascended into being the premier smoke among New York City's celebrity set and lit-erati. Talk about making it big in the Baked Apple! Sourcing, buying, selling and eventually growing this game-changing strain was an obsession for a young weed scenester named AJ (a.k.a "Asshole Joe"), whose fortunes rose and fell as part of Gotham's rou...

Weed-infused edibles date back more than a thousand years, but did you ever wonder how the humble "pot brownie" become a cultural icon? It's a wilder and more fascinating story than you probably imagine, one that starts in Egypt in 1799 and ends with the publication of the most controversial cookbook of all time (except for maybe How to Serve Man) And at the center of it all is an iconic lesbian p...

Whether living in legal states or under prohibition, weed smokers continue to face stigmas and prejudices of all kinds. So to kick off our official Pride Month programming, we're revisiting our 2021 interview with true friend-of-the-podcast Jessamyn Stanley—a self-described “fat black queer woman" who's been breaking down barriers in American yoga since she began posting about her personal practic...

What was it like to be the in-house weed cookie dealer at Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC during the legendary improv theater's glory days? Our guest John Flynn tells all in his new memoir Baked!—and we give him credit for providing creative inspiration to a cultural institution that launched the careers of many of today's top comedic talents. Founded in 2004 by Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Rober...

The Emerald Cup began in 2003 as an underground locals-only harvest celebration among outdoor organic cannabis growers in Northern California’s famed Emerald Triangle. They kept the first-ever contest a secret from the sheriff by pretending it was a birthday party. Today, the Emerald Cup is the world's most prestigious cannabis competition, drawing 30,000+ pot-lovers to a "state fair for weed" com...

Social equity programs designed to remediate the damage done by the War on Marijuana have all-too-often had the opposite effect. To find out why, Abdullah and Bean share a sesh with top-drawer cannabis journalist Amanda Chicago Lewis and discuss her new article in the New Republic: "Legalized Pot Was Supposed to Help Build Black Wealth in Los Angeles. It Failed." From shady politicians to venture...

Hop in our hot box time machine set for 1991 Grateful Dead tour, where a "kind bud snob" named Greg first encountered the incredible weed varietal he named "Chemdog." A moniker that Greg then took on himself while spending the next 20 years cultivating and circulating this foundational gas strain.. Chemdog (the man and the strain) in many ways paved the way for modern cannabis, but that road defin...

Celebrate today's high holiday with the story of Jack Herer—the man, the myth, and the strain that changed the weed game forever. This is the legendary tale of how a cannabis-hating rightwing military police officer had his life transformed forever the first time he got high (really, really high) off some Acapulco Gold and became the leading voice of the weed resistance. From writing his classic c...

Abdullah and Bean get high non-stop in this very special episode, fueled by the huge stash of cannabis and edibles they've been tasked with judging as part of the prestigious Emerald Cup competition. Along the way, we talk about the history of this podcast, our big plans for 4/20, our favorite past episodes of the show and, of course, what it's like to judge a prestigious weed contest. It's also a...

Social media deletes, throttles and shadow-bans weed related accounts regularly, often without warning and with clear bias against independent creators. When YouTube erased Arend Richard's account "The Gay Stoner" with nearly 200K subscribers, he did get mad, but he also got even by bringing together a group of prominent "weed tubers" to form their own independent platform. Abdullah and Bean talk...

Cannabis is a sacred plant in Shinto and Sumo wrestling—two of Japan's oldest and most vital traditions. And hemp was once the island nation's second biggest crop, after rice. Marijuana prohibition arrived via the American military occupation that followed World War II, Ironically, it's now the success of legalization activists in the United States that's inspiring a movement of homegrown advocate...

From Afghanistan's Kush Mountains, to LA's early 90s hydro grows, the story of game-changing weed strain OG Kush is one of the greatest cannabis tales ever told—with cameo appearances from Cypress Hill, Xzibit, Snoop Dogg, and Dre Dre. But this fascinating history was completely hidden until very recently, when the original growers who put the OG in OG Kush finally came forward to claim their glor...

A new report confirms the cannabis industry added over 100,000 new jobs last year —a 33% increase—so there's never been a better time to start your legal weed career. But whether you're a hardcore trapper looking to come in from the cold, a supply-chain specialist hoping to ditch your boring widget gig for a cool weed one, or a young person seeking something entry level, gaining entree into your f...

Whenever cannabis and capitalism collide, legacy weed farmers find themselves caught in the crossfire—trapped between hyper-capitalized mega-grows with corporate lobbyists and the corrupt government bureaucrats who do their bidding. In a just-published article for Rolling Stone, ace cannabis reporter and longtime friend of the podcast Mary Jane Gibson details how a shady backroom deal pulled the n...