The Weed Witch: Recent Episodes

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Truth be told, the lifestyle industry doesn’t give as much lip service to some of the issues it enables—be it the alcohol industry and alcoholism, the fashion industry and shopping addictions, or cannabis culture and the rising mental health issues that the plant potentially harms as much as it helps.

Still, these heavier topics need to be addressed, as the spread of legalization continues to proliferate and expose new generations to plant-based medicine as a recreational product during a time when the country faces a larger national addiction and mental health crisis.

On the pod today: noted cannabis industry O.G. and founder of the eponymous global lifestyle brand, Jane West. Fresh off her guest appearance on the “Is it just weed?” episode of Dr. Phil Primetime addressing marijuana addiction, West shares her perspective as a longtime advocate following the twists and turns of the industry on the challenges, opportunities, and silver linings for creating a socially responsible future cannabis landscape.

Listen, like and share the episode. Follow Jane West on Instagram and browse her stunning glassware over at Flwr.Shop. And make sure to follow The Weed Witch on Substack for all of the latest and greatest.

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Mary Jane Gibson has the makings of a hero with new feminist project, "My Sandwich, My Choice"

On the show today: Mary Jane Gibson, a prominent female voice in cannabis media and former culture editor at High Times, who has been tracking the legalization and culture of medical marijuana and adult-use cannabis since 2007. After writing at High Times for over a decade, she now writes at-large at outlets like Rolling Stone and Vox where she covers cannabis culture, psychedelics, arts, entertainment, news, and cutting-edge trends. She is also an award-winning actor and playwright, and a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

After penning an article on sexism in the cannabis industry, Gibson predictably received an onslaught of shitty comments from fragile dudes throwing tired “make me a sandwich” jokes. Rather than grin and bear it, she decided to take their advice and do just that: make delicious, nourishing, sandwiches all for herself, while educating the masses about the horrific rollback and daily assault on reproductive rights. Evolving from a clapback into a full-fledged project, “My Sandwich, My Choice” has gained the attention of over 30K followers on Instagram and 14K followers on TikTok as Gibson uses the platform to sling sandwiches with a statement. Most recently, she’s added a Substack (which you should absolutely subscribe to).

On the latest Pipe Dreams podcast, Mary Jane shares her journey from theater kid to High Times editor, reproductive rights activist, and legacy sand-weed-witch. Listen, like and share the episode. Follow Mary Jane on Instagram, TikTok, and Substack. And make sure to follow The Weed Witch for all of the latest and greatest.

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The podcast is back for season 4, kicking off with Rich Wexler, founder of Vintage Annals Archive, an extremely popular archival project that began on Instagram that since has evolved and expanded into a podcast and digital photo archive focusing on outsiders and unconventional histories. Topics run the gamut from profiles on iconic photographer Jamel Shabazz, a sit down with comedian Julie Klausner, Philly bar mitzvah king Eddie Davis and the history of the song "Taste The Biscuit" by Toasters 'N' Moose, to deep dives on Pee-Wee Herman, Klaus Nomi, Grace Jones, and Marsha P. Johnson. (Seriously—there’s a lot to dig through).

This weekend, Wexler is celebrating the project’s 13th year by hosting a virtual bar mitzvah with an all-star cast headlined by legendary composer, lyricist and American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) President and Chairman of the Board, Paul Williams. Kevin Allison of Risk, Dixie De La Tour of Bawdy Storytelling, Source Family archivist Isis Aquarian, photographer Julia Gorton, and more. For information on how to RSVP for weekend events, click here.

On the latest Pipe Dreams podcast, Wexler shares the history of the project, his favorite interviews, and a glimpse at what to expect this weekend.

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There’s nothing like pouring your heart, soul, and wallet into your debut book only launch it during the worst timing possible—be it a travel book during a global lockdown or a book a psychedelic Judaism during the height of the latest iteration of the never-ending Israel-Palestine conflict. At the same time, these are exactly the critical moments when uplifting books that inspire new thinking are the most needed.

On the show today: Madison Margolin, a journalist covering psychedelics and spirituality, and the author of Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass & Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground, a memoir-meets-Gonzo journalism endeavor that was just released on November 6. Madison is also the host of Be Here Now Network's Set & Setting Podcast, as well as the co-founder of both DoubleBlind Magazine and the Jewish Psychedelic Summit.

Exile and Ecstasy takes readers on a trippy coming-of-age journey through Margolin’s early years growing up within "HinJew" community surrounding Ram Dass—author of Be Here Now—and in the cannabis legalization movement, laying the groundwork for going inside New York's Jewish counterculture and the Hasidic underground, and somehow coming full-circle to find unexpected intersectionality between the Jewish and psychedelic experience.

Living on the fringe within the Jewish and psychedelic worlds, she uses journalistic reporting to offer practical, yet mystical ways to integrate psychedelic experiences into the everyday to feel connected, grounded, and reconcile “seemingly disparate experiences of spirituality and psychedelics, with traditional religion.”

She joins the podcast to discuss her book, the multitudes of Judaism, the concept of psychedelic lifestyle beyond drugs, and her visit to Ramallah just days before October 7 to meet with Arabs and Jews using psychedelics to resolve ancestral trauma.

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Founded by Lana Van Brunt and Hayley Dineen in 2018, New York-based cannabis lifestyle company and multidisciplinary product design and production studio ⁠Sackville & Co.⁠ stood out for its eye-catching accessories ⁠shiny gilded grinder⁠ and ⁠sleek joint carrying case⁠ fit for the stiletto stoner crowd.

Both carrying an impressive pedigree in design and fashion, the move into cannabis lifestyle seemed like a natural fit. Van Brunt, the former Director of Experiential Marketing, Head Talent Buyer and Director of Business Operations at VICE Media, and Dineen, who worked in product design and development for luxury brands through the United Nations ethical fashion program to create programs for Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, and Karen Walker, brought a new vision to cannabis where users no longer needed to sacrifice form for function.

Since then, the company has grown exponentially, exposing cannabis culture to a new generation of consumers thanks to collaborations with Wu-Tang’s GZA and streetwear brands like ⁠Sundae School⁠ and ⁠Carrots Carrots⁠ that sell out almost instantly at each drop—but also a ⁠more mainstream, older demographic⁠ gravitating towards the plant.

While the growing number of beautifully crafted smokeable objets d’art have helped to normalize, destigmatize, and ease consumers’ apprehensions about dipping into world of weed, the road to success hasn’t always been easy. In fact, Van Brunt and Dineen almost lost the company.

Today, they join the podcast to share their insights on the chaotic New York market, the changing face and culture of cannabis, and Sackville’s triumphant comeback story.

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Taste is one of our most important senses, yet the majority of people still don’t have the language to articulate exactly why they love or hate something.

In the past, tasting education had been limited to restaurant and hospitality professionals, most often deferring to rigid French wine classifications that rely on blind tasting to consider the more nuanced principles of how the natural environment or terroir (soil, topography and climate) impacts the expression of flavor within the final product, including how it looks, smells, tastes and feels. However, thanks to the emergence of pedestrian-friendly craft beer education over the past decade, widespread interest in food culture, and even the impact of sensory loss from COVID, there’s been an uptick in curiosity about our personal relationships with taste. And we now have the ultimate handbook to understanding the science and art behind flavor.

Joining the podcast today is New York-based Advanced Cicerone, Certified Taster, and journalist Mandy Naglich, whose latest book “How To Taste: A Guide to Discovering Flavor and Savoring Life,” was released just last month. Teaching both consumers and professionals about flavor and service across the beverage alcohol category, her wildly popular tasting classes frequently sell out around the city and virtually. Her work has been featured in Vice, Taste of Home, VinePair, and Wine Enthusiast, and has generated a considerable following on her blog, Drinks With Mandy. Today, she shares the story behind her unconventional job and how taste can create daily opportunities for joy in the every day.

Listen, like and share the episode. Follow Mandy on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. And make sure to follow The Weed Witch for all of the latest and greatest.

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On the pod this week: Riley Brain, founder of Wandering Bud, a Kansas City, Missouri-based ceramics studio that specializes in home decor for cannabis connoisseurs. She also takes the crown for producing the most beautiful bubbler worthy of every coffee table: the Billie, an abstract-inspired vessel that functions as a water pipe, but easily disguises as a flower vase.

Riley discusses how she quit her day job and built her skills to chase her pipe dreams, the method and thinking behind her form-meets-function designs, her tips for enjoying Kansas City’s cannabis scene is like (come visit the studio! Check out The Nelson-Atkins Museum!), the joys of home growing, smart ways to side-step the social media censorship police, and a solid argument for cleaning your wares before and after every use.

Listen, like and share the episode. Follow Riley on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube. And make sure to follow The Weed Witch for all of the latest and greatest.

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On the podcast this week: Chala June (they/he), a National Magazine Award-nominated food writer, chef, and cannabis advocate based in Brooklyn, NY. Formerly the associate print editor for Bon Appétit, Chala’s work often draws on his Black and queer identities and how they inform his lifelong passion for culinary culture and social justice. Chala has led virtual cooking classes for organizations like Queer Food Foundation and MoMA Teens, contributed articles and recipes for publications like Cherry Bomb, Culture Cheese, and CN Traveler, and most recently moderated a panel at the Luxury Meets Cannabis Conference (LMCC).

Chala sits down to discuss the shifting cultural dynamic in New York between mainstream and socially impacted communities, experimenting with infused foods in the kitchen (Weed grits! Blood orange olive oil cake!), their cannabis routine from escaping the psychic assault of the MTA to the joy of a luxurious drag at the end of the day, the importance of proper dosing before going into a CostCo on someone else’s tab, how plant medicine helped them during their transition, what’s happening in queer black drag culture, and their predictions for what’s next in infused foods.

Listen, like and share the episode. Follow Chala on Instagram and TikTok, and make sure to follow The Weed Witch for all of the latest and greatest.

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On the show today: Lulu Tsui (that’s pronounced SWAY), Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer at On The Revel, a curated educational and networking experience series aimed at fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and flourishing cannabis sector. She is also President of the Cannabis Media Council, an organization dedicated to destigmatizing and normalizing cannabis using the power of traditional media (which coincidentally just had its first ad placement for its “I’m High Right Now” campaign featured in the latest Vanity Fair!). She is also the User Experience and Research Advisor at Oakland Hyphae, the minds behind the Oakland Psychedelic Conference and Psilocybin Cup. This woman knows how to get it done.

Lulu discusses watching the rise of cannabis coast-to-coast through a variety of lenses, the challenges legacy operators are facing who want to legitimize their businesses against the gray market, the overlap between cannabis and psychedelics, using UX to get to know psychedelics users, her opinion on the New York roll out, what makes cannabis culture here unique, getting elders on board to shape the next generation, plus the rituals behind her weed witch lifestyle (she swears by drinking moon-activated Tiger’s Eye crystal water).

Listen, like and share the episode. Follow On The Revel on Instagram, YouTube, and their Dope People community portal. Mark your calendars for the June 22 Buyers Club event at Basilica Hudson in Hudson, NY, and on August 26 when they’ll be hosting their annual block party at Restoration Plaza in Brooklyn. And make sure to follow The Weed Witch for all of the latest and greatest.

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On the show today: Our lady of the leaf and miss thing herself, the iconic Laganja Effing Estranja gracing us all with a 4/20 blessing. Best known for competing on season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race (where she served one of the show’s most sickening entrances), Laganja Estranja is the drag persona of Jay Jackson. But beyond being a world-renowned drag artist, she also has an incredibly impressive and lengthy list of achievements as a TV personality, choreographer, music artist, cannabis advocate and all-around LGBTQ+ icon. And if she has her way, she’ll be adding Broadway to that list in 2025.

Laganja talks terps and discusses how she built her multi-hyphenate career, her plans to bring back Laganja’s Dance School, a look at the debut of her musical Miss Step, the culture shift from overconsumption to educated dosing, how her relationship with the plant changed as she transitioned, and why she’ll never fly with weed ever again.

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Joining the Pipe Dreams podcast this week: Lex Corwin, CEO and founder of the queer-led, family-run cannabis company, Stone Road. As a legacy grower turned founder of one of the country’s fastest growing national cannabis brands, Corwin has never known a life outside the industry. Retailing at over 400 outlets throughout California, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, and Michigan, plus New York, New Mexico, and Connecticut expansion in the works, Stone Road is a multi-state brand that maintains indie values despite its growing footprint.

Perched on top of a hill, Stone Road’s greenhouses in Nevada City, California take up a mere half-acre of their 57-acre wild property and operate using biodynamic farming strategies (minus the whole burying cow horns filled with manure moonlight rituals associated with biodynamic winemaking). Sticking to a consume-what-you-grow organic farming ethos, the farm is working towards closing the loop of using what’s on the property to cultivate plants, including making their own compost teas, opting out of crop sprays in favor of leveraging predator mites and beneficial fungi, operating as a no-till farm to create a nutrient-rich, living soil and micro ecosystems tended to by Mother Nature and water sourced from an artesian well.

Lex discusses how he’s been able to successfully implement a lean seed-to-store sustainability model as an independent farmer with multi-state operations, diving into the challenges of running a cannabis business in existing and emerging markets, and creating a truly inclusive marketing campaign.

Listen, like and share the episode. Follow Stone Road on Instagram and subscribe to The Weed Witch newsletter on Substack.

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Joining the Pipe Dreams podcast this week: entrepreneur, art collector, and speaker Kristina Lopez Adduci, founder and CEO of House of Puff, a female-led, Latine-owned cannabis lifestyle company based in New York. She is also the host of At Home with House of Puff, a YouTube channel where she breezily walks viewers through tips on everything from how to decarb flower to distinguishing legitimate dispensaries in New York City. Think: Giada at Home, but with weed—the lifestyle show we always wanted, but never got from Food Network.

Kristina discusses the cultural intersection of cannabis, art, and fashion and how that inspires House of Puff’s product designs, finding her speed as a mom and Latine leader in cannabis, business advice on building an equity cannabis brand, skirting around restrictions on social media, her two cents on the rollout in New York, and tips on how to live your best cannabis life.

Listen, like and share the episode. Follow House of Puff on Instagram and At Home with House of Puffon YouTube, and subscribe to The Weed Witch newsletter on Substack.

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This is ⁠Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch⁠, a newsletter, podcast, idea sampler platter and content wildcard featuring stream-of-consciousness tales and divine wisdom from free-thinking societal outliers, a.k.a. the weed witches.

On the show this week: What does it take to make a professional career in cannabis edibles? For Christina Wong, an L.A.-based award-winning storyteller, seasoned PR and communications pro, writer, and culinary cannabis content creator, it's been a journey in alchemy that has taken over a decade working with well-known chefs, restaurants, hospitality, and cannabis brands.

A veteran of the farm-to-fork world, she came up through Danny Meyer’s kin working as a publicist for Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City and Director of Communications at Tender Greens before moving into cannabis as the Director of Communications at Papa & Barkley, the parent company of edibles brands P&B Kitchen and Papa’s Select. Today, she is a partner and recipe editor of The Clever Root, a digital publication about culinary cannabis, drinks, hospitality, and everything that grows. She also co-hosts Mogu Magu, an AAPI culture, food, and cannabis collective and is a member of the HiVi Higher-Ups community, an inclusive community of cannabis advocates and activists, as well as Depressed Cake Shop, a non-profit organization that raises awareness for mental health through baking. And she runs Fruit+Flower Unfurled, a popular ⁠Instagram⁠ and newsletter where she showcases gorgeous edibles and other elevated ideas for fans of the high life that are completely devoid of pretension.

In many ways, she embodies the future for both industries: an eco-system filled with creative individuals who value craft, quality, flavor, ethics, and hospitality. Using the same analogies and terms sparked by the farm-to-fork movement that encouraged consumers to take a vested interest in sustainable, local and organic agriculture, she’s been able to help translate these ideas that are often buried within the complex “weedspeak” of scientific, bureaucratic, and referential slang.

In the latest Pipe Dreams podcast, she discusses how she crafted her career, the trials and tribulations of consumption lounges and third spaces, how cannabis is bringing together AAPI community to overcome cultural stigmas, the time she accidentally consumed a quad dose (70mg), and an introduction to an underrated OG: Chinese hemp goddess Mogu Magu.

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This is Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch, a newsletter, podcast, idea sampler platter and content wildcard featuring stream-of-consciousness tales and divine wisdom from free-thinking societal outliers, a.k.a. the weed witches.

On the show this week: Multi-hyphenate artist, creative and self-identifying weed witch Natalie Smith, whose work tackles existence and death, sacred geometry, ancient fertility, the womb, and tree of life inspired by the writings of Dutch Jesuit mathematician and astrophysicist Georges Lemaître. You know, exactly the kind of complex ideas you’ll never find casually streaming within the algorithm.

Exploring the depths of our own subconscious and blurring the lines between realities can be a terrifying, exhilarating, and enlightening journey—which is why psychosomatic plants have historically fueled abstract creative projects and astronomical/astrological revelations throughout time (plus, an influx of sophisticated functional art within the cannabis space in more recent years). Having just gone through my own psychedelic-inspired existentialist dive into John Horgan’s “Rationalism Mysticism,” and Linda Goodman’s “Star Signs,” in 2020 after my cosmic little stint as a weed astrologer, I was curious about the ancient rituals, symbolism, and sacred private practices behind this new project.

Learn about vesica piscis and the lack of Pisces in her chart, Natalie's favorite mind-altering substances, the occult and Devil’s Lettuce, being the lone stoner in your friend circle, discovering your inner weed witch, and for all the hackers out there—her new email password!—on this episode of Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch.

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This is Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch, a newsletter, podcast, idea sampler platter and content wildcard featuring stream-of-consciousness tales and divine wisdom from free-thinking societal outliers, a.k.a. the weed witches.

Welcome to a very Halloween special of The Weed Witch, where I will be chatting with Brenda Hernandez, founder of Mexico City's first feminist head shop, Chicks vs. Stigma. Inspired by other pioneering women in cannabis changing the conversation in the US and Canada, Brenda realized there was a need for this community closer to home to break down barriers and create more accessible pathways to cannabis. She began running her online shop in 2018, growing it into a full-fledged brick and mortar store. Here, she shares her story behind Chicks vs. Stigma and a look at the past, present and future of legal cannabis in Mexico.

Learn about her journey and a glimpse at Mexico City's growing cannabis scene on this episode of Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch.

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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This is Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch, a newsletter, podcast, idea sampler platter and content wildcard featuring stream-of-consciousness tales and divine wisdom from free-thinking societal outliers, a.k.a. the weed witches. I’m your host, Carly Fisher.

What do Nico, Marianne Faithful, a scandalous country singer named Tammy Faye Starlite and a fallen-from-grace Israeli pop star named Tamar have in common? The answer is one woman: Tammy Lang.

Selling out shows across the country, she’s best known for producing an extremely NSFW repertoire includes smash hits like “God Has Lodged A Tenant In My Uterus” and “Did I Shave My Vagina For This?” Frequently immortalized within the New York Times theater pages, her work has been celebrated in unexpected places like Palm Springs, Nashville, Pittsburgh and the far stretches of New Jersey.

Among her other crowning achievements: she has fearlessly gone nude on the Howard Stern Show and co-starred alongside Oscar winner, Allison Janney, as a regular on Guiding Light where she played a “wacky maid.” Emerging from the darkness of COVID, Tammy has joined forces with director Rachel Lichtman to help bring her latest production Yesterday, Today and TAMAR back to the stage in New York City last fall, and is looking to pick up again this spring.

Could this be the year of Tammy Lang, capturing the hearts and minds of impressionable youth and discerning critics? Find out as we explore how she moved from here to there on this episode of Pipe Dreams.

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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This is Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch, a newsletter, podcast, idea sampler platter and content wildcard featuring stream-of-consciousness tales and divine wisdom from free-thinking societal outliers, a.k.a. the weed witches. I’m your host, Carly Fisher.

Today's guest is Olivia Alexander, CEO of Kush Queen, a multi-million dollar, multifaceted brand specializing in CBD and THC-infused products, including: award-winning bath bombs, pain relief lotions, edibles, wellness supplements, and skincare. Olivia talks about growing up in Louisiana's ecologically devastated Cancer Alley, turning a swamp queen insult into a tribute to the Spirit of the Bayou, finding life after pharmaceuticals in the world of cannabis, and her perfect vision for the ultimate Kush Queen canna-spa. 

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Hello! This is Pipe Dreams by The Weed Witch, a newsletter, podcast, idea sampler platter and content wildcard featuring stream-of-consciousness tales and divine wisdom from free-thinking societal outliers, a.k.a. the weed witches. I’m your host, Carly Fisher.

Today's guest is Alia Volz, author of Home Baked, My Mom, Marijuana, and The Stoning of San Francisco—a journalistic memoir that came out last year that is a riveting tale worthy of becoming National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. Alia talks about what it was like growing up in a weed family during the Reagan administration, the racist undertones of the War on Drugs, how the "Sticky Brownies" empire helped San Francisco's first LGBTQ+ medical patients during the AIDS crisis, making decisions based on the occult, and watching the legal landscape shift from a community to a corporate culture.

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app