Podcast
Plantscendence
Hosted by Jon Reiss · EN
Welcome to Plantscendence, a new podcast hosted by filmmaker Jon Reiss. Join us on a transformative journey as we explore the world of plant medicine and its profound impact on healing, personal growth, and artistic expression.
Within each episode, Jon engages in insightful conversations with a diverse array of experts, practitioners, artists, grief counselors and everyday people who have harnessed the power of plant medicine to heal trauma, navigate loss, unlock creativity, and become more their true selves.
Guests for the ten episode first season include poet and musician Vera Sola, author and pioneer of microdosing Jim Fadiman, actress Gina Gershon, artist and Nganga Chor Boogie, US Army veteran Itzel Barakat, author and teacher Spring Washam, artist Doris La Frenais, plant wisdom practitioner Sitaramaya Sita, grief counselor Larry Carlat and healer and author Tricia Eastman.
Jon Reiss is a critically acclaimed filmmaker, author, and media strategist. He began his film career at the fabled Target Video, where he shot seminal punk bands, including Black Flag, X, Iggy Pop, Throbbing Gristle, and The Cramps. Reiss then filmed and edited a series of videos documenting Mark Pauline’s Survival Research Laboratories. After directing numerous music videos, including, notoriously, Happiness in Slavery for Nine Inch Nails, he directed the feature films Bomb It, Better Living Through Circuitry, and Cleopatra’s Second Husband. Through his company 8 Above Reiss also helps filmmakers navigate the new distribution and marketing landscape.
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
#10 Tricia Eastman: Harm Reduction
May 2, 202400:52:59Tap to summarizeTricia Eastman harnesses the “Mount Everest of Psychedelics” to break addictive cycles and promote collective healing. In the last episode of Season 1, we’re joined by initiated medicine woman Tricia Eastman, whose nonprofit Ancestral Heart works towards the reciprocity and preservation of ancestral and indigenous traditions. Tricia vividly recounts her early experiences with psychedelics, where she experienced both the transformative power and potential pitfalls of substances like MDMA and psilocybin. She shares how her experiences with these medicines facilitated deep insights into her own traumas and ancestral wounds, allowing her to release deeply held shame around her body and sexuality, and ultimately leading her to reevaluate and rechart her life’s path. Finally, she discusses her 10 year-long journey working with iboga, often hailed as the “Mount Everest of psychedelics”, and how she’s seen it help thousands detox from opiates and other addictive substances. Throughout the conversation, Tricia emphasizes the importance of holistic integration and responsible engagement with plant medicine, while also addressing the complexities of psychedelic legalization and the imperative of cultural respect and reciprocity.Plantscendence.com
Transcribe →#9 Larry Carlat: From Grief to Enlightenment
Apr 25, 202400:43:21Tap to summarizeHow fear of death led one father to overcome the grief of the loss of his son - and help other parents who have lost children in their journeys. In this episode, Jon welcomes Larry Carlat, a grief counselor and writer, who shares his profound journey with psychedelics following the tragic loss of his son Rob. Driven by a desire to confront his anxiety about death and connect with his son’s spirit, Larry recounts his initial foray into plant medicine, and the incredible healing that it engendered. Larry details some of the remarkable encounters he had with spiritual entities – including his mother, father, and Rob – while on psilocybin, as well as the moments of ego dissolution and emotional catharsis that helped reshape his perspective on life, death, and spirituality. Larry also shares insights from his own counseling work, where he guides other bereaved parents and siblings through their grief journeys.Plantscendence.com
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#8 Spring Washam Ancestral Healing
Apr 18, 202400:47:58Tap to summarizeExpanding plant based medicine to communities of color to heal intergenerational trauma. Spring Washam joins Plantscendence to talk about her experiences blending plant medicine with Buddhist wisdom, and how they’ve helped her let go of suffering, experience accelerated healing, and move towards liberation. She shares memories of early encounters with plant medicine, including surreal experiences in the “insane circus” and with the soul doctor of ayahuasca, and talks about the process of writing her latest book, The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground. She recounts how the spirit of Harriet Tubman recently led her to Atlanta, where she and Lama Rod Owens are in the process of building a radical church called “the Spirit Underground Church”, a sanctuary for ancestral connection, plant medicine, and collective liberation. She reflects on the work she plans to do there to heal racialized trauma, both in the body and in the land itself, which has historically held immense violence and hatred. The episode also touches on the prevalence of cultural appropriation in the entheogenic world, and the importance of expanding access to plant-based medicine to BIPOC communities.Plantscendence.com
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#7 Doris La Frenais A Life Transformed
Apr 11, 202400:49:19Tap to summarizeDoris La Frenais’ riveting account of her psychedelic adventures from the 1960s to today. This week, we delve into the remarkable life of Doris La Frenais, a Parisian fashion designer turned spiritual seeker and sonic science somatic healer. Doris recounts her first psychedelic encounter in the 1970s, mistakenly ingesting angel dust at a party in Los Angeles, and then hitchhiking to a hippie commune where she took mushrooms on a moonlit beach. This series of events led Doris to realize that the life she had built in Paris no longer aligned with her spiritual path, and that she must relinquish her lavish lifestyle in pursuit of deeper healing and fulfillment. Four months later, she was living in Los Angeles with her son. Over the next fifty years, her journey would take many unexpected turns, from working with Robert Margouleff helping to produce artists like Stevie Wonder and Devo to navigating a tumultuous path of addiction and recovery. Through candid storytelling, Doris shares riveting accounts of her psychedelic Plantscendence.com
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#6 Chor Boogie: Unplugged from the Matrix
Apr 4, 202400:39:08Tap to summarizeHealing and ancestral knowledge and healing through Iboga. Chor Boogie, a renowned spray paint artist and ordained Nganga in the Bwiti tradition, joins us on this episode of Plantscendence to talk about his work as an iboga healer in Costa Rica, and the sinuous path that got him there. Chor reflects humorously on his early psychedelic experiences, including a trip to Disneyland on LSD, and traces his journey from the world of graffiti art to that of plant medicine, which includes a decade of study and service in Gabon, Central West Africa. He describes how iboga helped him break free from addictive patterns – which he equates to “30 years of therapy” – and eventually reconnect with his ancestral roots. Chor addresses both the dangers and possibilities posed by Western medicine’s piquing interest in iboga, and emphasizes the importance of respecting and preserving indigenous practices amidst the backdrop of globalization.Links: Chorboogie.comSoulcentro.comPlantscendence.comPlantscendence.com
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#5 Gina Gershon: Ketamine as Antidepressant
Mar 28, 202400:26:26Tap to summarizeCan Ketamine be the ultimate antidepressant? Acclaimed actor and musician Gina Gershon joins us on Plantscendence to talk about her seven-year journey with ketamine therapy. She shares candidly about her lifelong struggle with depression, her many failed attempts at treating it with prescription medication, and the transformative impact that ketamine therapy had on her life and well-being once she discovered it. She describes in detail the feelings and sensations involved, and the profound impact that therapeutic ketamine has had on her creativity – both as a performer and as a painter, a passion that ketamine helped birth. Gina and Jon, long-time friends, reflect together on the ways that psychedelics have helped them both manage social anxiety, negative self-talk, and repetitive thinking. Plantscendence.com
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# 4 Sitaramaya Sita: Where It All Began
Mar 21, 202400:45:34Tap to summarizeHost Jon Reiss opens up about his first ayahuasca experience with the ceremonialist who started him on his journey. In this episode of Plantscendence, we sit down with Sitaramaya Sita, the spiritual herbalist, pusangera, and plant wisdom practitioner who guided Jon’s very first entheogenic experience four years ago. Together they recount that initial ceremony, detailing both its ecstatic and challenging moments, and touching upon plant medicine’s role in fostering neuroplasticity and the creation of neural pathways. Sita tells the story of her chance first-encounter with plant medicine on Maui in 1997, and the two and a half decade journey that followed, including Sita’s extensive training with the indigenous Shipibo people of the Peruvian Amazon. The episode also addresses the escalating threats posed by deforestation, clear-cutting, and modern development, emphasizing the urgent need to protect the Amazon rainforest and preserve indigenous knowledge.Plantscendence.com
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#3 Itzel Barakat: US Air Force Veteran Overcoming Trauma
Mar 13, 202400:54:52Tap to summarizeUS Air Force Veteran Itzel Barakat uses plant medicine to overcome PTS and intergenerational trauma. In this episode of Plantscendence, we talk to Itzel Barakat, a Panamanian-American veteran who served in the US Air Force for six years. After returning from deployment and encountering intense challenges, including emotional numbness, uncontrollable anger, and insomnia, Itzel found solace and transformation through various encounters with plant medicine, ranging from psilocybin and ketamine to ayahuasca and 5-MeO. Throughout their conversation, Itzel and Jon discuss everything from ancestral visions and intergenerational trauma work, to the importance of destigmatizing mental health in the military. Itzel also talks about the profound impact that animal encounters have had on her healing journey – whether it be equine-assisted therapy or accidentally coming face-to-face with a bear while doing mushrooms in the woods – and her commitment to helping veterans impacted by PTS (post-traumatic stress), and other trauma-affected groups, gain access to these alternative healing modalities.Plantscendence.com
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#1 Vera Sola: Iboga Unlocks Musicianship
Mar 13, 202400:53:34Tap to summarizeHow Iboga gave Vera Sola her singing voice and cured her lifelong endometriosis. In this episode of Plantscendence, we talk to poet, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Vera Sola, whose musicianship arrived as a shot in the dark after a transformative plant medicine ceremony in 2017. Vera talks about the profound impact that entheogens, and iboga in particular, have had on her creative process, spiritual practice, and physical wellbeing, including her recovery from lifelong debilitating endometriosis. She reflects on the power of sitting with darkness, and how delving into one’s shadow self can be a means of “seeing the world through the eyes of a child.” This episode offers valuable advice for those considering embarking on their own journeys, emphasizing the importance of preparation, integration, and choosing the right practitioners.Plantscendence.com
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#2 Dr. James Fadiman: Pioneer of Microdosing.
Mar 13, 202400:49:34Tap to summarizeParis, 1961: Ram Dass gives James Fadiman a pill that changes his life. In this episode of Plantscendence, we sit down with pioneering researcher and author, Dr. James Fadiman, who is widely recognized for his groundbreaking work on microdosing psilocybin. Listeners are transported to 1961 Paris, where Dr. Fadiman recounts his initial exposure to psychedelics with his mentor, Richard Alpert (later to become Ram Dass), and the subsequent shift in his perception of reality. He tells the story of how he first came to research psychedelics at Stanford, and how these early experiments at the lab in Menlo Park eventually paved the way for him to develop the first modern microdosing protocols. The episode touches upon the historical context of entheogens, including the CIA’s covert involvement in psychedelic research and the drugs’ sudden prohibition during the Nixon era. Dr. Fadiman also reflects on recent shifts in societal attitudes towards psychedelics, and their potential to treat a variety of mental and physical illnesses.Plantscendence.com
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