Episode 1: Psychedelics: The Fun, The Fantastical & the Facts!

Where were you on June 18, 1971? Did you know that was when Richard Nixon, the United Nations, and other world leaders changed the course of popular culture, scientific experimentation, and mind exploration for the next five decades? Did you know that substances that have the potential to change the way we treat myriad diseases and conditions - ones that have little or no reliable treatments today - were fated on that day to be imprisoned like Hannibal Lecter?Join us for the first of a series of Skraps Original episodes as we explore the use, misuse, and history of psychedelics. In this episode, we will cover the most important question of what these substances are, and begin to question why they were lumped in with other addictive substances by exploring the history of how curiosity-induced exploration on one side clashed with religious single-mindedness. This manifested itself in how these plant-based substances were viewed then and for centuries later, in the eyes of the western world. PsychedeRx will cover the ancient history of plant-based psychedelics including their religious, ceremonial, tribal uses and the dangers imposed by the European views of those uses. We’ll experience murder, mayhem, executions, displacement, and more. We’ll talk to psychedelic historian Mike Jay to get the full story of the full journey - one that started long before Nixon and other world powers set their limited, short-sighted fear loose upon the world.Subscribe to SKRAPS on your favourite podcast platform to make sure you don’t miss a minute of this riveting journey.PsychedeRx is brought to you by kind donations of our listeners. Please donate to our cause to disseminate factual stories of science, scientists and innovations at: https://skrapspodcast.com/donate/This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy