Brainforest Café

Jonathan Dickinson, CEO and co-founder of Ambio Life Sciences and author of Ibogaine and the Bicameral Mind, returns to the Brainforest Café for part two of his conversation with Dr. Dennis McKenna. Where part one followed the personal journey, this one goes into the machinery: what ibogaine is actually doing to the mind and to the cell. - - - Jonathan Dickinson, co-founder and CEO of Ambio Life Sciences and founder of Terragnosis, joins Dr. Dennis McKenna on the Brainforest Café for a conversation about ibogaine, iboga, and the Bwiti tradition of Gabon. A Mexico-licensed psychologist and former executive director of the Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance, Jonathan helped develop the field's foundational safety guidelines and completed the first Nagoya-compliant export of Tabernanthe iboga root. In part one of a two-part conversation, he traces the path from harm reduction work in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to initiation in Gabon, and explains why ibogaine refuses to behave like a pharmaceutical. It does not reduce symptoms. It opens a door, and the person has to walk through it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Dickinson, co-founder and CEO of Ambio Life Sciences and founder of Terragnosis, joins Dr. Dennis McKenna on the Brainforest Café for a conversation about ibogaine, iboga, and the Bwiti tradition of Gabon. - - - Jonathan Dickinson, a Mexico-licensed psychologist and former executive director of the Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance, Jonathan helped develop the field's foundational safety guidelines and completed the first Nagoya-compliant export of Tabernanthe iboga root. In part one of a two-part conversation, he traces the path from harm reduction work in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to initiation in Gabon, and explains why ibogaine refuses to behave like a pharmaceutical. It does not reduce symptoms. It opens a door, and the person has to walk through it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the future of ayahuasca isn’t in the hype cycle, but in safety, tradition, and real transformation? In this conversation, Sam Believ and Dennis McKenna explore Colombia’s overlooked ayahuasca lineage, the importance of set and setting, and why plant medicine may hold a key to healing both people and culture. - - - Sam Believ is the founder of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat and host of the Ayahuasca Podcast. ​A former offshore engineer turned modern bridge-builder, Sam is dedicated to making traditional Amazonian medicine accessible, safe, and grounded for the modern world.  He build LaWayra - currently the biggest Ayahuasca retreat in Colombia, while raising 3 small kids all in 2 foreign languages and without any business background. At LaWayra he has guided close to 3000 people through their Ayahuasca experience.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this conversation, Patricia Eastman and Dennis McKenna explore the deeper meaning of psychedelic healing through the lens of ancestral wisdom, initiation, and nature-based practice. Patricia shares the story behind her book Seeding Consciousness and her vision for Hu Azores, a retreat center in Portugal designed as a healing space that integrates architecture, ritual, and circadian-aware design. The discussion moves beyond symptom treatment and into a bigger question: how psychedelics can support creativity, integration, and a more connected human experience. - - - Patricia Eastman, Initiated is a Bwiti Traditional Practitioner for over 11 years and founder of the nonprofit Ancestral Heart, has curated transformative retreats with plant medicines worldwide as well as facilitated the psychospiritual program with ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT at Crossroads Treatment Center in Mexico. A renowned speaker, artist, and writer, Eastman has engaged with audiences at Stanford University, the World Economic Forum, and on Gaia TV's Psychedelica. Eastman is the author of Seeding Consciousness: Plant Medicine, Ancestral Wisdom, and Psychedelic Initiation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2003, Carlos Tanner woke up in his car underwater, having blacked out behind the wheel and driven into a river. Deep in an opiate addiction, he went to the Amazon to save his own life. What he found there became his life's work. In this episode of the Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna sits down with Carlos, founder of the Ayahuasca Foundation in Iquitos, Peru, for a wide-ranging conversation on healing, tradition, and what happens when a sacred medicine goes global. Carlos recounts his apprenticeship under the late curandero Don Juan Tangoa Paima, who first took him in, and how that path led him to build the Ayahuasca Foundation around one idea: to give the next person the map he never had. He and Dennis also trace a shared history back to their involvement in the documentary The Shaman and the Scientist. At the heart of the conversation is a tension they both clearly feel. Both support plant medicine, yet don’t fully agree on where it should go. Dennis, who first brought the ayahuasca vine to Hawaii in 1976, is openly conflicted about his role in spreading it globally. Carlos presses the question: you can move the plant, but can you move what makes it heal? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna sits down with medicinal chemist Matt Metcalf to explore a genuinely strange frontier: testing drugs in pea seedlings and the touch-sensitive Mimosa pudica instead of in mice. Along the way they circle the question that started it all, why the opium poppy spends so much energy making opioids at all, and what those molecules might be doing inside a plant that has no nerves. - - - Matthew Metcalf is a neuroscientist with a background in the medicinal chemistry and pharmacology of opioids and cannabinoids as analgesic drugs. He is an assistant professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University (MCPHS) School of Pharmacy - Worcester. His current research focuses on the development of New Approach Methodologies (NAMs, sometimes called Non-Animal Models) drug tests to limit the use of animals used in drug testing. His current work focuses on the use of living plants as the biological organisms to replace animal models used as drug tests. Outside of his research he is passionate about auroras and timelapse photography. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dennis McKenna sits down with his old friend Dr. Cedric Baker, an ethnopharmacologist and medical herbalist who studies the ethnobotany of food across more than thirty countries. Together they take apart one of modern medicine's most stubborn assumptions: that food and medicine are separate things. From Thai kitchens where every dish is therapeutic, to the world's longevity hotspots, to the ethics of who owns a plant, it's a conversation that will leave you looking at your own plate a little differently. - - - Cedric Barrett Baker is an ethnopharmacologist, food ethnopharmacognoist, medicinal food ethnobotanist, integrative oncology medical herbalist, pharmaconutrition research scientist, & medical botany, pharmacognosy and pharmacy historian. He is also a licensed Rph. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the psychedelic renaissance surges, wild sources are collapsing under demand—peyote takes decades to grow, safrole extraction is destroying Southeast Asian forests, and Sonoran Desert toads are being overharvested. In his book Bioengineering Enlightenment, Prof. Jeffrey Gerst proposes a radical solution: engineer yeast or fast-growing plants to produce psychedelic compounds sustainably. But at what cost? Dennis McKenna warns this could strip these substances from their cultural and ecological roots, veering into biopiracy. Together, they debate biotech vs. tradition, exploring alternatives like community-led agroforestry, symbiotic rights, and the “Om Fund” to return profits to Indigenous stewards. They also revisit Terence McKenna’s “Stoned Ape” hypothesis, asking whether paleogenomics could experimentally probe the evolution of human consciousness. - - - Jeffrey Gerst, born and raised in New York, is a Professor of Biology with over three decades of academic experience. He began his career at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and has since held a long-standing position at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where he serves as the Besen-Brender Chair of Microbiology and Parasitology. His research focuses on how proteins are correctly localized within cells, particularly through the trafficking of messenger RNA (mRNA), a process essential for normal cellular function and disease prevention. Among his key contributions, Gerst’s work has demonstrated that mammalian cells can transfer mRNA between one another, revealing a novel form of intercellular communication. His lab is now exploring this mechanism as a potential gene therapy approach to treat rare genetic disorders such as Tay-Sachs, cystic fibrosis, and Gaucher’s disease by enabling targeted RNA delivery within the body. In addition to his biomedical research, Gerst advocates for the sustainable production of psychedelic compounds using genetic engineering. He is the author of Bioengineering Enlightenment and has presented this work at major scientific conferences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dennis McKenna sits down with journalist Mattha Busby to discuss the evolving world of psychedelics, including ayahuasca, ibogaine, 5-MeO-DMT, coca policy, drug reform, and the risks and realities behind psychedelic retreats and clinics. Mattha shares stories from the front lines of psychedelic journalism and reflects on the cultural, scientific, and political forces shaping the future of consciousness research. - - - Mattha Busby is a freelance journalist who has covered drug policy, psychedelics, culture and society for VICE, WIRED, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, LA Times and Esquire. He is the author of two slim volume books, Should All Drugs Be Legalized? (Thames & Hudson, 2022) and Psychedelics: A Pocket Primer (Hoxton Mini Press, 2025). He is represented by literary agents Aevitas Creative and is currently working on his first novel. He has also given keynotes on psychedelic culture on both sides of the Atlantic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this rich and thought-provoking conversation, Dennis McKenna speaks with philosopher Mandi Astola about Terence McKenna, psychedelics, epistemology, shamanism, and the nature of knowledge. Together they explore how psychedelic experiences can produce both genuine insight and dangerous overconfidence, why intellectual humility matters, and how science and shamanic ways of knowing can complement each other. The discussion also touches on the “Stoned Ape” theory, the Timewave, the trickster archetype, and the role of psychedelics as tools for understanding reality, consciousness, and human evolution. A fascinating dialogue for anyone interested in philosophy, altered states, ethics, and the limits of what we know. - - - Mandi Astola is a philosopher specializing in epistemology, ethics and ethics of technology. She is assistant professor at Delft University of Technology's philosophy section. In particular, Mandi's work focuses on character and what features of character make someone a good person, or a good thinker. She is also part of a project, involving multiple universities, that investigates the contribution that various disciplines in the arts can make to ethical reflection on new technologies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Dennis McKenna and Viktor Wynd for a fascinating conversation on dark fairy tales, strange museum curiosities, Papua New Guinea, storytelling, collecting, and the hidden intelligence of nature. Viktor Wynd, writer, artist, and founder of the Museum of Curiosities, shares stories from his travels, his love of folklore, and his perspective on art, books, and the living world. For viewers interested in folklore, ethnobotany, consciousness, rare books, oddities, and the intersection of science, spirit, and wonder. - - - Viktor Wynd is a writer, artist, and the proprietor of the eponymous Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art and UnNatural History in London. He regularly leads expeditions to Papua New Guinea, the Congo and beyond, taking small groups with him via his boutique travel agency Gone with the Wynd. He is the author of Viktor Wynd's Cabinet of Wonders and The UnNatural History Museum, both published by Prestel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Legal Disclaimer: The following content explores the chemistry and history of psychoactive plants for educational research. No Medical Claims: The Brainforest Café Podcast and Dennis McKenna do not make any claims regarding the health benefits or safety of the substances discussed. Any statements made by the guest regarding physical effects or health outcomes are personal anecdotes and should not be interpreted as medical advice. Safety & Legality: This conversation includes theoretical discussions on chemical synthesis. We do not encourage illegal activities or the handling of potentially toxic compounds (such as Ergot fungi). Please adhere to all local laws and regulations. - - - Chemist Matthew Stahl shares with Dennis McKenna his discovery that ancient Eleusinian kykeon likely used barley infected with a safe fungus, mixed with young barley's natural plant compounds under mild acid to transform a mild substance into a powerful, LSD-like visionary brew with no nausea. - - - Matthew Stahl learned Lab chemistry while attending Texas A&M University and Texas Lutheran University for 4 years at Texas A&M University and 2 years at Texas Lutheran University. He has worked in the Automotive production industry for 32 years, in the quality department, with chemistry, to achieve enhanced safety and better performance. Matthew Stahl has read at least 200 books on psychedelics, numerous papers, and studied psychedelics for around 24 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Dennis McKenna in this insightful conversation with Rebecca Lazarou as they explore the urgent need to preserve ancestral medicinal plant knowledge, the role of ethnopharmacology, and how traditional herbal wisdom can be protected for future generations. Rebecca shares the story behind her PhD research on Cypriot medicinal plants and her mission to document at-risk ethnobotanical knowledge before it disappears. They also discuss citizen science, cultural heritage, biodiversity, and the connection between science and traditional healing. - - - IMPORTANT NOTICE: Due to unforeseen circumstances the activities for Rebecca's event in London has now shifted. The date and location will be the same, and it will still be a highly educational event but it will now be a more intimate home herbalism medicine making workshop. Participants will learn all about medicinal plants, the medical system, and will be making their own teas to take home with herbs focused on mental health and stress. Rebecca will also talk about ethnobotany, have a herbal tea bar, and all proceeds still go towards supporting her research. - - - Rebecca Lazarou’s work is an ecology of different disciplines spanning across medical science, ethnopharmacology, herbalism, holistic healthcare, cannabis and psychedelics. She is also an activist, writer, speaker and herbal formulator. She is currently a PhD candidate at Kew Gardens and UCL School of Pharmacy with a focus on ethnopharmacology and herbal medicines. She was the science and managing editor for the ESPD55 volume, is currently co-editor for education charity Herbal Reality and founded Laz The Plant Scientist to bring quality, sustainably sourced herbal medicines and education to people. She is passionate about democratizing knowledge, and rekindling ethnobotany and herbalism from being marginalised disciplines to part of common knowledge again. Ultimately her aim is to help nurture our relationship with nature through natural medicines, and support our species return back to Earth centred living. She is devoted to science to demystify these topics, but equally I am committed to rekindling the magic, awe and healing we find on our precious Earth. You can read more about her work at rebeccalazarou.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna sits down with award-winning filmmaker Greg Hemmings to discuss the transformative power of storytelling and its ability to catalyze social and environmental change. Greg reveals his personal battle with long COVID and how it led to his Rewiring the Muse project, which uses neuroscience and EEG data to track his recovery. The conversation also explores Greg’s diverse film projects, including the sci-fi series Revival, the scripted feature on homelessness What We Dreamed of Then, and the climate documentary The Berg. It further delves into his profound experience using Wachuma in Peru to reorganize his brainwaves and restore the creative energy lost during his struggle with long COVID. - - - Greg Hemmings is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker whose work examines how storytelling can catalyze positive social and environmental change. He is the founder of Hemmings House Pictures, a certified B Corporation that produces documentary, factual, and scripted works for international audiences. Greg’s recent projects explore the intersections of neuroscience, creativity, ecology, and consciousness, with particular interest in how human relationships to nature, including traditional and contemporary research into plant-based knowledge systems, can inform wellbeing and collective resilience. In 2023, he received an honorary doctorate for contributions to the arts and social change. Greg is also a mentor, speaker, musician, and lifelong student of what helps humans—and the planet—thrive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dennis McKenna and OpticMystic explore humble, a graphic meditation on openness, self-questioning, books, technology, AI, love, and the ongoing mystery of what it means to be human. - - - OpticMystic a.k.a Hugo Amadeu is just a human fascinated by being alive. He intended to be an astrophysicist or an oceanographer but ended up studying graphic design and becoming a freelancer. He worked on DMT: The Spirit Molecule documentary film by Mitch Schultz, ESPD 50 book and later at the McKenna Academy. Currently, he is working with Namae Ntumae at CWays Home performing all sorts of media wizardry. He is also a sandwriter, musician, writer and terrific dishwasher. A bookworm from early age, his curiosity and passion for reading has made him a sort of accidental philosopher. A trance festival, more than 20 years ago, altered profoundly the course of his life and his hopes for the future. A few, yet, intense psychedelic experiences assured him that there is certainly more to the world than the eyes can see. Devout atheist with a profound feeling for the sacred, he will ignore the gods but embrace the spirits. There is something punk in his approach, an itchiness for authority and a refusal to compromise that arises from earnest questioning. He has written a graphic meditation called “Humble”. An exploration of ideas that reflect on openness, relativity and love as forms of approaching the self and the other(s). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special crossover episode of Plants of the Gods and Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna and Mark Plotkin explore sacred plant medicines, psychedelic science, and indigenous wisdom, moving from DMT and ayahuasca to virola snuffs, salvia, ibogaine, and beyond. Originally recorded for Mark´s Podcast “Plants of the Gods”, this rich conversation on ethnobotany, shamanic healing, and the future of psychedelic medicine is now being released as a special crossover on both shows. - - - Dr. Mark Plotkin is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent more than four decades working alongside Indigenous communities of the Amazon to document and protect traditional plant knowledge. He is President and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), a nonprofit he launched in 1996 with fellow conservationist and his wife, Liliana Madrigal, to support Indigenous stewardship of tropical forests and biocultural knowledge. Dr. Plotkin is also the host of Plants of the Gods, a popular podcast exploring hallucinogenic plants and fungi and their powerful influence on world culture, religion, and healing. He is the author of several widely read books on ethnobotany and conservation and has shared his work through a TED Talk and lectures around the world. Dr. Plotkin was educated at Harvard, Yale, and Tufts University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ethnobiologist Michael Coe returns to Brainforest Café with a special mission: to turn the spotlight onto Dennis McKenna’s lifelong dedication to ayahuasca, visionary plants, and ethnopharmacology. In this intimate conversation, Michael honors Dennis’ 54 years in the psychedelic space, from early fieldwork in the Amazon to pioneering biochemical and pharmacological research on plant medicines. The discussion explores the importance of mentorship, with Dennis now seeing his primary role as supporting a new generation of ethnobiologists like Michael and their work with indigenous communities and threatened medicinal plant traditions. Together, they discuss standing on the shoulders of giants, the challenges of academia and funding, and why following what “puts fire in your belly” matters more than chasing titles. - - - Michael Coe is an ethnobiologist and applied ecologist with a Ph.D. in Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology. As an Assistant Professor at Tarleton State University, his teaching and research focuses on the relationships between humans, ecosystems, and traditional knowledge systems. Passionate about biodiversity and the sustainable management of natural resources, Michael brings a dynamic interdisciplinary perspective, helping to integrate contemporary ethnobiology and ecology with traditional ecological practices to inform sustainable use strategies, conservation priorities, and global medicine security. Michael is the principal investigator (PI) for the COE LAB where they are conducting hypothesis driven research in ethnobiology and harvest impact assessments on medicinal plants that serve as a primary source of healthcare for over 80% of the world's population. Michael is also the Director for Research and Education for the Pacha Nishi project, a Shipibo-Konibo led effort in the Peruvian Amazon basin seeking to restore 20ha. of degraded land in an agroforestry setting with a primary goal to inform sustainable ayahuasca production in the area as locally sourced sustainably grown medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover Una Meistere’s journey from Soviet-era Latvia to becoming a bridge between indigenous plant medicines, psychedelic science, art, and Baltic traditions in this in-depth conversation with ethnobotanist Dennis McKenna. They explore ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms in Latvia, Amanita muscaria, and ancient sauna rituals as a kind of “Latvian ayahuasca,” touching on symbiosis with nature and how psychedelic experiences can help heal our disconnection from the natural world. ​ Una shares how synchronicities led her from journalism to co-founding Arterritory, Spiriterritory, and the NGO Veseliba Latvija, and to organizing the first psychedelic science conferences in Latvia together with the University of Latvia. The discussion dives into stigma, legal grey zones, human rights to psychedelic-assisted therapies, and the Baltic region’s emerging role in the global psychedelic renaissance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Coe is an ethnobiologist and applied ecologist with a Ph.D. in Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology. As an Assistant Professor at Tarleton State University, his teaching and research focuses on the relationships between humans, ecosystems, and traditional knowledge systems. Passionate about biodiversity and the sustainable management of natural resources, Michael brings a dynamic interdisciplinary perspective, helping to integrate contemporary ethnobiology and ecology with traditional ecological practices to inform sustainable use strategies, conservation priorities, and global medicine security. Michael is the principal investigator (PI) for the COE LAB where they are conducting hypothesis driven research in ethnobiology and harvest impact assessments on medicinal plants that serve as a primary source of healthcare for over 80% of the world's population. Michael is also the Director for Research and Education for the Pacha Nishi project, a Shipibo-Konibo led effort in the Peruvian Amazon basin seeking to restore 20ha. of degraded land in an agroforestry setting with a primary goal to inform sustainable ayahuasca production in the area as locally sourced sustainably grown medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terence McKenna was the stand‑up philosopher of the apocalypse. A cognitive libertarian. The anti‑guru who rejected authority—even his own. Twenty‑five years after his passing, the “Tryptamine Elf King” still haunts the present, reverberating through the sensorium of a new generation. Inspired by Graham St John’s definitive magnum opus, Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna, the inner circle—the family, the friends, and the co‑conspirators who knew the man behind the myth—came together for an extraordinary online conversation. PANELISTS BIOGRAPHIES: Dennis McKenna and his brother Terence first came to S. America in 1971. Their unexpected adventures in pursuit of exotic psychedelics led to some surprising discoveries recounted in Terence’s book, True Hallucinations, and Dennis’ 2012 memoir, The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss. In 1981, Dennis returned to Peru, this time as a graduate student, and began his scientific investigations of ayahuasca. In 2019 he founded the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy. Graham St John, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist and historian of transformational events, movements, and figures. His new book Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna (MIT Press, Oct 7, 2025) is the latest among his ten books, which also include Mystery School in Hyperspace: A Cultural History of DMT (North Atlantic Books 2015). Graham is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Media, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Tama Starr is an acclaimed author and former president of Artkraft Strauss, the historic company behind Times Square's iconic signs and the New Year’s Eve Ball. A pioneering psychedelic yogi, she is connected to Terence McKenna’s circle and recorded one of his earliest talks. Starr’s work spans literature, business, and psychedelic culture. R.U. Sirius is a cultural icon best known as founder and editor-in-chief of the influential 1990s cyberdelic magazine Mondo 2000. He authored multiple books including collaborations with Timothy Leary and is also a lyricist and vocalist, currently active with the album The Smarter Kings of Deliria by R.U. Sirius & Phriendz. Dr. Bruce Damer is an astrobiologist and Chief Scientist at the BIOTA Institute, UC Santa Cruz, known for co-authoring a leading origin-of-life hypothesis. He also pioneers psychedelic insight research through the Center for MINDS and has designed innovative spacecraft concepts for NASA. Damer collaborated with Terence McKenna on early virtual worlds and explores humanity’s cosmic future. Dan Levy, New York-based since 1988, edited Terence McKenna’s key books: The Archaic Revival, True Hallucinations, and The Invisible Landscape (2nd ed.). An early WELL member, he built pioneering websites for McKenna, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, and more. He taught programming to kids and serves on The Jazz Gallery board. Lorenzo Hagerty is a former Navy officer turned cyber-lawyer and storyteller, known for founding the Psychedelic Salon podcast. With decades at the crossroads of technology, culture, and consciousness, he explores AI's connection to Terence McKenna’s TimeWave theory through his fiction and public talks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices