Divergent States
Divergent States
Podcast Description
The Divergent States Podcast, hosted by "3L1T3"—founder of the Psychonaut subreddit with nearly 500k members—and co-hosted by Bryan, a USMC veteran passionate about psychedelics for therapeutic healing, explores the intersection of psychedelics, science, spirituality, and culture. Featuring guests like Hamilton Morris, Dr. Rick Strassman, and Dr. Rick Doblin, we blend cutting-edge research with personal stories to showcase how psychedelics transform mental health, creativity, and culture. Join us as we navigate the frontier of consciousness.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on psychedelics, mental health, spirituality, and cultural implications, with episodes detailing topics such as the therapeutic use of MDMA for veterans, the legacy of the Shulgin family, and the evolution of the r/Psychonaut subreddit. Specific focus areas include community support, harm reduction in psychedelic use, and the intersection of science and spirituality in therapeutic contexts.
Divergent States cuts through psychedelic hype with grounded, curious conversations about what these substances actually do.
Hosted by 3L1T3, founder of r/Psychonaut, the world’s largest psychedelic harm-reduction community, and co-hosted by Bryan, a USMC veteran and advocate for psychedelic healing, the show brings together lived experience, science, and culture without losing its sense of humor.
This isn’t a spiritual podcast.
This isn’t a marketing platform.
No mysticism. No sales pitch. Just real conversations, harm reduction, and honest questions.
We explore how psychedelics shape mental health, creativity, and society, from underground use and peer-support communities to clinical trials, therapy rooms, and shifting public attitudes. Some episodes get serious. Some get weird. All of them are grounded in respect for the people actually taking these substances and living with the outcomes.
Guests include Rick Doblin, Reggie Watts, Leonard Pickard, Anne Wagner, Hamilton Morris, and Rick Strassman.
Divergent States is built on the same principles that made r/Psychonaut work at scale: curiosity without gullibility, openness without losing your footing, and safety without killing the joy.
If you’re looking for guru worship, this isn’t your show.
If you’re looking for thoughtful, funny, and grounded conversations about psychedelics and the lives they touch, welcome to Divergent States.
New episodes every two weeks.
This is the human center of The Many Faces of Coca.
By the time coca enters Western conversations, it’s already been abstracted—reduced to policy, drugs, or crime. But for millions of people, coca isn’t any of those things.
It’s daily life.
In this final episode of the series, we speak with political theorist and anthropologist Manuela Picq, who has lived and worked alongside communities in the Andes and Amazon. This conversation moves beyond theory and into lived reality—how coca functions as food, medicine, memory, and community.
We explore:
– Why coca is not cocaine—and why that distinction matters
– How prohibition reshapes entire communities
– The generational loss of cultural knowledge
– The role of women as keepers of coca traditions
– How global policy decisions impact real lives on the ground
– Why the war on coca may actually be a war on people
If Parts 1 and 2 explored the science and history of coca, this episode asks a deeper question:
What does it mean to live with this plant today?
This is Part 3 of The Many Faces of Coca
Featuring conversations with Wade Davis, Dennis McKenna, and Manuela Picq
Chapters:
00:00 Intro – Coca as Lived Reality (Not Policy)
04:05 Who Defines Coca? (Culture vs Western Narratives)
09:51 How Coca Became Criminalized
13:22 Coca in Daily Life (Food, Medicine, Community)
18:02 From Tradition to Cash Crop
22:19 Who Pays the Price? (Violence & Exploitation)
25:45 Prohibition, Capitalism & the Drug War
28:35 Women, Knowledge & Hidden Traditions
33:37 Is Coca Control Really About Power?
36:32 The UN, Policy & Global Disconnect
40:09 What the World Gets Wrong About Coca
41:15 Closing Thoughts (End of Interview)
43:07 Post-Conversation Reflection (Why This Series Matters)
45:31 Where to Go Next (Series, Patreon, Discord)
Download the app or text/call 62-FIRESIDE
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Our listeners get 10% off the Zendo Project SIT Program with the code DIVERGENTS10
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Special Thanks to our Macrodosers, Super D, Mike, and Oceanna, on Patreon!
Disclaimer
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