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Hey everybody! Episode 32 of the show is out. In this show, I spoke with Dennis McKenna. Dennis is one of the pioneers of plant medicine work and has been a bridge for shedding light and bringing plant-medicine wisdom to the public. He and his brother Terence McKenna, I think, are great ambassadors for this work at large. Dennis has been involved in research, writing, and teaching for decades and brings a wisdom and experience to all of his talks. It was a pleasure and honor to speak with him and I think you all will get a lot out of this episode. To view bonus material and extended conversations, check out my Patreon page below. Enjoy!
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“Dennis McKenna’s professional and personal interests are focused on the interdisciplinary study of ethnopharmacology and natural hallucinogens. He received his doctorate in 1984 from the University of British Columbia, where his research focused on ethnopharmacological investigations of ayahuasca and oo-koo-he, two indigenous Amazonian psychedelic medicines. He completed post-doctoral studies at the Helicon Foundation in San Diego (1984-86), the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology at NIMH (1986-88) and the Department of Neurology at Stanford University (1988-1990). He worked at Shaman Pharmaceuticals as Director of Ethnopharmacology from 1990-93, and relocated to Minnesota in 1993 to join the Aveda Corporation as Senior Research Pharmacognosist.Dr. McKenna taught courses in Ethnopharmacology, Botanical Medicines and Plants in Human Affairs in the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota from 2001 to 2017. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute and serves on the advisory board of non-profit organizations in the fields of ethnobotany and botanical medicines. He was a key organizer and participant in the Hoasca Project, an international biomedical study of ayahuasca used as a sacrament by the UDV, a syncretic religious group in Brazil. He is the younger brother of Terence McKenna. From 2004 to 2008, he was the Principal Investigator on a project funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute to investigate Amazonian ethnomedicines for the treatment of schizophrenia and cognitive deficits. In 2017, with the collaboration of many colleagues, he organized and presented a landmark symposium, the Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs: 50 years of Research (ESPD50.com). The conference commemorated the 50th anniversary of the original conference held in San Francisco in 1967. Synergetic Press published a limited edition of the Proceedings of both the 1967 and 2017 symposia as a double volume set in 2018. In the spring of 2019, in collaboration with colleagues in Canada and the U.S., he incorporated a new non-profit, the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy. He emigrated to Canada in the spring of 2019 together with his wife Sheila, and now resides in Abbotsford, B.C.”
To learn more about Dennis and his work, vist: https://mckenna.academy/
This episode of the show is sponsored by the Temple of the Way of Light. To learn more or sign up for a retreat, visit:
https://templeofthewayoflight.org/
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My colleague Merav Artzi (who I interviewed in episode 28) and I will be running diets in the Sacred Valley of Peru on March 3-19 and May 1-17. If you would like more information about joining us and the work I do, visit my site at: https://www.NicotianaRustica.org
And finally, with the pandemic, most people doing this work have been without access to work since March and the future is uncertain. If you are able to and would like to donate to the show to help out with new content that would be deeply appreciated. For just a few dollars a month you can subscribe through Patreon and it gives you some really nice added benefits like early access to shows, bonus episodes, and a chance to ask personalized questions.
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Music courtesy of Nuno Moreno. See his work at: https://m.soundcloud.com/groove_a_zen_sound and https://nahira-ziwa.bandcamp.com/
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This will help me with ideas for future shows.
Thanks and until the next episode!