Plantscendence
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.
Episodes
Tricia 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 transform...
How 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 ...
Expanding 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 th...
Doris 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 mo...
Healing 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 graf...
Can 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 d...
Host 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 p...
US 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 encounte...
How 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 wel...
Paris, 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 subse...
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 medic...
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