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Brainforest Café

SpectreVision Radio

In the Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna discusses a wide range of topics related to philosophy, plant medicines, psychedelics and consciousness in nature. Guests are invited from diverse fields such as anthropology, neuroscience, and spirituality to explore various aspects of the human experience. Some of the topics that are covered in the Brainforest Café include the history and the role of plant medicines in traditional healing practices and the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy for mental health. The Brainforest Café also explores the cultural, social, and political implications of psychedelic use. Dennis McKenna shares his own personal experiences with plant medicines, offering insights and reflections on his own journey of self-discovery and transformation. The Brainforest Café is a thought-provoking and engaging exploration of the intersection between science, spirituality, and culture, and offers a valuable perspective on the potential of plant medicines to transform our understanding of ourselves and the natural world.

McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy
https://mckenna.academy/


SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring the anomalous, the luminous, and the numinous. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

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  • 24 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 1 hr 8 min
  • English

Episodes 24

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  • S1 · E68
    September 7 · 1 hr 2 min

    Ibogaine and the Bicameral Mind - Part 1

    Jonathan Dickinson, co-founder and CEO of Ambio Life Sciences and founder of Terragnosis, joins Dr. Dennis McKenna on the Brainforest Cafe for a conversation about ibogaine, iboga, and the Bwiti tradition of Gabon.

  • S1 · E67
    August 24 · 1 hr 1 min

    Inside Colombia’s Top Ayahuasca Retreat

    A grounded and insightful discussion on ayahuasca, indigenous reciprocity, and how responsible retreat culture can support deep healing.

  • S1 · E66
    August 10 · 1 hr 13 min

    Ibogaine, Kintsugi & the Secret to True Healing

    What if healing isn’t about fixing yourself, but remembering who you are? A powerful conversation on psychedelic healing, ancestral wisdom, and why true transformation begins with ritual, integration, and a living relationship to nature.

  • S1 · E65
    July 27 · 1 hr 3 min

    Ayahuasca, Science, and Shamanism

    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.

  • S1 · E64
    July 13 · 1 hr 9 min

    Can Plants Replace Animals in Drug Testing?

    Every drug on the pharmacy shelf was once tested on animals, and a rule in the ethics of research says that if a humane alternative can be built, it should be. Almost no one builds it. Matt Metcalf is trying to, using living plants.

  • S1 · E63
    June 29 · 1 hr 2 min

    The Pharmacy Was Always the Pantry

    In this episode of the Brainforest Café, Dr. Dennis McKenna sits down with his old friend Dr. Cedric Baker, an ethnopharmacologist and medical herbalist who has spent decades studying the ethnobotany of food across five continents.

  • S1 · E62
    June 14 · 1 hr 13 min

    Can Yeast Save Endangered Psychedelics?

    As the global psychedelic renaissance accelerates, wild-harvested plants face a devastating supply-and-demand crisis. Peyote cactus takes up to thirty years to mature, sassafras forests in Southeast Asia are being clear-cut and incinerated to distill safrole for MDMA, and Sonoran Desert toad populations are being decimated for 5-MeO-DMT.

  • S1 · E61
    June 1 · 1 hr 13 min

    Inside the Front Lines of Psychedelic Journalism

    Psychedelic journalist Mattha Busby discusses ayahuasca, ibogaine, 5-MeO-DMT, coca policy, chat bot drugs, and the future of drug reform in this revealing episode.

  • S1 · E58
    April 20 · 1 hr 7 min

    Decoding the Divine: The Shared LSI Secret of the Greek Kykeon and Vedic Soma

    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.

  • S1 · E56
    March 23 · 54 min

    Rewiring the Muse to Restore Creative Flow

    Intimate conversation where filmmaker Greg Hemmings explores psychedelics, plant medicine, and creative healing while announcing his neuroscience-infused YouTube series “Rewiring the Muse”.

  • S1 · E54
    February 23 · 1 hr 16 min

    Remarkable Amazonian plants that shape human consciousness

    Ethnobotanists Mark Plotkin and Dennis McKenna explore ayahuasca, DMT, sacred plant medicines, indigenous wisdom, and psychedelic science in a unique cross-release of Plants of the Gods and Brainforest Café.

  • S1 · E51
    January 12 · 55 min

    Pacha Nishi Project, Ayahuasca Cultivation, and Amazonian Restoration

    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 tradit

  • S1 · E50
    January 5 · 2 hr 40 min

    Strange Attractor: The Hallucinatory Life of Terence McKenna

    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—

Showing 1–20 of 24 episodes