Dear Readers:
My latest guest is historian Erika Dyck. Erika is one of the world’s leading authorities on psychedelics both past and present. She hails from Saskatchewan, Canada, which back in the 1950s was ground zero for new scientific research into psychedelic therapy, an era she wrote about in her first book, and which we talk about at some length in our conversation.
We also discuss her youth in Saskatoon, how she became a historian, the current psychedelic renaissance, and even a chance encounter she had with Timothy Leary back in the early 1990s. It’s great stuff.
As always the podcast is available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Pocketcasts, and the Substack app.
Episode Outline
0:00-5:18: Introduction.
5:18-20:26: Early life in Saskatchewan, possible roots of research focus, early interest in history, college years, crossing the whole country in the mid-90s, the arrival of the internet, being a history major at Dalhousie University, return to Saskatoon, “doing” versus “studying,” parenting in the 80s and 90s.
20:26-35:25: Getting interested in graduate school, getting involved in politics, thinking about going back for the PhD, working at a movie theater and meeting Timothy Leary, deciding on the PhD program at McMaster University.
35:25-56:21: Starting the program at McMaster University, Saskatchewan’s mid-twentieth-century socialist government and the road to psychedelic research, Humphrey Osmond, 1950s psychedelic therapy, Captain Al Hubbard, controversies related to psychedelic therapy.
56:21-1:16:09: Finishing the dissertation, first job at the University of Alberta, getting taken seriously when you study drugs, psychedelics and awe, studying eugenics and then madness, editing a book on peyote and the Native American Church—a new direction into indigenous ritual and ceremony.
1:16:09-1:30:09: Thoughts on the psychedelic renaissance, thinking with psychedelics, the psychedelic gold rush, harm reduction and psychedelics, the role of the internet, social media.
1:30:09-end: Outro.
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