We return to the world of Aurduin this week with the next two chapters from the audiobook of The Fate of Miraanni. In chapter 17, Kalzhat and his men lure a flying machine of the west into a trap and in chapter 18, Miraanni meets with the mysterious Mwataan and gets some face time with the mighty Serpent King.

This week the play and musical, "Ayahuasca Inside Out," debuts at the NY Fringe Festival, opening on Monday, April 14th, and running through the 20th. To help hype up the event, I had a great conversation with Loren Crea Abbade and Anthony Hidalgo to tell us all about it last week to get this out in time to mark their opening day and celebrate how what originated as a birthday surprise ended up as a theater production.

I'm welcoming Mario Garnier back onto the podcast this week. Mario is one of the founders of the World Bufo Alvarius Congress, held for several years in Mexico City. He's now running a mens' retreat program in Mexico called "Bufo Camp," so I thought it would be a good time to bring him back on the podcast to share all about it. Mario also recently created an AI-generated conversation about Bufo and 5-MeO, and if you'd like to give it a listen, click HERE.

I'm joined by Austin West this week sharing his journey into psychedelic medicines, healing through crisis, why "safety" isn't always the best priority, and more. Austin leads men's groups, offers mentoring, and also provides holistic approaches to wellbeing through Entheos Holistics. We had a great conversation the other month and here it is for your listening pleasure. You can find out more about Austin on his personal webpage HERE and check out Entheos Holistics HERE.

This week's episode is all about my personal creative process. I'm taking 5 tracks off my new album, "The Alchemist and the Eagle," and sharing with the listeners about the stories behind the stories behind the music. With each song, I share about what went into creating it, how it fits with the novel, and how events and experiences in my personal life shaped the characters and plot developments in the first place - so we get into some of my psychedelic experiences, my time as a grad student studying at the Mescalero Apache reservation, experiences at Burning Man, and more, and how it all helped shape the story. I get into how I worked to create the songs to go with the particular chapters and how it influenced the sounds, textures, and instruments used in the songs. You can stream the entire album HERE for free, if you'd like to hear the entire thing. I hope you enjoy this exploration of the creative process with me.

This week I'm welcoming back to the podcast Canada-based 5-MeO-DMT facilitator, Chad Charles. Chad has just launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for a one-of-a-kind 5-MeO-DMT research project. As he shares with us here on the podcast, he's collected a wealth of notes and data from all of his sessions and is now looking to comb through this trove of data to find patterns, results, and insights. You can support his project at www.gofundme.com/f/support-chad-charles-project and also learn more about him at ChadCharles.net

Also, Sarah Knapik has a new offering for women's work with 5 here

I'm taking a detour from my regular rhythm on the podcast this week to share some of my thoughts on the current state of the US and the fascist regime change underway, orchestrated with maximum chaos, brutality, corruption, and incompetency. Here I'm reading from three essays I've previously posted online where I'm applying my background as a professor of Religious Studies. The first, "What is a Cult?" comes from Jan, 2021. The next, "A Brief Guide to the 'Spiritual' Forces at Play in Trumpism," was from Nov, 2024, and the final, "On the Apotheosis of Loyalty as the Ultimate Virtue in the Trump Cult Kakistocracy" is also from Nov, 2024.