20. The Current State of Psychedelics: An Insider’s Perspective
Release Date: 06/19/2025
30. Psychedelic Journalist, Harm Reduction Activist, Community Builder
Psychedelic Divas
In Episode 30, Psychedelic Divas welcomes Annie Harrison, a pioneering journalist, harm-reduction advocate, and founder of the Women’s Visionary Congress and co-founder of Lucid News. We explore Annie’s decades-long contributions to drug reporting including her current role as Editorial Director at Lucid News, her commitment to risk reduction and education and her heart-centered leadership within an array of psychedelic communities. In this episode, Annie discusses: Her psychedelic origin story, including her early psychedelic safety education from Grateful Dead shows, Rainbow Gatherings...
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29. Psilocybin Politics in New Mexico
Psychedelic Divas
Episode 29 features New Mexico State Representative Andrea Romero (House District 46) in a hopeful conversation about psychedelics, policy, and community healing. We discuss how New Mexico is leading the way with groundbreaking psilocybin legislation—and why this moment matters far beyond state lines. In this episode, we explore: The passage of SB219, New Mexico’s bipartisan bill decriminalizing psilocybin for therapeutic use How psilocybin will be used to treat treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance use disorders, and end-of-life distress What...
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28. Honoring the Sacred, Psychedelic Goddess
Psychedelic Divas
Episode 28 welcomes Cassidy Rosenblum, founder and editor-in-chief of Thunder Perfect Mind magazine, for a deep conversation about the intersection of psychedelics, the divine feminine, and cultural and religious transformation. In this episode, you’ll hear: Cassidy sharing her journey from a hippie upbringing (her parents named her after Neal Cassady from On the Road.) to reporting on psychedelics for Rolling Stone. The inside story of a transformative group mushroom ceremony with former Mormon women. How Mormon women are choosing ketamine and nitrous over alcohol, which is forbidden by...
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27. Moms on Mushrooms: Breaking the Stigma
Psychedelic Divas
I’m your host, Carla Detchon, and in episode 27 of Psychedelic Divas, I welcome Tracey Tee, founder of Moms on Mushrooms, for a candid conversation about motherhood, microdosing, and breaking the stigma around plant medicine. Tracey shares her personal journey from comedy to community building, and how psychedelics have transformed her approach to parenting, wellness, and self-discovery. Highlights: Tracy’s first psychedelic experience and how it changed her life The mission behind Moms on Mushrooms and creating safe spaces for mothers Destigmatizing psychedelics for moms and...
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26. How to Connect with Your Guides
Psychedelic Divas
In past episodes, I’ve often mentioned accessing information in psychedelic sessions from my spirit guides. But what does that really mean? I’m your host, Carla Detchon, and in Episode 26, I share my personal experiences over the past 30+ years of learning to access and work with a range of spirit guides from ancestors to angels, to gods and humans and even my pets. I first learned to access non-ordinary guidance by working with world-renowned Shamanism expert, Michael Harner, and my long-term psychedelic teacher, Ralph Matzner. I share my first encounters of accessing guidance through...
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25. A Trip Through Psychedelic History
Psychedelic Divas
Episode 25 with Marsha Rosenbaum, PhD, is a journey back through the psychedelic time machine. Marsha started her medicine journey back in the 1970s, both as an underground explorer of psychedelics and an above-ground researcher for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). For nearly 20 years, she was the Principal Investigator on grants from NIDA to study women heroin addicts, cocaine, methadone maintenance treatment, and MDMA. She then moved to drug policy and education at the Drug Policy Alliance in San Francisco (where she is Director Emerita) where she founded the Safety First drug...
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24. Sacred Lessons from the Psychedelic Underground
Psychedelic Divas
Hey Diva listeners—this episode does contain descriptions of suicide and overdosing. If this would be difficult or challenging for you to hear, please take care of yourself and skip this episode. In episode 24, we are swimming in the sacred wisdom of the psychedelic underground with author, Rachel Harris, PhD as our guide. Rachel is a psychologist, researcher, and author of "Listening to Ayahuasca" and "Swimming in the Sacred: Wisdom from the Psychedelic Underground." In this episode: Rachel discusses her formative years at the Esalen Institute in the late 1960s, reflecting on the wild,...
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23. Ethics: The Moral Compass of Psychedelic Work
Psychedelic Divas
Hey Diva listeners—this episode does discuss a sexual abuse story. If this would be difficult or challenging for you to hear, please take care of yourself and skip this episode. In Episode 23 of Psychedelic Divas, we explore the critical role of ethics in psychedelics with Dr. Sandra Dreisbach—an ethicist, educator, and leader in the psychedelic community. As a former bioethics professor, tech industry veteran, and founder of EPIC (Ethical Psychedelic International Community), Sandra’s unique perspective is grounded in real-life experience. In this episode: Sandra shares her journey...
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22. I Told My 95-Year-Old Mom I Do Psychedelics
Psychedelic Divas
For over a year, I’ve been creating Psychedelic Divas quietly, without fanfare or a lot of promotion. I told myself I was doing the work my guides had asked me to do — launching the podcast — but deep down, I knew I was still hiding. Hiding from visibility. Hiding from judgment. And, surprisingly, hiding from my 95-year-old mother. In this deeply personal solo episode, I talk about how I shared my psychedelic path with my mother for the first time. For years, I kept this part of my life hidden from her, assuming she’d never understand or accept it. With guidance from my inner...
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21. Psychedelic Advocacy for Liberation and Racial Justice
Psychedelic Divas
Heads up—this episode does discuss street violence and sexual abuse in context of our criminal justice system. If this would be difficult or challenging for you to hear, you might want to skip this episode. In episode 21 I share my recent experience at the Psychedelic Science Conference in Denver where I got to hang out with many of the guests on this podcast. It’s also where I met today’s guest Sia Henry. Sia is deeply dedicated to liberation and racial justice, with extensive work in criminal legal system reform and abolition. She is a Senior Policy Associate at the...
info_outlineWe are celebrating the one-year anniversary of the podcast with a cornerstone of the psychedelic renaissance: Amy Emerson. Amy is a respected leader in the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy. She was Lykos Therapeutics CEO for an important period in advancing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder as a drug with the FDA. In 2003, she began volunteering with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), assisting with clinical research monitoring. Her expertise was instrumental in establishing MAPS' clinical department and managing the MDMA Clinical Development Program. When MAPS founded its Public Benefit Corporation in 2014 to develop and commercialize MDMA-assisted therapy, Amy was appointed CEO. The organization, later rebranded as Lykos Therapeutics, completed multiple Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials and raised a successful Series A all working toward the goal of obtaining FDA approval for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. Amy resigned from her CEO role in September 2024. Currently she is an advisor in the psychedelic research field.
In this episode, Amy shares about her own personal psychedelic use and how that led her to her early volunteer work with MAPS. We discuss what happened with the FDA approval process with MDMA, what went right, what went wrong and where the process goes from here. As part of the what-went-wrong focus, we explore what can be done to minimize the harm from inappropriate sexual encounters in psychedelic therapy, including the importance of therapists doing their own shadow work to help mitigate such abuse. We do a deep dive into the world of trauma and how these medicines can help provide healing on a number of levels. Amy also provides her dream scenario for where the psychedelic world could ideally be in ten years.
Learn More About Amy Emerson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-emerson-5ab7473/
Connect with Carla
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