Program Notes
Guest speaker: Lorenzohttp://www.psymposia.com/bluedottour/
This is the first of the Psychedelic Salon 2.0 podcasts. It is a very short program that answers the following questions:
1. How did the idea of Salon 2.0 come about?
2. Where did the ideas for how Salon2 will work come from?
3. How much input and control will Lorenzo have in selecting the new programs?
4. How do you provide feedback as to format (lectures, interviews, conversations), etc.
5. Psymposia’s Blue-Dot tour
Psymposia Blue-Dot Tour Information
Currently Scheduled Cities
4/06/17 Boston, MA
4/07/17 Philadelphia, PA
4/08/17 Lancaster, PA
4/09/17 Baltimore, MD
4/11/17 Athens, GA
4/13/17 Austin, TX
4/15/17 Boulder, CO
4/21-23/17 Psychedelic Science in Oakland, CA
4/26/17 Los Angeles, CA
4/27/17 San Diego, CA
Previous Episode
534 - Drugs, Cultures, and the World Corporate State
Next Episode
535 - Salvia Divinorum and Other Plants
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Transcript
00:00:00 ►
Greetings from Cyberdelic Space, this is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in the Psychedelic
00:00:23 ►
Salon, and I’d like to welcome you to the very first of our Salon 2 podcast.
00:00:29 ►
So what is Psychedelic Salon 2.0, you ask?
00:00:33 ►
Well, that’s something that you and I are going to find out over the next year or so.
00:00:38 ►
But first I’d like to make it clear that the Salon 2 podcasts are going to be running in parallel with my regular podcasts. And so the main thing that this means is that if all goes well, well, there
00:00:50 ►
are going to be even more podcasts from the salon than there has been in the past. Hopefully
00:00:55 ►
when I’m done, you’ll have a much better idea of what we’re intending to do here with this
00:00:59 ►
new series. And here are a few of the things that I’m going to try to cover today. Number one, how did the idea for Psychedelic Salon 2.0 come about?
00:01:10 ►
Two, where did the ideas for Salon 2 come from?
00:01:14 ►
Three, how much input and control am I going to have in selecting new programs?
00:01:19 ►
Four, how do you provide feedback as to format, whether they’re lectures, interviews, conversations, etc.
00:01:26 ►
And number five, I want to talk about Symposia’s Blue Dot Tour.
00:01:31 ►
I’m sure that there are other questions that you’re going to want to ask,
00:01:34 ►
but those are the main ones that come to my mind right now.
00:01:37 ►
So, hey, let’s get started.
00:01:40 ►
First of all, how did the Psychedelic Salon 2.0 idea come about?
00:01:44 ►
First of all, how did the Psychedelic Salon 2.0 idea come about?
00:01:53 ►
Well, basically I had a bad day and I decided that I was getting too old to keep on podcasting almost every week.
00:02:06 ►
To be honest here, what had piled up on me was the crazy idea that I could actually keep up with all of the email and other requests to interview people, review books or play recordings that I’d been sent.
00:02:11 ►
And due to my laziness, well, I haven’t been too good at staying organized.
00:02:15 ►
And so dozens and dozens of unanswered emails have piled up.
00:02:19 ►
On top of that, there were a number of books that I promised to review,
00:02:21 ►
but hadn’t yet found the time to read. And then there was the issue of having to disappoint some of our fellow salonners
00:02:26 ►
by not playing the material that they had sent.
00:02:29 ►
And there probably have been a few times when I agreed to be interviewed for somebody else’s podcast,
00:02:34 ►
but had let it slip through the cracks some way.
00:02:38 ►
Now, while all of this is understandable and wasn’t really that big a deal to those who I’d felt I’d let down,
00:02:45 ►
well, it was a big deal to me because back in the day I was a very dependable person,
00:02:50 ►
and now I found myself feeling like I was no longer doing my best. So I figured that I should
00:02:56 ►
probably hang up my microphone before my reputation became even worse. And by the way,
00:03:02 ►
not once did anyone ever call me out on my tardiness, nor has anyone said
00:03:06 ►
that I wasn’t doing a good job. It was all me that was down on me, and my guess is that the same thing
00:03:13 ►
may have happened to you at one time or another as well. Most of us seem to be our own worst critics.
00:03:20 ►
However, after I brashly announced that the salon was coming to an end, I got to thinking about it and realized that while I may not have the energy to keep things going,
00:03:30 ►
that nonetheless, over the last 12 years, the salon has evolved into a useful platform
00:03:36 ►
that our fellow salonners could use to promote their own programs, art, music, or whatever seemed appropriate.
00:03:43 ►
It seemed a shame to let it die on the vine,
00:03:46 ►
and that’s where the idea for Salon 2 came to me.
00:03:50 ►
But I still didn’t have a very clear idea of what it could be,
00:03:53 ►
so my first step was to post something about it on our forums, which I did.
00:03:58 ►
On the forums, several dozen people posted their ideas
00:04:02 ►
about how to transition to a community-based podcast series.
00:04:06 ►
And it was Dan Nassim-Benny who turned me on to Slack.com
00:04:10 ►
and helped me set up a remarkable team of fellow salonners
00:04:14 ►
who were willing to kick some ideas back and forth for a while.
00:04:18 ►
And it was from the Slack team that I finally came up with the ideas
00:04:21 ►
that we are going to experiment with now.
00:04:28 ►
So Dan and all of the 50 members of our team,
00:04:32 ►
I want to thank you one and all for joining in our conversation.
00:04:37 ►
Your input has been very important in helping me to get a grip on where to go next.
00:04:42 ►
And, by the way, you should see the qualifications of that group of fellow salonners.
00:04:46 ►
I’m sure that every hot company in Silicon Valley would give a lot to have such an impressive array of talent available to them.
00:04:50 ►
So that’s where a lot of my ideas about Salon 2 originated.
00:04:55 ►
And one of the comments that Shauna Holm passed along,
00:04:59 ►
I found to be quite important, as she related it to me, and I quote,
00:05:04 ►
I spoke to one guy about this and
00:05:07 ►
he was worried that it would become a free-for-all, meaning the quality of speakers thus far would
00:05:12 ►
deteriorate. I told him I seriously doubted that would happen, but that was his first comment, so
00:05:18 ►
I would suggest speaking to that in terms of how the new material will be chosen and how the
00:05:23 ►
offerings will be maintained
00:05:25 ►
as thought-provoking and intelligent. There are a number of great psychedelic podcasts out there,
00:05:31 ►
but psychedelic salon is by far the most intelligent and insightful medium I have yet to
00:05:36 ►
find. I think most would agree, and there are some who have concerns that the salon will lose that.
00:05:42 ►
End quote. Well, that is something that I also don’t want to lose.
00:05:48 ►
So, just to be very clear, for a while, and I don’t know if that’s going to be six months or six years,
00:05:54 ►
but until there seems to be a general consensus about the way Salon 2 is working,
00:05:59 ►
I will remain the ogre in charge, and I’ll do my best to see that the podcasts from the salon hold to a standard that we’re all pleased with.
00:06:09 ►
What that means is that you and the rest of our fellow saloners are going to have a lot of impact with the comments that you post to our psychedelicsalon.com website,
00:06:20 ►
where you let us know how you think we’re doing.
00:06:23 ►
For what it’s worth, while I don’t do a very good job keeping up with my email,
00:06:28 ►
every single comment on our site is read and approved by me.
00:06:33 ►
Thankfully, there have been only a very few comments that I haven’t approved
00:06:36 ►
and I don’t have to agree with them, but they do have to be tasteful and not of tack pieces.
00:06:41 ►
So please speak up and your voice will definitely be heard.
00:06:46 ►
But that doesn’t completely answer the question, how much input and control am I going to have in
00:06:51 ►
selecting the new programs? Well, as Ogre-in-Chief, of course, I’m going to retain absolute veto power.
00:06:59 ►
But that said, I don’t intend to listen to submitted programs before they are podcast.
00:07:05 ►
that said, I don’t intend to listen to submitted programs before they are podcast. Here’s how we’re going to try it for now. First of all, a complete podcast will be submitted to me along with a very
00:07:11 ►
brief introductory paragraph that I can read to introduce it. And then each program will be
00:07:17 ►
preceded by a brief introduction by me. So yes, each Salon 2 program will also begin with the
00:07:24 ►
theme music that you’ve already heard here over 500 times.
00:07:27 ►
But whomever submits the podcast will have used their own music in the program.
00:07:32 ►
And I’ll be listening to it for the first time after it’s already been posted online.
00:07:38 ►
So do you see some room for error here?
00:07:41 ►
Well, let’s just see how that goes.
00:07:43 ►
But it does relieve me of a lot of time required to
00:07:46 ►
publish a new program each week. And I’ll still be doing several of my own podcasts each month as
00:07:52 ►
well. The end result, of course, is that I’m going to wind up spending even more time here in the
00:07:57 ►
salon. But as I continue to explain my ideas here, I think that you’re going to see that this time for me is going to be well spent. So, basically, I don’t plan on having any input regarding content before I
00:08:11 ►
actually podcast these Salon 2 programs. If I were a complete control freak, I wouldn’t do it this
00:08:18 ►
way, but I have a great deal of faith in you and the rest of our fellow Saloners to keep the level
00:08:23 ►
of discourse at a comfortable level. Obviously, your input in the comment section for each podcast from Salon 2 is going
00:08:31 ►
to have a lot to do with what kinds of programs are most desired by our fellow salonners. And,
00:08:38 ►
by the way, you’ll also notice that the Salon 2 podcasts are going to have a different numbering system than I’ve been using up to now.
00:08:46 ►
As you can see, this podcast is numbered Salon 2-001.
00:08:51 ►
The next one, obviously, will be Salon 2-002 and so forth.
00:08:57 ►
But whenever I post one of my own podcasts,
00:08:59 ►
like the next one in the Terrence McKenna series that we’ve been listening to,
00:09:03 ►
that one will still be numbered consecutively as, well, that will be podcast 536,
00:09:08 ►
which is the podcast that I plan on getting out even before the next Salon 2 program.
00:09:15 ►
Now, let’s get on to Symposia’s Blue Dot Tour.
00:09:19 ►
Earlier this year, I had a conference call with Shauna Holm, Bruce Dahmer, Lex Pelger, Mike Margolis, Brian, I’m sorry Brian, I don’t remember your last name, and Niles Heckman,
00:09:31 ►
all of whom had expressed their interest in doing some of the heavy lifting required to get Salon 2 off the ground.
00:09:38 ►
As a result of that conversation and numerous email exchanges, we’ve decided to begin our experiment by giving Lex and his Symposia team
00:09:47 ►
the lead in developing these new podcasts.
00:09:50 ►
Now, I want to be clear that they aren’t the only ones who will be submitting new programs.
00:09:55 ►
In fact, I hope that you will also consider adding your voice to these podcasts.
00:10:00 ►
But at this moment in time, the Symposia team have a lot going for them
00:10:04 ►
in the way of getting us a little better connected.
00:10:07 ►
Plus, they have agreed to help you and others get your programs into a format that will work here in the salon,
00:10:13 ►
in the event that you need somebody to bounce your ideas off of, and or maybe need some technical assistance as well.
00:10:20 ►
As to how this is going to work, well, we’re going to have to invent that as we go along.
00:10:26 ►
Now, if you recall, I’ve mentioned Lex and the Symposia team in previous podcasts,
00:10:32 ►
and the reason that I believe they have what it’ll take to get Salon 2 off and running
00:10:36 ►
is that they have already been producing events and recording psychedelic stories for quite some time now.
00:10:43 ►
And at the upcoming MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference in Oakland, California next month,
00:10:48 ►
the Symposia team is going to have their own space in which to record stories
00:10:52 ►
that any of the attendees want to share with us.
00:10:55 ►
And from my point of view, I think it’s going to be very important
00:10:59 ►
to be able to listen to stories by and about us average people.
00:11:03 ►
While in the past, psychedelic conferences have been the best places to find others and
00:11:07 ►
hear what the leading researchers in the field are doing, the facts are that the bulk of
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psychedelic exploration is being conducted by people like you and me, and the book publishers
00:11:18 ►
and movie producers don’t have the bandwidth to publish our stories as well.
00:11:23 ►
Let me read just a brief summary of what Lex and his
00:11:25 ►
friends have already created, and I quote, Symposia LLC is a group of collaborative social activism
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projects on psychedelics, plants, and policy that includes live events, Symposia Magazine,
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and the Palo Santo Project. We are an active network of entrepreneurs, students, activists,
00:11:49 ►
researchers, organizations, progressive businesses, artists, musicians,
00:11:54 ►
comedians, designers, and fresh voices.
00:11:56 ►
We create projects that build community, have a positive social impact,
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and change perceptions of plants, psychedelics, and psychoactives.
00:12:05 ►
Our live storytelling, Psychedelic Stories, could be described as the moth radio hour on acid,
00:12:12 ►
and is hosted by drug writer Lex Pelger.
00:12:16 ►
We have organized social networking events, conferences, parties, fundraisers,
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and live streaming at lofts, universities, and venues in Amherst, Baltimore,
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Boston, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Montreal, Florida, Vermont,
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and Oakland. End of quote. Now already they’ve put together an impressive library of psychedelic
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stories by us others, and now they’ve enlisted the aid of Matt Payne in Canada to help with
00:12:45 ►
the audio work required to turn their recorded events into interesting podcasts.
00:12:51 ►
And Lex isn’t going to just do this recording work at conferences either, and that’s what
00:12:55 ►
the Blue Dot Tour is all about.
00:12:59 ►
As Lex and the Symposia team make their way to Oakland for the MAPS conference, they’re
00:13:04 ►
going to be stopping in a number of cities with two missions in mind. One, they’ll be recording the psychedelic tales
00:13:10 ►
of our fellow salonners for future podcasts here in the salon. And two, they want to help you and
00:13:17 ►
the others in the cities that they are in to find the others. So if you’re lucky enough to make it
00:13:23 ►
to one of their gatherings, I can almost guarantee that you are going to find some of the others. So if you’re lucky enough to make it to one of their gatherings, I can almost guarantee
00:13:25 ►
that you are going to find some of the others in your own community. The reason they’re calling it
00:13:30 ►
the Blue Dot Tour is that their goal is to hit blue cities and red states that serve as such
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pressure cookers of activism, education, and art. And they’re also stopping in blue cities and blue
00:13:41 ►
states, red towns and red states, purple villages and green states, and anywhere that they can find a host, from Mexico to Canada.
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Now, here are the cities that are scheduled for these events so far.
00:14:09 ►
Pennsylvania. The 9th, Baltimore, Maryland. 11th, Assens, Georgia. 13th, Austin, Texas. 15th, Boulder,
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Colorado. On the 21st and 23rd, of course, they’ll be in Oakland, California for the Psychedelic Science Conference. And then on the 26th, they’ll be in Los Angeles. And on the 27th, here in San
00:14:21 ►
Diego. And for what it’s worth, Matt Palomary was just here a few minutes ago
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and he told me that he would be joining
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Lex and me for the San Diego event.
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And maybe we’ll see you there.
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Now, to find the location of
00:14:34 ►
these events or to get your own town
00:14:35 ►
on the schedule, just go to
00:14:37 ►
00:14:40 ►
slash blue dot
00:14:42 ►
tour. That’s
00:14:43 ►
www.psymposia.com slash, and this is all one word,
00:14:51 ►
blue dot tour, B-L-U-E-D-O-T-T-O-U-R. And you can find more information there.
00:14:58 ►
Now, I hope that you can see why I’m so excited about getting the Symposia team on board for Salon
00:15:03 ►
- Over time, I think that the
00:15:06 ►
work that they are doing is going to have a significant impact on our psychedelic community
00:15:11 ►
and getting together in person where we can all find a few more of the others right in our own
00:15:15 ►
backyards. And believe it or not, there is most definitely somebody in your own town right now
00:15:22 ►
who shares your interest in psychedelics, and that’s true
00:15:26 ►
no matter where you live. Hopefully, over the next few years, and with the help of the Symposia team,
00:15:32 ►
you and our other fellow salonners will all find more of the others in the months and years to come.
00:15:39 ►
Now, you may have still more questions about how Salon 2 is going to function,
00:15:43 ►
and to be honest, so do I.
00:15:48 ►
So let’s give this a try and see what happens.
00:15:54 ►
We may have a few false starts, but eventually, I’m sure that together we’re going to have a lot of fun doing this.
00:16:01 ►
Now, I’ve got to get back to work on my next Terrence McKenna podcast, which I hope to get out to you tomorrow.
00:16:05 ►
So for now, this is Lorenzo signing off from Cyberdelic Space. Be well, my friends. Thank you.