Last Born In The Wilderness

#160 | Don't Believe The Hype: The Media, Branding Psychedelics, & The War On Drugs w/ Stephen Siff

Informações:

Sinopsis

In this episode, I speak with Stephen Siff, Associate Professor of Journalism at Miami University and the author of ‘Acid Hype: American News Media and the Psychedelic Experience.’ In this discussion, we get into the U.S. news media's role in the promotion, and in particular the "hype," of psychedelic drug use in the 1950s and '60s — initially by prominent public figures and the "Intelligentsia," and eventually the wider population more generally. We also get into the Nixon Administration's role in instigating the War on Drugs, and the role the US media played in propagandizing the government's agenda regarding the prohibition of psychedelic compounds and cannabis. As a proponent of cannabis and the psychedelic experience, I have become increasingly aware that our popular perception of psychedelic and cannabis use has largely been formed by very prominent cultural forces, in particular the U.S. news media, pro-capitalist interests, and the State. The media has played a major role in the “branding” of psyche