#16 ep1.0_Welcome to Iboganautics
CLICK HERE to listen to Season 1 Episode 0
Hey everyone, I want to get in the habit of writing a blog post immediately after recording my podcast interviews. You can see these blog posts as a “post script” or “podcast supplement” to what was discussed with one of my guests.
Today was the first podcast episode I’ve ever done in my life, episode 0, and I was nervous as fuck. First, who likes to hear their own voice? Not me. I like the sound of my voice inside of my head, but not outside of it. Second, who normally speaks to themselves in monologue fashion? Not me. As well, I was literally talking to no one since my podcast won’t be launched for a couple more months, so I was literally speaking to no one, of course, I realize that future people will be listening to it. Third, there is an initial steep, and likely temporary, learning curve regarding how to use the technologies that go into producing podcasts, getting used to speaking for an audience, and putting oneself out there in the public sphere. All of these things will take a getting used to and I welcome them all.
Ok, so this is supposed to be a piece of stream of consciousness writing, however, I am also looking at my unused notes here to discuss some of the points I either forgot to discuss or glanced over during my monologue.
Point 1: In my research about iboga, most of the online, shall we say, journalistic content about iboga (in the press, on blogs, on psychedelic websites, on podcasts, etc.) focus primarily on addiction interruption. Yes, there is strong evidence that iboga is a viable means to cancel opioid dependence, to help many people in need. Iboganautics, on the other hand, will not discuss addiction in depth. I do not plan to host any episodes wherein the main focus of the interview is about iboga’s ability to help break addictions to harmful substances and activities. To be clear, addiction will come up during future episodes, but it will not be the focus of the interview. I want to know about everything else, all the peripheral angles that revolve around and influence iboga and iboga practices. So, if you’ve heard enough of the iboga-cures-addiction-and-is-like-medicine-and-or-therapy angle, then Iboganautics will be for you.
Point 2: It seems to me that psychedelic users tend to gravitate toward and become an evangelist for one psychedelic over another. LSD (and mushrooms) for Leary, mushrooms (and DMT) for McKenna, 5-MeO-DMT for Oroc, iboga for me. I have tried many other psychedelics, however, iboga is the one, I’m going all in on this substance, that is to say, it is the experience that I want to know more about: how it affects consciousness, how it does what it does, and so forth.
Point 3: This point is related more to why you should listen to my podcast, why me over other people talking about iboga and psychedelics in general. I mentioned that I wrote a master’s thesis on the philosophy of psychedelic technology, yet what I didn’t explicitly mention is that I have a total of 5 personal experiences with iboga at present under my belt. This number will grow as I continue to do my research on this amazing substance.
Point 4: Funny story: at 5 or 6 years old, I was banned from visiting my friend at his house by his parents because I asked too many questions. I repeat: the parents of my friend banned me from entering their home and playing with my friend because I was a curious kid! They also didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t pronounce his name properly; I couldn’t hear the subtle syllables of his name Jeremy and could only call him Germy.
Point 5: Technology and social media. My main reasons for using social media is mainly to network with my guests and other academics and to inform listeners about news regarding upcoming projects, and to call upon listeners, for example, for their advice on whom to interview for the podcast, to field questions from the audience that you’d like me to ask, etc. I can’t wait to meet many of you in the community.
That’s all I got for now. My first two interviews are next week and I can’t wait to hear what my guests have to say about iboga and what fires them up!
Best,
AM