Amanda Pratt spoke with Dr. Brian Pace and Dr. Neşe Devenot on July 7, 2022 about an article they recently published in Frontiers in Psychology titled “Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency.” A contribution to the Pharmaceutical Inequalities series, this audio interview sheds light on an oft-neglected aspect of psychedelic history that is essential to understand when considering the business and culture of psychedelics. The Pharmaceutical Inequalities series is funded by the Holtz Center and the Evjue Foundation.
You can listen to the interview here: [AWAITING CONTENT]
Biographies of interviewees:
Neşe Devenot, PhD is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Institute for Research in Sensing (IRiS) at the University of Cincinnati; an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research & Education (CPDRE) at The Ohio State University; and the Medicine, Society & Culture Research Fellow with Psymposia. Her research examines the function of metaphor and other literary devices in narrative accounts of psychedelic experiences, and she also researches and teaches bioethical approaches to psychedelic medicine. She was a founder of the Psychedemia interdisciplinary psychedelics conference, a Research Fellow at the New York Public Library’s Timothy Leary Papers, and a Research Fellow with the New York University Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, where she participated in the first qualitative study of patient experiences.
Brian Pace, PhD teaches Psychedelic Studies: Neurobiology, Plants, Fungi, and Society in the Department of Plant Pathology at The Ohio State University; where hs is an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research & Education (CPDRE). He was trained as an evolutionary ecologist: specializing in phytochemistry, ethnobotany, and ecophysiology. He is the Politics and Ecology Editor at Psymposia, a 501c3 watchdog. His research has examined ideology and psychedelic experiences. It has been featured in VICE, translated into French and Italian, and covered internationally. A former US Borlaug Global Food Security Fellow, he has conducted field work in Southern Mexico, the US midwestern prairie, and the Ecuadorian Amazon. For more than a decade, Brian has worked on agroecology and climate change. Along the way, he has taught several university courses on cannabis.
Brian and Neşe are co-editing the forthcoming “Psychedelic Capitalism: From Forest Retreat to Fortune 500 and Pharmacies” special issue of History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals (official journal of the AIHP)
They are also currently working to organize Psychedemia, an interdisciplinary psychedelics conference in Columbus, Ohio this August 12th to 14th – presenters were just announced and there will be historic Assembly of Psychedelic Research Centers
Feature image: Jr Korpa (@jrkorpa)
Accessibility: For those who are unable to hear the audio file, the interview transcript can be made available. Please contact us if required.