MEND Season 1 - Episode 22

Some times you need to take a knee.  

Some days you need to go deep into your yin.

The pause.

To sit with the questions though the answers seem none-too-soon-in-coming.

This week is such a week.  

Anne & I took this moment to ready ourselves for our big TALK with the intrepid Steve DeAngelo - the subject of next week's forthcoming episode.

We'll be talking to Steve about his book - The Cannabis Manifesto - why he chose to pursue Entrepreneurship as his own path to Activism & what he's learned inside his 40+ years as a rabble-rouser, community organizer, leader & voice against Prohibition.  Plus his work inside Harborside Health Center, in Oakland, CA, as well.

As an added bonus to our loyal listeners, though this talk is scheduled to take place tomorrow, let us know if there's some burning questions you'd like to have answered.

We've got our own list of go-to's and entreaties we'd love to hear more about, but this is a great opportunity to get some personal Q&A's fielded by one of the leading experts in the Cannabis field.

Pop us a line over @ mendpodcast@gmail.com

Mention Steve DeAngelo in the subject line.

And be sure to get them into us by 10 AM (PST), Wednesday, October 4th.

For now, may this give you an opportunity to catch up on some other listening, some back episodes you've yet to finish, or to start an awesome project all your own.

Thanks, as ever, for being a part of this community with us.

For being a voice.

And for keeping the Conversation rolling.

Cheers.

Links:::

SteveDeAngelo.com 

The Cannabis Manifesto Book

Harborside Health Center 

MEND Season 1 - Episode 15

Looking Back to Find What's Next..

As I was sitting down to draft an introduction to this week’s chat, these words from Dante  Alighieri went flashing through my mind:

“In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost. …...I cannot rightly say how I entered it. I was so full of sleep, at that point where I abandoned the true way. But when I reached the foot of a hill, where the valley, that had pierced my heart with fear, came to an end, I looked up and saw its shoulders brightened with the rays of that sun that leads men rightly on every road. …...It is a hard thing to speak of, how wild, harsh and impenetrable that wood was,.....but, in order to tell of the good that I found there, I must tell of the other things I saw there.”

Anne & myself have chosen to take this week to re-group to some degree.  

A moment to step back and look at where this shifting narrative has taken us thus far, but also to try to regain the larger thematic thread toward which we’re aiming overall.  

To that end, we sat down, on opposite sides of the country and asked each other some questions.

*Stuff like -

What is the larger story we are trying to tell?

Have we succeeded thus far?

What are some of the voices we have yet to hear from and that we feel, are needing to be heard inside this story?

And... After all is said and done… is this really about Pot at all??

We re-cap some of our favorite episodes to date.

And talk about the process of trying to share a larger, Universal story with a message and a deep, pulsing heart - using the syntax of the humble everyday.  

Can the personal truly reveal the Universal, as they say?

We talk about Commercialization - both in this industry and beyond - and the effects it has.  

About what we’ve lost.  And hopefully what we are un-earthing still.

We talk about the underbelly of this story.  The dark, shadowy bits we had hoped to move away from - and how they’re part and parcel to this whole tale.  

And ultimately - we come back to: Who is this For?  

And begin to shift our focus from the past - of what has been - and invite in Voices that are beginning to pave the way toward our collective Future - whatever that may hold.  

Enjoy.