We're back! Did you miss us? Season 2 is underway and we are excited to release all of our episodes into the deep abyss of podcasts.

Compared to our first 4 episodes, this next series of interviews will be getting more political, as we share the perspectives of some of the marginalized voices in the cannabis community and the rapidly growing industry. We'll focus on our guests' work, passions, and ties to the industry as well as the nuances of their personal relationships with the plant itself.

Our goal with these interviews is to illuminate how cannabis ties these stories together through themes of healing, equity, activism, history, research, and radical politics. These themes will reappear often throughout the season as they relate to our guests' personal and professional experiences, demographic identities, and perspectives on recent policy action.

We aim to give our guests space to share their stories and experiences organically, and not all views expressed by our guests are representative of our own. Guest descriptions below!

We're super excited about our lineup for season 2 and we hope you enjoy.


Psychedelics psychologist, sci-fi author, comedian, and filmmaker of the upcoming documentary of A Table of Our Own Ayize Jama-Everett talks about drug stigma, being raised by Black panthers.

Brennan England, founder of the Saint Louis Cannabis Club, talks about the history of social consumption, involvement with Minorities for Medical Marijuana (M4MM), the world’s largest minority advocacy organization for the cannabis industry, and his perspective on the recent Legal MO policy action.


T, aka Dopeboihealer, tells the story of their history with activism, burnout, refuge, and a journey of healing.  Part of their refuge included growing all-organic cannabis as they focused on creating medicine, space and access for Black folks to interact and learn about the plant as a portal of consciousness and healing.


Jo, self care coach and host of The Sister Struggles Podcast, talks about her experience with cannabis worker union organizing, why she created a self-care platform for Black woman, and being a Black woman in STEM.  


Marian, a parent and burnt tf out cannabis worker talks about parenting as a cannabis consumer, their experience with addiction, and their thoughts on current policy from the perspective of a worker in the industry.


Nadia Jackson- Fitch, a PhD student researching the role sports play in upholding racialized structures in the United States, talks about her research experience, drug testing, athlete-activism, and her personal relationship with cannabis.


Dr. Ayoka Nurse, PhD in Public Policy and Administration, Law and Policy Analyst, and chair of City of Richmond, California’s Cannabis Sub-Committee, talks about the history of cannabis policy in the US, and how it's contributed to the current policy barriers that prevent true equity in the cannabis industry. Spoiler alert: racism plays a role.


Jorge Jimenez, bioengineering PhD and advocate for communities marginalized in science, talks about medical racism, overlap between the communities impacted by cannabis and HIV/AIDS, and speculates what regulation may look like with cannabis as a (future?) pharmaceutical.

Known by the moniker, Dawn the Cannabis Advocate, Dawn Abernathy brings over 20 years of healthcare expertise to new cannabis patients, and discusses the importance of patient advocacy, cannabis and violence, and working within cannabis manufacturing.

Our final guest of the season is a special surprise and we look forward to this upcoming interview!

Season 2 Trailer! : Politics of the Marginalized

In this episode we cover the importance of doing science that supports marginalized peoples. We also speculate the impact of upcoming cannabis policy in this episode, which was originally a media watch presentation on marijuana policy in a course titled “The AIDS Epidemic: Inequalities, Ethnography, and Ethics.”

Jorge has a PhD in Bioengineering and worked for years on optimizing a drug delivery method for a corneal disease. Jorge is a community-focused scholar and spends ample time educating LatinX youth about drug delivery. This episode is extra special because our guest is a dear friend, mentor, and a collaborator of Rene’s. Jorge can be reached at www.mayanbioengineer.com and @MayanBioengineer on Twitter and Instagram.

Original presentation date: December 7th, 2022

Original assignment abstract: Considering the social context in which people get AIDS, it is unsurprising that there is such a high interest in experimenting with marijuana as a therapy (Mack and Joy 2000). Studies have shown that patients report that marijuana has soothed vomiting, anxiety, depression, wasting, pain, and dementia associated with either HIV/AIDS or its medications, yet marijuana is criminalized aggressively and disproportionately impacts the same groups disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS (Furler et al. 2004; Hoston 2016). Given the recent talk from President Biden and lawmakers around marijuana legalization, we face an intense culture change in the United States. As a bioethics researcher, I must ask what does this transition mean for HIV/AIDS patients? What specific harms and benefits could come out of legalization of the drugs that HIV/AIDS patients might be affected?

Conclusion: The community knows best how to heal itself and it is up to us as biomedical professionals to know that. By letting those most marginalized dictate and benefit from marijuana research and product development, both biomedical research and industry can facilitate health justice.

Sources:
Source about persistence of racial disparities in MJ in Colorado: https://www.npr.org/2016/06/29/483954157/as-adults-legally-smoke-pot-in-colorado-more-minority-kids-arrested-for-it
Original Report: https://cdpsdocs.state.co.us/ors/docs/reports/2021-SB13-283_Rpt.pdf 
Buffong, Nicole, and Ibu-Nina Tabor. 2022. “Holistic Living for HIV.” Video broadcast recording. https://www.facebook.com/m4mmunited/videos/320286603469265.  
Furler, Michelle D., Thomas R. Einarson, Margaret Millson, Sharon Walmsley, and Reina Bendayan. 2004. “Medicinal and Recreational Marijuana Use by Patients Infected with HIV.” AIDS Patient Care and STDs 18 (4): 215–28. https://doi.org/10.1089/108729104323038892.  
Lajka, Arijeta. “Cops Are Still Disproportionately Arresting People of Color for Pot Crimes in Colorado.” Vice (blog), March 26, 2015. https://www.vice.com/en/article/qva77q/cops-are-still-disproportionately-arresting-people-of-color-for-pot-crimes-in-colorado.
Mack, Alison, and Janet Joy. 2000. MARIJUANA AND AIDS. “Marijuana as Medicine? The Science Beyond the Controversy.” National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK224400/.
Roser, Max, and Hannah Ritchie. “HIV / AIDS.” Our World in Data, April 3, 2018. https://ourworldindata.org/hiv-aids.
Ruiz-Sánchez, Héctor-Camilo. “Facing the Plagues Alone. Men Reshaping the HIV and Heroin Epidemics in Colombia.” University of Pittsburgh ETD. University of Pittsburgh, May 3, 2021. http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/40829/.

Season 2: Episode 1 - Our Communities Will Heal Themselves with Jorge Jimenez, PhD

Imagine coming out of your federal housing, and smelling straight loud from the four dispensaries on your block. You can’t consume due to your apartment’s policies(weed may be legal in your state, but federally, you’re left deserted). Not only that, but you can’t even work at a dispensary due to your lease. So if you partake you go to jail, and you can’t make money off of it. Is the war on drugs over?

Episode description:

Legalization of mar*juana is sweeping across the country. Ayoka Nurse, PhD in Public Policy and Administration, describes these changes as they relate to Black folk and why why legalization isn’t going to remedy any of the damage from the war on drugs. Dr. Nurse's research explains why African Americans are being actively prevented from opening their own dispensaries. She explains Cedric Robinson's definition of racial capitalism and questions if equity can exist in a for profit market.

Season 2: Episode 2 - Race, Law, and Capitalism with Ayoka Nurse, PhD

Marian Coon never smoked moldy weed before getting into the cannabis industry. Self described “bitter, jaded, and burnt tf out cannabis worker,” Marian describes her experience in cannabis advocacy and activism, and how she witnessed the conditions of the pandemic spread weed smoking. In this episode, she speaks of her disappointment towards the medical market, which favors quotas and deadlines over people’s health and safety.


She also describes her first experience with drugs- snorting methamphetamine at 11 years old. A cannabis advocate helped her get free from addiction as a late teen and soon she became involved with events such as Hempfest and hasn’t stopped advocating for the plant since. Now as a parent, she has repeatedly had age-appropriate discussions with her child about the plant that she calls “The Reverse Dare Talk.” In her early 40s, she’s witnessed and participated in nearly 30 years of plant engagement and is in all rights an expert.

Season 2: Episode 7 - Puffing while Parenting and The Reverse D.A.R.E. Talk with Marian Coon

Ball is Life!!🏀⚾️🏈⚽️🎾🏅

Why do we view players like Lebron as an exception? Why do Serena Williams and Sha’Carri Richardson get so much pushback from athletic associations? Why are there so few Black women sports commentators?

So much of it has to do with race, class, and gender. In this episode we talk about everything from sports enhancement drugs to “fan energy” to Saint Louis having no basketball courts. Nadia also asks us to envision a world where we can appreciate the art and melodic motion of Black bodies so that they do not see the need for stimulants. 

Guest Biography:
Nadia is from Norman, Oklahoma where she obtained her undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma. Nadia is now a PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis but will be transferring to University of Minnesota’s Sociology PhD program in the
fall. She is broadly interested in the modern manifestations of racism and colorism, the Black experience, and the role sports plays in upholding racialized structures in the United States. She focuses primarily on the ways in which sport, particularly basketball and football, functions as a
paradigm for broader racialized dynamics within American institutions while also examining the intersectional dynamics of gender, class, and body image. She is currently working on a number of projects that include, but are not limited to, her Master’s Thesis, two academic publications, and partnering with local St. Louis sport organizations. Lastly, she is deeply invested in subjects
surrounding cannabis, racism, athleticism, body image, and athlete-activism.

References:
Patricia Hill Collins - Black Sexual Thought and Black Feminist Thought
HostElle- A Black woman owned hostel in europe
https://www.hostelle.com/

Season 2: Episode 8 - Ball is Life (Sports Sociology) with Nadia Jackson-Fitch

Dawn tells listeners to make smart decisions with the plant so that we can be understood as healthy individuals who are medicating. As a patient advocate, she asks questions on behalf of folks who can’t speak directly to a doctor about their consumption because of the years of stigma in medical settings. 

We also talk about medicating safely because decriminalization can't prevent folks from getting felonies if they rack up enough fines. Listen for more tips for beginner patients and consumer in this episode, where we talk about administration methods and how medication worked with her pregnancy.

Socials: @DawntheCannabisAdvocate
Dawn the Cannabis Advocate on Facebook and Youtube
Dawn's business line: (314) 465 - 8516 


Also, are y'all ready for our season finale?! Episode drops next week and we're very excited to surprise you with the special guest.

Season 2: Episode 9 - Dawn the Cannabis Advocate

Grandma, PLEASE do not listen to this episode.

Much less safe for work than our typical content, this episode still fits under the "Politics of the Marginalized" theme of season two and we speak of entertainment politics. We talk about the cultural wealth created off of a stock image of Donovan that has been featured on the NBA website, a Mr. Beast video, and a ton of other places without him being reasonably compensated. 

Additionally, Donovan speaks of his time living in Denver and the availability of craft can++bis in contrast to the corporate style dispensaries that dominate the Missouri market.

This is episode is emotionally headass, where we briefly mention concepts like reparations, gender politics, and cultural appropriation through off the cuff raunchy humor. By the end you will be able to tell how much we all love improv LOL

Guest Bio: Too T3rpd is the longest running (and likely the first) "potcast" in Saint Louis. We are joined by Donovan and Tyler, who tell us a bit about their podcast and how it started.

Socials: Too T3rpd on all social media and podcasting platforms!

Season 2 : Episode 10 - The Standard Black Man with Too T3rpd

DID YOU MISS US?!?! We're excited to kick off our 3rd season of Joint Highpothesis! This season will focus on the science around cannabis. We’ll have people talk about cultivation, patient health and wellness, and what we call “street science.”

For our first guest of the season, we're talking with Sya Collins - a vocal performer, and cannabis advocate, who loves to help educate people about the plant through her work as a budtender and her engagement with M4MM.

Today we're discussing the body's endocannabinoid system, breaking down some of the complex ways in which it creates and responds to different cannabinoids. We'll also get into how these processes can vary with different consumption methods, so if you've ever been curious about what's happening inside your body after you puff a joint or take an edible, be sure to check this one out. 

She can be found at @EssWhyAye on Instagram and Sya Collins on Facebook.

If you're interested in more of the biomedical research we were talking about, check out these links below!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anandamide 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2435344/#:~:text=The%20CB1%20receptor%20mediates%20most,anti%2Dinflammatory%20and%20immunosuppressive%20actions

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36330630/#:~:text=Differences%20between%20the%20medical%20performance,is%20called%20the%20entourage%20effect

Season 3: Episode 1 - Eat It, Smoke It, Shove It

Season 3 keeps rolling with our next guest, AC, CEO of LoudBank - one of the first and only Black-owned hydroponic garden stores in the Midwest.

With past lives and an engineer and a DJ, AC found yet another passion in the world of cannabis. He's channeled that passion into the founding of Loudbank and through educating the community with his involvement in Minorities for Medical Marijuana.

In this episode, AC talks about his shop and all the factors involved in growing cannabis. We also go into some more advanced topics, so whether you're looking to getting started, you're a seasoned grower, or you're just curious, there's something for you!

LoudBank:
8445 Natural Bridge Rd.
St. Louis, Mo. 63121 USA
Loudbank.com
https://instagram.com/theloudbank?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
https://facebook.com/LoudbankLLC/
https://twitter.com/theloudbank
https://www.pinterest.com/theloudbank/

Grow Heads Podcast:
https://youtube.com/@growheadspodcast6892?si=q0KBlDIV2QIVY5Xg

Season 3: Episode 2 -Treasure the Garden

Guest Bio:

Ariel is your average twenty year old w*** prodigy- she entered  studio B in a navy floral maxi skirt, a head full of dark pink curls, and two nose piercings. She works at Mr. Nice Guy- one of the dopest head shops in Missouri (no pun intended) and educates customers on decisions they make around consumption. She also is a medical patient, plant advocate, and of course, enthusiast. #StreetScholarship #Iconic

Sadly enough, she also believes in Harry styles fashion sense more than I do. Tune in to hear us talk about her passions and the topics below!


Description: 

Young people have always experimented with cannabis at a higher rate than their elders. In this episode, we call on the knowledge of a young Black woman who works at a cannabinoid dispensary. In contrast to traditional dispensaries, Cannabinoid dispensaries can be found all over the country due to the hemp bill loophole. This means that people can consume flower in all 50 states! Listen to us compare the effects of cannabinoids in the body to different Starbucks drinks.

In this episode, we drop a couple hypotheses including (1) Burning fatter J’s is a waste of flower and (2) society will never ever EVER outgrow the iconic p0t brownie. Justin fact checks this discussion with the latest research.



Episode resources for Science Beginners!:

The endocannabinoid system and the revolution of one | Rachel Knox | TEDxPortland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJbOQ9P2NYQ

Cannabinoid rundown: https://shopcbdkratom.com/blogs/blog/what-are-cannabinoids


Recent Research Articles:

The discovery of the endocannabinoid system: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32236882/ 

Proof CBD does not get you high: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5510776/

The science of tolerance: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37348821/

CBG Pharmacology Review article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9666035/

Season 3: Episode 3 - Cannabinoids as Starbucks Drinks with Ariel

Exploring the political, spiritual, medical, and racial world of our ancestors favorite plant through the lens of two Black stoner scientists.🌳

Season 2: Episode 7 - Puffing while Parenting and The Reverse D.A.R.E. Talk with Marian Coon

Joint Highpothesis

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