Simplify Marijuana: Amanda Siebert on the Surprising Ways Cannabis Can Improve Your Life

Picture a person who uses cannabis regularly. Did you imagine an Olympic medal-winning athlete, or a successful entrepreneur? Or did you think of someone who fits the standard stoner stereotype? If, like most people, you conjured up the latter, then today’s episode of Simplify might challenge some of your assumptions about what cannabis-use looks like, and what it’s used for.

In this episode, Caitlin interviews cannabis journalist and author of The Little Book of Cannabis, Amanda Siebert. As the plant begins to be legalized on a more widespread basis, for both medicinal and recreational use, Siebert analyzes how the drug got so demonized, the wide array of benefits it can have for many people, and how we need to reconsider our preconceptions about the humble weed.

“We’ve been using cannabis for 12,000 years and really, the last century is the aberration. This fear that we’ve created around it is only about a hundred years old.”Amanda Siebert

Listen to this episode to learn about the manifold, sometimes surprising, uses and benefits of marijuana, and how to think a little differently about cannabis.

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Who’s Amanda Siebert?

Amanda Siebert is a freelance cannabis writer, award-winning journalist, author, photographer, and videographer with a passion for social and environmental issues currently based in Vancouver, B.C. Her first book, The Little Book of Cannabis: How Marijuana Can Improve Your Life, was released the same day cannabis became legally available in Canada (October 17, 2018).

Amanda Siebert’s Recommended Reads

Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction by Travis Lupick

North America is in the grips of an opioid epidemic, and with the introduction of Fentanyl chances of a fatal dose are even higher. Fighting for Space is the story of how one community of grass-roots former addicts placed harm-reduction at the center of a city’s drug policy, and eventually effected significant change.

Comment from Amanda: “It’s about this community in Vancouver […] that really faces a lot of struggle when it comes to addiction, how they sort of come together in the face of this opioid crisis. […] It’s really a wonderful book [and] a very detailed account of how Vancouver has sort of put itself on the map in terms of harm reduction.”

Extra Credit Reading

If you would like to dive deeper into some of the topics Amanda Siebert covers in this Simplify episode, check out this book list composed by Ben and Caitlin!

As a collective of creatures, humans are more obsessed with rituals than most. In Daily Rituals, Currey catalogs those of some of the world’s most prominent artists, from the sedate to the strange.

The Botany of Desire is probably not the Michael Pollan book you’d expect to show up on this list, given that he recently released a book about psychedelics, but this title traces how humans have engineered certain plants for our own purposes: the tulip, for beauty; the potato, for control; the apple, for sweetness; and marijuana, for intoxication.

Ayelet Waldman appeared on a recent episode of Simplify to discuss her experiences with microdosing LSD, and how it changed how she felt about her work, her marriage, and… well, pretty much everything else, too.

What’s Simplify?

Simplify is a podcast for anybody who’s taken a close look at their habits, their happiness, their relationships, or their health and thought “There’s got to be a better way to do this.” We talk to bestselling writers, productivity wizards, sex geniuses, and happiness experts to find it for you.

Simplify is made with love by Blinkist. Click here to try Blinkist free for 14 days with the voucher code: reefer

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Talk to us!

We want to hear from you! Drop a line to us at [email protected] about whatever tickles your fancy.

If you want to say hi to Ben, Caitlin and Terence in the meantime, you can find them on Twitter: @bsto, @CaitlinSchiller, @terence_mickey.

Who made this?

Your hosts are Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Terence Mickey.

Research and production assistance by Natallia Darozhkina, sound and editing by Terence Mickey, Ben Jackson, and Ody Constantinou.

Thanks to Nico Guiang for our awesome intro and outro music. Listen more on Soundcloud or check him out on Facebook.

Got links?

Amanda Siebert’s website

Read the transcript here!