Brainforest Café

Join Dennis McKenna in this insightful conversation with Rebecca Lazarou as they explore the urgent need to preserve ancestral medicinal plant knowledge, the role of ethnopharmacology, and how traditional herbal wisdom can be protected for future generations. Rebecca shares the story behind her PhD research on Cypriot medicinal plants and her mission to document at-risk ethnobotanical knowledge before it disappears. They also discuss citizen science, cultural heritage, biodiversity, and the connection between science and traditional healing.

- - -

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Due to unforeseen circumstances the activities for Rebecca's event in
London has now shifted. The date and location will be the same, and it
will still be a highly educational event but it will now be a more
intimate home herbalism medicine making workshop.

Participants will learn all about medicinal plants, the medical system,
and will be making their own teas to take home with herbs focused on
mental health and stress. Rebecca will also talk about ethnobotany, have a
herbal tea bar, and all proceeds still go towards supporting her
research.

- - -

Rebecca Lazarou’s work is an ecology of different disciplines spanning across medical science, ethnopharmacology, herbalism, holistic healthcare, cannabis and psychedelics. She is also an activist, writer, speaker and herbal formulator.

She is currently a PhD candidate at Kew Gardens and UCL School of Pharmacy with a focus on ethnopharmacology and herbal medicines. She was the science and managing editor for the ESPD55 volume, is currently co-editor for education charity Herbal Reality and founded Laz The Plant Scientist to bring quality, sustainably sourced herbal medicines and education to people.

She is passionate about democratizing knowledge, and rekindling ethnobotany and herbalism from being marginalised disciplines to part of common knowledge again.

Ultimately her aim is to help nurture our relationship with nature through natural medicines, and support our species return back to Earth centred living. She is devoted to science to demystify these topics, but equally I am committed to rekindling the magic, awe and healing we find on our precious Earth.

You can read more about her work at rebeccalazarou.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna sits down with
award-winning filmmaker Greg Hemmings to discuss the transformative
power of storytelling and its ability to catalyze social and
environmental change. Greg reveals his personal battle with long COVID
and how it led to his Rewiring the Muse project, which uses
neuroscience and EEG data to track his recovery.
The conversation also explores Greg’s diverse film projects, including
the sci-fi series Revival, the scripted feature on homelessness What
We Dreamed of Then, and the climate documentary The Berg. It further
delves into his profound experience using Wachuma in Peru to reorganize
his brainwaves and restore the creative energy lost during his struggle
with long COVID.

- - -

Greg Hemmings is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker whose work examines how storytelling can catalyze positive social and environmental change. He is the founder of Hemmings House Pictures, a certified B Corporation that produces documentary, factual, and scripted works for international audiences.

Greg’s recent projects explore the intersections of neuroscience, creativity, ecology, and consciousness, with particular interest in how human relationships to nature, including traditional and contemporary research into plant-based knowledge systems, can inform wellbeing and collective resilience. In 2023, he received an honorary doctorate for contributions to the arts and social change. Greg is also a mentor, speaker,  musician, and lifelong student of what helps humans—and the planet—thrive.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dennis McKenna and OpticMystic explore humble, a graphic meditation on openness, self-questioning, books, technology, AI, love, and the ongoing mystery of what it means to be human.

- - -

OpticMystic a.k.a Hugo Amadeu is just a human fascinated by being alive.
He intended to be an astrophysicist or an oceanographer but ended up
studying graphic design and becoming a freelancer. He worked on DMT: The
Spirit Molecule documentary film by Mitch Schultz, ESPD 50 book and
later at the McKenna Academy. Currently, he is working with Namae Ntumae
at CWays Home performing all sorts of media wizardry. He is also a
sandwriter, musician, writer and terrific dishwasher.
A bookworm from early age, his curiosity and passion for reading has
made him a sort of accidental philosopher. A trance festival, more than
20 years ago, altered profoundly the course of his life and his hopes
for the future. A few, yet, intense psychedelic experiences assured him
that there is certainly more to the world than the eyes can see. Devout
atheist with a profound feeling for the sacred, he will ignore the gods
but embrace the spirits. There is something punk in his approach, an
itchiness for authority and a refusal to compromise that arises from
earnest questioning.
He has written a graphic meditation called “Humble”. An exploration of
ideas that reflect on openness, relativity and love as forms of
approaching the self and the other(s).
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special crossover episode of Plants of the Gods and Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna and Mark Plotkin explore sacred plant medicines, psychedelic science, and indigenous wisdom, moving from DMT and ayahuasca to virola snuffs, salvia, ibogaine, and beyond. Originally recorded for Mark´s Podcast “Plants of the Gods”, this rich conversation on ethnobotany, shamanic healing, and the future of psychedelic medicine is now being released as a special crossover on both shows.

- - -

Dr. Mark Plotkin is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent more than four decades working alongside Indigenous communities of the Amazon to document and protect traditional plant knowledge. He is President and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), a nonprofit he launched in 1996 with fellow conservationist and his wife, Liliana Madrigal, to support Indigenous stewardship of tropical forests and biocultural knowledge.

Dr. Plotkin is also the host of Plants of the Gods, a popular podcast exploring hallucinogenic plants and fungi and their powerful influence on world culture, religion, and healing. He is the author of several widely read books on ethnobotany and conservation and has shared his work through a TED Talk and lectures around the world. Dr. Plotkin was educated at Harvard, Yale, and Tufts University.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ethnobiologist Michael Coe returns to Brainforest Café with a special
mission: to turn the spotlight onto Dennis McKenna’s lifelong dedication
to ayahuasca, visionary plants, and ethnopharmacology. In this intimate
conversation, Michael honors Dennis’ 54 years in the psychedelic space,
from early fieldwork in the Amazon to pioneering biochemical and
pharmacological research on plant medicines.
The discussion explores the importance of mentorship, with Dennis now
seeing his primary role as supporting a new generation of
ethnobiologists like Michael and their work with indigenous communities
and threatened medicinal plant traditions. Together, they discuss
standing on the shoulders of giants, the challenges of academia and
funding, and why following what “puts fire in your belly” matters more
than chasing titles.

- - -

Michael Coe is an ethnobiologist and applied ecologist with a Ph.D. in
Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology. As an Assistant Professor
at Tarleton State University, his teaching and research focuses on the
relationships between humans, ecosystems, and traditional knowledge
systems. Passionate about biodiversity and the sustainable management of natural resources, Michael brings a dynamic interdisciplinary perspective, helping to integrate contemporary ethnobiology and ecology with traditional ecological practices to inform sustainable use
strategies, conservation priorities, and global medicine security.
Michael is the principal investigator (PI) for the COE LAB where they
are conducting hypothesis driven research in ethnobiology and harvest
impact assessments on medicinal plants that serve as a primary source of
healthcare for over 80% of the world's population. Michael is also the
Director for Research and Education for the Pacha Nishi project, a
Shipibo-Konibo led effort in the Peruvian Amazon basin seeking to
restore 20ha. of degraded land in an agroforestry setting with a primary
goal to inform sustainable ayahuasca production in the area as locally
sourced sustainably grown medicine.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices