In the Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna discusses a wide range of topics related to philosophy, plant medicines, psychedelics and consciousness in nature. Guests are invited from diverse fields such as anthropology, neuroscience, and spirituality to explore various aspects of the human experience. Some of the topics that are covered in the Brainforest Café include the history and the role of plant medicines in traditional healing practices and the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy for mental health. The Brainforest Café also explores the cultural, social, and political implications of psychedelic use. Dennis McKenna shares his own personal experiences with plant medicines, off...
Latest episodes
-
1 h 04
The Medicine Modern Science Forgot
In this episode of the Brainforest Café, Dr. Dennis McKenna sits down with Kat Maier, a registered herbalist and physician's assistant who has practiced for more than forty years a…
-
59 min
The Mushroom That Makes You See "Little People"
For nearly a century, reports of a mysterious psychoactive bolete have puzzled ethnomycologists and anthropologists alike. From the 1930s reports of "mushroom madness" in the highl…
-
1 h 27
The Brain Is a Field Computer, Not a Digital Chip
Dennis McKenna sits down with scholar, lawyer, and philosopher Tam Hunt (UC Santa Barbara’s META Lab) to dive deep into the mysteries of consciousness, psychedelics, and the existe…
-
1 h 15
Why Ibogaine Triggers a 'Second Childhood' in the Brain
Jonathan Dickinson, CEO and co-founder of Ambio Life Sciences and author of Ibogaine and the Bicameral Mind, returns to the Brainforest Café for part two of his conversation with D…
-
1 h 02
Ibogaine and the Bicameral Mind: A New Perspective on Addiction and Recovery
Jonathan Dickinson, co-founder and CEO of Ambio Life Sciences and founder of Terragnosis, joins Dr. Dennis McKenna on the Brainforest Café for a conversation about ibogaine, iboga,…
-
1 h 01
Inside Colombia’s Top Ayahuasca Retreat
What if the future of ayahuasca isn’t in the hype cycle, but in safety, tradition, and real transformation? In this conversation, Sam Believ and Dennis McKenna explore Colombia’s o…
-
1 h 13
Ibogaine, Kintsugi & the Secret to True Healing
In this conversation, Patricia Eastman and Dennis McKenna explore the deeper meaning of psychedelic healing through the lens of ancestral wisdom, initiation, and nature-based pract…
-
1 h 03
Ayahuasca, Science, and Shamanism
In 2003, Carlos Tanner woke up in his car underwater, having blacked out behind the wheel and driven into a river. Deep in an opiate addiction, he went to the Amazon to save his ow…
-
1 h 09
Can Plants Replace Animals in Drug Testing?
In this episode of the Brainforest Café, Dennis McKenna sits down with medicinal chemist Matt Metcalf to explore a genuinely strange frontier: testing drugs in pea seedlings and th…
-
1 h 02
The Pharmacy Was Always the Pantry | Cedric Baker
Dennis McKenna sits down with his old friend Dr. Cedric Baker, an ethnopharmacologist and medical herbalist who studies the ethnobotany of food across more than thirty countries. T…
-
1 h 13
Can Yeast Save Endangered Psychedelics?
As the psychedelic renaissance surges, wild sources are collapsing under demand—peyote takes decades to grow, safrole extraction is destroying Southeast Asian forests, and Sonoran…
-
1 h 13
Inside the Front Lines of Psychedelic Journalism
Dennis McKenna sits down with journalist Mattha Busby to discuss the evolving world of psychedelics, including ayahuasca, ibogaine, 5-MeO-DMT, coca policy, drug reform, and the ris…
-
1 h 14
Terence McKenna, Psychedelics, and the Philosophy of Knowledge
In this rich and thought-provoking conversation, Dennis McKenna speaks with philosopher Mandi Astola about Terence McKenna, psychedelics, epistemology, shamanism, and the nature of…
-
1 h 00
Dark Fairy Tales, Museum of Curiosities & Spirit-Filled Expeditions
Join Dennis McKenna and Viktor Wynd for a fascinating conversation on dark fairy tales, strange museum curiosities, Papua New Guinea, storytelling, collecting, and the hidden intel…
-
1 h 07
Decoding the Divine: The Shared LSI Secret of the Greek Kykeon and Vedic Soma
Legal Disclaimer: The following content explores the chemistry and history of psychoactive plants for educational research. No Medical Claims: The Brainforest Café Podcast and Denn…
-
54 min
Herbalism, Citizen Science, and Ancestral Knowledge
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 ethnopharmacol…
-
54 min
Rewiring the Muse to Restore Creative Flow
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 cata…
-
1 h 13
Books, Human Creativity and "humble", a Graphic Meditation Tool for Openness
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…
-
1 h 16
Remarkable Amazonian plants that shape human consciousness
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 wi…
-
53 min
Honoring Dennis McKenna’s Lifetime of Enduring Plant Wisdom, Mentorship, and Inspiration to the Next Generatio…
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 e…