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for details. Welcome

0:37

to this episode of the award-winning Best of

0:39

the Left podcast. This is a sample of

0:41

our recent bonus episode, usually only available to

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members. These episodes are comprised of our crew

0:46

of researchers, Amanda and myself, all getting together

0:48

for a roundtable discussion on topics that we

0:51

find interesting. So here's a few minutes for

0:53

free so you can know what all the

0:55

fuss is about. The

1:02

working woman's newest life hack, Magic

1:05

Mushrooms, which longtime listeners

1:08

will understand as being right up our

1:10

alley. The subhead is, for

1:13

a select group of moms

1:15

in high-powered jobs, Psilocybin has

1:17

become the answer to a

1:19

packed social and professional calendar

1:21

with no time for hangovers.

1:24

And I mean, I think that sort of

1:26

tells the broad strokes of it right

1:28

there. One woman who

1:30

microdoses psilocybin capsules said, quote,

1:34

I work hundreds of hours a

1:36

week and it helps my performance.

1:39

It allows me to be my best self. And

1:43

there's a lot of problems with

1:45

that. I

1:47

guess taking it as granted that one

1:50

must work hundreds of hours a

1:52

week and take drugs

1:54

in order to make that possible.

1:57

There's the other problem that taking

1:59

her at her work. hundreds of hours at the

2:01

minimum of 200 hours a week, which would be

2:04

28 hours a day, seven days a week. And

2:06

I think, you know, if she's hepatic math, I

2:08

wonder how good her best self

2:10

would be if she wasn't on. She's

2:13

just on drugs doing this interview.

2:16

Yeah, possibly. She's

2:18

unlocked. Time-space continuum. That's how

2:20

good herself is. Right.

2:23

She has more hours, actually. Yeah, that's

2:25

what's going on. Okay. Okay. No, that's

2:27

fair. I actually hadn't thought of that.

2:30

She probably experiences 35

2:34

hours a day and only works 28 of them. And

2:42

so these one being interviewed talk about how,

2:45

you know, in their social circle at least,

2:47

you know, eight out of 10 women at

2:49

a gathering will all openly talk about how

2:51

they're microdosing mushrooms, which

2:53

is pretty interesting, but

2:55

it's definitely a window into the economic, social,

3:02

other variables that impart the sort

3:04

of privilege on a person where

3:06

they can do illegal drugs and

3:08

just feel totally cool about it

3:10

and describe it literally, quote, as

3:12

the new glass of

3:14

wine. Just for them,

3:17

it's as cash as the new glass of wine. Do

3:20

they mention their source? Were there

3:23

source in these? No,

3:25

they keep their sources secret because

3:28

they do at least understand that it

3:30

is illegal and they shouldn't go around narking,

3:33

even on accident. Isn't

3:37

that just like what on Wall

3:39

Street, a bunch of execs and

3:41

answers doing coke? Just to

3:45

keep it going. I

3:48

had the absolute same thought. This just

3:50

sounds like the stories

3:52

I've heard about cocaine in the 80s.

3:54

That's just what this sounds like. It's

3:57

performance enhancing in a sense. It's

4:00

totally widespread, totally accepted.

4:02

Totally illegal. Totally

4:05

illegal and whether or not people think it's

4:07

fun or effective or both,

4:10

they do it and then

4:12

go to work. As we've

4:14

talked about mushrooms quite a bit on

4:16

this podcast and it is so antithetical

4:18

to everything we've talked about with the

4:20

use of mushrooms. Not one time

4:22

have I thought, you know, it would be a great

4:25

use for this so that I

4:27

could work hundreds of hours a week. What

4:32

are the jobs that they're

4:34

doing that you would want to spend

4:36

this much time working? Also, like if you're

4:38

talking about at your social hours, maybe

4:41

she's considering that work. Like

4:43

she's, you know, networking instead of

4:45

enjoying her company of other human

4:47

beings. Like a human being,

4:50

she's always grinding. It's

4:53

mushrooms. Like cocaine? Sure.

4:56

Right. It's a terrible

4:58

drug for terrible

5:00

people but mushrooms, get

5:03

in touch with yourself, lady. Maybe

5:05

don't microdose. Maybe take a gigantic dose.

5:08

Right. She's taking too

5:10

little. That's what it is. That's

5:13

exactly what I was going to say

5:15

is that the problem is the microdosing

5:17

because, I mean, on one hand,

5:19

I guess if you have this work to do, it

5:22

does make it sound more pleasant. It sounds

5:24

that you grab a task and really sink

5:26

your teeth into it. It's

5:28

also great for a brainstorming session. If I

5:31

have an open day, I get a pen

5:33

and paper and get some ideas out. That's

5:35

all in the context of having just microdosed.

5:39

But yeah, if they macrodosed, then

5:41

they may realize that they should

5:43

just quit their fucking jobs. Well,

5:48

and I think part of that is probably

5:50

that they can't, right? Now they've gotten

5:52

to a certain point where to maintain

5:54

their lifestyle, they have to keep grinding. They

5:57

have to keep making whatever

5:59

income they're making. from their job. But

6:01

it is as someone who enjoys mushrooms

6:03

on the occasion, right? It's sad to

6:05

now see that it's being marketed as

6:08

just another way to keep capitalism grinding.

6:10

And I don't see the

6:12

difference between this, like we

6:14

said, cocaine, people who use cigarettes

6:16

to calm their anxiety, and you

6:19

know, their stress about certain things.

6:21

I think people are always looking for

6:24

something to cope. Because at

6:26

the end of the day, we all are subjected

6:28

to the system that we're living under. Now, we

6:31

can have a debate because obviously, this is a

6:33

higher class of people that are using mushrooms. And

6:35

that's how they're coping. But I

6:37

still think it's maladaptive coping. Anything that

6:39

you take, even if you enjoy it,

6:41

just to get through something, there is

6:43

a problem. That would be the same

6:45

with I think there was a rise

6:47

that people consuming edibles and doing things

6:49

like that, which again, like take an

6:51

edible and play some video games. That's

6:54

great. Watch a weird movie, like super

6:56

fun. But I can't imagine

6:58

thinking like, if I just take

7:00

this edible, I'll be able to get two

7:02

more hours of work out of myself. Like,

7:04

if I just take this little dose of

7:06

mushrooms, I can push forward and get through

7:08

this presentation. Yes, at some point, you need

7:10

to take a step back, maybe

7:12

micro dose, and just reevaluate

7:14

a job that's asking you to work

7:16

more than 40 hours, when

7:19

they're clearly paying you for 40 hours of work.

7:22

You know, it is funny, it's like humans really don't

7:25

like the fact that we have limits. So

7:27

we're constantly seeking something

7:30

to push us beyond our

7:32

limits and make us superhuman,

7:34

just not satisfied with

7:36

the fact that, yeah, maybe we hit our

7:38

max, maybe that means we should calm down

7:40

or take a step back. Let's just take

7:43

something that will give

7:46

us all the energy and

7:48

ability or make us think we have

7:50

all the energy and ability because probably

7:52

going to crash no matter what. Is

7:55

this group of women married to men doing

7:57

the ice bath and things like that? that

8:00

they can get a little more out of it. Like...

8:03

Almost certainly. Speaking

8:10

of baths though, moving on to the

8:12

middle class, we have different ways of

8:14

coping if you can't afford

8:16

or get the

8:18

special invite to microdose mushrooms.

8:21

I want to tell you about this article that I did

8:24

not send around because I didn't want to depress everyone. I

8:27

didn't want to force anyone to read this. I

8:29

just want to summarize it. There was an

8:31

article from Reader's Digest. Stress

8:35

less is the headline.

8:37

Yes, it's possible. Every

8:39

part of your body will thank you. Now,

8:42

the entire article is

8:44

dedicated to all of the ways that stress

8:46

will kill you. And

8:48

the subtopics within the article include

8:51

your brain, your head, jaw,

8:53

and shoulders, your gut,

8:55

your heart, your lungs, your

8:57

skin, your reproductive system, and

9:00

your muscles and joints. And

9:02

they spend more than 20 paragraphs

9:05

describing why you're going to

9:08

die from stress. Everything

9:12

up to this point has been

9:14

you are going to be murdered

9:16

by stress. And then this is the

9:19

end of the article. That

9:22

stress can kill is a terrifying

9:24

thought. Unless you turn it

9:26

upside down, you can

9:29

counteract all of this with some simple

9:31

tricks to lower your experience of stress.

9:34

For me, that's yoga, a

9:36

10-minute morning meditation and

9:38

a monthly massage. For you, it could

9:40

be something even easier. Studies

9:43

prove that just closing your

9:45

eyes and breathing deeply can

9:47

help reduce and regulate your

9:49

cortisol level wherever you

9:51

are right now and for

9:54

free. The end. Reader's

9:57

Digest has solved your stress. Look,

10:02

I have no doubt that scientifically,

10:04

doing those things lowers your cortisol

10:07

levels for that very moment. But

10:09

if you were living your

10:11

life on the edge of being murdered by stress,

10:14

that ain't gonna do it. Yeah.

10:17

And to me, I mean, basically, that's America

10:19

in a nutshell is like, everything

10:22

systemically is going to kill you. But

10:24

if you individually take a tiny amount

10:26

of action, arguably, that

10:29

might help. Good luck. And

10:32

honestly, it reeks of Al Gore saying

10:34

that the Greenland

10:37

ice sheet is gonna melt into

10:39

North Atlantic. But if you

10:41

buy a new light bulb, maybe

10:44

we'll stop it. You know, it's

10:46

like the solution has to match

10:49

the gravity of the problem, right?

10:51

That's not a dig at Al Gore saying that there

10:53

was a problem. It is a dig on the

10:56

biggest problem with the Inconvenient Truth was that

10:58

he didn't go far enough with the solutions,

11:01

which actually brings us to there's an interesting difference

11:03

between the US and

11:05

European burnout management books. So

11:08

like when you're feeling burned out, and then you

11:11

look for a self help book in

11:13

the US, basically, just like that readers

11:15

try this article, we're given strategies to

11:18

just grin and bear it, right? And

11:20

in the EU, it's basically taken

11:23

as granted that you can take

11:25

extended paid leave from your job

11:27

to help recover from burnout. So

11:29

the advice that they give about

11:31

how to manage burnout is,

11:34

okay, so you're on six weeks of

11:36

leave, let's work through how you can

11:38

make use of that time, or, okay,

11:40

so you've been off your job for

11:42

three months to recover from your burnout.

11:45

Let's talk about how to reintegrate with

11:47

the working world books like that couldn't be sold

11:49

in the US, it wouldn't

11:52

make any sense. The context is

11:54

so different. On one hand, it's

11:56

wild that those two continents approach

11:59

human health. so differently, but

12:02

then, as was pointed out, I think, Aaron,

12:04

you said this before we started recording. Yeah,

12:06

on one hand, the EU

12:08

is really mindful about people's health, but

12:10

on the other hand, they still maintain the same economic

12:13

system that drives people to the same levels of burnout.

12:15

So, you went and you lose

12:17

them. When you were offering at

12:19

the end of the Reader's Digest, which I

12:21

think I accidentally read that article just through

12:23

a series of clicking on to different articles,

12:25

and it infuriated me when I got to

12:27

that end. But under what context

12:30

would that not make me mad? Maybe

12:32

if I ordered flowers for someone

12:34

and I was worried that they weren't

12:36

going to be correct or look

12:38

as great as they did in the

12:41

picture, maybe closing my eyes and taking

12:43

a deep breath might re-situate things. If

12:46

I'm worried about taking bills and how

12:48

am I going to make rent? Am

12:50

I going to be kicked out? What

12:52

would homelessness look like for me or

12:54

houselessness? Those things, there's no

12:56

amount of breathing that can re-center

12:58

me and bring me back to a place

13:01

where I don't feel stressed about that. That's

13:03

extremely dark. That's it for today's free sample.

13:05

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13:07

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13:10

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