Soren Shade is a producer of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, co-founder of a kratom tea company, and an inveterate drug policy expert. He discovered kratom in his dorm at Columbia in 2017, leaning on it to get through a workload he wasn't prepared for after growing up in an underfunded school system in West Virginia. What started as a study aid quickly transformed into a passion, leading him to a deep education in how the drug war actually operates, from regulatory backroom deals to international treaty politics to the strange economics of a substance that keeps almost getting banned and keeps surviving anyway. We dive deep in this episode as Soren recounts the many disastrous failures of the drug war and regales us with stories of an old mentor who carried decades of secrets.
What is Understory - An InoculateTheWorld Podcast?
Join us for conversations about consciousness, psychedelics, and the mycelial threads that tie the world together.