My Psychedelic Roots

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Podcast by Amy Bartlett

My Psychedelic Roots

My Psychedelic Roots shares stories from people from a broad swath of lived experience to explore their psychedelic beginnings, or roots: what motivated them to start using psychedelics, what those early experiences were like, and how those roots have impacted their understanding of themselves and the world around them. My goal in these conversations is to give voice to the unique, transpersonal and human side of psychedelics and non-ordinary states of consciousness--- allowing guests to talk about their personal stories and helping to destigmatize psychedelics and the people who use them. I hope that listeners of the podcast will have an opportunity to gain insight into the lived reality of psychedelic experiencing (both the shadow and the light), hear about how people found their way into the psychedelic space, and to have an opportunity to get curious about the resonance, contrasts and connections between the podcast guests experience and their own psychedelic roots. Buy me a coffee to support the podcast: https://ko-fi.com/mypsychedelicroots
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Latest episodes

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05 November 2026

Ep40: Alex Sheren on growing up in the USSR, experiencing a ‘before and after’ ayahuasca ceremony, and the continuous work of self-acceptance and surrender

Alexandra Sheren is a linguist, transpersonal psychologist, and body-oriented psychotherapist. For fifteen years she worked in the sphere of clinical research and heading business development, until she chose to dedicate herself to the study of the deeper dimensions of the human psyche and the body. With a complex childhood growing up in the USSR and revolving around her parent’s experiences of grief and longing, as well as her being shaped by a beautiful and embodied first encounter with MDMA some years before, we then delve into the turning point in Alex’s psychedelic life which came in the form of a journey to Peru in 2016, where she had her first and very intense ‘before and after’ experience with ayahuasca. As she began to try to integrate this experience, she also began her acquaintance with transpersonal psychology and the shamanic traditions of Latin America. This path of learning continued in Northern California and in 2022 once again led her to the heart of the Amazon. The two years she spent in the jungle in this period became a time of intense, mystical immersion in the culture and healing practices of the Indigenous peoples. Today, a certified specialist in transpersonal counselling and body psychotherapy, Alexa practices an integral approach, uniting transpersonal states and somatics, and her book The Echo of Ucayali is an account of some of her experiences with ayahuasca: an anthropological memoir exploring Indigenous healing traditions, the shadow side of the Amazonian medicine world, and the complexities of human transformation.

Shownotes

Alex’s book ‘The Echo of Ucayali: an anthropological journey into the world of Amazonian shamans” https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Ucayali-Alexandra-Sheren-ebook/dp/B0FN86C69X/

An article Alex has written on the somatics of ayahuasca: https://sherenproject.substack.com/p/ayahuasca-felt-a-somatic-encounter

‘Hey You’, one of the formative Pink Floyd song from Alex’s childhood: https://youtu.be/_nLIBMNwi8M?si=22SVxuKZJahuFWpH

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

#psychedelics #podcast #tripreport

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22 October 2026

Ep39: Alycia Fridkin on her psychedelic childhood, the relief of altered states, and finding home with her Jewish roots

Alycia Fridkin is an equity and anti-racism health policy activist who has been working in public health and harm reduction settings for over two decades. As a queer Jewish White settler living in Vancouver, BC on the unceded homelands of the Musqueam and Squamish Peoples, she currently works for the Provincial Health Services Authority in Indigenous Health as a collaborative practice and policy lead. As we hear a bit about in our conversation together, Alycia is also the founder of Jewish Third Space, a retreat based initiative that integrates Jewish wisdom with transformative embodied practices— a reflection of the way she has reclaimed and blended her spiritual and cultural roots with her psychedelic unfolding. In our conversation together, we talk about her chaotic childhood experiences, and the roles that both fear and magic played in making sense of herself and the world around her. We talk about her desire to ‘get high’ in her teenaged years, and explore two formative experiences—one with LSD and one with MDMA-- that both reflect the unique mix of fear and magic that Alycia experienced in childhood in many ways.

Shownotes

Buy us a coffee and support the podcast: https://ko-fi.com/mypsychedelicroots

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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07 October 2026

EP38: Kyle Buller on his mystical childhood, a destabilizing near-death experience, and choosing this human life

Trigger Warning: discussions of suicidality

Kyle Buller is a somatic psychotherapist, breathwork facilitator, and educator recognized for his leadership in the psychedelic field. He is the Co-Founder, along with Joe Moore, of Psychedelics Today and the Co-Founder and Director of Vital Psychedelic Training, a professional program in Integrative Psychedelic Studies. Kyle also offers breathwork coaching and integration support for individuals navigating non-ordinary states through a grounded, relational, and body-based approach through his platform, SettingSun Wellness. As we hear in our conversation together, all of these contributions and accomplishments are deeply connected to his psychedelic roots in childhood. We talk about some of his mystical experiences as a child, and how his curiosity led him to connect deeply to himself and the world around him. Then, after a near-death experience in his teens and subsequent deep depression and destabilization, we hear about his first and existentially corrective psilocybin journey, after which his life's path turned toward understanding the nature of consciousness while also learning to stay grounded and connected to his body and day to day life.

A reminder that this episode contains explicit discussion of suicidal thoughts. This warning is meant to empower you with the knowledge you need to make healthy decisions about how and if you should consume this podcast content. We invite you to practice self-care and do what feels right for you. And if you need support, please connect with someone who can help: family and friends, professionals, or a crisis line. There are both Canadian and international recommendations in the show notes below. You are not alone-- not in your pain, nor in your healing.

Shownotes

Psychedelics Today: https://www.psychedelicstoday.com/

Vital Psychedelic Training: https://www.vitalpsychedelictraining.com/

Setting Sun Wellness: https://www.settingsunwellness.com/

Below are some Canadian and international mental health resources to access if you are in distress or need support:

Buy me a coffee and support the podcast: https://ko-fi.com/mypsychedelicroots

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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23 September 2026

Ep37: Rielle Capler on childhood curiosity, an unexpected first encounter, and the importance of set and setting

Rielle Capler is the Executive Director for the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies Canada (MAPS Canada), and has a long history of engaging in research and policy spaces, providing consultations, testimony, and submissions on both cannabis and psychedelics to a variety of Canada’s federal, provincial and municipal governments and other nations. Before leading MAPS Canada, Rielle applied her Masters in Health Administration to the first medical cannabis dispensary in Canada, and worked in the cannabis field for over 20 years, co-founding and leading several nonprofits in the cannabis space-- eventually receiving the Governor General of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal acknowledging her contribution to Canadian society through her work. She went on to earn a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia, and after her postdoc, also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. In our conversation, we talk about the awe and curiosity she experienced as a child, and the reverence she had for ritual at a young age. We explore her mostly-theoretical interest in psychedelics in her teenaged years, before happening into her first experience with an unexpectedly robust psilocybin mushroom tea one summer before starting university. We talk about what she has learned from her experiences over the years, and the importance of set and setting for moving in these spaces with intention, agency and humility.

Shownotes

MAPS Canada: https://www.mapscanada.org/

Rielle's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rielle-capler-mha-phd-21920718/

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

#psychedelics #podcast #tripreport

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08 September 2026

Ep36: Jamie Steel on his safe and grounded childhood, and exploration as receiving

Jamie Steel is an award-winning educator, music presenter, artist manager and community builder based in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Jamie has a background in Environmental Studies and Geography, and joined the local Huntsman Marine Science Centre in 1986 as Director of Education Programs. There, he developed experiential programs for students and teachers and created marine education resources used in Canada and internationally. His contributions were recognized with a New Brunswick Merit Award for environmental education and the Gulf of Maine Council’s inaugural Visionary Award. Jamie later carried that love of experiential learning into the arts, and has helped to build a vibrant arts community in St. Andrews and the broader region. He co-founded Paddlefest and founded the Winter Warmer Festival, both of which bring musicians and audiences together through intimate, community-rooted experiences. Named Music Industry Professional of the Year by Music·Musique NB in 2010, Jamie also received the East Coast Music Association’s Industry Builder Award in 2021. Across science, education and music, his work reflects his passion for bringing people together through creativity, community and shared experience—all of which is shared in our conversation together. In it, we talk about Jamie’s grounded childhood, which helped establish a solid base for his sense of exploration. We talk about how this admiration for explorers is connected to his psychedelic roots, the seed of which began on a train between Vancouver and Edmonton, and how those roots have supported his life’s many unfoldings and way of seeing the world—whether in a non-ordinary state of consciousness or not.

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Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

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26 August 2026

EP35: Rainbow Valentine on growing up in the counterculture, and staying connected to the magic of her childhood home

Thessaly Storm Lerner aka Rainbow Valentine is a multi-media artist, storyteller and accidental counterculture historian. Along with producing narrative podcasts about hippie heroes with the “Psychedelic Women” podcast, Lerner shares her talents as a musical comedian known as The Ukulady, a voiceover actress best known for the cult videogames “Silent Hill” and “The Sims 2”, as well as a writer, producer, director, improviser, creator, and promoter of “the Downfall of Evil”. Thessaly adopted her childhood moniker Rainbow Valentine as her podcast alias while also making the popular podcast “Disorganized Crime: Smuggler’s Daughter” about her childhood growing up with pot-smuggling counterculture parents, which we talk about a bit in our conversation together. In tracing Thessaly’s psychedelic roots, we also explore the relativity of understanding oneself in childhood, we talk about the role magic played and continues to play in her life’s unfolding, and the role of safety and home in her first – and subsequent—psychedelic experiences.

Shownotes

Rainbow Valentine's website: https://www.rainbowvalentine.com/

Psychedelic Women podcast: https://psychedelicwomenstories.com/

Disorganized Crime podcast: https://www.rainbowvalentine.com/disorganized_crime.html

Music credit: Music by Mass X Audio from Pixabay

#psychedelics #podcast #tripreport

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