Matthew Duffy (Duffy) is a myco-poet, writer, musician, and cultural alchemist. From 2018-2023, Duffy was instrumental in making Denver the first city to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms, and later making Colorado the first state to fully decriminalize psilocybin and other entheogenic plants.

We explore the initiation Duffy went through that led to this calling, as well as the trials and tribulations that followed it.

Through it we discuss mythopoetics, human development, and what it means to wake up, grow up and show up.

You can find more of Duffy at:

• Duffy's substack: Our Will to Live (OWL)
• Duffy's instagram @mycelial_mischief
• Duffy's interview on Life's a Festival Podcast

Links to dive deeper on the people/topics discussed:

• Stephen Jenkinson Interview: Elderhood: Coming Of Age In Troubled Times
• Joanna Macy interview: On the World as Love and Self

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

Meghan Walla Murphy is a wildlife ecologist, educator, and guide who helps people remember their ancestral kinship with the more-than-human world.

In this conversation we move between the wisdom of elephant seals and bears and the ecosystems we share with them, experiments in wilderness solitude and animal tracking as a path to remembering.

Links mentioned in the conversation:

• Meghan's fundraiser to Help Kalahari Bushmen Keep Their Indigenous Wisdom Alive
• Meghan's website
• Article on The river that came back to life: a journey down the reborn Klamath

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.

Here I sit down with existential psychologist Dr. Alex Sielaff to explore how our awareness of death subtly shapes everything, from our beliefs and identities to our relationships and search for meaning.

We dive into Terror Management Theory, peak states of consciousness, and the ways adventure, discomfort, and integration can help us live more fully in the face of mortality.

It’s a conversation about fear, freedom, and the quiet power of choosing presence over certainty.

You can contact Alex via email at sielaff@arizona.edu

Some of the references discussed in this conversation are:

• The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
• Rude Awakening: Perils, Pitfalls, and Hard Truths of the Spiritual Path by P.T. Mistlberger
• Robert Anton Wilson's idea of Maybe Logic for holding multiple worldviews at the same time

You can support this podcast by leaving a review on the podcast platform you use, or connect with Tim on Instagram @timstewnz.