Every so often I come across an idea that’s so remarkable, so playful, so wildly improbable that it could almost be true.... and I have to take a deep dive down the rabbit hole. The "Stoned Ape Theory" is one such idea.
Essentially: Did the ancient consumption of psychedelic mushrooms actually rewire the brains of our hominid ancestors so they learned to talk and think symbolically?
The legendary psychonaut Terrence McKenna talked up this theory several decades ago, though as you’ll hear in our radio story, his younger brother Dennis claims that he first came up with the idea.
The history of magic mushrooms goes back to the Mesoamerican mushroom cults. Later, they were rediscovered by Gordon Wasson, who wrote about his own experiences in a lengthy article in Life magazine. That Western interest can be traced all the way to our own time, as a new generation of scientists studies psychedelic therapies that might treat depression, addiction, and trauma.
We had a lot of fun putting together an entire radio hour about mushrooms — and most of all, discovering the world of mushroom obsessives who travel around the world to find rare and tasty mushrooms. Some of them really believe that mushrooms can save the world.
—Steve