PT551 – Tripped: The Connection Between LSD, Nazi Germany, and MKUltra, with Norman Ohler

Psychedelics Today

In this episode, Joe interviews Norman Ohler: award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and journalist.

Following in the footsteps of Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, his newest book, Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age, tells the story of how the Nazi’s passion for methamphetamine turned into a curiosity about LSD, and how their experiments with trying to harness LSD as a truth drug eventually led to the CIA continuing their research under their MKUltra program. The book came about from trying to understand why LSD never became medicine – a question posed by his father, when discussing how LSD could help with his wife’s progressing Alzheimer’s symptoms.

He discusses:

• His path to becoming a “gonzo historian” and how his early psychedelic research was inspired by a friend’s discovery of methamphetamine tablets from the 40s
• Henry Beecher’s LSD experiments with students at Harvard, and how researchers often didn’t know they were contributing to MKUltra
• His recent appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience and Jesse Watters Primetime
• His mother’s experience with microdosing LSD and why police showed up at his father’s door with a warrant
• Why he believes psychedelics will be legalized in the U.S. in the next 10 years

and more!

For links, head to the show notes page.