Dee: [00:00:00] And it was just one snap and it was like I woke up and I just took every bottle in my house and I just chucked it in the trash can. I never drank like that since that day. And I haven't kept any manmade prescription medicines in my house. I literally use plants, whether it's cannabis or psilocybin or Cat's Claw or St. John's Wart and just natural ways to get through. [00:00:23][23.1]

Ronan: [00:00:29] This is Field Tripping, a podcast dedicated to exploring psychedelic experiences and their ability to affect our lives. I'm your host, Ronan Levy. Edible Dee known as the Happy Chef is a veteran cannabis chef, herbalist and holistic healer and she has spent over a decade as an executive chef, cooking with cannabis, fungi and other medicines from both underground collectives to large scale edible producers. She's appeared on Netflix's Cooking on High, offers her own online cooking classes and works out of Las Vegas as an edibles consultant. Edible Dee's third cookbook, titled Delic Dishes, is a guide to cooking with psychedelics. She adds some magic to her dishes using psilocybin as the main ingredient in recipes like salad dressing, hummus, sushi and chocolate mud cakes. Alongside the recipes, Dee shares some personal stories of triumph and heartbreak with some memorable tales from the trip. Welcome to Field Tripping Edible Dee. [00:01:39][70.0]

Dee: [00:01:40] Hi, thank you guys so much it's definitely a blessing to be here today. [00:01:43][3.0]

Ronan: [00:01:44] It's really great to meet you in person and over Zoom. So let's hop into it. Dee, how did you become known as the happy chef? [00:01:52][8.2]

Dee: [00:01:53] The Happy Chef was actually a nickname that was coined by my mother because she said that that's what THC stood for. It kind of carried on with my persona due to legalities and prohibition. And I've had to have numerous amounts of aliases for my protection for what we all do. So, The Happy Chef was actually it was my main pen name for when I was writing with high times and I was submitting recipes. That was probably 2007, 2008. At that point, you know I was making the infamous, very widely known pot brownies and cookies, but my taste buds seemed to go on to a healthier palate. So I started experimenting with infusing different oils and different fats and coconut oils and getting a little bit healthier with my dishes, which is what inspired me later in 2014 to write my first cookbook, The Happy Chef, which was a numerous amount of recipes that with base formulas of how you can dose yourself properly and also healthy because one thing that is an edible industry, its kind of sugar, sugar, sugar, you know, the gummies are very popular, the candies, the lozenges. [00:03:09][75.9]

Ronan: [00:03:10] What was it like having to live under an alias? I mean, that's something that people talk about. It's not something that I think a lot of people experience directly. But I can only imagine that's going to be pretty grueling. I know even walking into a party where I have to turn on and be a persona or personality that I'm not, it's exhausting. And that's only for a couple of hours. So if you're living under an alias full time, what was that like? [00:03:33][23.4]

Dee: [00:03:34] It was definitely a very roller coaster of a time. You know, we all conformed and pursued that alias as a form of protecting us and our families, you know, and obviously with legalities we needed to because all of us were getting raided dispensaries, money, plants, everything just taken. We've all had to shut down and reopen in other locations like over decades of us opening our doors to patients for this form of healing. And over time, as it's changed and it's become more mainstream and more popular, a lot of us have come pretty much from the shadows to the spotlight. So, you know, as we were all very underground and then all of a sudden, you know, now we're all having Instagram accounts like I didn't even have social media until I published my first book. I didn't have social media at all until six years ago bringing up my first book. That was actually another humorous time, is that at the time I was working with Be Real of Cyprus Hill and Kingi. And so I was supplying different dispensaries and collectives with edibles as The Happy Chef edibles back then. So when I was working with Kingi, who is that's Be Real's main partner, he's also the head cultivator, comes with insane OG. He's a brilliant mind and he grows probably the best herb that I've ever cooked with to this day. But when I approached Be Real about writing my book, I was like, hey, I want to take all my recipes and I want to make the Happy Chef Cannabis cookbook. And he was like I think that's a great idea. And I said, well would you would you collab with me on it and maybe put your album like some music in as a free download or something like cannabis and music and food? You know, they all kind of go very hand and hand in hand. By the time when it peaked his interest and I was like, I don't think it's ever been done. I don't think anybody has ever made a cannabis cookbook that included music. And that just was like, ding, ding, ding. And I was so excited. I got the first edition in my hand and I sent it back home to my dad. My parents, they were very supportive. And even though they had to lie to all of our family friends about what I did, I was an independent consultant, hot air balloon pilot. That was my favorite one that I would say. But I was thinking my dad was going to call me and say, oh, my gosh, your first book, congratulations. And instead instead he called me and he said, I can't believe you did this. I raised you smarter than this. You put your face on a cannabis cookbook. Do you want me and your mother to come visit you in some prison in California? And I'm just like, oh, my gosh, Dad, you're right. I didn't even think about it. [00:06:13][159.1]

Ronan: [00:06:13] How did that feel when your dad said that, though? I mean, like, there's the rational part, like of him, like, oh, shit, what did I do? Like, I'm sure that's a natural reaction. But there's also like the other side of it, which is like one of my favorite quotes is, "if you're honest, sooner or later you have to confront your values", which means you have to separate what is right from what is merely legal, that makes you metaphysically on the run. America is full of metaphysical outlaws, it's one of my favorite quotes, and it kind of hits here, which is kind of like on the one hand I get it. On the other hand, like you're doing what you believe in, which is frankly, like I think most people can now accept that the war on drugs was an ill-conceived, pretty unjust pursuit, you know, and then there's the other hand of guilt right? That probably came up around it and a lot of the work I've done, because at the end of the day, this podcast is really about trying to go into the emotions and understanding people and the vulnerability around that. [00:07:00][46.3]

Dee: [00:07:00] Another thing about guilt with me is guilt can be used as a form of manipulation. My whole journey kind of started in, you know, my complete advocacy with cannabis and with just plant medicine in general was in 2009, I lost my sister to a prescription drug overdose. I lost the maid of honor in my wedding and I lost the aunt to my children, I lost my best friend and it was at that time and as I wrote in my latest book, Delic Dishes, I was the worst version of myself. I was running a restaurant back in Virginia called Scottie Quicks, and alcohol was right there behind the bar. And it was very easy to numb myself. That's what I felt like I had to do, because I feel like it's worldwide. We're just never taught or educated on how to deal with death. We're forced into life goes on. I can't stop working. It's not like I'm going to get paid time off to mourn. So we all almost self medicate in ways just to get us through the day. In that time, I was making edibles back then, of course, I was fracturing every law in Virginia for doing so, but my sister was my main guinea pig. There is a few months after she passed and I was drinking rumple mints, like every day, all day, just because I thought the bartender's mouthwash. I thought you couldn't tell I had been drinking. And then one day I hit pretty rock bottom and I looked at myself in the mirror and I didn't even recognize myself. You could just see it on my face. I was just pale. I was lifeless. I felt that, like every bit of that was me, like died with her. And not to mention she left behind my nephew, who I was then raising, and he was eight when she passed away, so I had like this living, breathing like little mirror of my sister, like he had her laugh and with me taking care and raising him, it was also so painful because I just saw her every day. But then she wasn't there. One day when I hit rock bottom pretty hard, I like woke up, I felt like absolute death and I looked in my freezer and there is a batch of pot brownies that me and her had actually made that I put in there and I pulled them out. At that point, I wasn't eating like I was barely eating a meal a day. I was drinking, was basically my nourishment, my nutrition. And then I ate one of the brownies. I took them out of the freezer. I thawed it out of one of the brownies. And I actually felt better. Immediately, it took away like the hangover, the nausea, the numbing I could feel again. But it settled me. I was the most relaxed and I was able to eat. I ended up immediately going to my garden and grabbing tomatoes. Then it was just one snap and it was like I woke up and I just took every bottle in my house and I just chucked it in the trash can. I've never drank like that since that day and I haven't kept any manmade prescription medicines in my house. I literally use plants, whether it's cannabis or psilocybin or Cat's Claw or Saint John's Wart and just natural ways to get through. [00:10:34][213.3]

Ronan: [00:10:35] Thank you for sharing that and obviously still a very raw and I'm not sure it's one of those things you can ever get over, but it sounds like you found hope and inspiration out of a terrible, terrible event. There's something really proud in what you took from a terrible experience and turned it into something that's really changing a lot of lives, including your own. [00:10:57][22.5]

Dee: [00:10:59] Everybody has a story. And that's kind of what I came to realize. When that happened, you know, looking like I said, I felt guilty, like back to the guilt. I felt guilty for looking at my nephew and not just wanting to cry just because he reminded me so much of her. And then I felt guilty because I left Virginia. That's what we're supposed to do, right? We're supposed to go to college, get a degree, buy a house, have a white picket fence, get married, have some kids. I was already, you know, on that routine, but I wasn't happy. And every day I just looked around and something reminded me and I felt like that I was trapped, that I was just this little me that was inside my gut that was screaming and clawing at the insides, just trying to get out. And that relief didn't come until I literally was just like, you know what, OK, I'm The Happy Chef. I'm right for high times. They're doing what I love to do out west. I'm going to pack up everything I have, sell everything I own. I've sold everything, packed up my little Toyota Solera convertible and I drove cross-country. And then there was where I felt like me again. I felt like, oh, my God, this is where I'm supposed to be. Because I met so many people that had my story. I was not alone anymore. My sister had lupus. I call it chronic organ failure disease. You know, she was in the hospital so much that we nicknamed, her name was Amber, and we nicknamed the mode of transportation into the amberlance because it was called so much. And she was on 12 pills a day on steroids that puffed up her body that, you know, added other problems and other weights on other organs. And, you know, her depression set in and and then me seeing that first hand to me moving out west and meeting these dispensary owners, these very amazing pioneers like strong, like I've met the strongest people of my life in the cannabis industry just from the mom and pops that kept it going. And I do think that this new wave of plant medicine, cannabis medicine, psychedelic medicine is kind of the balance that we've all been waiting for. [00:13:13][134.5]

Ronan: [00:13:14] What you said about the experience and going back to work and numbing yourself. We live in a society where still people aren't allowed to feel their emotions or express their emotions. I think it's one of the biggest challenges out there. You know, Canada's certainly much better than the US in terms of this kind of stuff, but like grieving a loss of a loved one or, you know, even like paternity or maternity leave rules in the US. You know, you hear people talking about like in Canada, you can take up to 18 months in the US. If you're lucky, you get three months and it's like there's no space for feeling or expressing or processing emotions. You know, I have a lot of respect for you because one of the things that happens to a lot of us is that we get pegged into a persona right? And as The Happy Chef, you're probably expected to be happy most of the time right? You're supposed to own this and it's not just you. I mean, generally everywhere I see that, like in this world, everyone's supposed to be great, OK? And it's like a lie perpetrated, I think, terribly by social media. [00:14:12][57.8]

Dee: [00:14:13] When that happened and of course, losing her was definitely a phase in my life that changed my life and it changed it forever. That incident and then also, like, you're expected to be happy, but like life isn't like that, it's not and as you say, social media has a part in it. Disney has a part in it, like we're all looking waiting for this fairy tale that the good shall triumph and know rainbows and unicorns. Everything is going to be OK. No, life isn't easy. [00:14:46][33.3]

Ronan: [00:14:51] In my personal, emotional and therapeutic journeys, it's often been described to me that pain is a result of separation. In its simplest form, this could be understood through a broken bone or a sprained ankle. These involve physical separation of the bones or muscles from tendons. But on an emotional level, the same holds true much of the emotional pain we experience that turns into shame, which is a sense that there's something inherently wrong with ourselves, is a result of a separation from our true, authentic selves. And that's why the need of those who are trying to change the status quo, to hide themselves or put on masks is so sad and concerning. It necessarily implies that people have to hide and literally separate from their true selves. And if there's one consistent thing that psychedelic experiences do, it is help people reconnect with themselves. Yet those at the forefront often feel the need to hide. This is actually an issue that comes up often in Field Trip. How do we challenge the status quo? How do we change minds about psychedelics while not offending people or regulators? I've always believed that people should talk and act in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which they believe in what they are doing. It's probably the biggest reason that I'm doing this podcast, sharing personal and intimate details of my life and openly talking about activities that are legal, though far from immoral. Because at the end of the day, everyone has to confront their values and separate what is right from what is merely legal. Those who are willing to do so and stand behind that are people I like to call metaphysical outlaws. The world is full of those people and they're often the ones who change the world. [00:16:36][105.3]

Ronan: [00:16:42] Now, somewhere along the line, it sounds like you discovered the potential of psychedelics to help with healing. I know our medical director in Canada refers to cannabis as the mildest form of psychedelic. But clearly, when we think about psychedelics, we're thinking about it in a very different context. So can you tell us a little bit about how that happened when you discovered them? And can you tell us a little bit about how you discovered psychedelics and how eventually, ultimately that led to your current cookbook? [00:17:09][26.5]

Dee: [00:17:09] It was right after I published my first cookbook, I ended up leaving L.A. and I opened the first medical marijuana production kitchen in Las Vegas. This was completely like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe this. Like here I am running an entire production kitchen, going from the shadows to the spotlight of really having to be underground to now regulations are happening and seed to sale systems, pos's. We didn't have any of this, we didn't have labs when I was first going, when I was first supplying dispensaries, it was a regular dose, medium dose and high, super strength, times two. And then all of a sudden the labs got open and we all had to get really good, really fast, because you can't rebake a cookie, you can't really make certain things. And if you're not within the 15 percent allowance of the testing labs, then you can't sell. And at that point, I was handling all of those challenges with these new regulations, the rewriting the laws. I felt like there's a new reg that came out every three months. So dealing with all of the challenges of prohibition, like what do you want to do now? Tell me how you want to do this kind of formulas into how to do this new wave of cannabis being available. I was also dealing with having to be an executive chef, having a sous chef, having a team, having multiple employees. I wanted to make sure that I was a good boss. I wanted to make sure that I was somebody that my team could come to for anything. I wanted to make sure that I was always available. And with all of that and then also trying to have a personal life, oh, my gosh, it was everything I was I was constantly overwhelmed and I was just trying to compartmentalize everything and just trying to make sure that it's like, OK, how do I do this? And I'm one of my friends who's like, very good businessman nd I asked him. I sat there one day and I just said, how do you do what you do? How do you run all these multiple companies? How do you handle, like, all of this and staying up a part of your game? Like, you know, I'm sitting here reading Senate bills and changes. And he goes, well, I've actually been micro-dosing psilocybin so for the last I'd say six years. And I put a lot of me being that much better as a leader, as a boss, as a business, entrepreneur along that line of psilocybin helped me in that way. And I said, interesting, how so? And he said, well, it calms the ego and the headspace enough for you to be able to get into somebody else's shoes. I coin this phrase, he called it a life hack. He would do it in the form of capsules. I prefer mine and teas and got some spores and I brewed my own and I started capsulizing my own and added it to my teas. And I've now been micro-dosing psilocybin for five years now. [00:20:08][179.2]

Ronan: [00:20:09] But what is your micro dosing protocol? Out of curiosity, if you don't mind sharing? [00:20:12][3.0]

Dee: [00:20:13] A lot of forums, say a tenth of your trip dose. How I say it in my book is I have the microdose and then I have the therapeutic dose and then I have the shamonic dose. Those are the ones I say you want to open portals. So a tenth of your shamanic dose is what most forums are saying. And I'm on that same route. However, tolerances do change. And also the thing about plant medicine is depending on the cultivar it's in and the individual, your body mass, the way your body digests your name metabolizes, I would say a tenth of your trip dose would probably be the best microdose. Mine is around this, around .35, .4. And then when I get into my therapeutic doses, which I like to use, the therapeutic dose is just as that. Say, if like a lot of my life is a little chaotic and I need to calm down my brain, or I really I have a challenge that I really need to figure out, I will pour myself a bath. I will medicate my bath. I put CBD and jasmine and clearly sage and I will just meditate in my bath on about a gram of psilocybin. And I just I do some headwork. I really just sit with myself. And I think that's something that a lot more people need to do, is they really need to have that alone space and sit with themselves because you have to figure out what's good for you. No one else is going to be able to tell you what's good for you. [00:21:41][87.9]

Ronan: [00:21:44] You shared openly an experience on ayahuasca, would you mind telling us more about that and what came out of it and what insights you may have developed from it if anything along those lines? [00:21:53][9.1]

Dee: [00:21:54] My journey into ayahuasca and combo and those worldly psychedelics, that all happened with I had just partnered with a cannabis research company that I was one of the founders in, and I was actually making my recipes under my brand name since Prop 215. So this was my baby and to make it short, that partnership turned very ugly. I was cut out of my contract a year and four months early. Lots of pain went in there. You know, I lost my staff, my IP, my recipes, and I had to, again, find myself. My good friend Justin, who I name in the book, he started a house I called Holistic House, Las Vegas, where he was working, he was helping wean patients off of narcotics with natural healing, natural medicines. He'd always mentioned ayahuasca to me in combo and these medicines. So at this point, you know, again, when you've lost it all, you're just kind of like, all right, what do I got to do? Him mentioning it again and again, it was kind of like my third call that I've gotten. And I just felt it in my gut where I was like, OK, let me start looking into this, because my father, he always said, if you're going to do anything stupid, do it in the smartest way possible. And it stuck and because my father was like, oh, I know you're going to try drugs and I know you're going to do this and have a test or test it, know your resources. And so I started doing heavy research on aya and combo and then I made those steps into making that journey for myself. And what I found in that experience was exactly what I needed. I ended up realizing at that time, even though it was eight years since my sister passed, I realized that I hadn't really processed her death yet. I wasn't allowed a lot of the time. I got to open myself up fully to actually processing that time of my life. And it really helped teach me, along with working with my shaman and also doing combo, which is another South American medicine. I really got into a routine and a practice of learning how to just live every day without attachments, because I realized that that was my problem. And upfront and honest, you're setting yourself up for failure because holding on to anything so temporary is just room for disaster. [00:24:30][156.6]

Ronan: [00:24:34] How do you balance letting go of things without being detached, I hear and intuitively it makes a lot of sense that you're setting yourself up for failure if you become too attached to certain people, certain outcomes, certain events. But at the same token, if you're not attached to it to some degree, then you become detached and you become apathetic. [00:24:55][20.8]

Dee: [00:24:56] What I found was that my problem with attachment was all rooted in self-love. I found that my attachments all came from not loving myself more than what I was attached to. And that's where I found my balance was because at the end of the day, you have to live with you. And when you're putting more energy into something else other than you, when you make a priority of something else that you're attached to and you don't make yourself a priority, that's when your body and whole livelihood balance, that's when it's thrown off. But having the amount of love for yourself, it's like, what does the mask say when you're on a plane and the planes crash and you put your mask on before you help everybody else is it's like making sure that you are good. [00:25:48][52.1]

Ronan: [00:25:49] That makes a lot of sense. I know I'm personally very guilty of overcaring because for much of my life, like my sense of esteem came from success in business or my friends or relationships or anything along those lines, which obviously is an incredibly dangerous thing. And if you get your validation from external sources, kind of like as we touched on earlier, it's fundamentally going to collapse eventually right? And I get it, I mean, a lot of people come into it with a lot of shame for whatever reason, you know, we carry these senses of baggage that we're unworthy, that we're unlovable. Then we have to do things to become lovable. [00:26:22][33.5]

Dee: [00:26:23] You say like your self-worth. You put that against your achievements and you put that against your successes. There's anything that I've ever found is that my roller coaster of life has been full of a lot of ups and very equal downs. Looking back at the past, I want to pull from those lessons like what have I been doing wrong? When you get to the point of people-pleasing and partner pleasing and lover pleasing and you put everything into them, it's kind of like when you say, oh, you are my everything. No one should say that. And I'm guilty of saying it, making somebody you're everything. If anybody should be your everything, it's you. It's how you see yourself. And as long as you're constantly working on yourself, you don't have to wait to celebrate. [00:27:08][45.3]

Ronan: [00:27:09] I remember at one point in my life I was probably clinically depressed. I was articling at law school and I just hated my life. I hated my job. I didn't know how to get out of it. I felt stuck. And I remember having this one insight that just came to me, kind of a divine inspiration where it was like, you don't need to achieve your goals to find happiness as long as you feel like you're making progress towards those goals. That's where happiness lies. And I think that's kind of consistent with what you're saying in terms of like celebrating those victories. [00:27:35][25.5]

Dee: [00:27:35] Celebrate progress, take pictures of the progress, whether it's like physical or anything like learn to be your biggest fan. Like that's something that we all just don't do enough. We don't realize how magical that we all are, how you sculpt and how you make things and what you put your energy to. You put energy into everything you do in your life. Everyone would always say, why do your edibles taste so good? And I always say, I put the love in it. [00:28:02][26.2]

Ronan: [00:28:02] On putting love into the food. How do you think about cooking with psychedelics? Can you just tell me how you come up with the recipes, what the thinking is? Is it mostly a flavor combination? Is it mostly like the essence of the food? [00:28:16][13.5]

Dee: [00:28:17] I go by what your body needs, the way I cook, I like to call it a molecular chef or a layered chef and that's where your body needs proteins, fibers, antioxidants, everything your body needs I like to put in one dish. You know, again, it's all about balance and, you know, your body is made of all the periodic tables and the elements. When you create that dish, you are working with those flavors like cooking with colors, making sure you add purples, like your red onions for your antioxidants, making sure you add mushrooms for your probiotics. I mean, they're so good for your gut. Like 80 percent of your body's serotonin is made in your gut. So, like, literally that's what makes you happy. I grew up in farmland. So, you know, my family, we always cook like this, we always grew on vegetables and our own herbs. And then as I left and I started getting into more the city life, I found out, like a lot of people don't even eat mushrooms, like, I mean, edible mushrooms, not just psychedelic ones. It's a texture thing. Like no wonder why you're on antidepressants. You wonder why you're having weight issues and everything because a lot of people aren't ingesting enough probiotics. Good for your gut foods and fibers. I'm very, very against processed foods. I'm meal prep once a week. I make my own hummus. I make all my own sauces. It really doesn't take that much time and that's something that I also was teaching in delic dishes along with every single recipe, I also put the ingredients and all the medicinal benefits of those ingredients. I'm on what's called the blue diet, which is mainly plant-based, and that's the blue zone territories in our beautiful world. [00:29:49][92.8]

Ronan: [00:29:50] You have a whole chapter in your book too about sex and psychedelics. Can you go into that? You know, a lot of people talk about MDMA and sex, but not psychedelics more broadly. So please. [00:30:02][12.0]

Dee: [00:30:03] That was another thing with my latest cookbook, because my other two, they were just cookbooks. And even though these books were a part of me writing a psychedelic cookbook and I designed the psychedelic cookbook to be very much like my others. But then I was like, you know what, if I'm really going to like clarify and grant clarity to my readers of the abilities of these medicines, I need to get more involved. Yeah. So in my tales from the trip, I like to take one of my recipes and then I share my experience and I journal it. And of course, the sexual one, the that was endless orgasm, I had to write above it saying, if you are in any way, shape or form related to me, do not read the section. Definitely didn't need mom and dad reading that but... [00:30:49][45.9]

Ronan: [00:30:49] I'm sure your dad is glad he has your face on the book as opposed to other things. [00:30:53][3.5]

Dee: [00:30:56] Haha, yes, yes. But I found having, allowing somebody into an intimate stage as intercourse, like having the comfortability with somebody. Now, this is also in my book, I also say do not just do this with strangers. This is not a, I'm going to have a one night stand and have some psilocybin sex and no, if you all just listen to me at all in this interview, I just told you energies are very important and make sure you're not around the wrong energy and having, bringing something like that. You don't want to be having a bad trip or a challenging trip with a stranger in your bed. That's probably the worst thing you can do. So, I definitely recommend, you know, you're doing it with a long-time lover, you know, your partner in life, somebody that you definitely have that level of intimacy with. And I found it to be a worldly, amazing experience. You're so connected with your lover, you're so connected with your partner and anyone that's ever consumed psilocybin knows like the feeling that you get, everything intensifies. Music is better, like tastes are better, touch, and everything just feels better. You could go into a shower on psilocybin and you're just like, I live here. You know, even just the simplicity of everything is heightened. All your senses are so heightened and you never feel closer with your partner and then you never experience more of an intense orgasm or pleasure that you do than I found on psilocybin with a partner. And like you said, MDMA, I actually I write about MDMA, I kind of give Cliff Notes on all the psychedelics that that I have tried versus like ketamine and ibogaine and kava kava. And I write about MDMA or molly and everyone's always all sex on molly. I didn't find it to be a pleasurable experience. I found it very difficult to climax, which led to frustration, even though I felt good on it, I had to put MDMA intercourse against psilocybin and of course psilocybin would win one hundred percent all day, every day. And what about yourself? [00:33:12][136.2]

Ronan: [00:33:13] I've actually never tried MDMA, so I certainly haven't tried intercourse on MDMA. That's a given. You know, I don't even recall if I've used psilocybin in that circumstance either, but I'm definitely more inclined to try. Challenge we have is that with a one-year-old and a four-year-old in a pandemic with Googling or, you know, any child care, we don't get long breaks for, you know, that kind of extracurricular activities. [00:33:38][25.3]

Dee: [00:33:39] That kind of couples, the couples therapy session. [00:33:41][2.5]

Ronan: [00:33:42] Yeah, actually, on that note, one of the questions I've asked all of our guests so far is that the pandemic has been, you know, what people are calling the great pause, which is for many people across the world, we've been given a huge amount of time and space to reflect. And certainly a lot of the challenges around the pandemic are bringing those issues that we hold onto to the forefront. You know, we have to deal with the economic anxiety, the interpersonal anxiety. You can't ignore it, you can't miss it, it's coming in, it's you in the face. And so I'm just wondering if during this great pause, there's been any great insights or revelations that you've had? [00:34:16][33.4]

Dee: [00:34:16] I most definitely have. When the pandemic hit us all, I was making lemonade. We're all handed a bunch of lemons right now. You know, as you say, with these challenging and very difficult times, a lot of pain, a lot of loss, a lot of suffering, you can feel the energy and the tension everywhere, everywhere you go and having to deal with different people. And, you know, people, unfortunately, are not shining their best selves right now because of stresses, the not knowing. None of us know what's going on, the fairy tale of all of us having control, that facade of us thinking that we have control. It went bey bye, none of us have control of anything that's going on in our lives. And I feel my headspace going into ways of anxiety, of panic, of, oh, my gosh, like what's going to happen with this election? You know, we've got riots, Black Lives Matter, We have Trump and Biden, and, you know, sex trafficking and pedophilia and there's so many things. And it's like I like to think that 2020 kind of really gave everyone in the world 20/20 vision. I mean, people out there do not be shy or hesitant on using the block in your life or unfollow anything that doesn't serve your best interests like overall. Please block away, delete, get it out of your life, get it out of your bubble. [00:35:42][85.7]

Ronan: [00:35:43] Absolutely. I recently got an Android phone and most of my friends, all of whom are on iPhone, judge me for having an Android phone right now. But it actually has one feature. Actually, it's got two features that like I think are spectacular. One is being able to use two apps at the same time so I can actually look at you and see your notes at the same time, which is awesome. But the other one is that it has a zen mode. So it blocks you, it stops you from being able to use your phone and you can't turn it off. And it's amazing how much my anxiety drops when I am, put the phone on zen mode. It's so shockingly, disturbingly powerful. You know, we've got these phones in our lives and it's exactly the same thing as social media and making sure that the energies around you are good ones. The other question that we ask everybody is if there's one person that you could either go on a trip with or forced to go on a trip, you know, be in a psychedelic experience, who would it be? [00:36:34][51.5]

Dee: [00:36:35] Honestly, I would love to take a trip with Shaw Day. I really would. I mention her and my first cookbook with Cyprus. And my mother always said, if you cooked with Shaw Day, it puts the love in it. Having a trip with her would probably be the most soulful, beautiful trip where, you know, it's like Mama's home and I just feel like I would be in the best space. [00:36:55][20.8]

Ronan: [00:36:57] Awesome, well, listen, I really appreciate your time Dee, this has been a fantastic conversation. I've enjoyed every moment of it. It's been insightful, it's been entertaining, it's been vulnerable. And I'm really grateful for you making the time and if people want to find, delic dishes or anything more about what you're doing, where should they find you? [00:37:16][19.6]

Dee: [00:37:17] I'm at Edible Dee on everything Edible D-E-E and that's my website, edibledee.com, every platform. And of course I'm also on the National Marijuana News Network. That is a great platform. I have an amazing podcast on there with Todd Denkin and we both drop a lot of formulas need to know this is what's happening in the cannabis science world, and I also want to tell you, you know, thank you very much it has been an honor for you guys, even taking the time and space out of your day to get to know me. [00:37:49][32.4]

Ronan: [00:37:50] Well, thank you so much Dee. Really nice to meet you, I appreciate your time and please do keep in touch. [00:37:53][3.7]

Dee: [00:37:54] Definitely and congratulations. [00:37:55][1.0]

Ronan: [00:38:00] Dee's story is both heartbreaking and inspiring. After speaking with her, I uncovered four main points that I'll be taking away from the conversation. First, realize the magic of you. The only person who should be your everything is you. Be cognizant and respectful of other people, but in the words of Tom Robbins, "hold on to your divine blush, urinate rosy magic." Remember to celebrate your wins. Life is full of abundance if you're willing to open your eyes and recognize the magic and wonder around who you are and what you're becoming, but also be OK with being sad, with grieving and most importantly, with failure, learn to work with them. We paid just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. So go ahead and fail, but fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. Embrace failure, seek it out, learn to love it. That may be the only way any of us will ever be free. And finally, make time to sit with yourself. Listen to your body, we are all gifted with intuition, but many of us have lost the ability to hear it. Make space to do so, we've all got lots to say. [00:39:18][78.0]

Ronan: [00:39:26] Thank you for listening to Field Tripping, a podcast dedicated to exploring psychedelic experiences and their ability to affect our lives. I'm your host, Ronan Levy, until next time. Stay curious. Breathe properly and remember, every day is a Field Trip if you let it be. Field Trip is created by Ronan Levy and produced by Conrad Page. Our researcher is Sharon Bella. Special thanks to Quill. And of course, many thanks to Dee, The Happy Chef for joining me today. Check out her new cookbook, Delic Dishes, now available for download on Amazon and follow her on Twitter and Instagram at Edible Dee. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast and sign up for our newsletter at fieldtripping.fm. [00:39:26][0.0]

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