Episode #33 An Anthropological Perspective on Plant Medicine with Wade Davis, PhD

On today’s episode Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Victoria Maizes sit down with Wade Davis PhD, an explorer, ethnographer, writer, and filmmaker on this episode to discuss humans and the natural world. Wade spent years living among 15 indigenous groups while collecting 6,000 botanical specimens in Amazonia and the Andes. He’s traveled around the world studying traditional herbal medicine preparations and indigenous beliefs.

In this conversation, Wade examines how societal values shape our individual and collective perspective. According to Dr. Weil, there are problems arising from the separation of medicine and spirituality. Dr. Maizes suggests that our senses influence the way we perceive the world. By exploring the history of psychedelics through a cultural lens, Wade describes how indigenous use of the substance elevated consciousness.

Wade, once hailed as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity”, draws on messages and lessons from his time with traditional healers, including the oldest of them all – nature.