Wade Davis is a Canadian cultural anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author, and photographer. Davis came to prominence with his 1985 best-selling book The Serpent and the Rainbow about the ‘zombies of Haiti’. He is professor of anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia.

Davis has published articles in Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Outside, National Geographic, Fortune, and Condé Nast Traveler. He is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and had produced 18 documentary films. His work has largely focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, and has taken him to, among others, East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru and Tibet.

As a honorary citizen of Colombia, Wade Davis educates about the true culture of a country known mostly for its drug cartels and cocaine scandals. Listen to this week’s episode to find out about Colombia and its sacred plant - Coca, a stimulant milder than tea and with more nutritional benefits than all the plants we know of.