#58 - Festival Medicine on the Frontlines | Richard "Wolverine" Gottlieb (RGX Medical)

This episode goes out to all the healthcare workers in the fight against coronavirus. If you are an EMT, a doctor, nurse, or hospital janitor… bless you! Richard “Wolverine" Gottlieb is the king of festival medicine. His company RGX Medical manages 30-40 festivals per year including favorites like Lightning in a Bottle, Envision, and Desert Hearts. RGX emphasizes a harm reduction approach and works closely with the Zendo Project psychedelic peer support to provide nonjudgmental, compassionate care for all festival attendees. Given the current state of the world and the enormous burden on our healthcare system, I wanted to talk to Wolverine about what we civilians can do to support in the current crisis. At this point we’re all staying home, social distancing, and washing our hands… you’re all doing that right? Well, what else can we do? Wolverine and I discuss how to avoid injuring yourself and what to do if you get hurt. We talk about managing mental health and how to hold space for others. We discuss donating personal protective gear (ie those extra N95 masks you bought but never used at Burning Man this year), which you can do that through Burners Without Borders. Finally, Wolverine talks about the unique value of festival medicine in our current crisis as he prepares to join the fight. Do you have a medical professional in your life? Call them and thank them. Stay safe and stay home my friends! LINKS RGX Medical: http://www.rgxmedical.com/ Zendo Project: https://zendoproject.org/ Dancesafe: https://dancesafe.org/ BWB PPE Mobilization: https://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/projects/covid-bds National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ Tim Ferriss Podcast “How to Support Healthcare Workers Now”: https://tim.blog/2020/03/21/how-to-support-healthcare-workers-now/ TIMESTAMP :07 - Checking in about the coronavirus crisis and how we can avoid hurting ourselves with an overburdened healthcare system :16 - How Wolverine got involved in festival medical from volunteering to running RGX Medical :22 - The non judgemental, harm reduction approach to festival medicine :25 - The state of festival culture and how Wolverine is helping connect people who want to work in medicine :30 - How can we support medical professionals right now, including donating personal protective gear and taking care of yourself :38 - Tips for how to take care of your own mental health. :52 - How is festival medicine specifically useful now.