Ramon Reyes started out selling herb on the streets of NYC as a teenager and subsequently climbed through the ranks of the underground, the gray market and the legal industry to now run a licensed dispensary in the same heavily Dominican neighborhood where he grew up.

Along with partner Vlad Bautista, Ramon originally co-founded Happy Munkey as a speakeasy style consumption lounge after a trip to Amsterdam convinced him that the truest expression of weed culture is being able to share the plant with friends and strangers. Now the name Happy Munkey hangs above two of New York City's newest dispensaries, where you can find Ramon right back out on the street, only this time it's to literally open the door and serve as ambassador into the world of legal sales.

In 1999, this week's guest starred in one of the most financially successful films of all time, but the circumstances around the making and marketing of Blair Witch Project meant that her incredible accomplishment actually came with a lot of very steep downsides. 

A story that’s briefly chronicled in her memoir: Growgirl: The Blossoming of an Unlikely Outlaw… by Heather Donahue (now known as Rei Hance).

On paper, it certainly sounds like a dream come true. You star in a micro budget movie shot for just $60,000 that becomes a $250 million box office smash. But when her star turn struck gold, Rei was both the face of the franchise and fully hidden from sight.

It’s a wild story, even by show business standards, but Rei and I talked almost exclusively about weed. Because after she left Hollywood behind, she ended up spending a few years in a place she very lovingly called Nuggettown, a Northern California medical cannabis farm back in the beautiful gray market days of the early 2000s. 

Revisiting those days more than twenty years later filled me with a beautiful flush of nostalgia cut with a bit existential longing. It was a wonderful conversation and I’m excited to share it with you as our first great moment in of 2025.

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 130+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

Celebrate stony seasonal traditions old and new with our GMIWH Holidaze special. In addition to our annual retelling of the story of Santa's origin as a Siberian psychedelic mushroom shaman, we also enjoy Santa's Secret—a song from the 1940 about St. Nick and his 100 foot long reefer, and revive the seasonal tradition of Jay Thomas telling David Letterman all about the time he got too stoned and then had to drive the Lone Ranger home.

Thank you to everyone who listened to the podcast this year and especially those who support the show on Patreon. Please share this episode with a friend and subscribe to the podcast for more Great Moments in Weed History in 2025!

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 130+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

Back when cannabis was barely legal, an eco-minded off-the-grid ganja farm strived to create a sustainable vision of decentralized, utopian agrarian life that put people and the planet above profits. Return to a moment in the past full of hope and promise that just might point the way to a greener future for everyone who loves the plant and the culture. 

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 130+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

How did a bunch of farmers from Kentucky create the biggest pot growing and smuggling syndicate in American history?

We hear that barn burning story straight from Jim Higdon, author of Cornbread Mafia: A Homegrown Syndicate's Code Of Silence And The Biggest Marijuana Bust In American History

Music clip in intro: Cornbread Mafia by Sticktight

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 130+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

Weed history teaches us to overcome the forces of oppression with the help of our favorite plant ally. In this episode we talk with Dr. Mariana Hoyo, a bright young physician who started out fearing weed because of a bunch of bullshit propaganda, and now has a practice focused on endocannabinology and even teaches classes on the endocannabinoid system at the very same medical school where she once faced shame and stigma for even inquiring about our favorite plant.

And who were her first patients in this practice? None other than her own two grandmothers, who both benefited tremendously from this healing herb. And don't that give you some hope...

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 130+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

Election season anxiety? Take a break from the horserace and travel back to 1970, when the Gonzo author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ran for Sheriff in Colorado on a "free weed" platform as part of the newly formed Freak Power party.

Plus, experience a great moment in Bean's personal weed history when he describes a visit to the High Minded Humboldt farmstead for some seasonal agricultural work and oh yeah... a 9-course Moon Swoon infused dinner from Spice of Life Supper Club.

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 130+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

This episode includes a recently discovered audio tape exposing the War on Marijuana as a total fraud, a state-by-state guide to voting for weed in the 2024 election, an up close look at how Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz legalized cannabis as the governor of Minnesota, and the story of a tireless grassroots activist living off $2 hot dogs at the capitol after getting busted for smoking pot outside a casino,

Now, if that all sounds like a lot of strains to keep straight in the old Duder’s head, just trust me, they all intersect in the life of Kurtis Hanna, my guest on this weed’s program.

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 120+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

For over fifty years, Michelle and Michael Aldrich have tirelessly advocated for the cannabis plant. A joint life's journey that started when they first met at the first-ever conference hosted by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

How’s that for a weed meet cute? 

In this episode, we hear directly from this high-namic duo about how and why they've played a leading role in the cannabis liberation movement since 1972, and what they've got planned next.

SEE BEAN PERFORM IN SEATTLE ON OCT 5

Get your tickets now to see a sneak preview of "The History of Weed" hosted by Bean as part of the Dope Show at the Halcyon Brewery.

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 120+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

What have you always wanted to know about the herb but were afraid to ask? Bean scoured the Reddit /trees forum and asked Great Moments in Weed History supporters on Patreon to find out, and then sat down for a sesh, put on his "Uncle Stoner" hat, and dished out some info and advice based on his 20+ years of reporting on our favorite plant.

Does weed sometimes make you anxious, or weepy or want to get naked? How can you score some pot safely when traveling? What if you need weed for medicine but your doctor says no way? And how can you best use cannabis to boost your creativity?

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 120+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

Jerry Garcia and Mountain Girl sat rolling joints and cleaning the stems and seeds from a brick of weed when a fateful knock came at the door of 710 Ashbury Street.

Having your communal crash pad raided by the police isn’t typically the start of a great moment, but for the Grateful Dead, the October 1967 undercover police sting operation that targeted their home and headquarters turned into a pivotal inflection point in the band’s trajectory. One that would change cannabis history and spread weed consciousness around the world. 

That's because rather than pleading out or turning informant, they held a press conference right in the same room where they’d been busted, calling out the local police and the national War on Drugs as a racist, hypocritical, counter productive, unconstitutional failure.

This episode also examines the huge role the band and their many Deadhead followers played in spreading high quality marijuana and seeds across the country, including classic strains like Sour Diesel and Chemdog.

Very special thanks to the legend Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, Spinal Tap) for guesting on this episode, as he actually wrote the 1967 pro-legalization statement the Dead presented at their press conference.

Read more first person accounts of this incident in Rock Skully's book Living with the Dead and in Rosie McGee's memoir Dancing with the Dead.

Hear the Grateful Dead's October 22, 1967 Marijuana Defense Benefit concert in its entirety at archive.org. Check out Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally's book A Long Strange Trip.

PATREON

Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible 

EPISODE ARCHIVE

Visit our podcast feed for 120+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.