Episode 57: Psychoactive Plants of the Amazon forest with Dr Glenn H Shepard

Dr Glenn H Shepard is an ethnobotanist, medical anthropologist and film maker whose work focuses on the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. He speaks eleven languages and has done fieldwork with diverse native groups in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East researching shamanism, medicinal plants, and traditional environmental knowledge. His work features in the documentary Spirits of the Rainforest.

We talk about:

- Glenn's work with the indigenous people of the Amazon forest

- Biopiracy

- Medicinal/Psychoactive plants, in particular ayahuasca

- How psychoactive plants may be used in the West vs the countries they originate from

- The ecological and legal consequences of exporting psychoactive plants

- The fires in the Amazon forest

Links

Dr Glenn H Shepard Jr Blog - Notes from the Ethnoground

Glenn on Twitter @tweettropiques

Spirits of the Rainforest Documentary

The Ethnobotanical Assembly www.tea-assembly.com