2 Minutes With … Madison Margolin, Journalist and Host of Set & Setting

Madison is a journalist covering psychedelics and spirituality. She is the author of Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up With Ram Dass & Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground. Madison hosts the Be Here Now Network’s Set & Setting Podcast, and she co-founded both DoubleBlind Magazine and the Jewish Psychedelic Summit.

With a decade of experience covering psychedelics, cannabis and spirituality, Madison’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, KCRW and other outlets. She offers classes, workshops, and consulting on Judaism and psychedelics.

We spent two minutes with Madison to learn more about her background, her creative inspirations and recent work she’s admired.

Madison, tell us …

Where you grew up, and where you live now.

I grew up in Los Angeles, and now I split my time between New York and Israel. 

How you first got interested in visionary plants.

I started to become more aware of visionary plants as a teenager. I grew up surrounded by psychonauts in the Ram Dass community, and my dad is a criminal defense lawyer specializing in cannabis, so I was always exposed to the concept. But it wasn’t until I was about 17 that I got into learning about entheogens [hallucinogens] on my own, reading psychedelic literature, researching the different kinds of visionary plants and trying them. 

One of your favorite projects you’ve ever worked on.

I love the work I’ve been doing with Ayin Press. I have a platform to explore the “Jewish psychedelic” beat through curating an interview column called Speaking From Experience, where I write my own features, and create psychedelic companion guides for the holidays.

You can check out some of my work for Ayin here: 

• Ram Dass’s Jewish Legacy
• Returning Home: Jewish Trauma & Psychedelic Healing
• Psychedelic Pesach Zine
• Indwelling: An Earth-Based Sukkot Companion Zine
• Speaking From Experience

A recent project you’re proud of.

My book! Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass & Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground. It’s my life’s work, crafted into a story.

The biggest challenge cannabis/psychedelics marketers face today, and how to approach it.

Identifying what the overarching narrative and goal of the movement is, and how to define the values that will propel it forward in an ethical, progressive, paradigm-shifting direction. 

One thing about how the cannabis industry & psychedelics space is evolving that you’re excited about.

I’m excited about the prospect of people integrating their psychedelic experiences and ethos into a paradigm shift at large, impacting systems of politics, conflict resolution, healthcare, environmental justice, religion and more.

Someone else’s work, in cannabis, psychedelics or beyond, that you admired lately.

Zoe Wilder! She is one of the hardest working people I know in this space, and always vets the best players in the field. If Zoe is behind someone, they are good people because she has solid values and sophisticated taste in both cannabis and psychedelics.

A book, movie, TV show or podcast you recently found inspiring.

I recommend this episode on The Emerald Podcast: “Reissue: On Trauma and Vegetation Gods.”

A visual artist or band/musician you admire.

Glassblower and painter Sheva Chaya. Painter David Friedman.

Your favorite fictional character.

Alice in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 

Someone worth following on social media.

@healingfromhealing

Your main strength as a marketer/creative.

Language and narrative. 

Your biggest weakness.

Indecisiveness.

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in the cannabis industry/psychedelics space.

I’d be living on a mountaintop in the area surrounding Tzfat, raising a family and growing my own food.