How LSD Works

Metadata

• Author: Stuff You Should Know
• Full Title: How LSD Works
• URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/29f7ebe8-62d8-413a-9e51-e3ee270706e4

Highlights

Owsley Stanley: The LSD Millionaire Sound Engineer of the Grateful Dead Key takeaways: - Owsley Stanley was a sound engineer who mixed concerts live in stereo and is known for his innovative sound - Owsley Stanley was an early investor in Grateful Dead - Owsley Stanley was a millionaire due to his involvement in LSD production - Owsley Stanley gave away a lot of LSD and once gave out to 300,000 people at a sit-in event Transcript: Speaker 1 And they used them at the acid tests, which Ken Kesey used to hold in San Francisco and the grateful dead used to play. And Owsley Stanley was also the sound engineer. Did he create the wall of sound? Was that his doing? Speaker 2 No, that was Phil Spector. Oh, okay. But he was the dad’s original sound man. And what he got known for was he was one of the first people to mix concerts live in and stereo and plug right into the board. So all those old, you know, deadheads love to trade the old bootlegs. Those bootlegs sound so good because of Owsley gotcha. Because he was, you know, he was an innovator as a sound man. And he was one of the first investors in the dead financially. Speaker 1 And because he was a millionaire, LSD millionaire, probably. Yeah. Speaker 2 Said he made like 10,000 or 10 million hits of acid in his lifetime. Yeah. And he gave away a lot of it though. Yeah. There was one that was a sit in. I can’t remember what it was called where he gave out. And by all accounts, 300,000 people took acid all in one place. Wow, where? Oh, I had to be San Francisco. Oh, yeah. And he also designed the Steely with Bob Thomas, the very famous lightning bolt skull logo on the Grateful Dead album, Steel Your Face. Speaker 1 Right off of your head. Speaker 2 Was designed by Owsley. Did not know that. Speaker 1 Yep. And now all the deadheads are going, okay. Speaker 2 You mentioned the Steely. Okay. (Time 1:16:30)review

The Fascination with Old-Timey Things Key takeaways: - The speaker has a positive attitude towards old, timey things. - He grew up going to a Coolidge Corner movie house in Massachusetts. - The speaker likes going into nostalgia stores and used bookstores. - He loves the trappings of scene culture from a different time period. Transcript: Speaker 1 How did you come to this conclusion about nostalgia? Were you in nostalgia-izing? And like, bit your tongue off or something? I mean, what happened to make you feel this way about nostalgia if I may ask a question? Speaker 3 Well, I don’t know that there was any one particular turning point, because, and the truth is, I am a guy who likes old, timey things, right? And this is not to say old, timey things are bad. I grew up going to the Coolidge Corner movie house, the Coolidge Corner, Brookline, Massachusetts, where I grew, which is my hometown. You wrote a penny-farthing to work? I did not write. I did not write a penny. I’m not that kind of lonesome. But you know, at that time, all they would do is show old Marx Brothers movies and the Thin Man marathons and even more recent old movies, as it were. And I love, I would love going into so-called nostalgia stores to pour through old movie posters, and I love used bookstores. I love the trappings of scene culture, what it was like at a time that was different from the way it is in my own life. I love to rummage through junk stores and thrift stores and fine stuff. And in listening to your podcast, I completely felt with you. I guess that is called empathy. Speaker 1 That’s different. Speaker 3 Feeling with? Speaker 1 And I mean, empathy and nostalgia different. (Time 1:23:00)review

Finding Comfort in Nostalgia During Emotional Pain Key takeaways: - The speaker empathizes with the personal nature of nostalgia in comforting individuals. - During a period of emotional pain, the speaker found solace in familiar cultural materials. - The speaker revisited their feelings about Star Wars through reading Dorling Kindersley books of Star Wars vehicles. Transcript: Speaker 3 No, but I felt empathy for your individual expressions of the things that give you that wispy feeling of nostalgia and how that is in a personal mode, a very comforting feeling, because I can speak honestly that when I went through, when my mom passed away about 15 years ago, I could not engage with any culture that was more challenging than reading the Dorling Kindersley books of Star Wars vehicles. That was the only thing I could read before going to sleep, because I was in such emotional pain in the present. Speaker 1 Had you read those as a younger lad? Speaker 3 Well, no, because I mean, no, but because they didn’t exist. But those decay books of the Star Wars vehicles that sort of give you these cross sections of all the vehicles, it was not engaging with new culture per se. I was just revisiting my feelings about Star Wars. Do you know what I mean? I understood. Yeah. So I was exactly playing with old toys playing with my old AT-AT. I never had the AT-AT, nor did I have the Millennium Falcon. Speaker 1 I never had either one of those two, and I’m still a little bitter about it still. Speaker 3 Yeah, I know. Those were the big ticket items, but for sure. For my point of view, storage was a real problem with those things. Very untidy. Speaker 1 Well, they served as storage boxes themselves, really. Speaker 3 Yeah, but you couldn’t put the AT-AT into the Millennium Falcon, and none of them fit into any good-sized shelf. (Time 1:24:30)review

Nostalgia and Second Sleep on the Nightstand Key takeaways: - The speaker used to enjoy playing with a favorite robot figurine while falling asleep next to their spouse. - Nostalgia is often most strongly felt at night, making it a common time for people to reflect on the past. - As people age, they may become more anxious about their own mortality, which can manifest during bedtime. - The concept of second sleep, where people wake up in the middle of the night, was discussed on the Great Stuff You Should Know podcast. - The speaker keeps two items on their nightstand, both real and virtual. Transcript: Speaker 3 But I will say that I wasn’t at a point where I would be playing with my old, oh, my old robot figurine. It was my favorite in bed as a grown man next to my wife to fall asleep. I would certainly read about the propulsion mechanism of a best-pin twin cloud car. I gotcha. For sure. And dig into those weeds and prod those feelings. And indeed, today, it’s still the case that I have two things on my nightstand. Because night is the time when you might be most prompted to feel nostalgia. Because on the one hand, you’re trying to ease yourself to rest. And on the other hand, as you grow older, in particular, you realize that every going to sleep time is a rehearsal for your own death. So whatever you’re anxious about can really come out at night or in the middle of the night, right, when you wake up during second sleep, which is a concept that I heard about first on the Great Stuff You Should Know podcast available on the How Stuff Works Network, right? Okay. That plugs in. And so on my bedside table, both real and virtual, I have two sets of culture, right? (Time 1:26:17)review

The therapeutic power of nostalgia in encountering culture from the past Key takeaways: - Nostalgia can be a therapeutic tool for personal use during periods of stress and disorder - The personal therapeutic aspect of nostalgia is real, measurable and scientific - Even older, unchallenging comics can transport people back to their childhood and offer a sense of nostalgia and comfort Transcript: Speaker 3 But even in the older stuff, like I got a pile of old Avengers comics from the 70s, but which are dumb and profoundly unchallenging and remind me to some degree of what it felt like to be a little kid buying comics on a rack. But even those are comics that I’ve not really read before because they were before my time. So even then, but it’s like, I get it. I totally appreciate it. And was illuminated, I should say, by your podcast for pointing out that this therapeutic, personal therapeutic aspect of transporting yourself or giving yourself a good feeling by re-encountering or re-encountering culture from your past or thinking about good times from your past is real and measurable and and scientific, right? That was part of your conclusion, correct? Yeah. Right. So I get, I am on board with you for that, that nostalgia from a personal point of view can be a truly soothing therapeutic tool that can help calm you during periods of stress and and this disorder in your life. And that’s like a drug though, right? (Time 1:27:55)review