In this week’s episode Errol Morris and Hamilton Morris speak with Joanna about:  Quarantined in the family house and loving each other; fascinated by the Iboga plant; the different paradigms of the history of psychedelic thinking and the evolution of Timothy Leary; a story of the psychedelic era; living and working in these strange days; being a mystery to oneself; an important insight while playing the cello on ayahuasca; the tendency of psychedelic medicines to precipitate the better parts of ourselves; the mystery and science of colors in psychedelics; the intriguing liberation of Timothy Leary.

Errol Morris‘s films have won many awards, including an Oscar for “The Fog of War”, the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for “A Brief History of Time”, the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for “Standard Operating Procedure”, and the Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for “The Thin Blue Line”. His films have been honored by the National Society of Films Critics and the National Board of Review. Morris’s work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Roger Ebert called his first film, “Gates of Heaven” (1978), one of the ten best films of all time. 

Morris is the author of two New York Times best sellers, “Believing is Seeing” and “A Wilderness of Error”, and is a regular contributor to the New York Times opinion pages and Op-Docs series.       Morris has directed over 1000 television commercials, including campaigns for Apple, Levi’s, Nike, Target, Citibank, and Miller High Life. He has directed short films for the 2002 and 2007 Academy Awards, ESPN, and many charitable and political organizations. In 2001, Morris won an Emmy for “Photobooth”, a commercial for PBS. Morris has received fellowships from the national Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2007, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a graduate student at Princeton University and the University of California-Berkeley. He has received the Columbia Journalism Award and honorary degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Brandeis University, and Middlebury College.

Morris lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Julia Sheehan, an art historian, and their French Bulldog, Ivan.

Hamilton Morris is an American journalist and pharmacological researcher. He is known for his television series “Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia”, in which he investigates the chemistry, history, and cultural impact of various psychoactive drugs. Hamilton Morris was born in New York City, the son of Julia Sheehan and documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. He attended the University of Chicago and The New School, where he studied anthropology and science. He began writing for Vice magazine as a college sophomore. He was given a monthly print column titled “Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia” that evolved into a series of articles and documentaries for VBS.tv focused on the science of psychoactive drugs.

He is a science editor of Vice and a correspondent and producer for Vice on HBO, as well as a regular science columnist for Harper’s Magazine. Morris frequently consults with media on the subject of psychoactive drugs and conducts pharmacological research at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia with an emphasis on the synthesis and history of dissociative anesthetics.

“I Can’t Sit Still”, original music by Evarusnik

Episode Navigator