Writer's Voice with Francesca Rheannon

Modern Psychedelics: A Conversation with Joe Dolce

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform. In this episode of Writer’s Voice, we explore the what’s going on with the current resurgence of psychedelics. My guest is Joe Dolce, whose new book, Modern Psychedelics: The Handbook for Mindful Exploration, dives deep into what these substances really do, why so many people are using them, and how science, politics, medicine, and culture are reshaping the conversation. Dolce tells us why this is both an “exciting and confusing time” in psychedelic history—a time when reliable guidance is urgently needed in a moment of expanding access and misinformation.  “I thought it was a good opportunity… there’s still so much confusion and so much misinformation about what these are, how they work, why they work, who they don’t work for, who should take them, who shouldn’t take them.” — Joe Dolce We talk about what psychedelics can help heal — from PTSD and addiction to depression and traumatic brain injury, why set and setting matter so deeply, how to micro dose psychedelics and how these substances can change not only individual consciousness, but maybe even how we relate to each other, to nature, and to the world we’re trying to save. Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast. Key Words: Writer’s Voice podcast, Francesca Rheannon, Joe Dolce interview, Modern Psychedelics book, psychedelics research, PTSD psychedelics, traumatic brain injury psychedelics, microdosing, ibogaine therapy, MDMA therapy, psilocybin depression, psychedelics and spirituality You Might Also Like: David Goodman, AN AMERICAN CANNABIS STORY & Carl Hart, DRUG USE FOR GROWNUPS, Alexandra Chasin, ASSASSIN OF YOUTH & Mason Tvert, MARIJUANA IS SAFER Read Interview Transcript Episode Summary Joe Dolce traces the renewed psychedelics movement from cultural taboo to scientific renaissance. He explains why psychedelics are not like traditional pharmaceuticals, discusses risks, cautions, and who shouldn’t take them, and explores compelling new research into “critical periods of brain learning,” microdosing, mystical experience, and emotional healing. The conversation also looks at capitalism, policy battles, the underground psychedelic community, and the deep spiritual questions these substances raise. Listen to or Read A Sample Key Topics • Why psychedelics are returning to medicine and culture• The difference between psychedelics and pharmaceuticals• Preparing for a psychedelic experience: set, setting & safety• Psychedelics and trauma healing• Spiritual experience and meaning• Microdosing: myth vs reality• Policy, legality & capitalism• The underground psychedelic community• How people are accessing psychedelics today Resources The Fireside Project

The Return of the Siberian Tiger: Jonathan Slaght, TIGERS BETWEEN EMPIRES

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform. Francesca speaks with Jonathan Slaght about his remarkable book Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China. Slaght tells the story of the 35-year Siberian (Amur) Tiger Project, one of the longest-running wildlife studies in the world, and how science, persistence, and cross-border collaboration helped bring a species back from the edge of extinction. Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast. Key Words: Jonathan Slaght interview, Tigers Between Empires, Amur tiger conservation, Siberian Tiger Project, wildlife conservation Russia China,endangered species recovery, human–wildlife conflict You Might Also Like: Adam Hart, DEADLY BALANCE, Gloria Dickie, EIGHT BEARS Read Edited Interview Transcript About the Episode Jonathan Slaght recounts the extraordinary history of the Amur (Siberian) tiger’s decline and recovery, drawing on decades of field research conducted by Russian and American scientists working across political boundaries. Our conversation opens with the story of Lidiya, a tigress whose seven-year reproductive record illustrates how a single animal can anchor population recovery when conditions are right. Slaght explains how the Siberian Tiger Project broke new ground by tracking individual tigers across their entire lifespans, yielding insights into reproduction, survival, territory size, and the pressures that most threaten the species . The conversation traces how 19th-century border treaties between Russia and China fragmented tiger habitat, accelerating hunting and habitat loss—only for those same borders, decades later, to become sites of coordinated protection. Slaght discusses the pivotal role of Soviet-era hunting bans, protected areas, and later rapid-response teams that reduced human-tiger conflict by intervening quickly when tigers approached villages . He also reflects on the conservation philosophy of “green fire,” inherited from Aldo Leopold and championed by early project leaders, which treats top predators as essential to ecosystem health rather than threats to be eliminated. Finally, Slaght looks ahead, emphasizing that government commitment and international collaboration—including newly coordinated Russian-Chinese protected areas—are essential to sustaining the Amur tiger’s recovery in a time of climate change and geopolitical strain . Read An Excerpt

Builders of Terror, Ally to Justice: Charles Dick on Organisation Todt & Carla Kaplan on Jessica Mitford

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform. This week on Writer’s Voice, we look at two stories from history that illuminate the choices people face as they confront evil: collaborate or resist? First, independent scholar Charles Dick joins us to discuss Unknown Enemy: The Hidden Nazi Force That Built the Third Reich — the first full account of Organisation Todt, the massive construction arm of the Nazi regime that operated across Europe with lethal brutality. His book reveals how ordinary engineers and builders became central participants in enslavement and murder — and how much of this history remained hidden for decades. “If you’re told… your prisoners are subhuman, you’re more likely to work them to death.” — Charles Dick Then, in Segment Two, biographer Carla Kaplan returns to Writer’s Voice to talk about Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford. Kaplan brings to life the incomparable “Decca” Mitford — aristocrat, Communist, civil-rights activist and bestselling muckraker. “If she believed in something, she was unbending — and always willing to pay the price of her convictions.”  — Carla Kaplan Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast. Key Words: Unknown Enemy Charles Dick, Fritz Todt, Holocaust studies, Jessica Mitford biography, Troublemaker Carla Kaplan, The American Way of Death, muckraking journalism, civil rights history, Freedom Rides, Mitford sisters,Francesca Rheannon interview, You Might Also Like: Carla Kaplan, MISS ANNE IN HARLEM, Andrew Nagorski, THE NAZI HUNTERS Read the transcript SEGMENT ONE — Charles Dick on Unknown Enemy Historian Charles Dick exposes the full scope of Organisation Todt (OT) — the Nazi regime’s massive, understudied construction force. OT built the Autobahn, the massive North Atlantic coastal fortifications and Hitler’s underground weapons factories; oversaw millions of enslaved laborers; and carried out brutal operations across occupied Europe. Despite its central role, OT escaped the scrutiny that fell on the SS and Wehrmacht — leaving its crimes obscured until now. Dick explains how: Engineers, builders, and architects became perpetrators. Death rates in OT camps often equaled or exceeded those under the SS. The organization expanded across Europe into a continent-wide system of forced labor. OT leadership — including Fritz Todt and Albert Speer — held immense power and largely avoided justice. He shares harrowing survivor accounts revealed in the book — from Ukraine, Alderney, Estonia, Stutthof, and the Kaufering/Dachau subcamps — stories long buried in archives. SEGMENT TWO — Carla Kaplan on Troublemaker Biographer Carla Kaplan returns to discuss Jessica Mitford — aristocrat-turned-revolutionary, Communist organizer, civil-rights witness, and author of the groundbreaking exposé The American Way of Death. Kaplan traces Mitford’s transformation from an eccentric, cloistered, aristocratic childhood among the infamous Mitford sisters — including Nazi sympathizers Diana and Unity — to her self-invented life as a radical activist and bestselling writer in the U.S. Kaplan shares: Mitford’s early sense of injustice. Her refusal to compromise with editors over The American Way of Death. Her experiences during the Freedom Rides — including witnessing John Lewis’s beating. Why she and her husband joined and later left the Communist Party. Her complicated relationship to feminism. Her deep belief in political loyalty, humor, and collective action. Read An Excerpt

Positive Obsession: Susana M. Morris on the Life, Vision & Influence of Octavia Butler

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform. In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with Susana M. Morris, acclaimed scholar of Black feminist thought, about her new biography Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler. Drawing on interviews, archival materials, and Butler’s own journals, Morris shows how Butler’s discipline, political analysis, and upbringing shaped some of the most influential speculative fiction of our time. “Now there is such a plethora of Black folk… writing science fiction and fantasy. It’s really exciting. And we have Octavia to thank for it.”  — Susana Morris The conversation covers Butler’s formative years; her neurodivergence and self-diagnosed dyslexia; her relationship with her mother; the creation of Kindred; and her prophetic insights into climate collapse, fascism, hierarchy, and the contradictions of American democracy. Then, we air a clip from our 2012 interview with the late, great science fiction master, Ursula K. Le Guin. Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast. Key Words: Octavia Butler biography, Octavia Butler interview, Positive Obsession Susana Morris, Parable of the Sower prophecy, Black women writers, Afrofuturism, science fiction history, Black feminist literature, Francesca Rheannon interview, You Might Also Like: Ursula K. Le Guin, THE UNREAL AND THE REAL, Cory Doctorow, THE LOST CAUSE. Read the Transcript Main Segment: Susana Morris Main Segment — Susana M. Morris on Positive Obsession Morris reveals how Octavia Butler’s childhood experiences—especially witnessing the humiliating treatment of her mother, a domestic worker—shaped her lifelong political and creative vision. She explains Butler’s “positive obsession,” the relentless work ethic that drove her writing; her rigorous research process; her early awareness of environmental crisis; and her pattern recognition around racism, patriarchy, and authoritarianism. Morris also situates Butler within the Black women’s literary renaissance alongside Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara, and others, while emphasizing Butler’s singular contributions to speculative fiction and Afrofuturism. Key Topics Butler’s “positive obsession” and writing discipline Neurodivergence and self-diagnosed dyslexia Racism, patriarchy, and the politics embedded in Butler’s fiction The making of Kindred Butler’s prescient insights into climate crisis and authoritarianism Black women’s literary renaissance Afrofuturism, legacy, and influence on contemporary writers Speculative fiction as social and political critique Butler’s research methodology and fieldwork The human contradiction: intelligence vs. hierarchy Read an Excerpt from Positive Obsession

WE SURVIVED THE NIGHT: Julian Brave Noisecat on Story, Survival & the Power of Indigenous Truths

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform. In this, our 1,000th episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon interviews Julian Brave Noisecat about We Survived the Night, his memoir weaving Indigenous oral traditions, personal narrative, political history, and  environmental insight. Noisecat explores Coyote stories, the legacy of residential schools, intergenerational trauma, mixed-race identity, the meaning of home, Indigenous political traditions, and the contemporary struggle for land, water, and cultural continuity. “The text itself is a woven narrative that combines different elements of nonfiction to put these different kinds of truths and storytelling in conversation with each other.” Through humor, grief, myth, and investigative rigor, Noisecat reframes Indigenous storytelling as nonfiction — a mode of truth that Western traditions have long dismissed. This conversation highlights the power of indigenous stories to resist erasure, illuminate political histories, and recover cultural knowledge. Follow us on Bluesky @writersvoice.bsky.social and subscribe to our Substack. Or find us on Instagram @WritersVoicePodcast. Key Words: Julian Brave Noisecat interview, We Survived the Night, Indigenous memoir, Coyote stories, residential schools history, Native American literature, intergenerational trauma, Indigenous resurgence, Salish culture, environmental justice Indigenous communities, land dispossession history, You Might Also Like: Rebecca Nagle, BY THE FIRE WE CARRY, Tyson Yunkaporta, SAND TALK Read the Transcript [top image: carving by Ed Archie Noisecat] SEGMENT SUMMARY Francesca speaks with Julian Brave Noisecat about his memoir/history We Survived the Night, structured around a four-day fasting tradition and infused with the oral-literary lineage of Coyote stories. Noisecat discusses his father’s birth at a residential school, the silence around Indigenous trauma, his family’s weaving traditions, and how Coyote mythology offers a language for understanding survival, contradiction, and the men in his family. He describes the interconnection between land and people in Salish languages; the role of urban Native communities in activism; the Indigenous resurgence of the late 20th century; traditional ecological knowledge; and political tensions over fisheries, pipelines, and Arctic development. He also reflects on the personal: alcoholism, relationships, mixed-race identity, and the role of his mother in keeping him connected to his community. KEY TOPICS Indigenous oral traditions as nonfiction Coyote as ancestral, literary, and allegorical figure Residential schools, unmarked graves, cultural genocide Intergenerational trauma and family silence Mixed-race identity and kinship The meaning of home for Native people Indigenous political history and contemporary power Environmental stewardship and fisheries Colonization as an ongoing structure Survival, continuity, and cultural resurgence