Confessions of a Psychedelic Journalist

For more than four decades, Don Lattin has written about the social, spiritual, and political aspects of the psychedelic drug movement as a newspaper reporter, freelance journalist, and the author of four books of narrative non-fiction.

In the 1970s, as a young reporter working in the East Bay, Don broke one of the first investigative stories about the US Army’s past efforts to use LSD as a hostile interrogation tool. He also covered the first local campaign to legalize marijuana in the United States—a political movement that continues today in ongoing efforts to decriminalize the use of magic mushrooms, peyote, and ayahuasca in cities and states across the nation.

In the 1980s and 1990s, as a staff writer and columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, Don wrote extensively about various cults, sects, and new religious movements including a generation of spiritual seekers inspired by psychedelic drug experiences in the 1960s and 1970s.

Join KQED Science senior editor Kat Snow for a conversation with Don as they look back on the long, strange trip of his career as an award-winning reporter and best-selling author.

This is conversation does not promote, facilitate, or require the use of entheogens. This event and the views expressed by the presenter(s) are not a reflection of the views of California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), its Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research, or the individuals employed by CIIS.