Divergent States

The Divergent States Podcast cuts through psychedelic hype with grounded, data-driven conversations. Hosted by 3L1T3, founder of r/Psychonaut, the world’s largest community focused on the safe use of psychedelics, and co-hosted by Bryan, a USMC veteran and advocate for psychedelic healing, the show investigates the science, culture, and contradictions of the psychedelic world.

We explore how these substances impact mental health, creativity, and society, without leaning on mysticism or parroting industry talking points. From lived experience to peer-reviewed research, nothing’s off-limits and everything is up for scrutiny.

Past guests include Hamilton Morris, Dr. Rick Strassman, Dr. Rick Doblin, Leonard Pickard, and more.

If you're looking for reverent devotion, this isn't your show.

If you're after skeptical, intelligent dialogue about what psychedelics actually do, welcome to Divergent States.

Guest

William Leonard Pickard

William Leonard Pickard (b. 1945) is an American writer, former drug-policy researcher, and LSD chemist.

Once a Harvard Kennedy School fellow and UCLA researcher, he became infamous for co-managing what the DEA called the largest LSD lab ever uncovered operating from a Kansas missile silo. Arrested in 2000, Pickard was sentenced to two life terms. He previously served time for an LSD lab bust in 1988. While incarcerated, he wrote the 2015 philosophical memoir The Rose of Paracelsus, praised in psychedelic circles.

He was granted compassionate release in 2020 and now writes and speaks on psychedelics, ethics, and criminal justice.

Guest appearance on:

William Leonard Pickard - The Acid King, the Rose, and the Return