A trip to the magic mushroom megachurch

Planet Money

NPR

News, Business

4.6 • 30.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Book tour dates and ticket info here.

Just as every market has its first movers, every religion has its martyrs — the people willing to risk everything for what they believe. Pastor Dave Hodges just might be a little bit of both. He’s the spiritual leader of the Zide Door Church of Entheogenic Plants, in Oakland, California which places psilocybin mushrooms at the center of their religious practice.

Today on the show, like its 130,000+ members, we’re going to take a trip through the psychedelic mushroom megachurch. We’ll meet one of the lawyers trying to keep psychedelic religious leaders like Pastor Dave from running afoul of the law, and get a peek into how the government decides whether a belief system counts as sincere religion.

This episode was reported with support from The Ferriss – UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship.

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This episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and edited by Eric Mennel. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Kwesi Lee with help from Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	We've got some big news.
0:03.7	Planet Money is going on tour to promote our first ever book.
0:07.9	It comes out in April.
0:09.1	We'll be celebrating in about a dozen cities.
0:11.8	There's a limited edition tote bag included with your ticket while supplies last.
0:16.9	Details, dates, and how to get your ticket at planetmoneybook.com.
0:21.5	You can click the link in the show notes.
0:25.8	Just a heads up, this episode contains a couple swear words.
0:31.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:36.3	Just as every market has its first movers, every religion has its martyrs, the people
0:42.7	willing to risk everything for what they believe. You know, Joan of Arc, Joseph Smith,
0:48.3	Jesus. And when I recently found out about a church with a leader who might be a little bit of
0:53.2	both, I knew I had to make a pilgrimage. So I hopped on a plane to Oakland, California to visit a place called the Zyddor Church. Hey, you're looking for Zydor? I'm looking for Zydor. Is this it? Oh, this is Zydor. From the street, you might not even know the church was there. It's sort of hidden inside a
1:11.7	nondescript warehouse, surrounded by auto shops and row houses. As soon as you walk in,
1:17.0	you're greeted by a friendly armed security guard and ushered through a metal detector.
1:22.2	You won't find any pews inside of Zyddor these days, but there are two ATMs on the premises. And it's next to one of
1:29.4	them where I meet the man who founded and runs the church, a guy named Dave Hodges.
1:34.6	Hey, Pastor Dave, I presume. Yeah, good to meet you. Good to meet you too, in the flesh.
1:40.5	Pastor Dave is a big guy with a long ponytail, salt and pepper goatee, wireframe glasses.
1:46.0	It looks a bit like Benjamin Franklin.
1:47.7	If he got a job in a corporate IT department.
1:50.5	Give you a little tour of the place.
	...

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