Can 'High Times' Rise from the Ashes? (w/ Josh Kesselman)

Great Moments in Weed History

David Bienenstock

Tv & Film, Comedy, History

4.8 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a bunch of vulture capital d-bags ran High Times into bankruptcy, the magazine's illustrious fifty year history appeared to be burnt out. But then, in June, Raw Papers founder Josh Kesselman announced that he’d bought the brand for $3.5 million. In this episode, Josh explains how and why he bought High Times, and his high hopes for a return to glory. Josh also shares his own weedy life journey, an inspiring tale of a young stoner who became obsessed with rolling papers, opened a bootstrapped headshop while still a college student, and eventually created an iconic global weed brand of his own. PATREON Please ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Supporters get exclusive access to video versions of this podcast and private seshes, plus cool rewards like a signed book. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. EPISODE ARCHIVE Visit our podcast feed for 150+ episodes of Great Moments in Weed History, and subscribe now to get a new weekly podcast every Weednesday.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm looking on everything.
0:05.0	I'm going to, welcome to annew, great moments in weed history.
0:25.6	Today's episode marks a kind of full circle moment for me.
0:29.3	When this podcast started in 2018, I just ended a 15-year run working for high times with, you know, a few safety breaks along the way.
0:40.0	It was not a good parting.
0:41.7	Long story short, the company was sold to people best described as vulture, capitalist
0:47.0	scum, if I can channel high times founder Tom Fassad, who was most certainly rolling in his
0:54.0	grave at seeing his legacy taken over
0:57.3	by a bunch of scam artists, and I don't mean he was rolling joints in there. Six days into that
1:03.8	new regime, I was summarily dismissed as head of content, and I found myself trapped in Los Angeles
1:10.8	with no income and a lot of rent to
1:13.5	pay. But that was nothing compared to watching those fuckers systematically rip off the cannabis
1:20.5	community, including the loyal readers who'd always supported high times and by extension allowed me to have one of the best jobs in weed history.
1:31.4	What happened next is a long, sordid tale that included federal fraud charges and ended with high times going into bankruptcy.
1:39.2	Where it remained until just a couple of months ago, when Raw Papers founder Josh Kesselman announced
1:46.8	that he bought the brand for $3.5 million. Josh is my guest on this episode of the podcast,
1:53.8	and as you'll hear, he's well aware of the damage that's been done to High Times, a truly
1:59.2	iconic institution with an incredible 50-year history.
2:04.8	By the way, if you want to hear more about the weed smuggling political radical who founded High Times,
2:10.9	please go back in the great moments in weed history archives and check out our two-part episode
2:17.4	about Tom Fassad.
2:19.2	It's really one of my favorites in the long run of this show.
	...

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