Ep. 646 – The DoubleBlind Guide to Psychedelics with Madison Margolin
Mindrolling with Raghu Markus
Be Here Now Network
4.7 • 542 Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2026
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Author, journalist, and co-founder of DoubleBlind, Madison Margolin, joins Raghu to explore her latest project: creating a roadmap to tripping, microdosing, and beyond.
Grab your copy of The DoubleBlind Guide to Psychedelics
In this episode, Madison and Raghu step into the world of:
- Emerging theories of Ibogaine use in Parkinson's treatment
- Defining ‘psychedelics’ and Dr. Ben Malcom’s (aka The Spirit Pharmacist) view on psychedelic & somatic awareness
- What the clinical world can take away from indigenous plant medicine rituals
- Ram Dass’s journey from psychedelic research to spirituality
- Spiritual seekers: from India to South America
- How regular practice helps us connect to deeper layers of reality
- Feeling beyond time and space
- Punctuating psychedelic experiences with spiritual practice
- Altered states in the history of Judaism
- Psychedelics for war zones, trauma, and religious leaders
- Accessing your set, setting, and mental health dispositions
“Doing psychedelics under the stewardship of an indigenous culture is equally legitimate to doing it in a clinical context, and it’s also legitimate to do it at a Grateful Dead show. What I really want to get at is that the way the tribes or indigenous cultures regard these medicines is through community, song, prayer, connection to nature, reciprocity, those are all values that even the clinical world can borrow and emulate as they design their trials." –Madison Margolin
About Madison Margolin:
Madison is an author and journalist who straddles California, New York, and the Israel-Palestine region, with a focus on psychedelics, cannabis, and Judaism — jokingly referring to it as “Jews & Drugs.” Her reporting also spans culture, policy, and science. At the center of her work is a sustained curiosity about how people transcend the mind to access something larger than themselves, whether through psychedelics, spirituality, meditation, art, or somatic practice. Much of her writing explores the different ways people nourish the soul. Madison is the co-founder of DoubleBlind, the print and digital magazine that covers psychedelics and their intersections with mental health, spirituality, environmental justice, and social equity. She also co-founded the Jewish Psychedelic Summit and hosts the podcast Set & Setting on the Be Here Now Network. She has worked in journalism since 2014, with bylines in outlets including Rolling Stone, Vice Media, Playboy, High Times, Tablet Magazine, and Nylon.
She began her journalism career with a cannabis column at The Village Voice shortly after graduating from Columbia Journalism School. Before that, she lived in Tel Aviv, where she worked with Israel’s African refugee community. Earlier in her life, she lived at the Cloyne co-op while studying rhetoric and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.
She is a language enthusiast who speaks or dabbles in French, Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew. Outside of work and writing, she is usually dancing, spinning a hula hoop, or practicing yoga.
Madison Margolin is also the author of Exile and Ecstacy, a book on Growing Up with Ram Dass and Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground. Learn more about Madison’s work at madisonmargolin.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Teaching meditation is its own skill. You don't need to be a master practitioner to begin learning how to guide others, but you do need real training. |
| 0:11.7 | Join Buddhist teacher David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman for a free online discussion on Tuesday, May 26th at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, exploring the role of the teacher |
| 0:24.4 | in the Buddhist tradition, why lineage and transmission matter, and what it means to skillfully |
| 0:30.4 | support others in meditation practice today. They'll also discuss Dharma Moon and Tibet House's |
| 0:37.3 | Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program beginning in June 2026. |
| 0:43.3 | You'll have a chance to ask questions, meet the teaching team, and find out whether the program might be a good fit for you. |
| 0:52.3 | Visit Dharmamoon.com backslash friend. That's Dharmamoon.com backslash friend. |
| 0:55.4 | That's Dharmamoon.com backslash friend. |
| 0:58.7 | For more information, and to reserve your spot for the free event on Tuesday, May 26th. |
| 1:05.2 | Thank you. Hey everyone, it's Raghut. |
| 1:19.1 | I'm back with mind rolling and with somebody who's, you can't say an old friend. |
| 1:26.5 | Yes, I've known, well, she is that, but we've known each other an awful long time |
| 1:31.6 | because of her dad, who I went to India with, and Madison Margolin, welcome back. |
| 1:38.6 | Thanks for having me. |
| 1:41.1 | So Madison and her partner, Shelby Hartman, who started the magazine Double Blind, |
| 1:50.9 | which some of you may know, which addresses psychedelic matters. |
| 1:58.5 | And we're going to hear how this came together, |
| 2:01.4 | but this is just a beautiful book, I've got to tell you, though. |
| 2:06.2 | I didn't expect to hear everybody. |
| 2:13.3 | Yeah, I mean, this cost a pretty penny for them to print. |
| 2:19.5 | I'll say that. Wow. |
| 2:23.8 | Okay, how did it come together? |
... |
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