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Great Moments in Weed History

From 'Blair Witch' to GrowGirl

Great Moments in Weed History

David Bienenstock

Tv & Film, Comedy, History

4.8659 Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1999, this week's guest starred in one of the most financially successful films of all time, but the circumstances around the making and marketing of Blair Witch Project meant that her incredible accomplishment actually came with a lot of very steep downsides.  A story that’s briefly chronicled in her memoir: Growgirl: The Blossoming of an Unlikely Outlaw… by Heather Donahue (now known as Rei Hance). On paper, it certainly sounds like a dream come true. You star in a micro budget movie shot for just $60,000 that becomes a $250 million box office smash. But when her star turn struck gold, Rei was both the face of the franchise and fully hidden from sight. It’s a wild story, even by show business standards, but Rei and I talked almost exclusively about weed. Because after she left Hollywood behind, she ended up spending a few years in a place she very lovingly called Nuggettown, a Northern California medical cannabis farm back in the beautiful gray market days of the early 2000s.  Revisiting those days more than twenty years later filled me with a beautiful flush of nostalgia cut with a bit existential longing. It was a wonderful conversation and I’m excited to share it with you as our first great moment in of 2025. 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 130+ 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 go back to behind him to my

0:10.0

way.

0:11.0

Let the bell strike take something.

0:14.0

Yes, you're a vapor.

0:18.0

Hi everybody.

0:20.0

It's Bean. Welcome to an all-new great moments in weed history.

0:25.9

Happy New Year to one and all. And hey, who knows? Maybe 2025 will turn out to be a great year.

0:34.8

It's certainly off to an auspicious start for me because January 1st

0:39.4

falls on a weedness day, and so I get to share this wonderfully warm and fuzzy episode with you all

0:46.9

in the very earliest hours of New Year's Day. My guest this week starred in one of the most

0:53.8

financially successful films of all time,

0:57.8

but the circumstances around the making and marketing of that movie meant that her incredible

1:03.5

accomplishment actually came with a lot of very steep downsides. A story that's briefly

1:10.0

chronicled in her excellent memoir, Grow Girl,

1:13.9

the blossoming of an unlikely outlaw in which Heather Donahue, now known as Ray Hans,

1:20.9

wrote the following. When a rough little student film I did called The Blair Witch Project

1:26.3

became a turn- the century phenomenon.

1:29.2

It briefly led me to believe that I would have a sustainable career, but it was more like

1:34.6

a brush fire.

1:36.5

Amen, sister.

1:38.3

On paper, it certainly sounds like a dream come true.

...

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