‘The Next Big Idea Daily’: Human History on Drugs

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or ⁠wherever you listen⁠ When we talk about the forces that shape history, we usually hear about wars, revolutions, inventions, maybe the occasional love affair. But there’s one powerful force that’s rarely acknowledged because, well, it makes people uncomfortable. That force is drugs. In his new book Human History on Drugs, writer and historian Sam Kelly uncovers the surprising, often scandalous ways that everything from opium to cocaine has shaped leaders, inspired art, fueled some bad decisions — and some good ones. It’s a provocative and oddly humanizing look at the past, and it just might change the way you think about both history and substance use. 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Michael.
0:01.6	Hey, Rufus. Good to see you. Good to see you, man. Michael, do you know what I'm in the mood for?
0:08.4	Let's see. Maybe some big ideas.
0:12.2	Unbelievable. You can read my mind. That's exactly right.
0:15.3	Yeah, we're on the same wavelength. Yeah, well, you're in luck because this week on the next big idea daily, we've got authors who are going to be sharing a lot of provocative ideas.
0:25.6	Things like why all of us, especially women, should be doing a lot more weight training than we are right now.
0:32.1	And why, like, we should like be, like, more forgiving of people who say like all the time.
0:38.7	Even if there are children?
0:40.2	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:41.3	I know.
0:41.6	It bugs me too when people do it.
0:43.4	But this author's got a different take.
0:45.1	We'll get to that.
0:46.0	But today's episode is one I think you're going to like.
0:48.4	It's a look at one of the most underrated forces shaping human history.
0:54.0	Do you want to guess what that is?
0:56.0	Technology, conflict, sex. Yeah, those are all big ones. But today's author, Sam Kelly, is
1:04.2	interested in something else, drugs. As in illegal drugs? Well, yeah, at various times,
1:10.7	they've been illegal, but not always.
1:13.5	And, you know, we're talking about things like opium, cocaine, psychedelics.
1:17.9	And Sam, who's a historian, he says that some pivotal moments and ideas in human history took place under the influence.
1:25.9	So interesting. Can't wait to hear this one.
	...

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