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Great Moments in Weed History

The Pope of Pot (Live at the Brooklyn Podcast Festival)

Great Moments in Weed History

David Bienenstock

Tv & Film, Comedy, History

4.8 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2020

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

His newspaper ads read 1-800-WANT-POT, promising New Yorkers quality cannabis at a fair price, delivered in under an hour, by bicycle, at a time when legal cannabis was still a distant dream. Known as the Pope of Pot, Mickey Cesar had first learned how to navigate the illicit weed business in the 1970s while living in Amsterdam, before coming home to start America's first underground delivery service. What followed was a tale of overcoming arrests, getting shot, and a snitch calling Howard Stern, all to bring the cannabis sacrament to his growing flock. This episode features special guest Ben Sinclair, star and co-creator of High Maintenance on HBO. On High Maintenance, Ben plays a NYC weed delivery guy who makes his rounds on bicycle, so naturally Abdullah and Bean were thrilled to share with Ben the story of his real life predecessor.  We recorded live in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Bell House in NYC as part of the 2020 Brooklyn Podcast Festival. Special thanks to journalist Mike Sager who wrote a June 1991 Rolling Stone article about Mickey called "The High Times and Strange Time of the Pope of Pot" Special thanks to Danny Danko for MCing the live show. And to Kevin Schumacher for taking photos. And to everyone who came out to share a very special evening. PATREON Please support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This podcast is for adults 21 years of age or older.

0:04.6

We talk about cannabis history and advertise cannabis products.

0:08.1

If you're not 21, come back when you are.

0:13.1

Spoke Media.

0:15.5

Hey, how's it going, folks?

0:17.0

It's Abdullah and Bean.

0:18.8

And welcome to season three of great moments in weed history. We are so

0:24.8

excited to be back. Isn't that right, Bean? Holy smokes are we excited? We've been reading your

0:29.7

emails, we've been looking at your social media posts, you're telling us you love the show.

0:33.9

We love you right back. If you got a moment, click subscribe. And most importantly,

0:39.7

keep telling all your friends at your smoke sessions to check us out. This first episode of

0:44.9

season three is a live episode that we did with our good friend Ben Zinclair, co-creator and

0:50.3

star of the HBO show, High Maintenance. We did it at the Bell House as part of City Farm Presents

0:55.8

Brooklyn Podcast Festival on January

0:58.2

24th, 2020.

1:00.3

We're so excited to share this episode

1:02.0

with you. Enjoy.

1:05.5

Wow, what a good looking crowd. How are you guys

1:07.9

doing tonight?

1:09.6

Yeah? Excellent. Did everybody got lit before this

1:14.0

right that's important yeah because we're going to start now's the start this is it this is it it's

1:19.7

happening um so yeah uh just before we get started i just want to say thank you so much on behalf of

...

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