'What is Hype Weed?' w/ The Highest Critic

Great Moments in Weed History

David Bienenstock

Tv & Film, Comedy, History

4.8 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2025

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Caleb Chen is a weed enthusiast, researcher, reviewer and academic, who runs "The Highest Critic," and is well on his way to earning a doctorate in the subject. He's also a Ganjier and a reviewer with Budist. Caleb joins the podcast for an engaging discussion of what's cutting-edge in cannabis, or "hype weed" as the young people like to say when it comes to our favorite plant. 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.
0:07.1	I'm going to, welcome to an all new, great moments, and weed. It's Bean. Welcome to an all-new great moments in weed history. Content warning. In this week's
0:28.2	episode, we are going to once again nerd out on weed pretty hardcore. But, you know,
0:34.7	whatever your current level of expertise when it comes to the finer points of
0:39.2	getting high, I do know you'll get a lot out of listening in on this conversation. My guest is
0:45.5	Caleb Chen, who is, in his own words, a researcher and educator on the topics of cannabis
0:52.1	diversity, the globalization of Caliweed,
0:55.7	differentiated markets for different types of cannabis, ethnographies of countercultures,
1:02.2	and, of course, the kindest bud.
1:05.1	He's currently pursuing a PhD in that very subject after earning a master's in weedology or something similar at Cal Poly Humble
1:16.5	University in Northern California. As you'll hear in the episode, Caleb began first as an
1:23.2	enthusiast in college and then as a researcher and writer in 2018, he founded a website
1:31.1	called The Highest Critic, where he is currently editor-in-chief in 2022. He was certified as a
1:38.6	gongier, and in 2023, he joined Baudist, a really cool app where you can get unbiased weed reviews from well-vetted heads.
1:48.8	Caleb has also served as a cannabis judge at some serious contests, including the first state-sanctioned weed competition, the California State Fair Cannabis Awards. He's also a moderator for the very
2:03.9	popular Trees Forum on Reddit. So yeah, it's a pretty heavy conversation. And listening
2:12.5	back while making my edits, I realized I laughed a lot in this one and actually talked a lot more than I
2:19.7	usually do versus, you know, our more traditional interview vibe here on great moments in weed
2:26.8	history. Perhaps that's because Caleb's definitely the youngest guest in the history of this
2:32.7	podcast. And so, you know, he's got less
2:36.1	history in his own life to go through. But also really because his enthusiasm and depth of
2:43.8	knowledge just makes him really, really fun and engaging to sesh with coming out of this
	...

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