This is your Brooklyn Paper Radio. And this is your Brooklyn Paper Radio on drugs!
Or, we should say, plants.
Author Joe Dolce stopped by the show this week to discuss his new book, “Brave New Weed: Adventures into the Uncharted World of Cannabis,” and school show hosts and well-known squares Gersh Kuntzman and Vince DiMiceli on all things marijuana.
And he says that first of all, it’s good — and good for you!
“It can make you feel mellow, it can help you sleep, and there’s no evidence it is bad for your lungs, and in fact may be beneficial,” said Dolce, a former editor of Details.
Dolce even pulled out a bag of red conga leave and offered it to the boys to sniff. It smelled great, but Vince and Gersh declined to visit that green room with black curtains at the station (so get your D.E.A. meathooks off us, President-elect Trump!).
Dolce made a strong case for widespread marijuana consumption.
“It’s a plant, not a drug, and it has beneficial qualities that the world is only beginning to rediscover,” he said. “The ancients knew it.”
In a weird twist, Dolce said that African slaves brought marijuana seeds to the New World as one of the few possessions they had in bondage. That, forgive the pun, dovetailed into our next segment with Ted Hamm, editor of the new book (and hopefully soon-to-be-musical), “Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn,” which focuses on the seminal speeches the former slave made in his many trips to the Abolitionist stronghold.
Hamm could not say if Douglass ever consumed marijuana, but he did share evidence that Douglass was one of the greatest Americans ever. He also read from one of Douglass’s poetic speeches.
Hamm will have readings later this year but Dolce will be at the Park Slope Food Coop on Friday to discuss all things pot, including how awesome it is (did I write that? My memory seems to be failing me lately).
So grab some weed, gets some snacks, and take a listen!
Brooklyn Paper radio is recorded and podcast live every Thursday at 4:45 pm — for your convenience — from our studio in America’s Downtown and can be found, as always, right here on Brook