Episode #40
Anthropologist, Activist and Psychedelic Troublemaker Bia Labate, Founder of Chacruna Institute | Ep 40
My guest for episode 40 is Dr. Bia Labate, co-founder and executive director of Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. Bia is a queer, Brazilian anthropologist, author, and activist who has spent three decades at the crossroads of sacred plants, drug policy, and social justice. She's one of those rare people whose scholarship and activism are inseparable from her own lived journey with the medicine. In this episode, we explore the roots of prohibition and what's really underneath the war on drugs, as well as how these medicines should, and shouldn't, be regulated as they spread across the world. We talk about identity, courage, and coming home to yourself. Bia shares the story behind Chacruna's decade of work, what psychedelic justice means when it's more than a slogan, and what it looks like to give back to Indigenous communities in a way that honors rather than tokenizes. If you care about the heart and soul of this movement, who it centers and who it leaves out, this one's for you. In this Episode: Bia's psychedelic origin story, and how a wide-open journey through Mexico at age 19 set the course of her life in motion. Bia's unique upbringing that planted the seeds for a lifetime of weaving anthropology, culture, and sacred plants. Why Bia sees the war on drugs as a failed system and what she believes is really underneath decades of prohibition. The big question of regulation: what Brazil's approach to ayahuasca can teach us, and why community and culture may protect people better than the law alone. A personal perspective on whether the medicine is best experienced in its native land and what matters more than geography. Bia's deeply personal story of identity, courage, and coming out that lives at the heart of Chacruna's Queering Psychedelics work. What psychedelic justice really means in practice, and how the Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative is reimagining what it looks like to give back. Resources & Links Chacruna Institute: https://chacruna.net Chacruna Latinoamérica: https://www.chacruna-la.org Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative: https://www.chacruna-iri.org Psychedelic Culture: https://www.psychedelic-culture.net Bia Labate's personal website: https://www.bialabate.net Books (Synergetic Press): Psychedelic Justice , Women and Psychedelics , and Queering Psychedelics Chacruna on Instagram: @Chacruna.Institute https://www.instagram.com/Chacruna.Institute Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting the podcast. And thank you for taking the time to click the five stars or the thumbs up so that others might stumble across it and benefit as well. I so appreciate it! Connect with Carla You can connect with us on Instagram @PsychedelicDivas , and be sure to join the email list at psychedelicdivas.com for updates, resources, and the Psychedelic Safety Guide Including What to Do When Things Go Wrong . Website: PsychedelicDivas.com Carla's Coaching: CarlaDetchon.com Instagram: @psychedelicdivas https://www.instagram.com/psychedelicdivas YouTube: @carladetchon https://www.youtube.com/@carladetchon Subscribe & Review: Support the sisterhood, by subscribing, rating, and reviewing Psychedelic Divas . Your support helps amplify these important conversations and grow our community.
