Brandon and Lindsy welcome a guest who cracks open a hidden dossier on culture-war psyops—where protest songs, psychedelics, and carefully scripted narratives intertwine. Listeners are led through a labyrinth of acid parties that weren’t so “free,” Laurel Canyon salons doubling as distribution hubs, and elite families underwriting a psychedelic renaissance that looks far less organic than advertised. From Lennon to Hendrix, Cobain to Tupac, the names you thought were untouchable are revealed as pawns in a much bigger game. This conversation pulls the velvet curtain back on COINTELPRO echoes in hip-hop, the strange survival of “sex & rock ’n’ roll” while “no drugs” artists vanished, and the shift from vinyl manipulation to viral manipulation.  Guiding us through this maze of evidence and implication is researcher and filmmaker John Potash.

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https://www.johnpotash.com/

Timestamps

 00:52 Setting up today’s topic – hidden war through drugs & culture
 02:00 John Potash joins 
 03:15 John’s personal story with LSD and realization
 05:20 Counseling, corruption & activism background
 07:45 Oligarch fingerprints on U.S. intelligence
 10:00 How John got sources on Tupac & COINTELPRO
 12:10 CIA whistleblowers & early articles
 14:30 Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain & LSD distribution
 16:50 MKULTRA documents & acid in colleges/prisons
 19:10 Timothy Leary, Millbrook Mansion & the Mellons
 21:25 Ken Kesey, Merry Pranksters & the psychedelic bus
 23:50 Crisis-actor rumors about Tupac
 26:15 The Grateful Dead & acid tests
 28:30 How psychedelics weaken emotional control
 31:20 John Lennon’s story, Yoko Ono & manipulation
 33:35 Heroin as a control tactic & parallels with other artists
 36:00 Psychedelics today, ketamine, and medical narrative
 38:15 Funding links: MAPS, Heffter Institute & billionaires
 40:35 Church abuse, MKULTRA techniques still active
 42:55 John’s website, books & projects / closing thoughts