Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and Conservation podcast

Vanilla is one of the world's most beloved flavors, but its history is far more complex than most people realize. In this episode of Plants of the Gods, we trace vanilla's journey from its origins in Mexico to its rise as a global commodity. Learn why European powers struggled to cultivate vanilla outside its native habitat, how a 12-year-old enslaved boy named Edmund Albius solved the mystery of its pollination in 1841, and how his discovery transformed the global vanilla industry. We also explore vanilla's role in products ranging from Coca-Cola to tobacco, the rise of synthetic vanillin, and conclude with the orchid that helped confirm one of Charles Darwin's most famous evolutionary predictions!

Vanilla is anything but plain. In fact, this orchid might be one of the sexiest plant in the rainforest. In this episode, Dr. Mark Plotkin traces the ethnobotanical history of vanilla, first used by pre-Columbian cultures in Central America as a component of revered beverages and to perfume sacred temples. An organism of astonishing complexity, vanilla's cured seed pods contain over 250 distinct flavor and fragrance components. Today it's widely used in pharmaceuticals as a flavoring and masking agent, and you'll find it in about half of all dessert products worldwide. By the end of this episode, you'll never take vanilla for granted again! 
 
Show notes:  
Abreu-Runkel, Rosa. Vanilla: A Global History. Reaktion Books, Credo Reference, 2025. 
Ecott, Tim. Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid. Grove Press, 2018. 
Hobhouse, Henry. Seeds of Wealth: Four Plants That Made Men Rich. Macmillan, 2012. 
Jennings, Eric Thomas. Vanilla: The History of an Extraordinary Bean. Yale University Press, 2025. 
Rain, Patricia. 2004. Vanilla. Penguin Tarcher, 2004.
 
Rosengarten, Fred. 1973. The Book of Spices. Pyramid Books, 1973 .

How do Indigenous knowledge and Western science come together in the study of nature and plant medicine? Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, a chemical biologist and author of The Spirit of the Rainforest, joins Dr. Mark Plotkin to explore ethnobotany, animal self-medication, and the idea that plants and ecosystems may hold forms of intelligence that science is only beginning to understand.  

In this episode, Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza shares stories about learning from her grandmother, navigating life between two worlds, and why Indigenous knowledge and scientific research don't have to be in conflict.
Show notes: The Spirit of the Rainforest book

Wade Davis, celebrated author and anthropologist, joins Mark Plotkin for a personal reflection on the life and legacy of legendary ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. Davis traces Schultes' journey from his transformative encounter with peyote to his decades-long odyssey through the Amazon, where he documented Indigenous sacred plant traditions. Together, they explore how Schultes's discoveries — including his collaborations with mycologist Gordon Wasson and chemist Albert Hoffman — helped ignite the psychedelic era, and how his mentorship of Davis inspired the acclaimed book One River.
 
Show notes: 
The Amazonian Travels of Richard Evans Schultes

Mark Plotkin sits down with Wade Davis — author of One River, Lost Amazon, and dozens more — for a deep dive into one of South America's most misunderstood and miraculous plants. Drawing on their shared history working alongside the legendary Richard Evans Schultes, the two ethnobotanists trace coca from its origins as a sacred, nutritionally rich plant used across Andean and Amazonian cultures to its unjust criminalization driven more by ideology and racism rather than science. Davis also breaks down the differences between the coca leaf, cocaine, and mambe, reflects on lessons from cannabis legalization, and makes a compelling case for why the world should finally embrace coca's extraordinary potential.
 
Show notes: 
"The Secret History of Coca" by Wade Davis for Rolling Stone Magazine: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/coca-leaves-war-on-drugs-cocaine-1235310539/ 
 
Books by Wade Davis: https://daviswade.com/books