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Capitalism A Love Story 2of 2

   2009    Culture
In February 2009, Michael Moore issued an appeal to people who worked for Wall Street or in the financial industry to share first hand information, requesting, 'Be a hero and help me expose the biggest swindle in American history'. He uncovers the social costs of corporate interests pursuing profits at the expense of the public good.
Series: Capitalism A Love Story

Chapter 2 Psilocybin

   2022    Medicine
Magic mushrooms, long considered sacred by the Indigenous Mazatec in Mexico, become the subject of scientific studies measuring the intense effects of its Psilocybin and its potential therapeutic use.
In the second episode, we are introduced to Ben, who’s battled with crippling Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) his entire life. When he had his firstborn, Ben’s life became full of panic attacks regarding his son’s safety, and he knew something had to change. Ben signed up for a psilocybin-assisted therapy clinical trial which was testing whether the psychedelic could help people with severe OCD. In the session under the influence of psilocybin, Ben felt decomposed and eventually grew into a tree. While living as a tree, he saw his human self, playing with his child. Though this sounds scary, from Ben’s perspective, it was beautiful. He was one with the universe, seeing himself in the ultimate third-person perspective. Finally, he saw how it could be different if he didn’t let his OCD control him. And several months out, all the symptoms disappeared.
Ben’s story is one of many told in this series, which gives hope that help is right around the corner for the millions who suffer —often in silence— with debilitating mental disorders. But Michael Pollan’s work is showcasing the success stories. Often, even in the most successful trials, psychedelic-assisted therapy only helps up to a third of people enter remission. More frequently, patients are helped —sometimes substantially— but they still suffer with their illnesses and some people aren’t helped at all.
Series: How to Change Your Mind

Chapter 3: MDMA

   2022    Medicine
Championed by both therapists and ravers, ecstasy stands out as the first psychedelic likely to become legalized, thanks to passionate advocates.
The episode about 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), is focused on Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) clinical trials treating Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Series: How to Change Your Mind

Chapter 4: Mescaline

   2022    Medicine
The last episode explores Mescaline, the psychoactive molecule in San Pedro and peyote cacti, a sacred medicine that Native Americans have had to fight for the right to use. At the Indigenous practices there's always an elder, someone who knows the territory very well, who's presiding. There's usually a group, a community is involved, There's always an intention, a purpose to what you're doing, and you're treating it as sacred, in order to achieve altered states of consciousness, which contribute to worship in various ways, or celebration or healing.
But maybe all this is not so new to Western culture after all. In the old Greek histories of Eleusis, people who were initiated there got the drink, the kykeon, and then they had the illumination. The precise recipe is a mystery, but we know that the kykeon was a psychoactive brew that was used at the Eleusinian mysteries, a sacred annual ritual of enlightenment practiced by some of the world's greatest minds including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. So why did this ritual come to an end more than 1,000 years ago? Was the possibility of illumination or achieving a higher consciousness considered threatening to the powers that be? Have the drug wars been merely an extension of that fear?
Psychedelics has a major part in how we can heal as a community, how we can heal as a city, and how we can heal as a country. The current renaissance of psychedelics could not come at a better time as the world confronts a crisis in mental health. But psychedelics have much to offer. The psychedelic experience changes the mind in ways that will help scientists better understand how it works. All these altered states allow us to probe what is the greatest mystery in all of nature. The emergence from mere matter of something as miraculous as consciousness. But an even bigger question is whether psychedelics might help us address the environmental crisis of how we think about our place in nature. One of the greatest gifts of psychedelics is how they reanimate the natural world, allowing us to perceive the subject, the spirit of all species, not just our own. And to feel a deeper sense of interconnectedness with nature.
Series: How to Change Your Mind

Children 404

   2014    Culture
Putin's new law that forbids 'propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors' hits millions of gay/lesbian youngsters in Russia. Parents and friends of gay kids now are obliged to tell them they are sick, sinful and abnormal. These teens have no forum, find no help in Russia, you won't even find them on the internet: Error 404. For the first time, the bravest of them turn to the camera in the new film of 'Winter Go Away'

Countdown to Zero

   2010    Technology
A stunning documentary about the escalating global nuclear arms crisis, Countdown to Zero is a fascinating and frightening exploration of the dangers of nuclear weapons, exposing a variety of present day threats and featuring insights from a host of international statesmen and experts. Among the voices are President Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf, Tony Blair, former CIA Operations Officer Valerie Plame Wilson, the Ploughshares Fund’s Joe Cirincione and Stanford political scientist Scott Sagan. traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities and others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. It makes a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more topical than ever with President Obama and other world leaders working to revive this goal today. Written and directed by Lucy Walker, Countdown to Zero was screened for attendees of this year’s Global Zero International Conference in Paris and the TED Conference in Long Beach, California.
Generation Iron

Generation Iron

2018  History
Future Warfare

Future Warfare

2021  Technology
The Gene Code

The Gene Code

2011  Science
Coldplay Live

Coldplay Live

2012  Art
Art of Spain

Art of Spain

2008  Art
How to Change Your Mind

How to Change Your Mind

2022  Medicine
Natural World

Natural World

2009  Nature