From botany to storytelling

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