Burb, a cannabis lifestyle collective out of Vancouver, Canada is forging an original narrative in the industry with new podcast “Light Culture” hosted by the co-founder and co-publisher of Paper Magazine, David Hershkovits. To guide the conversation into a new era this editorially driven podcast explores the budding cannabis industry through elevated conversations with some of the world’s most influential voices in fashion, music, media, tech, film and business.

The premiere episode launched with visual artist, filmmaker, rapper and hip hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy. It was a fitting first interview for the inspired podcast which aired on the premiere of Freddy’s Netflix special “Grass is Greener”, a documentary that examines the history of cannabis culture from the New Orleans jazz scene in “Congo Square” to the Harlem Renaissance. Freddy delves deep into the roots of cannabis culture: from the time of “free love” to Reagan’s War on Drugs in the 80’s. He then provides a microscope on to the social justice issues that have come from the criminalization of cannabis in the Black community.

Freddy recalls the shift of the music industry and the heavy influence of hip hop and the role cannabis played in the prolific careers of legendary rappers. Freddy flashes back to stories of Jean-Michel Basquiat lighting up in planes with Larry Gagosian, his introduction to quality Cali cannabis with Glenn O’Brien, Chris Stein and Debbie Harry to directing Snoop Dogg’s first music video “What’s My Name”.

Then, for fans of the HBO hit series “High Maintenance” or avid readers of past column “Weedediquitte” on VICE the name Adullah Saeed may ring a bell. Saeed, a producer and cannabis liberalization advocate,  explores how “Weediquette” helped start the conversation on destigmatizing cannabis within mainstream media by merging the plant with a culinary component, ultimately leading to the successful show “Bong Appetit”. He goes on to speak about the resurgence of the black market for cannabis during a time of confusing and disproportionate legislation being passed which has  left long time users and farmers behind.

In this week’s episode, David Hershkovits speaks with Steve DeAngelo, CEO of The Arcview Group, a fund consisting of the largest organization of high net worth cannabis investors worldwide. Known as the “Father of the Cannabis Industry”, Steve explores a path to social justice reform and his thoughts on Governor Gavin Newsom’s aggressive military approach to growers in the Emerald Triangle. Although an early and current supporter of Newsom, DeAngelo states,

“This is a place where I disagree with him: A) because it’s wrong. It’s not just it’s not right. It shouldn’t happen under any circumstances and B) because it’s not going to be effective. The federal government brought the National Guard and they brought in all kinds of helicopters. They brought in way more resources than the State of California did. They weren’t able to stamp out cannabis growing in the Emerald Triangle. What they did do was terrorize the community and militarize a place that didn’t need to be militarized. There’s two things that need to happen in the Emerald Triangle. Number one, the barriers to entry for small growers to come into the legal cannabis industry in California need to be lowered. Right now it is too difficult, too expensive, too time consuming and too bewildering for the majority of small growers to be able to get into the cannabis industry. Those barriers, those regulatory barriers need to come down.”

DeAngelo has recently hired Conrad Gregory, Gavin’s Chief Consultant for Economic Development when he served as Lt. Governor, and expects to become more active in the social justice aspect of the Cannabis industry. “What we really need is interstate and international trade of cannabis. Everybody in the world wants California cannabis. The answer to all the concern about diversion and illegal markets is to have a fully legal market and allow the extraordinarily talented growers of the Emerald Triangle to provide their cannabis to the millions of people around the country and around the world who are very eager to have it.”

The Light Culture podcast hosted by David Hershkovits gives shine to these Light Leaders who have helped shaped our past and are blazing the way to our future, tune in every 1st and 3rd Monday of every month to catch the next forward thinkers of our time.

This is a sponsored post by Burb

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