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Even if you love your job, work can wear you down. But the right cannabis can build you back up.
Take me, for example. Recently, the WW top brass invited me to be the new host of the paper’s podcast, Dive (available on all podcast streaming services). Interviewing award-winning journalists, local celebrities and community leaders is an honor I didn’t even know I coveted until it was offered to me.
But there’s a caveat—it’s a lot of work.
Producing, recording and editing a podcast for Portland’s alt-weekly is intimidating, especially considering my role as WW’s resident pothead, but it’s actually because I’m such a committed cannasseur that I’ve been able to juggle parenting, pot-column writing and leading the podcast. Cannabis had kept me cool and focused while in research mode, calm and engaged in planning and organizing mode, chill and present in host mode, and dialed in while in editing mode. Weed, in more forms than flower alone, has often been the MVP of Dive, and even if you can’t hear it in my rich, velvety radio voice, it’s for sure there with the assist.
If you feel like a bit of plant-based therapeutics could make your workday more manageable, here are a few of the products that helped me through my first several weeks of podcasting.
Prismatic Plants Good Day
This blend of CBD, CBDa and adaptogenic herbs, like schisandra and rhodiola, delivers a smooth, calming focus, and a dose in the morning is easy to add to your wellness routine. This particular oil tincture helped me keep my head in the game while recording my very first podcast, Episode 62, “The Portlander’s Guide to Solving Inflation.” Considering my limited fiscal intelligence, I might have been nervous to discuss money matters publicly, but Prismatic Plants Good Day soothed my nerves, and the podcast went off without a hitch.
BUY: prismaticplants.com
Leif Goods Mint Hibiscus Bar
The most tedious part of one-man-band-style podcasting, for me, is the editing. While editing Episode 66, “The Tipping Point,” a multifaceted discussion about Oregon beer, for instance, I relied on a single square of a Leif Good Mint Hibiscus Bar to help put my mind and body at ease. Pulling apart a conversation and then rejiggering it so that the flow is easy and conversational can be tedious—consider all of the uhhhs, hmmms and thoughtful pauses that need to be cut. Anyone whose work includes file organization or creating spreadsheets will feel me—this kind of focused work can be a mind-melting drag. But when you’re in the right headspace, say, supported by one or two 5 mg squares of Leif Goods artisan chocolate, you can end up feeling meditative and satisfied upon completion of the task.
BUY: Home Grown Apothecary, 1937 NE Pacific St., 503-232-1716, homegrownapothecary.com.
Barbari Muse Spliff
Barbari’s smoking blends are potpourris with multiple applications as bath soaks, tea herbs, and a flowery incense. These spliffs marry traditional smoking herbs with cannabis to modify the potency of the weed and highlight the entourage effect, when other compounds act synergistically with THC. After interviewing Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nigel Jaquiss about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek for Episode 65, “The Kotek Puzzle,” a few drags of this spliff helped me pivot from conversational interviewer mode to relaxed, deep-thinker mode, which is exactly where I need to be while scripting monologues and sifting through discussion details.
BUY: Bridge City Collective, 215 SE Grand Ave., 503-477-9532, bridgecitycollective.com.
Hapy Kitchen Hard Candies
For all the satisfaction that comes from a job well done, work can still jangle the bejeezus out of my nerves, and these hard candies cover two soothing bases: satisfying my oral fixation and delivering a potent 5 mg of THC. While discussing particularly frustrating political norms with Rachel Monahan for Episode 70, “Bitcoin Republic,” the modest chill delivered by one mango hard candy kept me from repeatedly grunting in frustration and hollering “WHY EVEN IS MONEY?” over the amount of cash spent on go-nowhere political campaigns and how much savings I’m losing to inflation.
BUY: Rose Budz PDX, 2410 N Mississippi Ave., 503-208-3955, rosebudzpdx.com.
Peak Extracts Rescue Rub
As a stoned, old lady podcaster still learning the ropes, the one thing I definitely notice is how podcasting affects my sweet bod. After long bouts of typing and editing, my wrists often cramp and creak, and I’m often too sore to function once I close my laptop. I manage this pain with Peak Extracts Rescue Rub. While recording interviews for Episode 72, “Pod Complex,” with guests Sophie Peel and Rachel Saslow, my note-taking hand was far too stiff and tender to then immediately begin mousing around several tracks of unedited audio. I slathered my wrists, knuckles and fingers with Rescue Rub and took an extended break from the computer screen. An hour or so later, my pain had eased and I was able to jump right back in and finish the podcast, pain free.
BUY: The Kings of Canna, 1465 NE Prescott St., C, 971-319-6945, thekingsofcanna.com.