Set the Setting: May 2025
Meme drop, My body is amazing, Catch me IRL at EDC Vegas (May 15-20) + Official EDC 2025 Playlist, Psychedelics shift your personality, Commune living, The only way through is through, Photo Drop
Meme drop
Crunch time at MAPS! It’s truly all hands on deck putting on Psychedelic Science 2025, our week-long conference for 12,000 attendees, 500 speakers, and hundreds of community partners, parties, and sponsors. Putting on an event of this scale among 27 full-time staff, on top of everything else we do at MAPS is… hard to describe. Disturbing, maybe? Unhinged? Well, it’s happening. June 16-20 in Denver. Be there! (If you need a discount code, hit me up).
Across our 14 tracks, we do pull some big names a la Aaron Rodgers. We’re still waiting on RFK Jr. to confirm so we’re beaming our invite straight to his brainworms!
One of my roles for the conference is to be the party planner: check out the Psychedelic Science Fun Page! I’m coordinating the happy hours, meetups, concerts (Tycho! LSZEE!), after parties and after-after parties. The primary purpose of PS2025 is the educational content, so I do not advertise any afters after the after-afters. (But if you do want to party past 2am… just ask 😉)
My body is amazing
Last month, when I took some birthday acid at the Transform HR Conference and partied until my 9am flight home — I had this thought “wow, my body is amazing.” I am still young enough that I can party alllll night long if I want to!
It’s easy to fall into this trap of getting older and noticing all the things you can’t do anymore. But I realize there’s still so much I can do. To prove my point in April, I took my first back-to-back Barry’s class! My 300th class was led by Trish and my 301st with Anthony!
I know some people that take back-to-back classes (Phil, Craig, Dave - you animals!). But me?! Oh no, I could never do that because just a single class has me completely wiped out. Well I proved myself WRONG! I crushed it. The beginning of the 2nd class was devastating, but I broke through the wall and ended up sprinting the hardest at the very end! It was euphoric, like, I couldn’t even feel my body. The weights felt weightless. When I finally finished class I had more confirmation: My. Body. Is. Amazing.
Catch me IRL at EDC Vegas (May 15-20) + Official EDC 2025 Playlist
For my next feat of “My body is amazing,” I will be making my annual pilgrimage to Vegas for Electric Daisy Carnival, where each night of the 3 day festival logs about 25k steps! I think it’s my 13th year, but I’ve lost track at this point. I remember hitting my tenth EDC a few years ago. Anyway, who’s counting?
The Official EDC Vegas 2025 playlist captures a good cross-section of all of the PLUR vibes I’ll be surrounded by:
My squad, The Raveguards, has grown to 50 people this year! I had to rent two shuttle buses to get us to and from the venue. Our outfit themes are Neon Jungle Safari, The Gay Agenda, and Ooooh Shiny / White Wedding (since Dallas and Ryan will be renewing their vows at the Electric Chapel on Sunday). Gesaffelstein, my favorite dark prince of techno, will be making his EDC debut. And I finally get to meet one of my direct reports at MAPS, Amanda, IRL!
See you freaks underneath the electric sky! Look for our totem with a blinking light on top. Catch me if you can! (I’ll be in VIP, obviously):
Psychedelics shift your personality
EDC is more than just a party for me; it’s actually a psychedelic ceremony. Like any ceremony, I set the setting by identifying an intention of what I want from the experience. And in the subsequent weeks, I consider what aspects of my experience I want to integrate into my future. So, what’s my intention this year?
Well, I want to explore what I want to change about my personality.
I’m an advisor for Unlimited Sciences, a research and education nonprofit organization that conducts real-world psychedelic research. In a recent publication about a large-scale naturalistic psilocybin study (with 2,850 study participants), the authors deepened the literature on how psychedelics fundamentally shift how we perceive and interact with the world, in turn, how they can precipitate changes to our personality.
So for this EDC, while I’m tripping with friends, bopping to the beat, bouncing around to different stages, exploring the art, embracing the PLUR, entranced by fireworks and entrenched in love… I’m going to get curious:
“What potential changes in my personality would support the life I’m trying to create?”
Commune Living
I love google’s example: “she went to California and joined a commune” 💀
Deb brought it up a few weeks ago, I thought about it for a few days, and I’ve decided yes - I’m ready to live in a commune! Not because I’m trying to chase the glory days of living in the Ravehau5 in my mid 20’s, although those were the best of times.
This month marks two full years that I’ve been living outside of my condo (and the anniversary of Scot’s passing), and I’ve come to the conclusion that I would rather live with friends than alone. In fact, I’ve always preferred living with friends. Pooling your resources gets you more value. I don’t mind sharing space; I enjoy it, actually. And being a generally, chill, positive, accommodating person - I’m a great roommate.
Wouldn’t society be better off if we lived in communes? With communal values instead of the individualistic values that we have today? Since when did housing become a speculative market instead of a basic human need, anyway?
I’m at the beginning phases of exploring this idea. If you have resources, ideas, and/or connections to people who can explore this with me (or tell me reasons why this is not a great idea), please send them my way!
The only way through is through
The standard saying is “the only way out is through” but I’m not a fan of that. Sometimes the way out is back where you came, like, running away can be an underrated strategy. But let’s not get lost in semantics. The reality is that I need to finish my remodel.
I’ve been avoiding the most difficult parts of this project. I’ve been using my busy workload at MAPS as a diversion. I’ve been treating my construction partners like friends. And subconsciously, I’ve been moving slow because I’m enjoying my current living situation more than living alone, like I have the 6 years before that.
I haven’t faced this challenge head on, but that started to change in the past few weeks. I’m making steady progress now. Seismic work is almost done. Electrical work behind the shear walls are ready for pre-inspection. Framing is going up. A little behind on plumbing. For every step forward, there are setbacks too - needing a revision on my structural plan for a larger exterior door (that was triggered by a fire code from moving my stairs).
Juggling this and PS2025 right now is longgg hours. But, the only way through is through.
I am grateful for my parents for being able to support me financially as this has gotten way out of hand. And so many friends for the immense support through this project. Addison and Hilarie for hosting me for a few months, Lev for letting me borrow a parking spot in the Mission, Land Daddy Vic for the cheap rent and month-to-month terms, Mateo for being a great roommate and dogsitter, Teddy for the construction advice, I mean the list goes on. Perhaps, the only way through is together.
Photo Drop
Raveguard family forever! 🫶🏽