TRIPPING ON UTOPIA Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science

This revealing and provocative audiobook argues that the 1960s weren't the birth of psychedelic research--but the end of a long first chapter dating back to the 1920s. Golden Voice narrator Suzanne Toren effectively balances an account filled with ironies and reversals. The protagonist is famed anthropologist Margaret Mead, an undeserving casualty of the backlash against '60s drug culture. The antihero is Mead's sometimes-husband, Gregory Bateson, who ends up enshrined in THE WHOLE EARTH CATALOG. Their destinies are linked to several celebrated tripsters of the time, among them Cary Grant, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, and Allen Ginsberg. Toren is a listener's ideal, forceful and energetic, expressive but unintrusive. Her arresting voice blends effortlessly with the spirit of this work. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2024]