Wade Davis is a renowned explorer and expert in ethnography and ethnobotany, as well as a filmmaker, photographer, professional speaker, and writer. Davis’ body of work is an ode to the diversity among landscapes, peoples, and cultural practices, including the use of plants and psychoactive substances in sacred rituals. In the next episode of Examining the Psychedelic Renaissance, Davis will discuss the discovery of Bufo alvarius, otherwise known as the Sonoran Desert toad.
Date: Tuesday, August 25th
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM PST (6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST)
About Wade Davis
Davis is a Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society for over a decade, and with degrees in anthropology, biology, and a Ph.D. in ethnobotany from Harvard, Davis’ exceptional educational and practical experiences have contributed to his expertise in biological and cultural diversity.
On a mission to cultivate tolerance and respect for human differences, Davis’ harnesses creative mediums to engage both academic and general audiences in anthropology. He has published over 200 scientific and popular articles, 22 books, and has created several films on wide-ranging topics, such as Haitian vodoun and zombies, the global biodiversity crisis, and the traditional use of plants and psychoactive drugs. Davis’ writing has been featured in prestigious publications, including National Geographic and The New York Times, and his photographs in some 30 books and more than 100 magazines, journals and newspapers.
As a professional speaker for over 25 years he has lectured in such revered settings as the American Museum of Natural History, TED conferences, and for the CBC Massey lectures – Canada’s most prestigious public intellectual forum.
Formally named by the National Geographic Society as one of the Explorers for the Millenium, Davis’ work has taken him to East Africa, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Mongolia, and the high Arctic of Nunuvut and Greenland, and earned him widespread recognition as one of 20 Honorary Members of the Explorers Club, a member of the Order of Canada, and the recipient of 11 honorary degrees, as well as several other prestigious awards.
Linking several biological and cultural phenomena, Davis produced seminal work related to the psychoactive potential of Bufo alvarius, or the Sonoran desert toad, which secretes large amounts of the potent hallucinogen 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT). As such, B. alvarius represented the first documented and intentional use of hallucinogens from the animal kingdom, rather than from plants or fungi. In this next installment of Examining the Psychedelic Renaissance, Davis will discuss the exciting discovery of Bufo alvarius. You can learn more about Wade Davis here.
Tickets
MAPS Canada has priced the Examining the Psychedelic Renaissance webinar series at an affordable $111 for the full 14 episodes. Single episodes are available for $22 each, with discounted rates for students, seniors and those affected by COVID-19. Tickets can be purchased online at www.mapscanada.org/webinar