An informative and fast-moving primer on the current state of the microdosing movement.
A guide argues that psychedelics aren’t just for recreational drug users anymore.
People are, according to Austin, currently in the midst of “the Third Wave” of psychedelic drug use in the West (the first two being pre-modern dabbling and the rediscovery of hallucinogens in the 1950s and ’60s). “Psychedelics can provide people with tremendously powerful, transformative experiences,” he writes. “Of course, not everyone is seeking a complete ego death and subsequent rebirth. That’s why the Third Wave of psychedelics is built upon a unique approach: microdosing.” The author sees microdosing as part of the broader personal wellness movement that includes the mainstreaming of yoga, meditation, hiking, veganism, and functional fitness, and he argues it can be a helpful therapeutic tool for treating everything from social anxiety to PTSD. With this book, Austin explains how the trend came about, the philosophy and science behind it, and the broader applications it can have in the consumer’s life. He also discusses the taboos, stigmas, legal restrictions, and potential side effects that have kept microdosing from becoming fully mainstream in America. It’s an elucidating read, especially for those who have not been following the microdosing discussion. Even so, the author—a microdosing enthusiast—is perhaps a bit too immersed in the lifestyle to be a fully persuasive ambassador to the masses. His prose is generally smooth, though he does sometimes lapse into a kind of jargony business-speak: “Whatever your goals for microdosing and whichever protocol you choose, you will eventually finish your initial experiment. Do you continue or not? What is the best way to proceed if you decide to go on? How soon do you start your next microdosing protocol?” There’s an entire chapter devoted to how microdosing can improve one’s leadership skills, and many chapters end with QR codes that encourage readers to “go deeper” in the Microdosing Mastery portal. Even so, the book functions as a helpful introductory guide to the topic.
An informative and fast-moving primer on the current state of the microdosing movement.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 9781544535081
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Houndstooth Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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