Mattha Busby
@matthabusby.bsky.social
Reporting on Drugs/Psychedelics/Subculture/Society @vice @wired @rollingstone @guardian @latimes @ukesquire Repped: @aevitas_creative
Vancouver, BC
Vancouver, BC
Six months without sex taught me about love. In the print copy of the @telegraph.co.uk today www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01...
Celibacy taught me I’m too clever to find love
Before my sex hiatus, I prioritised physical chemistry over emotional intellect. Now, it feels impossible to meet someone with both
www.telegraph.co.uk
February 1, 2026 at 11:47 PM
Six months without sex taught me about love. In the print copy of the @telegraph.co.uk today www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01...
For decades in the US, table tennis has lived a double life: one of the most widely played sports in the country, yet still dismissed by many as a basement pursuit. Now, unexpectedly, it is having a cultural moment
For @us.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
For @us.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
‘A long time coming’: table tennis world hails Marty Supreme-fueled boom
An Oscar-tipped cult biopic, sold-out matches and fresh faces at clubs suggest table tennis may finally be breaking free of its basement reputation in the US
www.theguardian.com
January 24, 2026 at 7:57 PM
For decades in the US, table tennis has lived a double life: one of the most widely played sports in the country, yet still dismissed by many as a basement pursuit. Now, unexpectedly, it is having a cultural moment
For @us.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
For @us.theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...
In an age that perversely sells sex as self-actualisation, choosing not to have it feels strangely radical — and, unexpectedly, clarifying. For @theipaper.com
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
Sex was making my life chaotic - so I gave it up for six months
If Lenny Kravitz could manage almost a decade without it while being a generational sex symbol, surely I could do half a year
inews.co.uk
January 23, 2026 at 2:18 PM
In an age that perversely sells sex as self-actualisation, choosing not to have it feels strangely radical — and, unexpectedly, clarifying. For @theipaper.com
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
Trotting out rhetoric about drug trafficking was a helpful pretext to remove Maduro in Venezuela — when oil was the real goal.
Drugs Are a Useful Weapon in America’s War Games
Fearmongering about “narco-terrorism” was deployed to oust Maduro. In reality, it was always about capturing Venezuela’s oil.
interc.pt
January 22, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Trotting out rhetoric about drug trafficking was a helpful pretext to remove Maduro in Venezuela — when oil was the real goal.
What if cocaine trafficking wasn’t the completely heinous crime it is often made out to be?
New for @theintercept
theintercept.com/2026/01/22/v...
New for @theintercept
theintercept.com/2026/01/22/v...
Drugs Are a Useful Weapon in America’s War Games
Fearmongering about “narco-terrorism” was deployed to oust Maduro. In reality, it was always about capturing Venezuela’s oil.
theintercept.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:36 PM
What if cocaine trafficking wasn’t the completely heinous crime it is often made out to be?
New for @theintercept
theintercept.com/2026/01/22/v...
New for @theintercept
theintercept.com/2026/01/22/v...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
A ‘Demon,’ a Stabbing, and an Ayahuasca Trip Gone Wrong
Julio Rivera spent two decades helping people exorcise dark energy through psychedelic journeys — until one almost ended his life.
Julio Rivera spent two decades helping people exorcise dark energy through psychedelic journeys — until one almost ended his life.
A 'Demon,' a Stabbing, and an Ayahuasca Trip Gone Wrong
Julio Rivera spent two decades helping people exorcise dark energy through psychedelic journeys — until one almost ended his life.
rollingstone.com
January 16, 2026 at 7:47 PM
A ‘Demon,’ a Stabbing, and an Ayahuasca Trip Gone Wrong
Julio Rivera spent two decades helping people exorcise dark energy through psychedelic journeys — until one almost ended his life.
Julio Rivera spent two decades helping people exorcise dark energy through psychedelic journeys — until one almost ended his life.
Julio Rivera spent two decades helping people exorcise dark energy through ayahuasca journeys — until a participant almost stabbed him to death
New for @rollingstone.com
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
New for @rollingstone.com
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
A 'Demon,' a Stabbing, and an Ayahuasca Trip Gone Wrong
Julio Rivera spent two decades helping people exorcise dark energy through psychedelic journeys — until one almost ended his life.
www.rollingstone.com
January 17, 2026 at 2:20 AM
Julio Rivera spent two decades helping people exorcise dark energy through ayahuasca journeys — until a participant almost stabbed him to death
New for @rollingstone.com
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
New for @rollingstone.com
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Why on earth not move to Lisbon if you’re not shackled to grey Northern Europe? Well, because a million others have had the same idea already nationwide in less than a decade, rents have skyrocketed and the locals aren’t happy. For @theipaper.com (photos don’t fit mood)
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
I left the UK for Lisbon - expats like me have killed its soul
With €5 coffees, soaring rents and understandably resentful locals, I felt like an active gentrifer in a foreign land - and left within a few months
inews.co.uk
January 13, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Why on earth not move to Lisbon if you’re not shackled to grey Northern Europe? Well, because a million others have had the same idea already nationwide in less than a decade, rents have skyrocketed and the locals aren’t happy. For @theipaper.com (photos don’t fit mood)
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...
I quit sex and now I write essays about it. For @gqmagazine.bsky.social www.gq.com/story/i-gave...
I Gave Up Sex for 6 Months. Here’s What I Learned
After a string of failed relationships, I took a vow of celibacy to figure out what was going wrong. As my haze of horniness cleared, I saw myself more clearly.
www.gq.com
January 12, 2026 at 7:37 PM
I quit sex and now I write essays about it. For @gqmagazine.bsky.social www.gq.com/story/i-gave...
Did psilocbyin help make us human? Advances in neuroscience and epigenetics have led Dennis McKenna to revisit his brother's once-dismissed Stoned Ape Theory, arguing it now aligns more closely with how we understand brain change
For @doubleblindmag
newsletter.doubleblindmag.com/p/new-scienc...
For @doubleblindmag
newsletter.doubleblindmag.com/p/new-scienc...
New Science Revives Terence McKenna’s Stoned Ape Theory
Advancements in neuroscience and epigenetics breathe new life into the once vilified hypothesis.
newsletter.doubleblindmag.com
January 9, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Did psilocbyin help make us human? Advances in neuroscience and epigenetics have led Dennis McKenna to revisit his brother's once-dismissed Stoned Ape Theory, arguing it now aligns more closely with how we understand brain change
For @doubleblindmag
newsletter.doubleblindmag.com/p/new-scienc...
For @doubleblindmag
newsletter.doubleblindmag.com/p/new-scienc...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
Mamdani's wife Rama Duwaji is visibly emotional as Mamdani shouts her out
January 1, 2026 at 7:49 PM
Mamdani's wife Rama Duwaji is visibly emotional as Mamdani shouts her out
Reposted by Mattha Busby
Make America Hallucinate Again.
@matthabusby.bsky.social on the “counter-counter-cultural turn” in psychedelics that means it's now the US right championing legal access - via the rhetorical KO (in the US context) of military veteran PTSD treatment.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
@matthabusby.bsky.social on the “counter-counter-cultural turn” in psychedelics that means it's now the US right championing legal access - via the rhetorical KO (in the US context) of military veteran PTSD treatment.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Conservative and Christian? US right champions psychedelic drugs
Texas governor among those to call for expanded access to ibogaine, said to help with treating veterans with PTSD
www.theguardian.com
December 28, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Make America Hallucinate Again.
@matthabusby.bsky.social on the “counter-counter-cultural turn” in psychedelics that means it's now the US right championing legal access - via the rhetorical KO (in the US context) of military veteran PTSD treatment.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
@matthabusby.bsky.social on the “counter-counter-cultural turn” in psychedelics that means it's now the US right championing legal access - via the rhetorical KO (in the US context) of military veteran PTSD treatment.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Psychedelics once belonged to the cultural left: anti-war, anti-capitalist, suspicious of the church and state. Now, the drugs are being championed by evangelical Christians, Republican governors, military veterans and big tech billionaires.
For @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
For @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Conservative and Christian? US right champions psychedelic drugs
Texas governor among those to call for expanded access to ibogaine, said to help with treating veterans with PTSD
www.theguardian.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Psychedelics once belonged to the cultural left: anti-war, anti-capitalist, suspicious of the church and state. Now, the drugs are being championed by evangelical Christians, Republican governors, military veterans and big tech billionaires.
For @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
For @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
I wrote this piece because I only learned about pelvic floors a few years ago, despite having had one all my life. And then it turned out to be where I store all my issues. And then that turned out to be true for a lot of people www.wired.com/story/the-pe...
The Pelvic Floor Is a Problem
Everyone’s suddenly obsessed with the pelvic floor—physical therapists, MAHA influencers, me. Could this deeply misunderstood body part really be the seat of so much modern dysfunction?
www.wired.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:19 PM
I wrote this piece because I only learned about pelvic floors a few years ago, despite having had one all my life. And then it turned out to be where I store all my issues. And then that turned out to be true for a lot of people www.wired.com/story/the-pe...
Dispatch from Philadelphia on the rise of hellish drug medetomodine — and why people want to ‘Make Dope Heroin Again’
‘I’m all for safe supply. You can have someone do pure heroin, where you know what it does, or you can have this other crazy stuff.’
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘I’m all for safe supply. You can have someone do pure heroin, where you know what it does, or you can have this other crazy stuff.’
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘It’s made things worse for everyone’: Philadelphia grapples with rise of new street drug
Medetomidine has extreme and fast-acting withdrawal symptoms – and the detox centers that help patients are struggling with how best to cope
www.theguardian.com
December 22, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Dispatch from Philadelphia on the rise of hellish drug medetomodine — and why people want to ‘Make Dope Heroin Again’
‘I’m all for safe supply. You can have someone do pure heroin, where you know what it does, or you can have this other crazy stuff.’
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘I’m all for safe supply. You can have someone do pure heroin, where you know what it does, or you can have this other crazy stuff.’
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I spoke to the people who continue to shape their lives around avoiding Covid and only breathing ‘clean’ air
‘Refusing to mask during an ongoing pandemic is absolutely violent and it’s undeniably participating in social murder.’
For @telegraph.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12...
‘Refusing to mask during an ongoing pandemic is absolutely violent and it’s undeniably participating in social murder.’
For @telegraph.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12...
Access Restricted
www.telegraph.co.uk
December 19, 2025 at 6:50 AM
I spoke to the people who continue to shape their lives around avoiding Covid and only breathing ‘clean’ air
‘Refusing to mask during an ongoing pandemic is absolutely violent and it’s undeniably participating in social murder.’
For @telegraph.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12...
‘Refusing to mask during an ongoing pandemic is absolutely violent and it’s undeniably participating in social murder.’
For @telegraph.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
An online marketplace is selling code modules that simulate the effects of cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, ayahuasca, and alcohol when they are uploaded to ChatGPT. www.wired.com/story/people...
People Are Paying to Get Their Chatbots High on ‘Drugs’
An online marketplace is selling code modules that simulate the effects of cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, ayahuasca, and alcohol when they are uploaded to ChatGPT.
www.wired.com
December 17, 2025 at 12:03 PM
An online marketplace is selling code modules that simulate the effects of cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, ayahuasca, and alcohol when they are uploaded to ChatGPT. www.wired.com/story/people...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
People are paying up to $50 to get their chatbots high on "drugs" (code modules) that simulate the effects of cocaine, ayahuasca, cannabis, alcohol, and ketamine. Some tell @matthabusby.bsky.social it's made their chatbots more "human" and "free-thinking."
People Are Paying to Get Their Chatbots High on ‘Drugs’
An online marketplace is selling code modules that simulate the effects of cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, ayahuasca, and alcohol when they are uploaded to ChatGPT.
www.wired.com
December 17, 2025 at 3:10 PM
People are paying up to $50 to get their chatbots high on "drugs" (code modules) that simulate the effects of cocaine, ayahuasca, cannabis, alcohol, and ketamine. Some tell @matthabusby.bsky.social it's made their chatbots more "human" and "free-thinking."
Reposted by Mattha Busby
Great article by @matthabusby.bsky.social on the origin story of psychonaut scientist Bruce Damer & the origin story of life on earth, and Bruce's MINDS project exploring the use of psychedelic for scientific creative problem solving nautil.us/the-psychede... see also doi.org/10.1177/2050...
The Psychedelic Scientist
The Psychedelic Scientist: High on ayahuasca, Bruce Damer saw how life on Earth began. He may very well be right.
nautil.us
December 16, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Great article by @matthabusby.bsky.social on the origin story of psychonaut scientist Bruce Damer & the origin story of life on earth, and Bruce's MINDS project exploring the use of psychedelic for scientific creative problem solving nautil.us/the-psychede... see also doi.org/10.1177/2050...
My profile of Bruce Damer — computer scientist, psychonaut, astrophysicist — and how he became the first protocell during an ayahuasca trip.
Psychedelics, he told me, shape the lens of the mind. ‘Suddenly new things come into view.’
For @nautil.us
nautil.us/the-psychede...
Psychedelics, he told me, shape the lens of the mind. ‘Suddenly new things come into view.’
For @nautil.us
nautil.us/the-psychede...
The Psychedelic Scientist
The Psychedelic Scientist: High on ayahuasca, Bruce Damer saw how life on Earth began. He may very well be right.
nautil.us
December 16, 2025 at 6:47 PM
My profile of Bruce Damer — computer scientist, psychonaut, astrophysicist — and how he became the first protocell during an ayahuasca trip.
Psychedelics, he told me, shape the lens of the mind. ‘Suddenly new things come into view.’
For @nautil.us
nautil.us/the-psychede...
Psychedelics, he told me, shape the lens of the mind. ‘Suddenly new things come into view.’
For @nautil.us
nautil.us/the-psychede...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
A heartbreaking piece www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/m...
Can Anyone Rescue the Trafficked Girls of L.A.’s Figueroa Street?
www.nytimes.com
October 26, 2025 at 7:18 PM
A heartbreaking piece www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/m...
Gary Youds, ‘the cannabis martyr’, who has been arrested more than 50 times en route to five jail stints in his determined fight to operate a cannabis cafe in Liverpool. An extraordinary story of perseverance detailed in this fantastic new BBC podcast featuring me!
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Strange But True Crime - The Cannabis Martyr - BBC Sounds
A man from Liverpool battles authorities for the right to keep his cannabis café open.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Gary Youds, ‘the cannabis martyr’, who has been arrested more than 50 times en route to five jail stints in his determined fight to operate a cannabis cafe in Liverpool. An extraordinary story of perseverance detailed in this fantastic new BBC podcast featuring me!
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
If Mitch McConnell’s hemp ban goes into effect next November as planned, cannabis seeds will be rendered illegal based on the plants they output.
But experts say this is illogical, as the same seeds can produce very different THC concentrations etc.
My latest.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
But experts say this is illogical, as the same seeds can produce very different THC concentrations etc.
My latest.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
New US seed ban risks driving cannabis genetics underground, growers warn
Part of the shutdown deal, the ban could kill the cannabis genetics market, with only big firms able to comply
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:51 PM
If Mitch McConnell’s hemp ban goes into effect next November as planned, cannabis seeds will be rendered illegal based on the plants they output.
But experts say this is illogical, as the same seeds can produce very different THC concentrations etc.
My latest.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
But experts say this is illogical, as the same seeds can produce very different THC concentrations etc.
My latest.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Mattha Busby
"The World Health Organization had a historic opportunity to ease a global ban on the coca leaf," reports @matthabusby.bsky.social. "But the agency has chosen not to do so."
The December 2 decision goes against the findings of the WHO's own expert review, which detailed harms of prohibition:
The December 2 decision goes against the findings of the WHO's own expert review, which detailed harms of prohibition:
“Moral Bankruptcy” as WHO Opts to Maintain Global Coca Prohibition - Filter
The World Health Organization had a historic opportunity to ease a strict global ban on the coca leaf—a prohibition, campaigners ...
filtermag.org
December 3, 2025 at 4:55 PM
"The World Health Organization had a historic opportunity to ease a global ban on the coca leaf," reports @matthabusby.bsky.social. "But the agency has chosen not to do so."
The December 2 decision goes against the findings of the WHO's own expert review, which detailed harms of prohibition:
The December 2 decision goes against the findings of the WHO's own expert review, which detailed harms of prohibition:
The longevity entrepreneur’s five-and-a-half-hour livestreamed trip is antithetical to the introspective nature of the drug. But the stunt could reduce stigma around psychedelics. For @wired.com www.wired.com/story/bryan-...
Bryan Johnson Has Discovered Shrooms, and He Really Wants You to Know It
The longevity entrepreneur’s five-and-a-half-hour livestreamed trip is antithetical to the introspective nature of the drug. But the stunt could reduce stigma around psychedelics.
www.wired.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:15 AM
The longevity entrepreneur’s five-and-a-half-hour livestreamed trip is antithetical to the introspective nature of the drug. But the stunt could reduce stigma around psychedelics. For @wired.com www.wired.com/story/bryan-...