Terence McKenna, the Would-Be Jesus of Psychedelics
A new biography explores the life and ideas of the man who founded the first primitive religion of the future.
Counterculture
Americans Don't Party Enough. Here's How To Change That.
In our increasingly antisocial world, the best way to bring people together is a good party. This weekend, if possible.
How LSD Helped Launch a Radical Libertarian Counterculture
Drug Smuggler. Fugitive. Icon. Meet the Acid Queen.
The Conspiracy Jokers
A new book explores the legacy of the Report on Iron Mountain, while another probes the life of the novelist and essayist Robert Anton Wilson.
The Bikeriders Is a Nostalgic Vision of America's Postwar Counterculture
Jeff Nichols tells the tragic story of a carefree Midwest motorcycle gang that transforms into something uglier.
Erika Dyck: Are We Living in a Psychedelic Renaissance?
Historian Erika Dyck contextualizes the deep roots of and battles over LSD, psilocybin, and other psychoactive substances.
The Secret History of Psychedelics
Historian Erika Dyck wants to document the deep roots of and battles over LSD, psilocybin, and other psychoactive substances.
Rick Doblin: The Man Behind the 'Psychedelic '20s'
The founder of MAPS talks about FDA approval for MDMA-assisted therapy and the "psychedelic renaissance" he has helped create.
Steven Heller: Growing Up Underground
The legendary art director talks about the aesthetics of rebellion and his strange journey from Screw magazine to The New York Times.
Growing Up Underground With Steven Heller
The legendary art director on Greenwich Village in the '60s, the aesthetics of rebellion, and life at The New York Times.
Grant McCracken: The Rise of Artisanal Everything and 'Cruelty-Free Capitalism'
In Return of the Artisan, anthropologist Grant McCracken explains how we've shifted from an industrial to a handmade economy.
Brian Doherty: From MAD Magazine to Maus
A new history, Dirty Pictures, explores how underground comix revolutionized art and exploded censorship once and for all.
The Dirty Pictures That Revolutionized Art
Brian Doherty's history of underground comix chronicles how Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, and others challenged censorship and increased free speech.
My My, Hey Hey, Neil Young's Songs Are Here To Stay (Just Not on Spotify)
Three and a half lessons about Neil Young, Joe Rogan, Spotify, and our age of cultural plenitude
Louis Menand: 'Freedom Was the Slogan of the Times'
Why postwar culture from Jack Kerouac to Andy Warhol to James Baldwin to Susan Sontag to Yoko Ono battled boundaries hemming them in.
'The Intellectual Johnny Appleseed of the Counterculture'
A conversation with Whole Earth Catalog founder, Merry Prankster, and woolly mammoth de-extinctionist Stewart Brand.
What Really Happened to the Class of '68?
Friday A/V Club: The Yippies, the yuppies, and the ghosts of the '60s and '80s
G. Gordon Liddy: The Hollywood Years
Friday A/V Club: How a Watergate burglar spent the '80s
We Are As Gods: Stewart Brand & The Fight to Bring Back Woolly Mammoths
From "stay hungry, stay foolish" to "try everything, take nothing off the table."
Stewart Brand: We Are (Still) As Gods
The former Merry Prankster and Whole Earth Catalog founder talks about psychedelics, computers, bringing back woolly mammoths, and his new documentary.
Rock Legend Frank Zappa Battles Censorship, Communism, and Conformity in a New Documentary
Alex Winter's new film celebrates the Rock Hall of Famer's individualism, anti-authoritarianism, and entrepreneurship.
Neutron Gun Reloaded
Gerry Reith's raw, paranoid, apocalyptic fables were shot through with distrust for just about every institution around.
Alex Winter: Frank Zappa's Ultra-Individualist Legacy
The rock legend fought for free speech and self-expression in ways that appealed to dissidents in America and communist countries alike.
Charles Wininger: Why We Should Listen To Ecstasy and Other Psychedelics
A 71-year-old therapist comes out of the "chemical closet" to promote MDMA as a means of self-discovery
Trip Out with Timothy Leary's Ex-Girlfriend in My Psychedelic Love Story
A documentary describes a drug-fueled countercultural romance.
Rick Doblin: 'People Should Have the Fundamental Human Right To Change Their Consciousness'
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is making MDMA and other drugs medically legitimate and socially acceptable.
Sticking It to the Man
A new anthology explores how the counterculture of the '60s and '70s mixed with the mainstream.
Thank You, Ram Dass!
The pioneering psychedelic researcher, Timothy Leary collaborator, and New Age seeker exemplified America's postwar turn to individualism.
The Possibly Pending Death of a Legendary Radio Station
Friday A/V Club: When Timothy Leary, Ayn Rand, and Big Mama Thornton shared a microphone
Robert Hunter, R.I.P.
The Grateful Dead lyricist filled a generation with a sense of amused, loving, liberatory patriotism.
New Woodstock Documentary Should Make Boomers Question Their Accomplishments
If a chaotic concert that nearly failed "defined a generation," what does that actually mean?
Paul Krassner: The Lost Interview
A previously unpublished conversation with “investigative satirist” Paul Krassner, who just died at age 87.
What the Battle To Publish Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl' Means to Today's Free-Speech Struggles
The People v. Lawrence Ferlinghetti explains how America embraced free speech—and how we're ready to throw it away.
Cancel Culture Comes for Counterculture Comics
Today it's creators, not cops, who want to banish R. Crumb, onetime king of the comics underground.
'We Are as Gods and Might as Well Get Good at It'
Commemorating the Whole Earth Catalog 50 years later.
1972: The Year That Made 2018 Seem Sane
Richard Nixon's battle with Timothy Leary puts today's culture wars to shame.
Manson's Death One More Milepost in Waning Significance of Baby Boom Generation
Interest in the cult killer will ebb, just like the generation he claimed to represent.
Friday A/V Club: A Vintage Anti-Hippie Film Strip
A fever-dream film strip from 1967 calls the counterculture a communist/capitalist plot.
Welcome to Libertopia
Inside PorcFest, the country's largest libertarian and anarchist gathering
Paul Kantner, R.I.P.
Radical and science-fictional Jefferson Airplane musician made the sixties the sixties--and kept growing.
