Sneaker Impact News
Weekly interviews, news, updates and more about Sneaker Impact and our work in the recycling and running industries. Hosted by Bryan the Botanist. Please send us your guest recommendations and topics you'd like us to feature. Email: bryan@sneakerimpact.com
Sneaker Impact News
Sustainability & Psychedel*cs: A Deep Dive with Marissa Feinberg of PSYCA
In Episode 30 of Sneaker Impact News, host Bryan the Botanist welcomes Marissa Feinberg, the founder of Psychedel*cs for Climate Action (PSYCA). They discuss the Miami launch of PSYCA, with insights into Marissa's journey from environmental social impact to the psychedel*c space, her co-founding of Green Spaces New York, and founding the Triple Bottom Why. The conversation covers connecting climate action with psychedel*cs, the benefits of plant medicine therapy, meditation, community engagement and contributions to mental health through pschedel*cs assisted therapy. Marissa also shares details on PSYCA's objectives, their upcoming events, and how they aim to shift collective consciousness for meaningful climate action. Don't miss Marissa's take on bridging corporate and climate action spaces through expanded thinking. Join us for a day of talks, community, and sustainability actions.
Marissa Feinberg is the founder of Psychedelics for Climate Action (PSYCA), an organization dedicated to raising and expanding consciousness to discover pathways forward, now launching in Miami with PSYCA Ambassador Yadira Diaz (RSVP). Previously, Feinberg contributed to the co-working and environmental movements by co-founding Green Spaces NY for social entrepreneurs, which was acquired and became part of the global Impact Hub network.
Feinberg launched Triple Bottom Why PR, a brand communications consultancy for values-aligned organizations, leading her to work with Nushama Psychedelic Wellness and inspiring her to help bridge these ecosystems.
RSVP to PSYCA’s Miami Launch Party on February 19th, 2025 on Eventbrite:
Stay Connected & Learn More
https://www.instagram.com/psychedforclimateaction/
https://www.instagram.com/marissafeinberg/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/psyca
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissafeinberg/
https://www.facebook.com/marissafeinberg/
Chapters/Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:08 Marissa Feinberg's Background and Achievements
00:58 Journey into Psychedelics and Climate Action
02:28 Intersection of Climate Action and Psychedelics
03:30 Social Entrepreneurship and Impact
09:45 Personal Wellness and Psychedelic Therapy
15:41 PSYCA's Mission and Events
27:58 Upcoming Miami Launch Event Details
36:02 Introduction to the Event and Speakers
36:13 Community Partners and Sponsors
36:44 Speaker Highlights and Topics
37:29 Focus on Indigenous Wisdom and Plant Medicine
38:35 Lightning Talks and Poetry
39:30 Healing Nature from Within
42:45 Miami Launch and Personal Stories
45:56 Sneaker Impact and Sustainability
53:21 Theory of Change and Future Initiatives
01:03:43 Closing Thoughts and Final
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Sneaker Impact News. Today, my special guest is Marissa Feinberg. Marissa is the founder of Psychedelics for Climate Action, PSYCA, an organization dedicated to raising and expanding consciousness to discover pathways forward. Now launching in Miami with PSYCA ambassador Yadira Diaz. And we previously, Marissa contributed to the co working and environmental movements by co founding Green Spaces New York. For social entrepreneurs, which was acquired and became part of the global impact hub network. Feinberg also launched the triple bottom YPR. Brand communications consultancy for values aligned organizations, leading her to work with new Shama psychedelic wellness and inspiring her to help bridge these ecosystems. So guys, welcome to Marissa. Marissa, how are you doing?
1_Marissa:I'm so good. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me, Bryan and Sneaker Impact.
2_Bryan:Cool. Well, uh, today we want to learn all about your Miami launch and, uh, PSCYA and how you got started down this journey for climate action. How do we get started here? Yeah. What got you started down this path? Sure, sure. Tell us about the origin of PSYCA.
1_Marissa:Sure, sure. So, um, I recently fell into the psychedelic space, but for about 20 years, I was working in environmental social impact. Um, I co founded a co working space called Green Spaces New York. Which was the first of its time for our environmental and social impact change makers. And, um, my co founder moved to Denver and started a space there. We moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan and was running that for about eight years. And then it was acquired. It became part of the global impact hub network and they still have environmental social impact coworking spaces all over the world. And then I worked for that parent company for two years, their VP PR and marketing. And then, um. After that I started consulting and I didn't know what I wanted to do next and I fell into the psychedelic space. So I was, you know, supporting brands as a consultant. A company reached out called New Shama Psychedelic Wellness, which at the time was an idea and And I supported them from going from Idea to Inception to one of the nation's leading ketamine therapy brands. So I know there's a lot we could unpack there to start actually. That's an
2_Bryan:amazing experience of, you know, different industries all merging. I'm so interested in how you decided to marry climate action with psychedelics because I think sometimes those two worlds don't often intersect.
1_Marissa:Yeah, they don't. They don't.
2_Bryan:But the core values in, in, and you know, I've, as part of Miami Mushroom Fest, the foundation dedicated to raising awareness about, you know, the, the benefits of not only medicinal and functional mushrooms, but also the psychedelic ones. There's many proven benefits. So, you know, there's a stigma, but then there's a proven scientific benefits and the best practices and the, The scientific use of these compounds versus recreational and how the core values of people that are really grounded in these industries care about the planet.
1_Marissa:You
2_Bryan:know, so, and that's what Sneaker Impact's all about. So how did you get, how did you get so interested in climate action? And then how did the psychedelics angle come in? You mentioned you founded that. Now tell us like, I know that was like kind of two questions, but how did people on a day to day come into the hub and you're. your shared spaces and do climate action. Can you give us some concrete examples?
1_Marissa:Sure, sure. So there were companies that were like Sneaker Impact, right, that worked out of there. We actually had a company called Denim Therapy. And they were in charge of, they would, people would mail in their jeans that were used and they would get repaired and sent back. That's
2_Bryan:so similar to what we're up to.
1_Marissa:That's very similar. There were companies, Food companies, fig food was one of them and whole foods. Um, a company rose out of it. That was very popular for a while. Startups via ride sharing company. So these were examples of some of the different entrepreneurs in our space.
2_Bryan:And
1_Marissa:so it was really gratifying to me to learn about social entrepreneurship. That's really the core of where I had my education in this space of, you know, how do you. Um, do well and do good, right? And so there's the whole B Corp movement, the social enterprise movement, you know, as a member of the social venture network, um, and working with organizations, um, a law firm, Bromberger Law that does a lot of work in the ESG space and helps to create some of those structures to empower organizations to have their social enterprise, which is for profit, but also doing a good thing for the world, right? And I think there's a lot of. misconceptions, um, now around capitalism and what that means. And I think people see it as a black or white thing. You're either a non profit or you're a for profit. And there's a lot of good things that can happen in between when you have a model to earn revenue, to create jobs, to, you know, like you're doing at Sneaker Impact, to prolong the product life cycle. Yeah, the difference, it's, right, it's not black or white. And so I really, I'm a big believer. And what can come from, you know, capitalism done right, or what we call, you know,
2_Bryan:um, social capitalism, social
1_Marissa:capitalism, perhaps. Yeah. Where it
2_Bryan:benefits people and the planet. Right, right. And you can also make money because we need to make money to live. We certainly do. Places like
1_Marissa:Miami are pretty expensive to live. And I'm from New York and it's expensive to live.
2_Bryan:So you were born and raised in New York City?
1_Marissa:Um, I was born, I was born in Massachusetts. Okay. I love Massachusetts. I've
2_Bryan:run the Boston Marathon many times. Oh my gosh, my sister
1_Marissa:runs that. Wow. I've
2_Bryan:got distant family in the Boston. Oh, that's amazing. I visit a couple times a year. I love Boston. Boston.
1_Marissa:I lived in Linfield for four years. Okay. Not that far from there. Is that
2_Bryan:what direction From the city? This,
1_Marissa:it's like also, um, on the North Shore, like Marblehead. Okay. Yeah,
2_Bryan:I know. Uh, I must have driven by it then because Yeah. You go up to Swamp Scott and uh, yeah. And you go to Salem and all those areas. Oh yeah. I didn't,
1_Marissa:I didn't pick up the Boston accent before. That's great. I'm from
2_Bryan:Wisconsin. I was born and raised in Madison. Oh, that's
1_Marissa:why. All right.
2_Bryan:Another place where actually a lot of, um, progressive ideas have come out of Oh, cool. You know, but it's Massachusetts as well as a. Is an area that we notice is very sustainable,
1_Marissa:you know,
2_Bryan:and so you moved to new york city at a yeah
1_Marissa:I moved to new york city right after college.
2_Bryan:Okay,
1_Marissa:and and then you know That's when I ended up working in the environmental social impact space through the co working initiative And for me that space just made a lot of sense, you know, my mother was a social worker My father now was Uh, he's evolved into doing climatology and climate physics and science. Oh my god. And so, um, this, this is kind of runs in my family. I feel like I ended up at the hybrid of where they are, right? Already in climate and then now in the psychedelic space, which has a lot of crossover with mental health.
2_Bryan:So important to talk about.
1_Marissa:Yeah.
2_Bryan:Very important. Yeah.
1_Marissa:Um, so I don't, in terms of what to share next, you know, after eight years of running a co working space, right? That's really kind of what led to this work. Kind
2_Bryan:of like a WeWork for more social. Exactly.
1_Marissa:It was like a WeWork for To break it
2_Bryan:down to like Yeah,
1_Marissa:if you picture a WeWork where every company is like Sneaker Impact.
2_Bryan:Where they're doing good for the planet and for people. Yes,
1_Marissa:exactly. Um, and the, the furniture was eco friendly, you know, we were cared about values, cultivating events almost every day about these various topics. And so imagine doing that for eight years, you know, I myself was, was holding a lot, um, of space and I was a little burnt out. And so I started consulting and I called my consultancy. Triple bottom Y, it's just a name that popped into my head one day because I loved the whole field of purpose driven marketing. Some leaders in that, Simon Sinek, Seth Godin, you know, really the whole start with Y model and then combining that with a social enterprise space with the triple bottom line, people, planet, and profit that I came from that social enterprise space believing in. Sure, from like a B Corp. Right, exactly. So, When you put those terms together, can you repeat that? Those
2_Bryan:three words, those are very powerful. Sure.
1_Marissa:So triple bottom, why About aligning your personal why with your organizational why. Mm-hmm And your audiences. And when you do that, it highlights values aligning with the triple bottom line, people, planet and profit
2_Bryan:people, planet, profit. So those three Ps are all,
1_Marissa:yep.
2_Bryan:That's great.
1_Marissa:The three Y's, the three P's. That's what we talked about
2_Bryan:earlier too, doing good for people and good for the planet. But you can also make money doing that. That's right. So you're aligning them all. I love that. Yeah. So it's triple bottom Y. It was your next move after the co working space.
1_Marissa:Yeah, yeah. So I started my consultancy. I sent an email to my network that I was available. I didn't know what I wanted to do next and then I suddenly had clients. And that was the start of my consulting and that actually turned out quite to be a good fit for me. And led me to work with, continuing to work with social enterprises, um, from, you know, I worked with the pre distribution initiative, which is doing a lot around social impact, private equity, and trying to create new, more equitable models for a lot of these, you know, impact investing firms that will say, Oh, we're going to invest in a farmer's co op in Africa. Meanwhile, they take a really high. Percentage and fee of the transaction and so they're not always creating as much say wealth inequality as they set out to Um, so that's been some really interesting work And then, you know the bromberger law law firm. I was also working with a hito verde Um a leading regenerative agriculture company in mexico
3_Audio:Okay, and
1_Marissa:I helped them get on the fast company's most innovative company list in latin america in 2020 And then we had the shutdown So, um, right after that, you know, I continued to work with other companies, uh, COVID testing startup. But in any case, um, You know, during the time when I was consulting, I started a morning routine. I started meditating every day. I started working out, increasing my mindfulness. You know, I tried microdosing for the first time. So I was on this journey, spiritual path of how do I have more wellness in my life after a period of burnout and how ironic it was that I was working at this social enterprise supposed to be all about people, planet and profit. Meanwhile, I put my own person, you know, my own, Wellness on the back burner. Mm.
3_Audio:So it
1_Marissa:was stepping back into wellness. And then, you know, this, this client came across my desk called Hamma.
3_Audio:Mm-hmm
1_Marissa:For Ketamine therapy.
3_Audio:Okay.
1_Marissa:And I said to my business partner, Greg Orio at the time, he, I said, is this legal? I said, I don't, I don't know if we should work with this client. Yeah. Ketamine therapy. Sure. Like, what is this? There's a
2_Bryan:whole new thing. I remember whole new thing because I have a friend of Miami Beach who launched a clinic in 2021 or two, you know, again, for helping people with, you know, these. Issues like PCSD and, you know, uh, traumatic issues in their life that Ketamine has been helping them with under medical guidance.
1_Marissa:I'm so happy to hear that. Ketamine can be very transformative, and that's something I learned very quickly. So, you know, I was working with the founders, um, Jay Godfrey and Richard Melloff. At the time, um, they have a third co founder now, Dr. Steven Radowitz, who's also their chief medical officer. And so I worked with them on these Articulate Your Why exercises. And then I, I helped them with their soft launch, and then I helped them with their launch, and then pretty soon the, the work kept growing and growing, and I became their fractional PR and brand director. And it was really at a time, like you said, at the same time, your friend was starting a ketamine therapy place, and they became very popular. Yeah. And we really struck a time where, um, the news was very curious. The public was very curious. Sure. And we, I think, we definitely did over 200 news stories. Wow. From 2021 through today. Because there is
2_Bryan:evidence, scientific evidence, and it's helped people with mental illness and also with traumatic brain injuries and people, you know, I, I don't, I'm just kind of talking off. basic knowledge I have. I have more deeper knowledge when it comes to the fungi kingdom because I'm a mushroom scientist, but, um, but I've heard, you know, even soldiers, you know, have benefited from it, you know, and this is a big need and we can't neglect the people who have served our country and we can't stigmatize them and we can't stigma, stigmatize science. That's right. We should beware of recreational use always and always. educate that this is not something that is to be used without guidance.
1_Marissa:Right, and ketamine is very different in different doses. You know, if someone does a recreational use, maybe a little some sort of intranasal spray or powder, you know, that might have a slightly calming, slightly euphoric effect. But when we talk about, um, you know, high dose IV ketamine therapy, you know, it's, it's really an entirely different experience. It's a quite mystical experience. Um, you know, it's a, it's a dissociative molecule. And so there's, can be a bit of out of body, but you're still conscious. And so when people do this, they can really dim that, um, the ego, very similar to mushrooms in some ways. Where you have a bit of an ego dissolving experience. Yes, and therefore you're able to hear your inner knowing. Sure. So you don't necessarily, the medicines are one pathway to really reconnecting and remembering your inner wisdom.
2_Bryan:Yeah, they're breaking down social constructs. I know I've actually gotten to experience ayahuasca a couple times with with great shamans in Peru and in Miami. Wow. And it was always under with the most respect for the plant as a plant teacher. So whether it's, you know, So it, it, it's, I know, have you, my quick question, have you personally tried it?
1_Marissa:Oh, yes. So, um, I was curious to try ketamine therapy and I tried One Journey. And I was blown away by it. And then I did the protocol. So they have the protocol that has come out of Yale, which is six infusions over the course of three to six weeks. They do more dose, higher dosing than other places because you tend to have better results with higher doses. So they might start you at say 0. 8 milligrams per kilogram and then like each week escalate by 0.
2_Bryan:2. And you're on, you're with You're under supervision. You're under,
1_Marissa:it's fully under medical supervision. It's at their center, um, right in Midtown Manhattan, 53rd and 5th. It's actually the largest psychedelic wellness center in the western world. Whoa. Right in Midtown Manhattan with 18 treatment rooms. Amazing. And, um, I'm going to check it out next time. You should, we should, we would love to have you. We'll show you around. It's been 10 years
2_Bryan:since I've been I ran the marathon in 2010, but actually it was 15 years ago, but I'm due for a visit. We work with Fleet Feet New York City and other Fleet Feet stores, and we work with Brooklyn Running Company and all these great running stores. So yeah, I'm coming up there potentially this year. So we're going to hang out.
1_Marissa:Well, I got to have a Sneaker Impact tour, so I'm happy to give you a new Shama tour when you come to town.
2_Bryan:Yeah, we're going to get into Sneaker Impact in a little bit because I want to get your opinions and thoughts and impressions from touring the facility today. Um, but this is so exciting to hear that your journey has taken you through these different phases in your life where it was first So driven as an entrepreneur it sounds like in creative spirit, and then you looked more into your spiritual well being and Taking care of your your wellness
1_Marissa:for sure and
2_Bryan:versus just this world of I'm sure New York City It's kind of like Miami. It's just even bigger, you know, it's right. It's not Kansas or it's not Wisconsin. Yeah, noisy in a sense, but still beautiful. I just heard, you know, it could be noisy because of all the cars just like Miami, but then you have so much beauty in New York City with the history and the culture and the art. So the arts. Well, that's amazing. So tell us about, um, Psyche and, uh, how you got that started. Was that the next phase? Yeah, yeah.
1_Marissa:So, So I was started to feel, while I really was fascinated by the psychedelic therapy and psychedelic research space, I started to feel guilty. Because, you know, we're in this escalating climate crisis and that's what I had spent 20 years of my life dedicated to environmental, social impact. And then suddenly, you know, all of the conferences I was going to were about psychedelic therapy and psychedelic research and ceremonial use. And it was just an entirely new Area for me that started in 2021. And so I was thrilled by it, but also had this, this climate guilt. And then one of my clients said to me, he said, well, environmental problems are human problems. It's the humans destroying the planet. And so that was a critical aha moment for me. And I, I thought I started to think about the connection between, you know, people and the decisions that they make and how that impacts the world. And, um, you know, is there a way that we can bridge these worlds? And so, you know, we had our first event in New York City called the Intersection of Environmental, Social, and Psychedelic Consciousness. And it came together, a friend of mine was doing a socially conscious art exhibit, and he had a space. And, uh, Dr. Julia Muir front was in town at the time who was with new Shama, the director of strategy and impact. Um, I also invited Bennett Zellner to speak, um, PhD. He's a researcher and he was working on and still is the connected leadership program and study, which was the first. Programming and study of its kind for psychedelics, leadership, creativity, and decision making. So literally taking CEOs to the Netherlands to try mushrooms, um, in, as part of an IRB approved study with the university of Maryland. Um, he works with his other co principal investigator, Rochelle Sampson, also a PhD. And they have executive coaches and they work with facilitators at an amazing center. In the Netherlands called QMI. And so I just found what he was doing fascinating.
2_Bryan:Um, fascinating to me, right?
1_Marissa:He's, he started by talking about a pilot study that they had done for it. Um, where they took people to the Netherlands and they started talking about regenerative business models and the people looked up kind of confused and didn't understand the point and the models didn't make sense to them. And then two mushroom dosings later, they said, it all makes sense. And then one of them went on to start a mental health company. Wow. Very powerful. So they had a really strong life change. Yeah. People can make really strong life changes from these psychedelic experiences. Yep.
2_Bryan:Yeah. Totally. I mean, from what I've read in my own research, um, you know, It can help the communication between different parts of your brain to work better. That's a big finding they've had along with, um, helping with depression resistant, um, cases. Um, psilocybin has proven benefits for depression. Mm hmm. For, uh, medication resistant at the point where it's just not getting you any results. And I know someone who's a FDA approved, uh, Doctor and scientist who, who uses psilocybin under clinical settings for these cases from UM, Dr. Scott Fisher, and he's going to be at your launch party this Wednesday. Oh, amazing. I'm going to get him. I can't wait to meet him. Yeah, I know Alan Epps is going to be there too, and I'll be there speaking, so. Oh, bless you.
1_Marissa:So, uh, so the first event, you know, we had a lot of people come out. We had a number of speakers, like the ones I mentioned, it was at Roger Wu's art space, you know, we had, um, We calling at the intersection of environmental, social and psychedelic consciousness might have been a little confusing to some people. And then when we took the message psychedelics for climate action that started to resonate with people more and people started to see the unique quality around it. And so, you know, it started organically and slowly. We created a WhatsApp group of everyone who had been there. Um, we used to had another couple of events toward the end of the year in 2023 and then in 2024. We had a real uptick in activity. Um, we hosted an event at, uh, CX in New York City, which is a private social club. Um, And it was called Meet the Psychedelic Climate Leaders. Okay. And we spotlighted 17 different speakers working at the intersection, from, you know, Maxie Cohen, who's creating a film called The Ayahuasca Diaries. Mm hmm. Uh, we had Cameron Dubes, who has a new organization called All One Eco to help fund indigenous communities. Mm hmm. Um, we had, I'm trying to think of, we had Bennett, we had Isadora Tang talking about her climate meditations that she does.
2_Bryan:Mm hmm.
1_Marissa:Um, so I can give you more examples. Sure. But, You know, in essence, we had 17 speakers and we also had 17 journalists come. So we had a strong interest from the media in this topic and we had about 300 people come out. Wow.
2_Bryan:So this is like a symposium in person. It was, it was a bit. Journalists and experts. Yeah,
1_Marissa:it felt, it felt a bit like a summit. of some sort in the evening. And so from there, we knew we were onto something. So in May, we did an official launch where we created a website. Um, we brought together a panel, we hosted a 150 person climate consciousness meditation, and that was another way to show the, how the mindfulness. Connects to people feeling embodied and people envisioning a new future through a tool like meditation Right because we do operate within the legal bounds of what we can do So in New York City, we can do a climate consciousness meditation. We also offered On site we had, um, Blue Lotus, which were gummies provided by My Purple Lady. And so with those, those are not psychedelic, but they're psychoactive, right? The way More
2_Bryan:calming. More calming. I think I'm familiar with Blue Lotus. A bit,
1_Marissa:a bit heart centered. It's a flower, right? It is, it is an Egyptian flower. Yeah. And right. And so we had one of the founders there educating people about the product and gifting it to people. So for people who wanted to try it, to enhance that experience, um, as an option. Sure. And so with that, you know, you, you can show how you can have a bit of an, an elevated experience or not, or just gain from being in a, in an environment.
2_Bryan:Meditation alone can unlock a lot of. It
1_Marissa:really can. You know.
2_Bryan:Realizations.
1_Marissa:Yeah. Some of my, my strongest realizations have come from meditative states or other states when I just get out of the shower and I'm not thinking, right. When you're in that not thinking space
2_Bryan:or more focused with a group. Like one time I went to a place in Miami called sacred space and it was a guided flute psychedelic meditation, but there were no psychedelics involved, but we went into a state of. Um, of, uh, where we were feeling like we were floating, our eyes were closed for like an hour and a half, and it was in a group of about a hundred people or so. There was a shaman leading it who was actually the shaman who served the ayahuasca to me and others in a group setting, um, and he led, without psychedelics, a flute led meditation, and I felt like it was just unreal. I mean, it, it definitely, you can go into different, you know, areas of, that are outside your body even with meditation. And so it just shows you that whether it's psychedelics aiding people in making these connections or meditation, I think those are both great. Options for people, if someone isn't ready for psychedelics because we know there are still a lot of misconceptions and somewhat of a lack of education, which is why we're, another reason I'm so glad to have you here today is because it's so important to hear from so many voices, you know, on this topic and, and as a woman too, it's very interesting to have your take on it.
1_Marissa:Sure. Thank you. Thank you. So,
2_Bryan:um, continue if you have any more to add on that. So in
1_Marissa:terms of, you know, what else we've, we've been doing since then, um, we hosted in New York psychedelic climate week. So climate week in New York city has become a very popular event, engaging, you know, the whole climate space in the city. And it can be like a psychedelic experience because people fly in from all over the world. They have big dreams, revelations, and then they return to their lives. So how do you prepare for that? How do you integrate that? Make sure you have the most of your experience. So psychedelic climate week, our goal was to be the bookends of climate week to be the preparation and the integration. And so we hosted, um, a pre. climate week event at CX in New York. We brought together, I think, about 25 different speakers and as many community partners for that effort and had all kinds of topics from indigenous wisdom, regeneration, um, the idea of, you know, balancing, investing and impact. We had people talking. We had Doug Rushkoff there talking about the first time that he went on the web with Timothy Leary. Um, and he thought that that would change everything. Um, It was just really incredible the The broad spectrum of topics and the array of people we had there And then we also highlighted a track of events happening during that time So we highlighted 10 or 12 different events happening throughout the city that were more conscious We worked with ancient futures and they were doing a lab getting people together and a lot of um musical story around that. There was also, um, Swiss Next doing something like Burning Man for climate geeks, which was really interesting.
2_Bryan:Well in New York City you have all these talented artists and people from, I keep thinking of the word interdisciplinary. It's like a fancy word for like all these different, you know, experts in their fields coming together and all being unified through awareness. About how we're all connected ultimately.
1_Marissa:No, we certainly are.
2_Bryan:Our society sometimes doesn't promote that we're all connected and our planet is just one planet We say at Sneaker Impact, there's no planet b. That's why we do what we do.
1_Marissa:Yep So i'm
2_Bryan:sure it's similar to psychos mission
1_Marissa:for sure um, and then and with the psychedelic climate week, you know, we had Wonderful opportunities we were invited to do a talk at the new york times climate forward lead a change maker discussion Oh,
2_Bryan:wow,
1_Marissa:and we also Um, we're involved in a number of others, and You must have
2_Bryan:a good PR. Are you the PR? Who gets you all these opportunities? I mean, you're all over the place in New York City.
1_Marissa:You know, at one point it would be nice to be able to, um, You know, we have a very generous advisors and volunteers. Um, you know, it does take a lot of effort. So maybe one day someone else will do our PR, but right now it's up to us.
2_Bryan:Are you guys, um, how are you classified and how does that work? Do you, sure,
1_Marissa:sure. So we're, we're now officially as of the beginning of 2025, we're a 501 C.
2_Bryan:Okay,
1_Marissa:and we are fiscally sponsored by a 501c3 the Sustainable Futures Institute Okay, and so we have been raising a modest amount of you know seed philanthropic funds as we plan for the coming year
2_Bryan:Okay, so you're relying on support from people rather support from organizations philanthropy
1_Marissa:And then we also have a membership model as well So we do have I think right now about 60 members who pay a monthly membership.
2_Bryan:Okay, and
1_Marissa:And, um, with that, we also have a directory of people as well. Not everyone has. Signed up officially for the membership yet, but I think in our directory is about 90 Okay And then we have a very active whatsapp group that we will be adding you to if you want to join
2_Bryan:Come in of
1_Marissa:about 400 people and growing and then with this Sycamiami launch We're gonna be now creating subgroups in that for people to contact each other. So You know, because definitely Miami needs its own group and we have ambassadors, I think right now in five or 10 other places around the world. So we want to have more open communication. And then as we grow and develop, maybe we'll create some sort of other, more sophisticated platform than WhatsApp for people to track resources and share and, um, link with our directory. But right now, you know, we're, we're working in a lean. Kind of kind of operating a nonprofit a little bit with some of the lean startup principles, right? You've got to start somewhere and, um, operate within the bounds of what you can do within a certain budget. People are there, they're on it and they're sharing events. And that's how we were able to attract most of the people to come to the event that we're going to be doing this week on Wednesday through these various WhatsApp channels.
2_Bryan:Sure. Like Zero Waste Miami I know is one that recently I got involved with in Miami. Um, and I know, I hope that they're going to be there. And I think. I don't know if now is a good time, but we interviewed Yadira Diaz in this exact studio. She told me about it. She was
1_Marissa:really excited that you guys are coming.
2_Bryan:I met her at a green leadership event for the Chamber of Commerce at the Biltmore, which is this famous area in Coral Gables that like, President Kennedy went to back in the day and everything and stayed at it's this fancy hotel, right with this It's like it was it's very historic and we they had this big Chamber of Commerce event there for Latino Leadership for climate it was like climate I'm gonna get it wrong But it was so cool the founder of Sneaker Impact Moe Hachem got to speak there and Yadira was there with gradable Yeah, and we got to meet her and then I was just really struck by her passion So I want to interview you as soon as possible. Yes.
1_Marissa:She's the reason we are here.
2_Bryan:That's amazing
1_Marissa:because she and I connected and She what she was she's like, I want to bring this to Miami So she we said great you'll be our Miami ambassador and then you know, she was she was like, let's make a date Let's do this. And so she put us in touch takes, you know, you gotta have the initiative to Book a venue and make a date. And then that drives everything forward. And so that's why we're doing it at the climate and innovation hub. I believe they also work with her and she's their chief impact officer. She works as a fractional chief impact officer with these different organizations,
3_Audio:which
1_Marissa:I'm sure you know all about cause she's been on this podcast. Um, but yeah, we're, we're super excited because we want to support various local ecosystems and especially now, because right now, you know, we have a government. that is not putting climate action in the foreground at all. In fact, they're, they're really putting it as like one of the last things that they do, and in fact disregarding it, pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. And so, you know, Miami having the potential to make change, you know, in the greater state of Florida is a really great opportunity. Um, and there's just so many people doing incredible things here, like you, like you, Dira. Yeah,
2_Bryan:that's really nice of you to say. Um, so tell us the date and the time and like how people, like, some people haven't been to the Hub. Oh, right, right. So let me, let me make sure that we, I know it's blocks from this location right here. It's literally three blocks away. Let's make sure that we
1_Marissa:get the right address for people. It's this
2_Bryan:Wednesday though, right? Which is, it is, it
1_Marissa:is this Wednesday and it's, it's happening, um, 6 to 8, 30 p. m. And then from 5 to 6 PM, if people want to come a little bit early, we're going to do some local climate action. So we're going to have a street clean
3_Audio:from
1_Marissa:five to six in the neighborhood. Um, so people can join, we're going to have supplies that were donated by a street clean nonprofit. Um, and then. We'll roll right into the event from six to eight thirty at seven o'clock. We'll do the lightning talks. So if people want to be there for the program, make sure to get there before seven because we're definitely going to start promptly then. And then the address, it's the future of cities, climate and innovation hub. And that's at two 24 East 59th street.
2_Bryan:Two 24
1_Marissa:East 59th
2_Bryan:street. And we're on 75th street right here. So it's about, it's more like about 15 or so blocks, but it's less than a mile from here. So it's in the little river, uh, slash. Buena Vista, or I guess they'll call that Little River still down there. We're in Little River right here, which is near Little Haiti. Alright, you've got to educate me about this. So it's just like New York City, we got all, you're going to Sunset Harbor later, that's Miami Beach. This is Little River. There's a river that comes through here with tons of manatees in it and I've actually helped clean it up about five times in the last year with my friends where we go out on our kayaks. Oh, wow. And we pick up all the trash in the river and it's something that I've been passionate about is I was kayaking or paddle boarding out there and I saw the trash and I I've always done cleanups, so I'll be out there cleaning this Wednesday with you guys. Alright. Even with my tough Achilles tendon surgeries, I'm going to Oh, oh, take care of yourself, whatever. No, I'm not trying to make a sad song. It's just I learned I can't bend from the waist anymore. And I've got a We're getting
1_Marissa:the tongs. I've actually got a really
2_Bryan:nice one. One quick thing is don't buy the ones at the dollar store. Okay. They break within a day, especially in the river.
1_Marissa:Good to know. But if you buy
2_Bryan:the nicer ones, the 20 ones. Those will last years and you really do need to invest in a high quality picker and it will save your back. Cause I, I did hurt my back recently, so I'm going to be very, I'm going to bring my picker on Wednesday. You're going to provide the gloves and the bags and everything, the supplies that people need and the logistical, you know, plan. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to do this. We do
1_Marissa:need to put together our logistical plan of like where in the neighborhood we're going to go and focus on. So maybe we can chat about that. It's
2_Bryan:not like a crazy busy neighborhood, like, you know, with rush hour traffic as much as it's more like. In a neighborhood that's, you know, the Little River isn't Brickle. Brickle would be, you know, just full of traffic at that hour.
1_Marissa:Okay. It's
2_Bryan:good that we're doing it in that area. Cause that area could use a little more love.
1_Marissa:Okay.
2_Bryan:Um, Miami beach gets a lot of attention. I lived there for 20 years and, you know, so they're doing a good job. I'll give a shout out to Debris Free Oceans. We had them on the podcast, Clean Miami Beach and Sophie Ringel, who's, uh, done a huge, huge amount of work and. growing the environmental movement of cleaning the whole, you know, starting with the beaches, but then they're moving into and they're working with all these major corporations now and same with Debris Free Oceans and Miami River Keepers, three organizations that I. have learned a lot about in the last year. And so it's, it's nice that this intersection of, you know, is all happening. And so that's this Wednesday guys. And I'll be there with my partner, Alan Epps and Sneaker Impact will be there as well. And, uh, The hub is the short name for it, right? But it's called the Innovation and Climate. I think they call
1_Marissa:it the Climate and Innovation Hub.
2_Bryan:The Climate and Innovation Hub. And
1_Marissa:the founder, Tony Cho, he's going to be there. He's going to do a lightning talk also. I'm really excited to meet him.
2_Bryan:Maybe I met him once, but I don't remember meeting him, so I'm really excited. Yeah, I've heard his name so many times. He's a big leader in Miami.
1_Marissa:He sure is, yeah. Um, and so we're, and then we're, we're really grateful to our sponsors too, um, Breeze is going to provide drinks. Oh, cool.
2_Bryan:Tell us about them.
1_Marissa:Um, sure. So Breeze has, you know, drinks that are infused with cannabis and with THC. Um, so you could choose, you could choose one of them. You could choose a CBD drink, which is a little more just calming, or you could choose a THC, whatever. You feel good about and so legal
2_Bryan:amount, of course, it's all. Yeah, it's a legal above. There's THC a versus B or C and others They do
1_Marissa:they do everything right
2_Bryan:the percentage that you have to be at and I'm yeah
1_Marissa:Exactly. And so we're all about exactly about operating within the legal bounds And you know really providing a medicine. It's gonna be a medicine free event. Okay, because ultimately You know the point of all this work, which i'm sure you know, you know coming also from the mushroom space the fungi Is we learn from these transformative experiences, but then it's about how do we integrate those learnings into our lives? And so, you know having
2_Bryan:integrating back into society Right into into your lifestyle and your
1_Marissa:Integration can be so many things.
2_Bryan:It's challenging. I remember after the psyche after the ayahuasca experiences the journeys You know the plant medicine that it you do need about a week or a couple of days It's just not you know the same right away because you've learned so much and then you're going back into what you were just your day to day you're You know the same old same old, you know No, so you're back in the grind, you know driving and traffic gets you all irritated Well, what did you learn that in the grand scheme of things, you know, this is all small, you know small issues,
1_Marissa:right? Exactly. We're so We're so tiny, you know in the grand scheme of things or or the traffic in our day, right at the moment in the moment It feels Frustrating, you know, it feels like a big obstacle, but then if we zoom out, right? Psychedelics give us that ability to zoom out and if we can carry that ability to zoom out through some of those Moments whether it's a in traffic or whether it's you know an argument with a loved one You know something with a little higher stakes or a career decision or you know, where you want to live
2_Bryan:Finding your mission your
1_Marissa:personal purpose. So these are all different Psychedelically informed parts of our lives when we integrate and we go back and we make choices and we Decide how we want to be and exist and feel and think and what we want to do and take action about Yeah
2_Bryan:Awesome. Um, quick question. So you're going to have a bunch of speakers on Wednesday. Yeah. They're going to each speak for about a minute or two, two to three minutes, I guess. Like they're flash. Yeah, we're going
1_Marissa:to do, we're going to do lightning talk. So there'll be about two to five minutes each. And I'd love to tell you about the other speakers we're having. And I also want to thank our other like community partners and, um, and so, you know, we also have drinks being provided by rain, pure mountain spring water. Very good responsible company. Um, Menta, a physical platform at the intersection of longevity and brain health, is partnering with us. Miami Mushroom Fest and the Climate and Innovation Hub. Um, Psychedelic Women is also a community partner and the talks will range from Oh, it's displaying differently on Eventbrite. So we're going to have Ludovica Martella, a climate justice advocate and somatic healing coach, lead us in a brief meditation to help kick off the night.
2_Bryan:Beautiful. I love that. We're going to set the intention.
1_Marissa:For sure. Um We're going to have simian schnapper speak about balancing investing and impact a topic that we were just talking about
2_Bryan:That's been something i've been very passionate about the last couple years. So we're going to learn about how we can be more socially responsible with our investments
1_Marissa:Um,
2_Bryan:we'll see we'll see what he
1_Marissa:has to say about the topic. He has a lot to say He's amazing. He has one of the top psychedelic funds called JLS Fund. But he's also very impact minded. He is a member of Top Tier Impact and he is a Pajara Aspen Fellow. So he's, he's really deep in the space. And we're gonna have, um, Giselle World speak about indigenous wisdom, plant medicine, powers take a chance. Yeah. No, she's amazing.
2_Bryan:She's a big name. I know at some of the festivals I've gone to like Art With Me and some of these other ones that are very conscious. She's been One of the names that I've seen.
1_Marissa:I'm so glad to hear that. Yeah, a dear friend introduced us at Joey Greiner One of our advisors in New York. Yeah, and so we're so grateful for people like him You know making these connections because when we come to Miami we wanted to bring this to Miami, you know Part of it is you know Who should we? bring to speak at this event and do a talk and who should be there at the event and who should be You know, engaging us and what they're doing when we do our next event in Miami. So we really want to bring together the ecosystem and then figure out, okay, who, who we attracted, who do we miss? Who, who do we want to engage next time? We really want to grow and build this ecosystem here and shine a light on everything and to inspire other communities to do the same. Um, and so we are going to have You know, someone from Breeze is going to speak as well. You and Alan are going to do a lightning talk.
2_Bryan:About, uh, how mushrooms can help with ecology, right? But also about the human consciousness element. Right. Alan, I think, is going to speak more on the human consciousness. Yeah. Because he's a deep poet and I think he's going to share a poem for us. That's so great. I don't want to give away too much, but. You
1_Marissa:know, I want to, I want to hear. I hope it's about how humans can be like mushrooms.
2_Bryan:He has some, uh, mushroom specific poems that are incredible. I mean, we have one on my YouTube page, people can check out, um, but that I did in this studio. Um, but yeah, he's, he's an incredible poet and person. So, and, um, you know, so he'll, he'll be there. And I, I'm going to talk just not to give away too much, but just about how our, our planet depends on fungi and, and people.
1_Marissa:Yeah.
2_Bryan:And the interconnection between the soil and the forest and people, and really just the ecology of our planet is. I mean, humans are part of it. We're part of the ecosystem.
1_Marissa:For sure. For sure.
2_Bryan:Who else we have on Wednesday? Anyone else? We,
1_Marissa:we have more people. Yeah, it keeps going. Um, so we're going to have a talk about healing nature from within from Maria Valkova with Tabula Rasa and Thea and she's part of the Benzinga Psychedelic Advisory Council. We're going to have Dr. Julia Muir speak about psychedelics, community, and mental health. Um, we're going to have Francesca, I think it's Cherconi, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. I hope I didn't, um, not pronounce it right. But she's a ketamine assisted psychotherapist, and she's going to talk about, um, the clinical implications of climate change. We also have, um, Houston Cypress with the Otter Clan, and Mikosuke tribe. I don't know if I pronounced that correctly with it with it. It's Mikosuke with that tribe of the Indians of Florida speaking about walking skies while guarding lands. I'm really excited to hear him speak and We're going to then lead into an ecstatic flow integration for an earth party closing with Jenner G I'm so happy to hear that. We've been
2_Bryan:friends for many years. She's a sweetheart. She's so full of That's why, Jenergy. That's amazing. She gets everyone to Get out of their stiff bodies and get connected and through ecstasy and through, you know Just passion and through but also just personal expression with no judgments I think I don't want to again, I don't like to try to give away too much, but she is a part of many events She's everywhere and all the events I go to for like Fireflies is like a conscious community festival and homestead that has all these healers come together and I've DJ'd there with Alan and it's, we've had Miami Mushroom Fest has been part of that event. It's all about consciousness through art and through, you know, community and agriculture and all these things intersecting. And, and really art, art too, you know, art is part of it, you know. That's, yeah. So I think. Yeah, art. We
1_Marissa:it's that is one of our core like themes at PSYCA And then I want to make sure I didn't miss anyone But we've got one more that we just added today We have Sarah Maria Fornia who happens to be in town from Iceland Oh, and she's she's really leading psychedelics in Iceland and it's really fascinating to see you know What you can do In a small country when you bring together leaders like and they're bringing together global leaders from all over the world Simeon is involved in that conference And so she's going to talk about you know, how to take local action, right because right now with the federal government in the u. s Making so many changes on a daily basis. It's really up to local governments To take the power back Right to to show where they're going to set their boundaries how they're going to push back and how they're going to push forward With what the people want. Okay, so local action is more important than ever And so i'm really excited to hear from her as you know an inspiration For what we're doing people
2_Bryan:from all over the planet I know I can't I
1_Marissa:when she told she told me this morning. She was going to be here I said we must have you speak. That's awesome. So we're adding her So if you come
2_Bryan:on wednesday, you're gonna make a lot of friends. You're gonna make a lot of friends a lot For sure. You're gonna feel a lot. Oh, yeah. Because you're gonna go within your body and without medicine even needed.
1_Marissa:No medicine needed. You will, it'll be, it'll be an elevated experience because you will be really excited to be there.
2_Bryan:Awesome. Yeah, so the Miami launch is the first And you actually have spent time in Miami too, cause you said your family here. Yeah. So my,
1_Marissa:my grandmother had, um, a home in Fort Lauderdale. And so she would come here for more than six months out of the year. And so every year I've come to Fort Lauderdale, I would come to Miami. Um, I've been here for at least five bachelorette parties. And, um, and then the past couple of years I would have been coming down here for the Wonderland psychedelic conference. So I, yeah, like I can't remember a year where I wasn't in Miami.
2_Bryan:Awesome. Every, at least. It's like an annual
1_Marissa:thing. I don't know the city well, but I, I, I love it here.
2_Bryan:Well, it's got some similarities in New York City and a lot of people from New York go back and forth and, you know, there's that synergy and I've made so many New York friends, um, since the shutdown.
1_Marissa:Right. So many of my friends moved here, stayed here. I'm excited to see them. They're going to come out.
2_Bryan:So there's that bridge between these two intellectual hubs and, um, It's so interesting. So I'm excited to see how it, how this first kickoff party goes. I know it's going to go incredible. I've seen the planning behind the scenes, you know, in the WhatsApp group and I know you're the chief. So you probably have a million moving parts just for this one party and it's free.
1_Marissa:It is free. Um, and we do also, we also have a donation ticket option. So if people want to support the event and they want to help cover costs, you know, we're keeping that as a low ticket price as well. And we, we did have an underwriter recently come through to help us also pay for some of the event costs, which was helpful.
2_Bryan:Sponsor part of it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And they can find the event right through your Instagram. Yeah. So you can, you can
1_Marissa:go on Instagram. So the Instagram is at Psyched for climate action. Okay, so that's like psyched, like P-S-Y-C-H-E-D. Mm-hmm For Climate Action. Yeah. Um, you can also go on our website, which is PSYCA.org. Okay. Psy c a.org. You know my Instagram I love posting about this is at Marissa Feinberg. Okay. Most of our psychedelics for climate action content is posted on. The psyched for climate action, Instagram, because I, I tend to use that. I post so many things I'm obsessed with and I, that's the perfect platform for it. And then I leave my personal one a little bit more like, um, when we're doing something like a big event or when I'm out with friends and posting photos of my food, because I think my friends are, you know, a little bit of, they're more interested in that than, um, all the different cool organizations that we, you know, are posting about. You have
2_Bryan:a professional one and a personal one. So I'll share all those links in the description. So you'll have those right underneath this video and we'll make a nice clip to to shorten up just about the event launch party Because you've put a lot of energy into this and I how did you find? Uh, how did you find me? I forgot
1_Marissa:Yeah, I think we met we might we also met through Joey Greiner
2_Bryan:Okay,
1_Marissa:who knew Alan and said that we should reach out. Yeah, so Joey made two very Very, you know, thoughtful connections for us. Yes. Thank you, Joey Greiner. He's mentioned twice in this podcast. He has no idea. I'll let him know.
2_Bryan:I'll make sure to tag some of these people. Um, so that's so cool. So Sneaker Impact, I know we'll want to get involved too as this continues to grow, because this is a. directly something we can support with sustainability. Tell us more about what you think about it. Sure,
1_Marissa:and I'd love to tell you about that. And then I, I also realized normally when I talk about psychedelics for climate action and psyche and we, we kind of went into the personal story and then talked about what the organization was But I, I didn't really talk about the main messages that we share because sometimes people people I think like you in the fungi space You already get it. We don't have to necessarily explain what we're doing But to other people what we say is for we have two main messages, you know One is for the psychedelic community and we say psychedelics can inspire a profound oneness with all life Remembering we are nature Join a community on a mission to transform this awareness into meaningful climate action. And then for the climate community, we say with countless climate solutions available, why are we in a climate crisis? You know, clearly participation is the problem and we believe a consciousness shift is in order. So when we talk about a consciousness shift, it can, we can talk about The big C consciousness or the little C consciousness, right? Little C consciousness is things in our consciousness, the choices we make every day, where we shop, what we buy. You know, if we're a CEO at work, the decision we make, that's going to affect a billion employees. Um, big C consciousness, right? Is the collective consciousness and how we're all in tune with each other. If you look at, you know, a beehive of bees or a flock of birds. And if we were all. really attune, right? Those, those are like organisms and ecosystems that make movements together and that flow in harmony with the natural world.
2_Bryan:You
1_Marissa:know, our big hairy audacious goal would be to shift the collective consciousness because we are at the intersection of climate and consciousness. So to shift that in a way where our day to day lives are more in harmony with these values, where we don't need an entire climate action sector.
2_Bryan:Okay.
1_Marissa:Like, let's make ourselves obsolete.
2_Bryan:Yeah. Well, I like that you have a message to two different communities that's very specific and targeted and tells them exactly why you're doing what you do. Climate change people. This is why psychedelics is important to help climate change, but also just the collective consciousness. And then psychedelic people, we can do even more than we're doing right now.
1_Marissa:Exactly.
2_Bryan:And you're doing a lot internally, but then the planet, too, we have to think about and spreading the message and thinking about climate change because it is a real thing. And we are impacting, whether you believe in the exact wording of whatever government says what, we do know that humans are impacting the planet because the ocean is becoming a sea of microplastics.
1_Marissa:Yeah. Microplastics is a 4ocean,
2_Bryan:that's a nonprofit out of Boca Raton, and they rescue ocean plastic with fishermen and then they make. like bracelets and, you know, we're making things here at Sneaker Impact that you saw today out of end of life shoes. And then we're getting shoes a second life. So, um, I like, you know, it's
1_Marissa:funny end of life shoes, you know, there's a whole, there's a whole end of life psychedelic space. It's like really interesting. I wonder like what kind of, we had feedback
2_Bryan:that it wasn't the best term because it kind of was a little morbid life cycle
1_Marissa:and like closed loop and things like that. It's tough
2_Bryan:because when you describe what we collect, I, I, you know, I, I go around the country talking at marathons and at conventions and at Industry conferences on behalf of the company. And I, you know, we use the words unwanted shoes that we collect unwanted shoes, but we collect all conditions from brand new to end of life. And end of life would be ones that just don't have a second life in them because 90 percent of the shoes we receive have a second life. It's the ones that are just really destroyed, like that don't have a bottom left, where the bottom has been completely worn through to the next layer.
3_Audio:That's
2_Bryan:not gonna have a second life because the bottom is the tread, as our founder said, like the thread of your car tire. Yeah. He compares the shoe to your car tire thread. Now, if there's a rip in the upper on your shoe, our merchants and families can repair the shoes with sewing them, with redoing the heel, with the heel got destroyed by a dog, or just through use. Or if the upper's ripped, or if it looks really dirty, they, they, they put them through a detergent. Cleaning system where it's like these big, you know, it's just they do it old school. They do it new school It's just all these different techniques of how do you make a shoe? That's been worn for a long time maybe by a runner or maybe just by a citizen normal citizen How do we make it look as beautiful again as possible? Do we put some new laces do we you know? They make it look as white as possible or clean as possible. Yes, but then they also give it love they Stylists help sometimes in adding elements of beauty to it, like little adornments where there was a rip, maybe they put a little butterfly or flower on there, you know, and we're working with universities and, um, fashion designers that are doing these things with us. So it's exciting. And, uh, we report all the statistics as you saw, I gave you a little breakdown of what the company does. We're a social enterprise, similar to Syka. And, um, so yeah, we're doing good for people on the planet and we're, we're diverting waste from landfills and that's helping. With the climate crisis, um, and we're giving partners a report on each box, how much carbon they're saving by recycling their shoes and how much waste they're diverting from a landfill, which is important to know. Cause then at the end of the year, or per quarter, yeah. Then at the end of the year, one of our sustainability report, we diverted 10, 000 pounds from the landfill this year and it saved. Per shoe, it's about 15 kilograms of carbon saved by recycling and that adds up because each box holds 30 to 35 pairs of shoes. And then we're working in thousands of retail locations now around the U. S. So and we're just getting started just like Sika. So it's really exciting and I I'm going to talk to the team here about getting us more involved with it. Cause personally, Miami Mushroom Fest and myself is getting involved. But what were your impressions of Sneaker Impact today? Seeing it for the first time. Oh,
1_Marissa:I was really blown away by the magnitude and scale of what you're doing. I mean, those impact numbers, didn't it say something like 21 million pairs of shoes that you've helped and, um, you say receive 50, 000 pairs of shoes a month. Upwards of a half a
2_Bryan:million, actually. Upwards of
1_Marissa:a half a million. 400, 000 to 7, 000. Tell me about number 5. I'm not a numbers person. You got a lot of numbers
2_Bryan:today. Between the kilograms of carbon and the pounds of waste. You know, uh, the partners, you know, we're in so many different partners, from gyms to running stores to universities to, you know. I mean, that's
1_Marissa:incredible. I mean, establishing those partnerships, right? Getting a retail store to put your bin there, right? When retail stores are taught to maximize shelf space.
2_Bryan:Sure.
1_Marissa:And, you know, showing, like, that they're gonna make that commitment, that is huge. And, and sharing names of brands that I know of very well. You know, from like Fleet Feet I've heard of that's very popular where my parents live in North Carolina to other big brands. You mentioned Nike, so it's just, yeah, it's Orange Theory. Orange
2_Bryan:Theory is huge in New York City. Yeah. Yeah. And there's so many I'm missing right now, but you know, we're working with amazing universities like Miami Dade College and FIU, Florida International University, one of the largest universities in the U. S. and also University of Miami. So all the local universities, we get to go and meet with the students and they're getting involved. You know, it's just really fun. So, I mean, it, it should be fun. If it's not fun, then you have to question your why.
1_Marissa:Right, right, for sure.
2_Bryan:Um, so what else can we, uh, can we cover today? What other topics are near and dear to your heart? What are other passions outside of climate change? Yeah, well, um,
1_Marissa:I could talk about other things or I could talk about what we're, what we're looking to do this year.
2_Bryan:Sure, tell us about your 2025
1_Marissa:initiatives. So really, you know, this year we have a, we have a theory of change. Um, and some of which we've, um, worked on in 2024, and then more of it we want to do in 2025. So our theory of change is around, you know, embodiment, getting people to reconnect with their, their power and agency at a time of climate crisis. You know, psychedelics, meditation, cacao, yoga, these are all different ways that people can do that. Um, you know, not just that, but also building our mycelial network for this change. And, um, You know, it's funny. Someone told me they said you should only have three things in your theory of change and we have six. And so now I'm like, you know what? I actually do need to look down at my notes. So hang on one second. I want to be mindful of how long we've been recording. Yeah,
2_Bryan:we're doing pretty good going on an hour. Looks like 54 minutes.
1_Marissa:Okay. All right. So Yeah, I mean, I mean we can talk about other things or if you think
2_Bryan:no, I mean I want to I want to hear about the the six, um The six, six, the six mission, the, and also your, your mission, I think, have you read your mission? Your why and your mission? Yeah, so we did, we
1_Marissa:did talk about that. But, um, you know, so ultimately we're about a consciousness shift, right? And that can happen. From psychedelics, it can happen from meditation, you know, and how do we, what we're focused on right now, you know, bringing together bridging and convening the psychedelic and climate communities, which is our change strategy, you know, how do we turn the biggest climate problem into a consciousness opportunity? Wow.
2_Bryan:Right? Yeah. And operate in this complex world of politics and money.
1_Marissa:Yeah. There's, there's so much.
2_Bryan:And different cultures and backgrounds and socioeconomic, you know.
1_Marissa:Yeah.
2_Bryan:So, yeah.
1_Marissa:I mean, it's, so we're looking at, you know, the consciousness shift. And when we talk about, you know, the consciousness shift, it can be from, you know, reconnecting to nature, reconnecting to self, to community, feeling your power and agency, right? It's one thing to know I have the ability to make a change. It's another thing to feel it. In your body and to feel empowered to do something right and also be supported by a community You know because we're in this era where the federal government is not supporting climate It's really up to all of us to be stewards of climate to be to take this collective
2_Bryan:ownership We are stewardship right single person's a steward of all of us that power, like you said, the agency,
1_Marissa:right? No matter where you work or what you do or how old you are or, you know, what your race is, anything that we are all in this together on this planet is family.
2_Bryan:Yeah. So what is your take on some people think that, um, sustainability is a, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, that's something that only privileged people have the opportunity to think about.
1_Marissa:It's a really sad, um, Perception and reality in a lot of cases, right? Because it depends on You know, for example, if you look at groceries The simple is that you know, you might some people might want to shop at whole foods and maybe can't afford it Right and they go and they look for sustainable brands maybe at um A trader joe's or maybe and there are some b corp brands in there. Um, or I don't know. What are the other? What are some of the grocery stores in Miami? Well,
2_Bryan:the sad thing is there's food deserts, you know. There's food deserts, yeah. And in Miami, there are food deserts. And unfortunately, what the statistics show is that in poorer areas, they don't have the access to the Whole Foods or the, even a Publix. They might only have like, they might only have, there's a Publix GreenWise. Right, right. So that, that's a
1_Marissa:way that it becomes more accessible through a brand like that.
2_Bryan:And they're getting more and more green because, you know, on Earth Day every year we see it really with all the big brands showing off what they are doing new. But Publix now, uh, I'll give them a shout out, they, they're making benches out of some of their bags. Wow. You know, the bags, they, they, they do recycle their bags if you want to bring them back to the store and you can buy their green bags. Of course, most grocery stores give you that option. You can buy a Publix reusable green bag and I'm sure, you know, there's many other. I don't have to just give them a shout out in that aspect, but they are recycling. They're, what is the word? Ubiquitous
1_Marissa:bags
2_Bryan:that you see everywhere in South Florida. Anyone who lives or visits here knows about Publix. Now they're making the bags into things like benches because they can take those plastics and grind them and. They're doing interesting things now. I was just learning how with the shoes They have to use a special gas just to separate certain materials, but I should even probably cut that out. It's insider info but the interesting thing is that Back to the food deserts, you know, not everyone has equal access to food and in their statistics that show that that People that aren't from higher income have don't have the same access because it's not the distance to go to the grocery store It could be 10 or 15 miles versus all they have is a convenience store in the neighborhood Literally within two or three miles just a convenience store to get maybe a banana maybe an apple But they don't have a choice on like multiple different Options or conventional versus organic or gluten free or whatever they need, vegan stuff, you know, it's the same
1_Marissa:and and you raise two things because you also it's about price But it's also the time it takes to do all of that and then also to prepare your food Sure, and so some people, you know, whether they lack time and money, single family house, single parent household, right? preparing food for all of Your children and or whether you even just whether it's for yourself affordability So, you know in terms of sustainability I could see how it could be perceived that way
2_Bryan:It's getting better. But like in the 80s and 90s, it was way worse The food desert issue and, you know, it's getting a little better, but it's still something that I've heard brought up in the space. So, but, uh, you know, again, back to, you know, privilege, does it allow you to start thinking more about sustainability? Probably yes. In the sense that, but I don't like the word privilege, first of all, because everyone's on a different path and I don't like to label people. You know what I mean? But I think that there is a small point in that when your hierarchy of needs aren't met Maybe the planet isn't the first thing on your brain and recycle. For
1_Marissa:sure, for sure.
2_Bryan:your brain is making sure your kids have a meal that night. Oh, 100%. And that you can even get, or that you can even, maybe some people are struggling even to live because of medical needs and they're just, you know, so everyone's on a different, you know, is in a different place and somewhat and that, but I think it's important that we collaborate. Mm
3_Audio:hmm. And
2_Bryan:that's what you're doing. It's not, you know, that again, it gets into that fine nuance of politics and of discussion of I Don't like to get into that, you know of like labeling people, you know I mean because we're all just people learning and growing in this world. None of us are trying to Limit anyone else in my mind. I don't think I'm not trying to limit anyone I want everyone that I think of it as um As, as team planet or the, we're team earth, you know, like team us, like team we, like let's all win together, you know what I mean? Uh, so, you know, instead of divide and conquer, you know, like that's a very, you know, like, um, old, you know, way of living versus a newer way of living is that we only have one planet and we all need to take care of it. Otherwise you see in all these dystopian movies, how they're off living on ships and things aren't going well on the ships. They don't have all the waterfalls and all the. beautiful things going on all the nature that the planet earth is something very special and it There probably is other life in the universe another deep topic But this planet is the one that we live on and we can't even think about I know there's we're gonna be going to Mars soon and you know, it's kind of I have to
1_Marissa:say I have a personal bias against all of the space you know, development, because if we just took all those funds, those billions of dollars, and put them back into, you know, regenerating the planet, you know.
2_Bryan:Sure. Yeah. There's a lot of money going into not only export, but also the military. Why, why, we're never
1_Marissa:going to have a viable planet to live on in this lifetime. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it would take many lifetimes. And, and it would be for a very few amount of people who have the privilege of going there, even though we don't like that word. I
2_Bryan:think it's very hard for us to stop that. Some people want to do that, you know, obviously in the richest man on earth wants to do that. But I think what I hope is that industry is going to start waking up more and more. Cause I see it. You see some of these large names, like think of the largest names for water or for sodas or for foods or even anything in the grocery store. They're starting to realize in the last 10 years that consumers are demanding. Things be greener.
1_Marissa:Yeah.
2_Bryan:And sustainable.
1_Marissa:It's about health.
2_Bryan:And healthy and they're removing red 40 now from everything. Yeah. four years I heard this morning for it to get it out of the food stream. Four years. That's amazing. But they banned it. Yeah. In the U. S. now. First it was the state of California. And then the rest of the U. S. and, but Europe has banned hundreds of, I mean, I'm a former skincare scientist and worked for a nutrition company for many years. And I was the scientist that helped create the products, but also educated about the labels. And Europe and other parts of the world are much further ahead in terms of protecting human health and the environment. Let's just be honest. The U. S. is catching up. The Western world is catching up. Now, it's not a blanket black and white. Yes, there are countries in other parts of the world that are doing a worse job than us. But. Um, there are some very good green examples in Europe, let's say, and South America where they're in places like Costa Rica, you know, super sustainable, renewable energies, more national parks than any other country on earth, you know, so that's, I mean, that's the things I'm passionate about is, you know, protecting the planet.
3_Audio:Yep.
2_Bryan:Um, but we also have to be able to, uh, you know, You know, we also need fuel and we need to, you know, there has to be some commerce, of course. It's a complex subject, you know, cause you get, you have to get everyone to come together, which is another, let's go back to the cycle launch. That's what your purpose is to bring us all. So hopefully on Wednesday we'll get some people that might've caught this or caught your Instagram or caught through a word of mouth, through a friend, through one of these organizations we mentioned today, like Grateable and Yadira spreading the word and all of her networks and then. You know, all these great groups that are coming to help on Wednesday, I'm sure you're going to get a great turnout and, uh, we're going to, we're going to shout it out tomorrow on YouTube. So, yeah. Yeah. So, uh, any final parting words and messages you want to share with us?
1_Marissa:You know, what we're looking to do this year is really to to really hone in on that Psychedelics for Climate Action and continue to grow these education and awareness events, but also to cultivate and grow initiatives And so one thing for example, we would like to have ready for the psychedelic science conference coming up in June
3_Audio:Oh,
1_Marissa:it's like a climate action integration guide So for when people in psychedelics they go on a journey They get inspired and then they want to make changes, you know after the journey in that refractory window where you're You know looking to develop and new habits, you know, how do you get involved in your local climate action community? We want to give people a guide to do that Um, you know in earth month we're looking to do an event around Healing and expanding healing from the self, which is really the western focus um, you know and then to also the self and community, which started to happen in western culture in 2020, but also extending that to the earth, right? So how do we make, you know, healing the planet as part of our own healing process? I see, like we're a microcosm of the earth. We really are and it's in there's all different examples. I was listening to the Climate consciousness summit and they were talking about how you know humans we can become numb to certain environmental issues say like You know coral if we're in miami, right? And then you have coral start to die off a reflection of our own numbing and not taking care of ourselves and taking care Of the coral locally, right? These are some of the issues we look at So if we expand, you know, how we look at healing, that could be a really interesting pathway to change. Um, and we're also looking to cultivate some partners this year around bringing psychedelic thinking, like really outside the box thinking, to the climate space, right? You know, if we look at the climate space, you know, traditional climate action has gotten us this far.
2_Bryan:Mainly science.
1_Marissa:It's been science. It's been a lot of
2_Bryan:science so far.
1_Marissa:Right? A lot of science and then how do we How do we further that? How do we continue, you know, what that means to bring this, these expansive mindsets? Because, you know, what you, the way that people learn to think differently through a psychedelic journey and to shift consciousness, you know, yes, people can leapfrog there with psychedelics, but they can also teach these different ways of thinking and being and acting and doing to other people and that's a way to bring Psychedelic learnings and integrate them into a more corporate space that could potentially benefit from it or into other Climate spaces and when we're looking at a time when a lot of a lot of programs have been cut That are meant to be values driven ESG programs, DEI programs, you know, psychedelic values have a lot to teach us about oneness, about connectedness. So we're looking to cultivate some partnerships to do that as well.
2_Bryan:Okay, that's really cool. So this is in June. Is that in New York City?
1_Marissa:So we, the, the target date for the Climate Action Integration Guide is in June and then for the healing event is Earth Month. I think in Earth Month we are actually going to kick off one Psychedelic Thinking Partnership. It's a little bit soon to, to share that information, but we are in, in those talks.
2_Bryan:But a lot of these events will be taking place in New York, because that's your base? They'll be in
1_Marissa:New York, but we definitely want to come back and do things in Miami. Um, I think Yadira and I are both going to be speaking at Canadelic, so maybe that's another time when we can plan. Something else here and bring the community back together.
2_Bryan:Yeah. We'd love to follow up on this conversation in a couple of months and see how, how the community continues to grow.
1_Marissa:Amazing. This
2_Bryan:is so interesting. I mean, this is like probably one of our deepest podcasts because, you know, like we're really going deep on this one, like into like, you know, who we are as human beings, you know what I mean? And why it's, why it's so important that we. That we all come together and be open minded, I think, is a big thing, too, with PSYCA. It's open mindedness and mindfulness. I love the word mindfulness. It's something I teach in my running. I teach Chi running. And it's, um, it's all about being mindful in your body and your posture and your, and your breathing and everything. And I think with, with, um, yeah, mindfulness and, uh, Yeah, what was the other word I just said? It was interesting.
1_Marissa:Mindfulness.
2_Bryan:Yeah.
1_Marissa:Breathing. Yeah.
2_Bryan:Well, yeah. And just healing. Healing, all that stuff, you know, that's what, what this is all about. Oh, open-mindedness. Open-mindedness. That's a big thing.'cause the mind is like a parachute, right?
1_Marissa:Yeah. And an open-heartedness'cause'cause sometimes, yeah, open-heartedness, the mind is, can get entrenched in the ego. It's ego more than our mind. Yeah. Right. The ego. And the ego wants to be Right. It's, it wants to contract, it doesn't want to expand. And so it's really, you know, getting back into that heart space.
2_Bryan:Mm-hmm So there's layers.
1_Marissa:Yes.
2_Bryan:We always hear about open mindedness. We
1_Marissa:do, we do. People are not as comfortable with the word open heartedness. That's true. And I don't say it as much because I'm aware of others discomfort with that. It's because it's hard to quantify, right? Well, I have one more
2_Bryan:interesting idea and maybe question is do you find that women are more drawn to this community than men? Like, because I find women to be more intuitive sometimes, but that's a classic, you know, social construct. That's
1_Marissa:interesting. I mean,
2_Bryan:You know, women are more nurturing in general, but you're the women for psychedelics movement and but you probably find
1_Marissa:we I mean at our events We definitely have like an even 50 50 men women split but um Definitely from you know, the the mental health aspects, right when you look at the psychedelic therapy space I think more More women are looking at their own personal development and growth, but there is a big trend with men's groups right now and men's personal development. I know a number of male friends who are involved in these men's groups or who talk about going to therapy. So that's a real rising trend that
2_Bryan:I just got added to last week. Shout out to met a man. Yeah. They're out of the fireflies community and it's got a good a hundred people and I just got, I'm going to, I'm going to share your event there today cause this is the type of thing that they're interested in. So, well, that's cool. I mean, it just shows that it's, It's really not gender specific. It's every single human being. Yeah. It's built the same.
1_Marissa:Yeah.
2_Bryan:Very cool, Marissa.
1_Marissa:And, and, and non gender specific, so we're open to whether, however you identify.
2_Bryan:Everyone is welcome. Everyone is welcome. Anyone of any background.
1_Marissa:Anyone is welcome, you know, even if, even if people don't, you know, we have um, one of the speakers mentioned that, you know, climate can be a very triggering word. Sure. And I said, yes, we're aware of that. Yes, you can trigger
2_Bryan:some people. Yeah, a lot of
1_Marissa:people can be triggered. So even, even people who are triggered and who want to learn more, You know, we welcome different perspectives because we need to build bridges. Yeah,
2_Bryan:and triggering is just the first it doesn't have to be a bad word You can get triggered just by One moment something going wrong and it doesn't mean you're a bad person It just means you're human and you have emotions and that's the first step in kind of like self realization is why did that trigger me?
1_Marissa:Yep
2_Bryan:You know. If
1_Marissa:we, if we can trigger people, then we can make something happen. Sure,
2_Bryan:you're starting the conversation. Yeah. Very cool, Marissa. I like all those things that you guys are up to. So, Syca guys, uh, their Instagram is syct4climateaction, and the website is syca. org. P S Y C A. Um, this has been an amazing conversation, Marissa. Um, any closing words? We've had so many, but I
1_Marissa:mean, I'm just so grateful. And if anyone is listening and this resonates, you want to get involved, you know, there's lots of ways you can, you can email me directly. I now have a new email account, Marissa at PSYCA. org. Oh, amazing. That's easy. M A
2_Bryan:R I S S A. M
1_Marissa:A R I S S A at PSYCA. org, P S Y C A. org. And you can join, you can become a member and support this emerging movement. You can also donate to contribute because we're looking to, you know, fundraise for these various initiatives. And, um, you can recycle your sneakers. I can't wait to recycle mine with Sneaker Impact. Anything going on in New York
2_Bryan:City that you guys are doing. Count Sneaker Impact in, because we are all about, you know, this, this, all of these topics, you know. I
1_Marissa:like, well, with this event, we're doing the street clean, and I like the idea that we could do an event where people can bring their sneakers to recycle. Okay. Like, that would be a really interesting, because we're integrating traditional climate action with forward thinking climate action. Yeah.
2_Bryan:If there's an opportunity between now and Wednesday, which 24 hours, or 48 hours, guys. It's 48 hours from right now, actually, I'm thinking about a little over 48 hours. So we'll be out there. Um, and so, uh, we'll get this out tomorrow. And, uh, yeah, if people can bring their, um, unwanted sneakers, we'll, we'll give them a second. You know,
1_Marissa:we'll, we'll see if we can make that update, but if not, definitely in New York. For sure. When we have events coming up, we'd love to integrate that. Count us
2_Bryan:in. Yeah. We've got ambassadors up there. I'll go up there. Yeah. This is amazing, Marissa. Well, guys, um, let's, let's show up and show some love and support for Saika this Wednesday for their Miami launch. And Marissa, thank you again for your time today and for sharing your passion about helping the world become a better place.
1_Marissa:Thank you so much for having me, Bryan.
2_Bryan:All right. Well, guys, we'll see you soon for another episode. Take care.
