Sneaker Impact News

Shatter the Stigma: Psychedelics, Mental Health, and the Future of Therapy with Bobbi Gio

• Bryan The Botanist, Bryan Huberty • Season 1 • Episode 35

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Episode 35 of Sneaker Impact News features Bobbi Gio, the founder of Shatter the Stigma 5K, a race aimed at raising awareness about the therapeutic uses of psychedelics for mental health. Bobbi, a student at Florida International University (FIU) and President of the Society of Psychedelic Science, shares his journey into psychology and psychedelics, the inspiration behind Shatter the Stigma, and the impact of his inaugural 5K event. We dive deep into the nuanced discussion about the stigma surrounding psychedelics, the emerging research supporting their therapeutic benefits, and the importance of integration and education in shifting public perception. Bobbi also highlights the support from his sponsors, the incredible community response, and his vision for the future of mental health therapies. Tune in to learn more about the intersection of fitness, mental health, and psychedelics, and how Bobbi is paving the way for a more empathetic and educated world.

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Bryan The Botanist:

Guys. Welcome back. Today my special guest is Bobbi Gio. Bobbi is the founder of Shatter the Stigma 5K. Bobbi, how you doing?

Bobbi Gio:

I'm feeling good. Thank you for asking.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah, man. Alright. So Bobbi's a student at Florida International University. Here in Miami called FIU. He's also the president of the Society of Psychedelic Science and he recently hosted a 5K to raise awareness about the therapeutic uses of psychedelics for mental health called Shatter the Stigma. Bobbi is pursuing his license to become a mental health counselor once he completes his psychology degree at FIU this summer. Bobbi, it's amazing to have you. We met a couple weeks ago. Wanna get to know you today and learn all about shatter the stigma. So tell us what is shatter the stigma?

Bobbi Gio:

Shatter the stigma is exactly how it sounds. I wanna shatter the stigma around psychedelic use for therapeutic outcomes, especially for mental health. Uh, there's other outcomes and other things we could use psychedelics for, but my main priority is for mental health.'cause looking strictly at the literature, it looks very promising, honestly.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yes, yes. I'm very aware myself as someone who's passionate about science. Right. And I'm the co-founder of Miami Mushroom Fest, and we are all about education. Yes. About the therapeutic uses of mushrooms for not only health mm-hmm for physical health.'cause mushrooms are incredible for your mind and your body. But they're also good for mental health and there's studies showing that they help with depression. These are the psychedelic magic mushrooms. But there's so much science behind them that now the federal government is recognizing it in places like the University of Miami and FIU are getting involved. Right. In fact, you're the president of the Psychedelic Society at FIU and Marissa Brinkman was a former president, I believe. Yes, yes. She's my good friend so you're my second friend that is part of that organization. So how did FIU start a psychedelics program?

Bobbi Gio:

When, I don't know the exact details. I think it was like five years ago. Uh, perhaps with Marissa. I could be wrong, but I know Dr. Lichter. Mm-hmm. Uh, he's been a big part of making it happen. He's our advisor for the club. He makes sure everything. Is he a professor? Yeah, he's a professor at FIU. He's a chemistry PhD. Okay. Chemistry. So, see,

Bryan The Botanist:

there you go. Yeah. Studying the chemistry.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. And he is the head, he's the head of the pre-health advising Uhhuh. So he, he's like responsible for quite a few things at the school. Uh, busy man, but I, he's been a big mover for making it possible. Um, it wouldn't be possible without

Bryan The Botanist:

him. So how did FIU sanction this? I mean, most people think of psychedelics and they think of drugs. I know that's a bad connotation, but how did FIU get the okay to have a psychedelics club? Did they, is it explicitly the science?

Bobbi Gio:

So I think how it started is the waivers and

Bryan The Botanist:

stuff.

Bobbi Gio:

Not necessarily, yeah. So I think how it started was. Uh, Joseph Lichter, and I could be wrong again. I I should have a proper conversation with him. That's okay. Whatever. You're, you know what I, what I know what you know. Yeah. Uh, he was teaching honors classes specifically. Mm-hmm. So a specific group of students were learning about psychedelics under his teaching, and then eventually it spread out to just, um, now anybody, it's just an elective. Anybody could take the class as long as you're FIU student. Okay. And so he's the one who, uh, kind of. Put the first

Bryan The Botanist:

interests out there. Yeah.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. And there's other professors, I know there's another professor, I think his name is Barry. He does something with, uh, psychedelics, drugs, and mental health. Mm-hmm. And. There might be another one that doesn't come to mind, but there's some other psychedelic, uh, classes that are going on, which is very cool. And what my organization does specifically, we do weekly meetings on just education about psychedelics, purely educational. So the, this week we're, we're, uh, this Wednesday we're gonna look into, uh, uh, paper that looks into the psychosis, the potential of psychosis under psychedelics. Uh, and the week before we looked into fitness and psychedelics. Sure. So every week we're just. Exploring what these, uh, substances, drugs, or whatever you wanna call them, could potentially do

Bryan The Botanist:

for us psychoactive substances perhaps, because did you know coffee is the most popular psychoactive substance in the world and 90% of the people in the world use caffeine?

Bobbi Gio:

I love coffee

Bryan The Botanist:

and I was just watching a podcast about it yesterday on my run. And coffee and caffeine is considered psychoactive.

Bobbi Gio:

Mm, interesting.

Bryan The Botanist:

Because it alters your, your mental state. That. Yes. So when people think of psychedelics, they don't need to think of LSD only, or mushrooms. True. Or ketamine. They can think of coffee and they can think of even other substances like that are, many of'em are botanical based, you know, as a botanist, right? You're a botanist. I know this. You know, ayahuasca, it's sacred, right? You know, it's the ultimate plant teacher of the jungle. So you know, these are not party drugs. And you guys are not sanctioning the use of N drugs. Not, no, we do not. You're just educating people about the benefits. Yes. Potential reviewing literature. I mean, you guys are looking at studies. I know this isn't just you guys sitting around with your opinions always. You know, it's, there's definitely a big

Bobbi Gio:

part of opinions.'cause there's a spiritual side to it. Sure. And some of our student members, they love talking about their Yeah. There's a big aspect. Spiritual side. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. Ayahuasca is a good example that, yeah. Yeah. Mushrooms too.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

You know, it opens the mind to the oneness of the universe. And Like the one consciousness. Yeah, the one consciousness, the global con or the big C consciousness we learn, there's a little C in a big C. The little C is like us making decisions on an executive basis in our lives. And the big C is a, you know, as a human species, there's a, um,

Bobbi Gio:

like the invisible, the invisible hand is like all guiding us towards a

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. Like how birds all fly together, or bees. I mean, Marissa, shout out to her. She told me that. It's not her idea either. It's a famous theory of how collective consciousness.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot which, uh,

Bryan The Botanist:

humanity is part of a collective consciousness, right? We all have goals, fears, greed, happiness, love. There's these things are unifying, you know what I mean? And, and sometimes psycho-active substances can help people, like soldiers who have come back from war with trauma and PTSD, other people with mental health illnesses have benefited through studies with right therapists guiding them, not just doing it on their own. This is always done with, you know, supervision generally. Um, you, yeah, you can put that down. Yeah, no. So, but how did you become the president and when did you start falling in love with this as psychology and psychedelics?

Bobbi Gio:

So, I've always loved psychology. Um, I remember you knew

Bryan The Botanist:

when you started your FIU journey?

Bobbi Gio:

No, not necessarily, but I've always been interested in the topic.'cause psychology is like literally everything. Like sure, you're trying to figure out how to interact with people, uh, you know, in a way you're trying to figure out them. The, and I guess maybe I always struggled with that. So psychology kind of gave me the avenue to the other, the other person. And that really helped me connect. So psychology was always there. Psychedelics though, even as a teenager. Yeah, a teenager. You just were

Bryan The Botanist:

always curious about people. That's so cool. I've known a couple other psychology majors.

Bobbi Gio:

So what they teach us at FIU is research. So we know a lot about how to, how to read research, how to do research.

Bryan The Botanist:

So it is a science of course,

Bobbi Gio:

but no, uh, we're a bachelor's of arts. Okay. In FIU but there are some schools, but there's science in it. Yeah. Yeah. There is a huge science component. There's studies and yeah, we, they like really put it down our throats that we gotta learn how to do like research properly. Of course. And I honestly, I'm glad, I'm happy about that. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. Controlled studies. Yeah. Yeah. Double blind, placebo control all those things, which is a big

Bobbi Gio:

problem in psychedelics research. Um, maybe, you know, but a little bit. Yeah. I mean, yeah. So basically, uh. It's kind of obvious when you take the psychedelic substance. Sure.

Bryan The Botanist:

So if you're, even if you're blinded, a blinded study means you don't know what you're taking in the placebo or the active substance.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. And there's the problem of like, wanna be the, the a proper test subject, I forget the exact verbiage, but essentially like you wanna, the placebo effect goes deep into effect. Mm-hmm. Once you know you, you got the treatment. So you act for the benefits. I don't know if that made sense.

Bryan The Botanist:

No, it makes sense. Yeah. Because like, I, I have a friend who's a, um, f fda, a approved psychiatrist. Cool. At, um, and his name is Dr. Scott Fisher. And he works with Yes. He, he talked to us, Dr. Scott's legendary.

Bobbi Gio:

He talked to us, uh, last semester. Siegel Clinics. Yeah. Yeah. Siegel Clinics. So he works for the government

Bryan The Botanist:

and for the University of Miami, but he's FDA approved and they do, um, controlled studies. Yes. On psilocybin. Where they actually take the chemically created psilocybin. They don't use it from the mushroom because that has all the synergies, which actually you should use the whole mushroom verse, but they get it from a lab and it's called psilocybin or psilocybe. And they do use it for, um, for depression resistant studies. And so, um, they do double blind, and he told me that they have issues with, you know. The study because people pretty much know whether they, yeah. It's very hard to, but they're still blinded. They don't know what they're gonna get. So, but you can usually tell if you got it. I think one of, because the psychoactive substance.'cause you're gonna have more of a story maybe.

Bobbi Gio:

Yes, yes, yes.

Bryan The Botanist:

Or you're gonna see more things potentially. Now they're doing hero doses too. They aren't doing micro doses. Okay. They're doing like seven gram if huge. You know, like that's a big, that's a big test. No, one of

Bobbi Gio:

the most interesting under

Bryan The Botanist:

guidance of a psychologist too. Right? Right. And a, you know, they prep'em, they give them a lot of questions. Get to know them and then they, yeah, they do the, also the reintegration back into society, which is important. Yes. We talked about, I actually think that's

Bobbi Gio:

one of the biggest parts of, for why these work psychedelics work. Yeah. But I was gonna mention, uh, one of the most interesting potential solutions that I read the other day for finding the proper cause and effect. That's what they want for FDA approval is like. Knocking the patients out and giving them the actual psilocybin, which I'm not saying that's what we gotta do. No. Yeah. But I find that very interesting. Oh, wow. Because like, so they

Bryan The Botanist:

don't want them to be conscious. They'd rather have them be in like a dream space. Yeah.'cause you

Bobbi Gio:

could actually like find if the psilocybin actually,'cause during the trip, which is like four hours, three hours mm-hmm. You knock them out and so then you study the effects after.

Bryan The Botanist:

Okay. Sure. And you can see what under an MRI, what's going on in the brain better. Yeah.

Bobbi Gio:

Perhaps. Which I don't know, I, I don't know if anybody's actually doing that, but that's very interesting.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. Most of'em, you're awake. Yes. And you're like in a typical like psychology office on the bed. Yeah. But they give you a nice, soothing environment. Yeah. And, um, they, yeah, like I said, they, they, they, they work with you on the reintegration because it's not just about. You know, the experience, it's about, you know, how you feel in days and months afterwards. But what they're finding is that it interconnects the brain, right? It helps the brain communicate better, and it helps people that have really bad depression or PTSD now, just psychedelics in general, can help with a range of mental health illnesses. And that's what you wanna bring awareness to is yes, mental

Bobbi Gio:

health. And the underpinnings of that was actually a rat study that, um, that basically what they found is that they, it. It unlocks the critical learning period back in rats. Mm. And so what that means is, like, it brings you back to your childlike state. So what they found in these rats is that, um, the rats that were given, the psychedelics they gave me either ketamine, LSD, ibogaine, I forgot the other one. But the, the thing they found in common in all of them is that they went into this critical learning period. And what does that mean? Well, essentially they got more reward for being more social animals and rats are social animals. But what made it so significant is that, uh, compared to the, I think it was saline, the control substance, those rats didn't really have an uptick in social reward. So like they interact mm-hmm. They got more dopamine, more search and whatever for socializing, which is similar to when they're adolescents. So all these rats were adults. Mm-hmm. So they're temporarily put into their childlike brain for a brief, very cool window period. And so, like you're talking about integration, I think that's why it's integration's so important.'cause. If so, here's the like, idea, the, like the big field via why I think it's applicable to all mental health for, um, it allows you to pick up skills and habits that are gonna be beneficial for you. So for depression, maybe it's a motivation thing. You can't do your bad, but now after the psychedelic trip, it's more rewarding to your, to do your bad. Mm-hmm. It's more rewarding to now, uh. Clean the dishes or go out and talk to people for a brief window that two weeks, month, however long it is. And I, and part

Bryan The Botanist:

of that is too, through serotonin and, you know Yeah. Those dopamine levels, yes. But serotonin probably at, at first, dopamine's the reward one, right? Yes. And then serotonin is more for like the feel good, feeling good instead of feeling like you don't wanna get outta bed or you feel bad. Yeah.

Bobbi Gio:

It kind of reboots or resets it, or like more accurately puts you back in this childlike wonder. Interesting. Which is like, they found it in rats, probably. Most likely in humans too. Of course.'cause people always talk about like childlike wonder. Yeah, exactly.

Bryan The Botanist:

I've heard that so many times. Is that that's an essential thing for. Entrepreneurs, but also human beings in general is to not lose your childhood wonder, right. About anything in life like,

Bobbi Gio:

yes.

Bryan The Botanist:

So I love that you're looking into that. Um, how did you become the president of the Society of Psychedelics? I

Bobbi Gio:

just ran for it.

Bryan The Botanist:

Did you have to get voted or? Yeah. So

Bobbi Gio:

it's a vote based thing. Um, so there was an election September of last year, 2024. And I said, why not? Like, this is something I'm interested in, psychedelics. Are very cool and I'm so happy I did.'cause I've learned so much about psychedelics to the point where like it, honestly, it makes too much sense. I think it is for the future, like psychedelics. Yep. Are, I mean, a lot of

Bryan The Botanist:

tech entrepreneurs and world leaders have gone on these trips to Europe and other places where, or Costa Rica where they immerse themselves, whether it's Ayahuasca or something else, and they come back changed and they're doing it because they. Are just learning a lot about themselves, but they also want to improve humanity, right? So it's not a selfish thing about wanting to become like the richest man in the world or the smartest man in the world. It's really about personal growth. Yes. And then also about, I think, you know, that global consciousness we're talking about, which is how is humans do we get past these things like war, you know, and, um, borders and all these politics. And so I think it's fascinating. You know, it makes you

Bobbi Gio:

more empathetic. So I ran, I read the study. Uh, three weeks ago, four weeks ago on like, they found not that it, it found, okay, lemme take a step back. They measured empathy in three different ways. It's your cognitive empathy, your automatic response, empathy, and then your conscious response to empathy. And they found that both your automatic response and your conscious efforts of empathy increase after taking psychedelics. So you're talking about the global consciousness. Um. If we become all empathetic, we're all coming into tune into, um, wanting to help each other. Mm-hmm. And I think that's a beautiful thing. Like there's so many things that I uncover on weekly basis about psychedelics is like, it's like, wow, there's something here. It's like, this is, yeah. Something beyond bringing

Bryan The Botanist:

people together versus separating'em. Exactly. And helping us support each other. Yes. And kind of also releasing judgements. Right.'cause people have a lot of judgments about psychedelics, even on shatter

Bobbi Gio:

the stigma, man.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah, that's, well, we're gonna get into that. So, Bobbi, um, were you born in Miami or where'd you grow up?

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah, I was not born in Miami. I grew up here though. Um, I'm from Puerto Rico. Oh, wow. Puerto Rico ce. Okay, cool. I've

Bryan The Botanist:

been to Puerto Rico numerous times. I love dude. I love How do

Bobbi Gio:

you, how do you

Bryan The Botanist:

feel about Puerto Rico? I've done marathons there. I've gone to ring cone. I've gone to weddings in, uh, Conor. Con, I'm not too, so I'm not too familiar. That's a section of uh, San Juan. San Juan.

Bobbi Gio:

Okay. Okay. Okay. One of the ritzier areas.

Bryan The Botanist:

Got you. It's called Elcon Con. I, I'm gonna get it wrong, but it's, yeah. Anyways, I went to a wedding there one time for one of my best friends. I can imagine.

Bobbi Gio:

It was probably beautiful.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah, it was. And then we also, I. Did a trip one time around the western section of the country, and then I drove through the mountains to get back to the airport. But I took a whole day to go on a, I was with a friend mapping, uh, for an adventure race, but went to Rone, which is pretty cool. So, but yeah, no, I love Puerto Rico. I'm a botanist and you know, I mean, I'm, I'm an actual botanist, like I study plants and I studied the rainforest. So for me. Puerto Rico along Costa Rica and Jamaica. These are all some of the more beautiful places I've been to, you know? Yes.

Bobbi Gio:

I, I always make it a point to like, go back to Puerto Rico at least once a year. That's awesome. I do live here in Miami. I grew up here. Um, nice. But all my family's in Puerto Rico. Cool.

Bryan The Botanist:

Um, do you have any brothers and sisters?

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah, I'm the middle child. I'm the. Forgot it. No, I'm checking. Are the

Bryan The Botanist:

other ones into psychology or was this something that you got into? So I'm the

Bobbi Gio:

only one, my little brother, he's 10 years younger. He is 14. Okay. Um, he just turned 14 and my big brother, he's five years, he's 28. So he just turned 28, like it's almost my birthday. I'm the

Bryan The Botanist:

second born boy too in my family. Awesome. I four boys, so we have something similar in there. Okay, cool. Second, kind of, you're right, we don't get as much attention as the first Yeah,

Bobbi Gio:

no, I say it as a joke, honestly, like I'm glad I don't get That's true.

Bryan The Botanist:

I'm looking into the psychology, the first child all I seen that, all these receipts I've seen that the most attention, which they should. Yeah, because they were the first. And then the second is love too, but there isn't. Then the third one comes down, sometimes the second fights for attention. You know what I mean?

Bobbi Gio:

Apparently I did, apparently, like I, I don't remember. Oh, I definitely

Bryan The Botanist:

fought for attention.

Bobbi Gio:

I don't remember doing that, but my mom swears that like when my little brother was born, I was so bad in school. Like I, I started acting out. Oh, really? I don't, I don't, I don't think so, but apparently I did.

Bryan The Botanist:

But it's fun to be an older brother. I'm an older brother too. Yes. I love being

Bobbi Gio:

an older brother. Honestly. It makes me feel good.

Bryan The Botanist:

Cool. Um. And your parents, what did they think about you going to psychology and psychedelics?

Bobbi Gio:

So with my mom, she like threw the biggest fit about, um, long. This is like six years ago, five years ago. Um, I got caught smoking weed. When I was like 18, 17, and she was obviously not a fan of that. And that's when I started, like I was not good at hiding anything. Mm-hmm. Like I was always like, let me be a good, like stay away from these, like, drugs are bad. Um, this is what they taught me. And that was kind of like, as funny enough, the gateway. Because once you find out, oh, cannabis isn't the worst thing ever. Mm-hmm. In fact, there's some benefits I'm seeing from this.

Bryan The Botanist:

Oh, there's many debates that alcohol can be way worse. Yeah. It's probably proven that it's way worse for your health. Yeah. Yeah. I've seen just that like that. I mean, car accident factor alone, plus the fact of like car accident. You know what it does, your body, the cirrhosis of the liver, the other, it just destroys your body. Yeah. Versus, I mean, I'm

Bobbi Gio:

not saying cannabis doesn't, do we, I'm not saying cannabis is the best thing to. Like compared to alcohol, per is better. Cigarettes are even worse than, yeah. Cigarettes, sugar is a considered a drug. Sugar. Yeah. Sugar. All these coffee's considered a drug. Coffee's considered a drug, but like it's just, what's your drug of choice? Yeah. What's your drug of choice? Yeah. I don't really smoke cannabis anymore, but that what like, got me curious into psychedelics and so nowadays when I talk about it with my, um, honestly we don't even talk about her'cause she kind of like brushes under the table. Okay. She is supportive'cause she was there during the race day. She was serving coffees. Um, so yeah, we're gonna

Bryan The Botanist:

talk about your race. That's awesome. Yeah. So she was, so, she was supporting the race. She's

Bobbi Gio:

supportive. Um, but she never talks about it. She's happy that I'm pursuing my, uh, license to become a mental health counselor. Yeah. But, but the psych and you're getting a

Bryan The Botanist:

college degree. Yeah. And you're working on your master's even I heard.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. I'm a, I'm applying for it, so, uh, hopefully I get in. That's huge.

Bryan The Botanist:

Well, I got a couple of resources. One of my friends. One of my best friends is going to school right now to get her psyched or psychology certificate at, um, cool. She's a registered nurse. She's a nurse practitioner. She's gonna watch this. She's super into psychedelics. Hi. And she's Gina, and, uh, she is getting her, her focus in her psychology certificate as a nurse practitioner is psychedelics. Well, so, and she, I think I can say this, she battles depression and she finds a lot of benefits from, you know, supervised or. The mindful use of psilocybin. Right. You know, which everyone is at their own spot in the world and then on their journey. Me, for instance, I haven't taken psychedelics in years because I Okay. But I, I, I educate about it 24 7. Right. You have, if that's the thing about psychedelics. Yeah.

Bobbi Gio:

You, it's not something you have to take every time. It's not like SSRIs. SSRIs have like a 60% EFF effective rate. Ic Yeah. SR inhibitors. Yeah. Yeah. Um, or is it in antidepressants? In general? Antidepressants, yeah.'cause SRI is just one, uh, one version of a antidepressants and they're trial and errors and they are effective with, uh, but like 60%, like I said, and then you gotta take it for a long period of time. Mm-hmm. Uh, psychedelics represent an alternate option, which is just one, two times made three times, and then you don't need to take it for it. Years to come. That's true. You can get a lot of lasting

Bryan The Botanist:

benefits

Bobbi Gio:

from it. Exactly.

Bryan The Botanist:

And some of the prescription drugs. You know, my mom was a pharmacist for 35 years, so I can speak on this. She worked in a hospital, she's a retired pharmacist. I've done my own research. A lot of antidepressants cause a lot of side effects. Sure. I looked into it'cause I have anxiety and I was like, I don't want any of those side effects. I'm definitely gonna deal with it naturally by running, running. Which is another way you can deal with, you know. Some mental health issues. There's a lot of exercise they found. Exercise is like 10 times more effective than that. That's just like a

Bobbi Gio:

dancing dancing's. The number one, like healing. I don't know how to dance, so I gotta learn how to dance. Apparently I saw this thing where like, yeah, dancing was the most healing. Type of movement you could do for

Bryan The Botanist:

mental

Bobbi Gio:

health.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah, I think running is up there too. We're a running company and I'm a runner by myself. She said running, running, running is up there. I think running was, you know, just jumping on a treadmill is something anyone can do at a gym, you know, or do a 5K like shatter the stigma. Yeah. 5K is great. So how did you decide to do shatter the stigma and what is it?

Bobbi Gio:

So there's two parts to that. Um, what is it? It's represents. Not just psychedelics, um, and like breaking the stigma around using psychedelics for therapeutic use. I always wanna encourage the research into psychedelics and also encourage the other avenues besides the traditional ways of healing. You mentioned running that is a way of healing. I think there's like, uh, a movement of alternate therapies. So like we're heading there where it's just like, it's not just take a pill and then there's a outcome, a desired outcome. It's. Perhaps do some work and then there's a outcome, like a, a new healing model perhaps. Mm-hmm. That's kind of what I envision alternate therapy to be and what shattered stigma is, and like, how did I get it started? Um, I just like sends an email to a couple people and then they said, oh, that's cool

Bryan The Botanist:

at f FIU.

Bobbi Gio:

Like some of your professors started with an FIU and then. Looking for sponsors and other people who could help me, anybody who could help me. So dms on Instagram or on Facebook, on any social platform. I was just like reaching out. Email was actually like the biggest one.

Bryan The Botanist:

And you just thought of a run would be a great way to raise awareness or how did you decide to run? I like running.

Bobbi Gio:

I like running. So had you

Bryan The Botanist:

done five

Bobbi Gio:

Ks before? Yeah. I, I, there was a time I ran three miles, so five Ks. A little less than 5K, but like three miles every day for, uh, it was 25 days straight, so that was a hundred miles. I did. Mm-hmm. Like, that's not the exact mile.'cause one day I did like six miles and whatever. Yeah. But, um, so I like running, like there running is in me. Mm-hmm. And like every time I've done run clubs, there's a bunch here in Florida. That's really cool. Um. They're very social. You make friends. I made so many cool, like you just meet cool people. I met

Bryan The Botanist:

5,000 friends in the South Florida running club. There we go. And then moved here. I knew no one, I moved here to age at 30 from Wisconsin. I knew no one. Right, right. I knew one person and that girlfriend who lived here, but I went to the run clubs with her and I met hundreds of people the first week and then thousands. And then the story goes on after 20 years. Dominoes. Yeah, exactly.

Bobbi Gio:

So it's like. I feel like it's a great place to facilitate conversation and that's what I want. The stigma. And you see a

Bryan The Botanist:

lot of five Ks also raising awareness about topic and there's also that, whether it's cancer or whether for good reason, mental health too is part of yours too. Right? Exactly. De-stigmatizing. You know, I have a young brother, brother I, mental health with schizophrenia. Okay. Well, there's a con, there's a, you know, there's a stigma around schizophrenia, right? Right. That people just hear voices and that they need to be in a hospital or they're not safe, or there's something wrong with them. They might be dangerous. They might be dangerous.

Bobbi Gio:

I would say mental health, the stigma around mental health is way better than it was, let's say 10 years ago. Of

Bryan The Botanist:

course, in the eighties and nineties it was like.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. Terrible. Like, like mental health. That doesn't exist. I mean, in the sixties

Bryan The Botanist:

it must have been even, I mean, in the twenties, the 1920s, I mean, imagine they're doing lobotomies and stuff and shock therapies, and now they're like, put poking holes in your brain. Yeah. Taking pieces of your brain out and stuff and just, or just condemning you to a life of, in a, in a crazy hospital, like, you know, one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. I think a lot of people have seen that movie with Jack, uh, Nicholson.

Bobbi Gio:

Jack Nicholson,

Bryan The Botanist:

where he goes crazy in the

Bobbi Gio:

dude. I, dude, one of my worst things is I don't watch enough movies. You gotta watch. That's the list. Watch one

Bryan The Botanist:

Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, one floor over the C Nest, it's, it's in a mental hospital. Right? I haven't seen it in 20 or 30 years, but it's

Bobbi Gio:

pretty much good

Bryan The Botanist:

movie. Yeah. So you started shatter the stigma, right? You're a natural leader man, because you wanted to be the president of the psychedelic society. Right? Then you wanted to get the word out even more through a, I mean, most people. Wouldn't necessarily go with that extra step. So I feel like that's like two extra steps to be the president and then to wanna start this, you know, event, which takes a lot of work. You and I were just in the conference room talking about all the moving parts. Yeah. It's a checklist of 50 to a hundred different things to put on a race. Sure. And you put on your first race recently. Yeah. You want to tell everyone a little bit more about that?

Bobbi Gio:

That was one of the most stressful things I've ever done. And I'm glad I did it. Like it's stepping into the fire. I, I just wanted to do it because I was like, let me do something. I'm about a graduate FIU with my psychology degree, and then I wanna pursue my license as a mental health counselor. But I was like, I saw this as opportunity. I had all the resources in the world in FIU. It's just, I just did it. Like there's really not much to it. I just really wanted to do it and I got it done. It was very stressful. And like I said, I'm glad I did it.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. So how many people came to your first one and when was it? Oh my gosh. It was all the

Bobbi Gio:

February 23rd.

Bryan The Botanist:

So just like a couple weeks ago.'cause this is March. Yeah, two weeks ago. 10th today. Yeah, two weeks ago. Yeah. From yesterday. Yeah, exactly. Because I saw all the photos on Instagram and I met you a week beforehand.

Bobbi Gio:

Yes. cause I went to that psych event,

Bryan The Botanist:

the psychedelics for Climate Action. Yeah, exactly. Shout out to Marissa Brinkman. Yeah, exactly. That's where we met. Yeah, exactly. That's incredible. And we only met three weeks ago and. I was still coming back from my Achilles surgery, so I was not allowed to run at the time.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah, yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

But, um,

Bobbi Gio:

you had your own things going on too. Yeah,

Bryan The Botanist:

I had so much going on with all, and I was just getting back from Bogota and all this mental and Columbia dental work and stuff that I was getting done down there. Gotcha. Um, but anyways, I, I did post about it because Yes. Was, I'm so

Bobbi Gio:

grateful for it. No,

Bryan The Botanist:

but you know, I saw on the, um. And I'm not shy to post that stuff. Some people be like, oh, I don't wanna post. No. It's like we're in a new age now. Psychedelics. You should not be ashamed of it. And like I ran into that a lot. So a lot of, and some people say they didn't wanna share it, a

Bobbi Gio:

lot of support, but under closed doors, so like,

Bryan The Botanist:

or the silent majority.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. So I talked to so many like people, I love the cause. I love that you're doing this, but I can't put my brand next to it. I can't put my image next. I can't. And I understand it most of the time. I said thank you for your time. I appreciate you.

Bryan The Botanist:

Because it's still illegal.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. For, and there's still a stigma around it. If you're not

Bryan The Botanist:

underneath a study, like when you do a study, by the way, it's not illegal. Yeah.'cause the federal government has legitimized some of the research into it For sure. Whether it's MDMA or recently ketamine, the

Bobbi Gio:

military's like. Going into it. I'm glad. Like for PTSD, it's one of like the main things I was advocating for. The race, the application for PTSD is probably the biggest lever you could pull. Yeah. We need to care about

Bryan The Botanist:

our veterans. I mean

Bobbi Gio:

the people who are like and first responders. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Turning off their brains. The second they heard psychedelics, they need to realize that a lot of veterans who have been through the terrible things of war, right. Like, and that would literally probably commit suicide. Like we even hate to say that word on YouTube if it wasn't for psychedelics. Mm-hmm. And psychoactive substances helping them through their trauma. They might not be alive anymore.

Bobbi Gio:

This is something I wanna look into too. There's some precedent to it as well in indigenous tribes. Mm-hmm. What they'll do, I read this paper, not, I didn't read it like I skimmed. Read it. Read it. That's okay. And yeah, of course. And what I caught my interest in that, but it was talking about PTSD and like put the solutions for it. And one of the parts it talked about, and it caught my attention was that in indigenous tribes, and then I don't remember exactly which one it was. They would. After war, they would put them through a ritual more than often than not, including psychedelics before they integrated them back into society. Mm-hmm. So there's something about these, um, the psychedelics that work for these indigenous tribes. I definitely wanna look more into that'cause,'cause like, you know. There's knowledge to be found in other culture. Historical, yeah. And historical data.

Bryan The Botanist:

Besides recent Western Yeah, exactly. Research. There's thousands of years of documented use of psychedelics from ayahuasca to ibogaine, to mushrooms to everything to, there's so many other ones, you know, that people, yeah.

Bobbi Gio:

And like it just makes sense. Like you go through this traumatic thing, most people are not gonna go through war. Like if you go to work, most likely you're gonna see something that most people will never see in their lifetime. Unreal. I mean, and then you expect'em to come back to society. Psychedelics really allow them to integrate that experience and come back to society. Mm-hmm. That's like the, the word And deal with the trauma too. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Like things like ketamine have helped people, or M DM a too, and, and some people think of these things as party drugs, which they can be used well. Yeah. It became famous inappropriate. The

Bobbi Gio:

ecstasy is the party drug name. Mm-hmm. Um. Yeah. It, it just happened, you know, it just, that wasn't the intention for Gilligan. Just like there's, it's a tool that can be used for a good Yeah, exactly. Way in a bad way. Right?

Bryan The Botanist:

Bad way, good way. We're defining what is good and bad. Right. The bottom line is, you know, there's, there's research showing that there's a lot of therapeutic, right. Therapeutic benefits to, uh, to psychoactive substances. Right. Just like coffee has benefits, like it helps you with your energy and your focus. Right. Um, we got a visitor here with a fly. Yeah. There's a little fly. That's so cool, man. I'm so proud of you. And you had over a hundred people at your first race, hun. Over a hundred

Bobbi Gio:

people. Uh, it was nice. Uh, turn out there's half students and half just people I've never, like, I didn't, I don't know most of the students, to be frank. Maybe I need like 15. Mm-hmm. So it was like good amount of students and then the other half were just people I've never seen before of like. Older, like 50 year olds, 60 year olds, a a nice diverse group of people. And I was like, whoa, this is very cool.

Bryan The Botanist:

Word of mouth. And they probably heard about it on social media too.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. Yeah. I think most of it was social media. Um, perhaps word of mouth as well, but yeah. Sure.

Bryan The Botanist:

Um, so you did it at FIU South Campus, I heard. Yes. Yes. And you're planning on doing another one in the future? Yes. We were talking about that today. I'm gonna help you with the, uh, yeah, with the planning and with the race day. Um, execution. Yes, we're gonna grow this thing. Next step is a thousand runners.

Bobbi Gio:

That'd be Ama. Yes. That'd be lovely. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Bobbi's already 80% of the way there. I was looking at his checklist and he's got some, I've had to do a lot of hand holdings in the past as a race director. I've been involved with. I've probably produced hundreds of races in my life, you know for sure. Working with Serena Williams and Nike to working with Ray Allen and Publix, whole Foods, you know, some celebrities, but also just managing marathons and races with over 10,000 runners. And you know, I've been a timer. Right. For a couple years now, and I've been a vendor at many races, I've been a professional athlete. You've been So, I've been able to be a part of these and I, I wanna help aspect young guys.'cause you're exactly half my age, I think. Yeah, we talked about this. Yeah. Yeah. You've got, you're the next generation man. You're a baby still. Yeah, man. But no, you're getting your master's, which I'm so proud of. I, I got my undergrad a triple major, but it was just an undergrad. I didn't go onto my masters. I couldn't get the funding triple

Bobbi Gio:

majors.

Bryan The Botanist:

Interesting. Yeah. Botany, conservation, biology, environmental studies, you know, all the same things. Oh, they're all related. Yeah. All related at the University of Wisconsin, but Cool. Basically you're 23. I'm 46.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

My last 20 years I've been a professional and competitive runner and a race director. Very cool. So I'm here to help you, man. I've seen his

Bobbi Gio:

time, sir. They're crazy. Yeah. I mean,

Bryan The Botanist:

I'm, I'm gonna be running my 10th Boston marathon next month, you know? Congrats. And I started running that in 2010, so I wanna run my first

Bobbi Gio:

marathon, like,

Bryan The Botanist:

yeah. Uh,

Bobbi Gio:

I've done half marathons. Never a full marathon. I, I'm sure I could do it. I'm sure you, I did

Bryan The Botanist:

my first one when I was 20 or 21 in the year 2000. But now I've done 50, but I waited eight years after my first one to do another one.'cause I didn't really fall in love with it right away. Gotcha. So sometimes you don't fall in love right away with running. Yeah. But running is incredible for mental health. I've used it exclusively for mental health.

Bobbi Gio:

Interesting.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. I've never taken anything like Adderall. Not that there's any shame in it. Right. I just have always, as a young person, I was a soccer player. And then as an adult, I was a marathon runner, so I always had fitness in my life, and if I didn't, I probably would've needed to be on a prescription, you know? And the sad thing is a lot of kids don't have a choice. Mm. And there's nothing wrong with taking Adderall, but it's just like over prescribed. You know, instead of, yeah. I don't know much about it, but here's one study that I learned about. Okay.'cause I used to be a forester and I was working in the woods and in the prairies in Wisconsin is that if you give kids something to do with their hands, like gardening or landscaping mm-hmm. Or working on a trail like building trails in the forest, right. That alone helps solve their a DD or a DH. I can imagine. Yeah. It's something do they're not, if you're sitting inside and you're on your device all day. And a lot of parents use these iPads and iPhones for babysitters. Yeah. Or they're in front of the TV playing video games. I never liked video games ever in my entire life. Oh, I love video games. I don't play it as much anymore. I always wanted to be outside chasing snakes, building forts, and then, you know, working in the prairies, working in the wetlands, in the forest. And I even had someone on my crew who had Asperger's. And it helped him so much to be involved doing the controlled burns and the forestry work. So because when you're doing this stuff, you're actively working and you're using your, and there's something about using your hands with, I don't wanna belabor the point, but gardening alone can solve a lot of a DHD. There's something. Just put'em in the garden. Take'em to the botanical center. There's something to plants as well. Get them. Volunteer. There's something for plants. Yeah. And animals by the way.

Bobbi Gio:

And animals. Oh, animals are very healing. There's like, we're both cat dads. I know. I've seen your cat. Yeah. I have my cat. I love my cat. Shout out to Mincy. Yeah. Yeah. Animals just connecting to life. Mm-hmm. Helping, so like, plants are so considered life and like Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

And just helping, whether it's helping the garden or helping your dog to get its walk-in. You know what I mean? Like Yeah. Um, so that's really cool that, you know, shatter the stigma was such a success. You, you're proving the concept. Um, people wanna see you had shirts and medals. Yep. I had shirts and medals. You had award winners. I had award winners. I saw the photos on Instagram. People had a great time. Yes. I had so much good feedback. That's the most important thing, yeah. Is the experience. It doesn't matter whether you had 10,000 runners on the first try or whether you had a hundred. Yeah. You had volunteers. You were well organized. You took it seriously. Yeah. It's one of the most stressful jobs in the world. I can tell you that because I've lived too. Yeah. Yeah. They say you organizers is actually the most stressful career really, along with I think law enforcement and firefighters. That's crazy. I event managers, directors, I

Bobbi Gio:

don't think it's fair to compare firefighters and police officers to event planners. Yeah. Maybe in the stress. Well, it, it's a close

Bryan The Botanist:

second though. You can look it up. Go to Google event planners. It's one of the most, because you have so many moving parts to keep everyone happy. And

Bobbi Gio:

not only that, I think the most stressful part was like not all the uncertainty for me was the first time. So there was so much uncertainty. Uncertainty. And then I was like, Dan, the day of the event, I was like. What if no one comes? I'm sure like this is like very fear and doubts. Yeah. Yeah. This is all part of human psychology. Yeah. Yeah. But it was fine. Everything turned out fine. Um, there were some hiccups, I will say that, but I knew exactly what to do to make sure that doesn't happen next time. So you learned

Bryan The Botanist:

so much. You were even going over it with me. We were just in our break room and we were talking about all the different things you can do to improve it and what you did the first time, and you know how to get more attention to it and you know how to become even more professional. And that's it, man. You're doing a great job. So. Um, we're gonna hopefully do the next one. We're talking about November of 2025 maybe. Yeah, that's,

Bobbi Gio:

that seems like a good time. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. So keep your eyes posted, guys, for shatter the stigma. How do people find your socials and learn more about your movement?

Bobbi Gio:

Alright, so. Right. I'm planning to do a separate social media for shatter thet stigma. It's not up yet, but you could follow me personally on Bobbi G. So B-O-B-B-I do geo on Instagram. And there's also the organization that hosted it, uh, society of Psychedelic Science at F FIU or F-I-U-S-P-S on Instagram. We also have a YouTube channel where you post educational content. That's cool. And yeah,

Bryan The Botanist:

we'll follow you back on YouTube. I know you followed us today. Yeah. Yeah. I had to. That's so cool. Um, so. How did you learn about sneaker impact and what'd you think today of our facility? Uh, I showed you just a view from above, but you got to see some of the stuff we make out of the end of life. Yes, yes. And um, you got to see the podcast studio of course, but very,

Bobbi Gio:

very interesting like this. What

Bryan The Botanist:

do you think about the sustainability? This is like soundproof, like yeah, we soundproofed, but I actually, I'll go shut the door'cause I hear some guests up here, but, you know, tell, tell the audience. What, how does sustainability tie in? Because that's what sneaker impact is all about. Education, sustainability, social good. Mm-hmm. Helping the planet, helping people, right. Empowering communities and giving back, but also not wasting, you know, diverting waste from landfills. But, you know, I know it's, it's a lot about education between both of our organizations and we're gonna be a big part of your next race, so.

Bobbi Gio:

Very cool. So, uh, sustainability is definitely a big part, um, of what I wanna have and the vision I have for this. Charity run. It just makes sense. Empathy, I mentioned empathy before. Mm-hmm. Um, if you wanna take care of your neighbors community, uh, we need a earth to live, live on, and sustainability just naturally falls into place. So, yeah. It's, it's there and makes sense.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. And you're reaching out to a lot of people in the community. You're looking for vendors. Yeah, I'm definitely sponsors.

Bobbi Gio:

Yep. I had a good amount of sponsors in the first one, and we're definitely looking to expand. They loved it. I had so much good feedback from all the sponsors and vendors during the event. The people who were there, vendoring, educating the people about alternate therapy, about the products, whatever it may be, their services, they loved it and the people loved it too.

Bryan The Botanist:

Do you wanna give a shout out to any of your sponsors, vendors, uh, key people that were

Bobbi Gio:

Yes. Yes. First of all. Love my mom. Um, she wasn't too involved, but like, love my mom. Hey. She was out there helping. She was helping out. I heard she was helping. Um, she was great. I I, I love her to the Max. That's great.

Bryan The Botanist:

That's the first shot that shows he's a good kid because he shouted out his mom. Well, she was a good mom.

Bobbi Gio:

She was a good mom. So it only makes sense, right? Yeah. Um, and then the main sponsor, soul and Line Farms mushrooms. So they're, they're mushroom vendors. They do functional mushrooms here in South Florida.

Bryan The Botanist:

Functional mushrooms are like lion's mane reishi. Yeah, exactly. Um, cords. Cords, yeah. Yeah. The ones that help your body.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. So they're very, they were the main sponsors. That's awesome. They, they were great. I would say provide a, provide a health. They were great. They were, they gave me a lot of feedback towards the end of the event. Like, wow, this, I definitely wanna see another one. They gave so much positive encouragement. Mm-hmm. And then who else was at CCM Research, clinical Research. They were one of the first sponsors, first people to, to believe. Um, so I really appreciate that. And Canada, like Miami, they were one of the first as well. Mm-hmm. They just, you know, I've heard of them. Yeah, they, they're great. What do they do again? They do events, uh, cannabis and psychedelics. So they just bring a bunch of people together and they, um. Just educate on it, talk about it to make a space for it. So they're actually hosting one very soon. They have their own

Bryan The Botanist:

festival, right?

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. They have their own Canada. Yeah, I've heard of that. Yeah. Yeah. So they're, they do that. They gave me, they helped out. And FIU of course. And FIU. Yeah. That goes without saying f iu. Huge. They let you do it on their campus? They do it on my campus. And they, they, yes. How can I forget? FIU and

Bryan The Botanist:

FIU is a sneaker impact partner. Yes. Impact. We've gone to many of, of their campuses. We've gone to their Biscayne Bay campus, uh, for their, um. Student government day, their leadership day. We go and we meet with s all this. Yeah. We meet up at the Biscay Bay where I used to live up there. Uh, the north northern part of Miami. And uh, yeah. Yeah. We have our special box at FIU and yeah, we love FIU. Paul's up. Shout out to FIU how I forgot out

Bobbi Gio:

right there. FIU. Thank you.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. Frankie Ruiz, he's one of our dear friends. He's also a FIU alum, um, Elliot Mason, also with Run Addict. And. Frankie with the Miami Marathon of course.

Bobbi Gio:

And Dr. Lichter, my professor. Yeah. You're show me his profile earlier.

Bryan The Botanist:

And we're gonna get all these, uh, in your description of this video, we'll put up the link so people can, you know, follow you on socials and, and, and, you know, show them what, what you're up to. Show love. Yeah,

Bobbi Gio:

man. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

So what are some of your other passions outside of running and psychology and psychedelics?

Bobbi Gio:

Fitness in general. So it's not just running though. I do run a lot. Um, I love lifting weights. Heavy circles. Yeah. I saw you doing that

Bryan The Botanist:

on your Instagram story last week you were doing, yeah. Yeah. I love, I love some squats or something. Which your dead

Bobbi Gio:

squats. Dead lifts. Yeah. Um, bench, the whole nine. I'm not the biggest guy, but I'm a fit guy. I would say. Um, other passions, I love talking to people. Um, yeah, I think this trade run really embodies everything I'm passionate about. Like for me, it's like psychology. Of fitness and psychedelics, they, they're like the nice intersection between the three. Mm-hmm. And so for me it just, it was, so you mentioned how hard and stressful for it was. Um, honestly, it wasn't so stressful because like for me, I wanted to do this. Mm-hmm. Because it's like, it, like I said, it's a nice intersection between things I deeply love.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. And it's a passion project. Yeah, definitely. Versus a full-time career right now in the terms of being a race director can be somewhat stressful for sure.'cause there's a lot of uncertainties. Yeah. When you have a good team around you, when you know what you're doing, it relieves preparation, prevents disaster.

Bobbi Gio:

For sure. Yeah. Just preparing a little bit as a dj,

Bryan The Botanist:

same thing. You know, sometimes it's nerve wracking thinking, oh my God, I'm gonna play at this new place or this. Right. So much uncertainty. But if you spend a lot of time on the playlist and you get everything programmed, then you don't have the anxiety of, oh my God, what am I gonna play? Oh my God. That makes sense. You know, so it's all about preparing whether your job is being a DJ or a, you know, educator, right? You have to have the research, you have to have the, you know, the talking points in the sense of what is, what's the knowledge you wanna share with people versus just vomiting information, you know, which is what I used to do, I guess,

Bobbi Gio:

people, dude. Yeah. So before all my meetings, and I do, uh, like I said, educational meets for my club. I always prepare. So before a meeting. I'll like do five minutes, 10 minutes of like, what am I gonna talk about? What am I gonna do? And then for the meet, for the educational meets, same concepts, just prepare. Yeah, you're so right on that. Like, honestly, like when I, it relieves anxiety. Yeah. I.

Bryan The Botanist:

A hundred percent that that's what I found. And'cause I used to get really anxious as a dj, and then I was, that makes sense. The more I prepare in advance, sometimes 10 hours. 10 hours. Wow. For one gig, man, like, dude, I, three or three days in a row, I'm spending hours of staying up till 2:00 AM I'm searching for all the best music. I wanna make people happy and I don't wanna struggle. You know? Yeah. A lot of it's song selection, but with you it's, you know, sharing the knowledge, you know, and also being a leader. Um, young leader in the community. Guys, Bobbi Geo. I'm so excited to have him in the Sneaker Impact studio today. We only met three weeks ago. It's so random how life works. I was at a climate change psychedelics conference, which people are like, why climate change and psychedelics? Well, why not? We're bringing two amazing communities together and we're trying to uplift the global consciousness that people are not so resistant to wanting the world to be a better place. Yeah. You know, like I said, it

Bobbi Gio:

really increases your empathy. So like, I feel like increase. Yeah, I feel like, well, it was a smaller sample size. I'll say there's like 300 people, but, but it seems it does. Mm-hmm. And so like no, that's a

Bryan The Botanist:

big,

Bobbi Gio:

yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Sample size. So that's 300 versus like five or 10. Yeah. I mean, there's always gonna be bigger samples, like 10,000 in the China study, this and that. Yeah. But, you know, that's great. I mean, so, um, we'll have you back on the podcast again, the future Bobbi. Um, I think we're gonna wrap it in a second here, but I wanna know, what is your inspiring message to leave the sneaker impact audience with?

Bobbi Gio:

Um, you will make mistakes, but take the risk. I've definitely made mistakes. Like it's incredible. So many things I've done that I'm like, why did I do that? That doesn't define you. Um, so just do today and take the risk today. So, yeah, that's my message.

Bryan The Botanist:

Awesome. Go for it.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah, go for it. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Don't, yeah, don't, don't worry so much. I think Yeah,

Bobbi Gio:

don't stress it. Don't stress it. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. Same here. We went for it With this podcast guys. We know sometimes YouTube doesn't like the word psychedelics. We might take out the eye and put a little star symbol in there, bleep it if you need to. Honestly, that's nah man. I'm not gonna bleep it On my, one of my podcasts last week, um, my, my friend said covid like 10 times. I normally never say that because like, it used to be frowned upon on YouTube. Yeah. Those censor, you didn't say pandemic or you had to say that. The cough. Cough or whatever. Yeah, the cough. Cough. Yeah. You know, but like, um. You know, with psychedelics, if we take out the, I, that's the, that's the little trick and then you put the title. But like,

Bobbi Gio:

even in ver, so like the algorithm won't pick up me saying psychedelics and it's okay, it's fine. All right. You know,

Bryan The Botanist:

I mean, you can get demonetized. You know, like, kids should not be, you know, they should be on, everyone needs to be under medical guidance in the sense that have a therapist have a. Someone who's licensed, at least, unless you're gonna go deep in the jungle, I mean, I'll, I'll give you a quick throwback story in like the early two thousands, like 2002 when I graduated from college, right. I went to Peru and, and took Ayahuasca deep in the jungle. Well, there's

Bobbi Gio:

professionals over, and we were thousands of

Bryan The Botanist:

miles from any road. I mean, we were deep. We went in the, with the, with the canoes as far as you could go. The, the, the tribe only used solar power and they didn't even have clothes on Really? And women from the tribe weren't allowed to be in the ceremony. Only men. Interesting. And they didn't have to sign any waivers, Bobbi. Yeah. And guess what? They were watching us though, because they didn't want us to wander off in the jungle. Yeah. So we were in this hut, right? And they said no flashlights, which I thought was interesting'cause it was different than my experience in Miami when I took, uh, ayahuasca flashing

Bobbi Gio:

lights. Eh,

Bryan The Botanist:

they didn't want any lights. Yeah. So that this was before cell phones. This is 2002. Interesting. And they said no flashlights. Interesting. So, um, they wanted to complete darkness animal sounds. They were making all these cool sounds. This is called the achi genca Tribe. Deep improved. But these were not certified by the FDA psychologists, you know, these were, but they had a of deep knowledge and respect. Right, right. For the, it's huge think plant medicine. Yeah. Is another way to say it. Psychedelics plant medicine. Yeah. Yeah. And at sneaker impact, we wanna also, you know, we're talking about sustainability, but we wanna talk about topics. That are inspiring and in exploratory, right, in the sense of healing the earth, because we're healing the earth by recycling shoes. But the conversation goes beyond that. There's so much

Bobbi Gio:

waste. Like you definitely, yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

Yeah. Only 17%. 13% of shoes are recycled every year in the us. So 87% are going in landfills. 400 million plus. What you guys are

Bobbi Gio:

doing is huge then. Well,

Bryan The Botanist:

yeah. Our competition is a landfill, and that's our only competition. No one else. So yet, you know, we're slowly building that YouTube page. We're at one 50. And you know, hopefully, you know, we've had a couple episodes now on psychedelics in the last month and there's a reason for that. I didn't choose it, it just happened. Yeah, yeah. You know, but anyone who wants to come on sneak impact news and talk about something near and dear to their heart, we're looking for inspiring stories. And Bobbi, you exemplify that. Right? And I know, I knew you came up to me and introduce yourself to me at the event.

Bobbi Gio:

Yeah. Yeah.

Bryan The Botanist:

You weren't shy in the sense that you didn't come up and be like, Hey Bryan. Or like, grab me. Hey, you. What? What's your name? You. I didn't know. I just said I, you were just like, Hey man, a nice guy. How you doing? You know, what's your name? And I was like, I'm Brian, what do you, what's your name? And that's how it started off. Yeah. And then we got to know each other and yeah. Now we're here. Thanks Bobbi. Appreciate you coming in today. Thank you for having me here. Keep up the great work. And guys, check out Shatter the stigma. Yes. And FIU. F-I-U-S-P-S? Yes. SPS. Yeah. Society of Psychedelic Science, correct. FIU? Yeah. All right. Thanks Bobbi. We'll see you guys at the next episode.

People on this episode

Contributor

Bryan “The Botanist” Huberty

Host