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About Lucas Richert

Lucas Richert is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He studies intoxicating substances and the pharmaceutical industry. He also examines the history of mental health.

NBN Episodes hosted by Lucas:

Drugs, Addiction and Recovery February 17, 2021

Heavy Traffic

The Global Drug Trade in Historical Perspective

Kenneth V. Faunce

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Much of the world's politics revolve around questions about the development of the international market for drugs; the roles merchants, government officials, and drug manufacturers played in shaping this market …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery January 13, 2021

Intoxicating Zion

A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel

Haggai Ram

Hosted by Lucas Richert
When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery October 26, 2020

The Medicalization of Marijuana

Legitimacy, Stigma, and the Patient Experience

Michelle Newhart and William Dolphin

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Medical marijuana laws have spread across the U.S. to all but a handful of states. Yet, eighty years of social stigma and federal prohibition creates dilemmas for patients who participate …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 11, 2020

Acid Revival

The Psychedelic Renaissance and the Quest for Medical Legitimacy

Danielle Giffort

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Psychedelic drugs are making a comeback. In the mid-twentieth century, scientists actively studied the potential of drugs like LSD and psilocybin for treating mental health problems. After a decades-long hiatus …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery June 4, 2020

Attention

A Love Story

Casey Schwartz

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Combining expert storytelling with genuine self-scrutiny, Casey Schwartz details the decade she spend taking Adderall to help her pay attention (or so she thought) and then considers the role of …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery May 4, 2020

The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals

Medicines and Modernity in Vietnam

Laurence Monnais

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Situated at the crossroads between the history of colonialism, of modern Southeast Asia, and of medical pluralism, this history of medicine and health traces the life of pharmaceuticals in Vietnam …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery December 26, 2019

The Age of Intoxication

Origins of the Global Drug Trade

Benjamin Breen

Hosted by Lucas Richert
In Benjamin Breen's The Age of Intoxication: Origins of the Global Drug Trade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), we are transported back to a time when there was no such …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery December 9, 2019

Drug Politics

Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Maziyar Ghiabi

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Iran has one of the planet's highest rates of addiction. Maziyar Ghiabi's Drug Politics: Managing Disorder in the Islamic Republic of Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2019) offers a fascinating, new …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 30, 2019

Grass Roots

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America

Emily Dufton

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Marijuana. Weed. Cannabis. Pot. Whatever term you use, this intoxicant and medical product leads to long discussions. Emily Dufton visits the podcast to talk about the ups and downs and …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 13, 2019

Poppies, Politics, and Power

Afghanistan and the Global History of Drugs and Diplomacy

James Tharin Bradford

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Afghanistan and the United States have a complicated relationship. And poppies have often been at the center of the problem between the two countries. In James Tharin Bradford's new book …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 7, 2019

Mescaline

A Global History of the First Psychedelic

Mike Jay

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Psychedelics are not terribly new. And the drug mescaline is certainly not new. Mike Jay's new book, Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic (Yale University Press, 2019), tells …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 5, 2019

The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy

LSD Psychotherapy in America

Matt Oram

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Are we in the midst of a psychedelic renaissance? If so, what can we learn about the present moment through the history of psychedelic experiments in the past? Matt Oram …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery July 12, 2019

Silent Cells

The Secret Drugging of Captive America

Anthony Ryan Hatch

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Over the past forty years, U.S. prisons and jails have used various psychotropic drugs. In this interview, Anthony Ryan Hatch discusses the need to think deeply about mass incarceration, pharmaceuticals …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery June 24, 2019

The African Roots of Marijuana

Chris S. Duvall

Hosted by Lucas Richert
There's so much discussion in the contemporary United States about marijuana. Debates focus on legalization and medicalization. Usually, Reefer Madness, Harry Anslinger, and race are brought into the conversation. But …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery June 20, 2019

States of Intoxication

The Place of Alcohol in Civilization

John O'Brien

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Is alcohol a universal feature of human society? Why is it problematic in some countries and not others? How was alcohol helped build the modern state? These are just a …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery May 29, 2019

Psychedelic Prophets

The Letters of Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond

Erika Dyck

Hosted by Lucas Richert
Today I talked with historian Erika Dyck about Aldous Huxley, Humphry Osmond and their correspondence over a ten year period. Psychedelic Prophets: The Letters of Aldous Huxley and Humphry Osmond …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery May 10, 2019

The Age of Addiction

How Bad Habits Became Big Business

David Courtwright

Hosted by Lucas Richert
We are living in an age of addiction, from compulsive gaming and binge eating to pornography and opioid abuse. Today I talked with historian David Courtwright about the global nature …