Welcome to Pills & Power - a raw, revealing, and often ridiculous dive into the world of drugs, addiction, and the bizarre truths that never made it into your school textbooks.
From crack dens to chemistry labs, from devastating lows to euphoric highs, we explore the stories, science, and stigma surrounding drugs and the people who use them.
We’re your hosts, Eliza and Ray, and we’re here to unpack the highs, the lows, and all the messy, mind-blowing bits in between.
🎙️ Expect wild history, uncomfortable truths, and a few laughs along the way.
Subscribe now and join us on this trip!
A temple stands empty after a drug raid. Robes folded. Bowls untouched. Silence where chanting once lived.
This episode begins inside that abandoned sanctuary, then follows the trail outward to the Golden Triangle, spanning Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, where much of the region’s methamphetamine originates.
From there, we step back into medieval Europe, where monks brewed and sold beer within monastery walls to fund charitable work. Over centuries, intoxicants moved from small-scale religious production to vast, industrialised networks.
From sacred brewing vats to jungle labs producing millions of pills, this is a story of faith, commerce, and how substances evolve alongside human ambition.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63792923 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63792923)
https://theconversation.com/yabas-grip-how-cheap-methamphetamine-is-fuelling-thailands-addiction-crisis-262765 (https://theconversation.com/yabas-grip-how-cheap-methamphetamine-is-fuelling-thailands-addiction-crisis-262765)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-08/thailand-misbehaving-monks-foreign-correspondent/104184056 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-08/thailand-misbehaving-monks-foreign-correspondent/104184056)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/buddhist-monks-arrested-thailand/ (https://www.vice.com/en/article/buddhist-monks-arrested-thailand/)
https://www.historiascripta.org/the-middle-ages/beer-as-a-cultural-and-economic-staple-in-medieval-europe/ (https://www.historiascripta.org/the-middle-ages/beer-as-a-cultural-and-economic-staple-in-medieval-europe/)
25 Feb 2026
Kahve: The Biography of a Cup of Joe
Before it fueled boardrooms and builders, revolutions and writers, coffee was a humble cherry growing wild in the highlands of Ethiopia. In this episode, we trace the epic journey of coffee from its legendary beginnings to the bustling markets of Yemen and the sacred streets of Mecca, where it became more than a drink, it became a debate. We explore how it spread through the mighty Ottoman Empire, where coffee houses blossomed into buzzing hubs of politics, poetry and power. Then Europe got a taste. In cities like London, coffee houses earned the nickname “penny universities” because for the price of a cup, you could access a world of ideas. Merchants, philosophers and future industrialists gathered under ceilings thick with steam and ambition. We unpack how coffee sharpened minds during the Industrial Revolution, replaced ale at breakfast, and even led to the very first law recognising coffee breaks at work.Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/coffee-production (https://www.britannica.com/topic/coffee-production)
https://time.com/archive/6870354/business-the-unpaid-coffee-break/ (https://time.com/archive/6870354/business-the-unpaid-coffee-break/)
https://medium.com/@VocalJournalist/coffee-has-become-the-drink-of-productivity-and-not-just-in-the-office-bfeda0294826 (https://medium.com/@VocalJournalist/coffee-has-become-the-drink-of-productivity-and-not-just-in-the-office-bfeda0294826)
https://www.history.com/articles/coffee-history-facts (https://www.history.com/articles/coffee-history-facts)
18 Feb 2026
Ergot Fungus & Witchcraft: Holy Fire, and Visions of Hell
Ergot is one of the most influential organisms you’ve probably never heard of.
In this episode, we break down what ergot actually is, how it infects crops, and what happens when humans consume it. We explore historical outbreaks of ergotism that caused convulsions, hallucinations, paranoia, and even gangrene, and examine the theory that ergot poisoning may have contributed to waves of witchcraft accusations in early modern Europe.
We also trace ergot’s transformation from feared contaminant to pharmaceutical resource, culminating in the synthesis of LSD by Albert Hoffman in the 20th century.
From mass hysteria to modern chemistry, from burning stakes to laboratory breakthroughs, this episode covers the science, the myths, and the lasting impact of a fungus that shaped history in ways few people realise.
Sources:
https://salemwitchmuseum.com/2023/05/17/debunking-the-moldy-bread-theory/ (https://salemwitchmuseum.com/2023/05/17/debunking-the-moldy-bread-theory/)
http://old.absentis.org/ergotism/the_witch_trials_of_finnmark_norway.pdf (http://old.absentis.org/ergotism/the_witch_trials_of_finnmark_norway.pdf)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6640538/ (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6640538/)
https://www.worldhistory.org/St_Anthony's_Fire/ (https://www.worldhistory.org/St_Anthony)
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/historicalstudies/events/talk-cursed-bread (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/historicalstudies/events/talk-cursed-bread-the-sinuous-story-of-a-mass-poisoning-by-bread-in-southern-france-in-1951-by-steven-kaplan-cornell-university)https://www.albertagrains.com/the-growing-point/articles-library/understanding-ergot-outbreaks-and-how-to-manage-them?back=1094 (https://www.albertagrains.com/the-growing-point/articles-library/understanding-ergot-outbreaks-and-how-to-manage-them?back=1094)
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