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The Roundtable

Norman Ohler writes about Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the dawn of the Psychedelic Age in "Tripped"

By Joe Donahue

Published February 10, 2025 at 11:35 AM EST

Norman Ohler, the author of the New York Times bestseller "Blitzed" (Mariner Books 2018), returns with a provocative new history of drugs and postwar America, examining the untold story of how Nazi experiments into psychedelics covertly influenced CIA research and secretly shaped the War on Drugs. The new book is: "Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age." (Mariner Books 2024)

Revealing the close relationship and hidden connections between the Nazis and the early days of drugs in America, Ohler shares how this secret history held back therapeutic research of psychedelic drugs for decades and eventually became part of the foundation of America’s War on Drugs. Norman Ohler is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and journalist.

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Joe Donahue

Joe talks to people on the radio for a living. In addition to countless impressive human "gets" - he has talked to a lot of Muppets. Joe grew up in Philadelphia, has been on the area airwaves for more than 25 years and currently lives in Washington County, NY with his wife, Kelly, and their dog, Brady. And yes, he reads every single book.

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