Every 4/20 issue of the Source Weekly, I talk about the movies I love watching while inebriated on the devil's lettuce. In fact, over the last few years I've been trying to craft a New Stoner Canon: stony movies that are more fun to watch than the usual suspects like Cheech and Chong or "Half Baked" ("Friday" still works though). But you know what? I spend so much time writing about movies and shows that I think this year we should look at a few other nooks and crannies of popular culture for our stoner delights. With that said, here are a few books, podcasts and video games I enjoy the hell out of while I'm high.
The Stoner Literature Canon
Sure, it's easy to find books to read about drugs and the people on them. You can look no further than Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" or Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," but it's much harder to find a book that takes you on a journey from the comfort of your own ass. I don't need to read about other people's highs; I would much rather enhance my own.
The best stoner books are ones that make you feel a little high even when you're dead sober, so the obvious best choice for baked reading is "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. It's intellectual, it's funny and there's a depressed robot named Marvin. Along this line, if you want other big, crazy worlds to explore after a gummy or pre-roll, check out any of the "Discworld" books by Terry Pratchett or even the massively mind-melting "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Some other great choices for brain-expanding reads are: "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons, "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon, "The Gone-Away World" by Nick Harkaway, "Wolf in White Van" by John Darnielle or "John Dies at the End" by David Wong. There are just too many to name here.
Stony Video Games
"Disco Elysium" lives in my brain full time now, but when I play stoned, it transports me to a seaside fictional city where I'm an amnesiac detective struggling to solve a murder while dealing with his own psychological demons. The writing, the acting and story are mesmerizing and will teach you an absolute masterclass in storytelling. Available on Windows, Mac, Xbox, Playstation, Switch, Steam and just about all the other things.
Podcasts to Peruse While High
This depends on what your brain likes to listen to. If you like to learn, "Ologies" is a really fun science podcast where really smart people basically get asked stupid questions. If you like laughing, "Getting Doug with High" is an easy choice here. It's usually riotous and ridiculous in equal measures and will make you laugh until you need to lie down. If you like to f**k with your brain, "Everything is Alive" follows improv actors playing anthropomorphized inanimate objects like a grain of sand or a balloon. If you want to deeply feel your place in the universe, I can't recommend this one enough.
