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Imagine growing up in the Merry Pranksters commune and Grateful Dead family -that’s like being part of the hippie Game of Thrones House Targaryens and Lannisters – it’s the inner inner circle of the counterculture and it’s where host, Rainbow Valentine’s childhood friend, Trixie Garcia, comes from.  As the offspring of Jerry Garcia and Mountain Girl, (a Merry Prankster), Trixie has a unique perspective on psychedelic culture, history and what it means to be a second-generation psychedelic woman.  Trixie shares stories from her childhood, teen years and more, including holidays with the Merry Pranksters, embarrassing kid memories, the disappointment of a raisin and experiencing the extremes of pre-conceived notions due to her name.  Plus, the history of Kool Aid, DIY hippie sweaters, ayahuasca and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second most notorious smuggler of the SF counterculture was an outlaw named Milan Melvin, who everyone from the scene has a story about… If you listened to past episodes, Milan Melvin was the drug dealer/station manager at the first free rock radio station, KMPX, who briefly married Joan Baez’s sister Mimi Farina, after Mimi had an affair with host, Rainbow Valentine’s mom’s 3rd husband.  Yes, the 60’s in San Francisco were one big Psychedelic Soap Opera and in this episode of Smuggler Family Album, RV chats with Milan Melvin’s son, Mocean Melvin, a voice actor who grew up dodging pirate ships, customs officials and international border guards.  Mocean Melvin gives us the inside scoop on his dad’s illustrious, international smuggling career, from money laundering to losing everything and Mocean answers the pressing question: was Milan Melvin a narc? If you like true crime stories of global outlaws, outliers and outside-the-box bikers, you’re welcome.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, American counterculture offspring like host, Rainbow Valentine and her childhood peers from Northern California, were forbidden to have sugar and real candy bars but were allowed to occasionally have a sweet (ish) treat called the Tiger’s Milk Bar, a progenitor of today’s ubiquitous protein bar.  Sadly, in 2022, the Tiger’s Milk Bar disappeared from planet Earth and in homage to the Hippie Kid’s fave treat, RV and her summercamp tipi-mates, Rami Margron and Kacy Gordon, reminisce about the Tiger’s Milk Bar, which leads to shocking conversations about Hippie Kid’s Halloween, hippie’s lies about candy and the psychology of forbidden things.  Along the way RV unpacks the history of the protein bar, high fructose corn syrup, carob, Twinkies, Rainbow Gatherings and Tiger’s Milk Bar’s surprising link to Scottish indie rock from the ‘90s. Featuring an all-star lineup of Camp Winnarainbow alumni and other former hippie kids.  If you were raised a hippie kid or wish you were or have feelings about sugar, this episode is for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rainbow Valentine talks with her mom’s friend, Julia Brigden, aka Girl Frieberg, who married musician, David Frieberg of the Quicksilver Messenger Service at the age of 17 to avoid returning to Juvenile Hall. Julia Girl Brigden did reckless things in the 1960’s like hitchhike to Mexico to trip with psychedelic mouthpiece, Tim Leary (coiner of Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out) before being sent to reform school where she hung out with musicians David Crosby, Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane and fellow classmate, Bob Weir.  Along with her youthful delinquency, Julia Girl Brigden tells us about her freewheeling life with the acid rock stars, drugs, misogyny, free love and more. Plus RV unpacks the history of hitchhiking, the 1966 Hunter’s Point Race Riots, Cool Whip and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a mini episode of Smuggler Family Album previously only avail on Patreon, Rainbow Valentine’s mom, Taffy Lemur aka Kathy Mason Lerner, from Psychedelic Women and Disorganized Crime, shares true stories about an infamous 1960’s San Francisco prostitute known as The Dragon Lady and an ergotomine tartrate smuggler who had a secret cellar of treasure and strangely, a fake tire store. Plus, the history of the condom, the sordid pasts of Marin real estate ladies, Margo St. James and memories of vintage Marin County, California in the 1970s and 80’s before the tech titans usurped the psychedelic pioneers. To support this historic work, join Patreon.com/RainbowValentine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before she became one of the first female DJ’s in America, Dusty Street was babysat by San Francisco’s most iconic Madam, Sally Stanford and the brothel’s cook, Juanita, who became the Bay Area’s most colorful restauranteur.  These historic women and Dusty’s Communist/cocktail waitress mom taught Dusty to be a badass trailblazer who was on the air continuously for over 30 years.    Host, Rainbow Valentine interviewed Dusty Street before her death in 2017 and in this juicy, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll packed episode, Dusty shares fascinating stories about growing up in Beatnik SF in the 1950s, her teen years in Palo Alto hanging out with the future Grateful Dead, the rise of her historic DJ career, her illegal abortion, her Mexican run-in with the counterculture’s most notorious one-handed smuggler, the Trips Festival of 1966, the Summer of Love, her encounters with murderous music titans and rock stars, her marriage to RV’s sister’s babydaddy, LSD, the Pill, cocaine, plus the history of Kotex, Pop Tarts and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can’t buy your way into the inner circle counterculture - you behave your way in; plus what’s difference between outlaws and criminals?  In this hybrid episode, host, Rainbow Valentine talks counterculture greed, loss, trust and betrayal with her psychedelic pioneer mom, Kathy Mason Lerner (subject of eps 1 – 6) and Kira and Jasper Thelin, whose family opened the first headshop in America.  RV’s mom tells us about Janis Joplin’s best friend/costumer, Linda Gravenites, the ex of Nick Gravenites, who was RV’s mom’s 3rd husband’s drug-dealing partner. Plus, a bag of stolen bling, a smuggler named Anchovy, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart’s ex and that’s just the first 20 minutes of this psychedelic soap opera.  Next, we hear the story of the visionary boy scout who burned $100 dollar bills aka Ron Thelin, who, along with his wife, Marcia and brother, Jay, started the Psychedelic Shop on Haight Street.  Ron’s kids, Kira and Jasper Thelin, tell us about their dad and uncle: all-American brothers intent on creating a free and equal society by becoming Psychedelic Robin Hoods with a counterculture Craigslist. We get into the Diggers, the Death of Hippie, psychedelic art, the theft of the Thelin family crest and much more.  Because talking is medicinal and stories are weapons. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t everyone’s parents have smuggler friends who disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle? In the subculture host, Rainbow Valentine grew up in, yes, but the rest of the world, maybe not. And because of this, RV shares ho-hum lunch convos with her and her former pot-smuggler counterculture parents from the podcast, Disorganized Crime. In this trio of Lunch with the Lemurs, RV's parents tell us true stories of missing smugglers, a power-crystal shaman, a San Francisco smuggler soiree, the most infamous Mill Valley cop of the 80’s, plus RV’s dad’s love of Costco, the hippie kid’s carob conundrum and that time RV’s parents took LSD and mistakenly went hot-tubbing with a motorcycle gang.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before she was a 17 year old groundfloor member of the 1960's San Francisco counterculture, Rosie McGee was the child of French Holocaust survivors who, after WW2, flipped a coin on where to emigrate and as Rosie says, “I won” because San Francisco in the early 60’s was a city of beatniks melding into hippies – the perfect place for a teenage detective to become a psychedelic woman.  Before she wrote her memoir, Dancing with the Dead, Rosie McGee was Florence Nathan, a naïve, theater enthusiast who lived a double life, secret from her conservative French parents who had no idea their daughter’s job with Big Daddy Tom Donahue would lead her into the arms of comedian, Lenny Bruce, Grateful Dead bassist, Phil Lesh and to the Far East with the SF counterculture’s most infamous smuggler.  This episode unpacks true stories of the Muir Beach Acid Test, the Human Be In,  Janis Joplin, The Coffee Gallery, The Committee, the Warlocks and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“You can smuggle anything except for drugs and guns…” These were the rules laid down by a Brazilian beauty queen to her Uraguyan Jewish husband, who smuggled everything from hi-fis to Hindus.  In this episode of Smuggler Family Album, host Rainbow Valentine chats with her Brazilian drummer friend, Pedro Strasser, whose father (also named Pedro) was a smuggler during the Brazilian dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s.  Everyone in the counterculture smuggler scene or those interested in the smugglers of yore, will relate to/be fascinated by Pedro Jr.’s memories of his scrappy smuggler dad’s innovative creativity and entrepreneurial spirit as he moved everything but drugs and guns, in his handmade yacht, in order to support his wife, kids and art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus episode host, Rainbow Valentine, continues to put the psychedelic puzzle pieces of her culture together as Dr. Maria Mangini, PHD, co-founder of the Women’s Visionary Congress, nurse practitioner and psychedelic historian, tells RV and listeners about her friendship with Nicky Scully, subject of Episode 10 and takes us down some serious counterculture rabbit holes.  Topics include insider Grateful Dead trivia, Timothy Leary, the Emerald Tablets movement, Goldfinger the smuggler, Esalen, Millbrook, Fred and Bill Wahpepah, the Sundance Ceremony, a gem called the Seva Diamond, a secret room stuffed with psychedelic goodies, women’s colleges and the Academy Award winner in Dr. Maria's theater program and much more…   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cults! Kidnapping! Concubines!  This epic bonus episode of the Radiate story (Eps 1 - 6) with Rainbow Valentine and her Zelig artist mom, Kathy Mason Lerner aka the Astrologer’s Daughter, gets into RV’s mom’s life before she gave her signature fur hat to Janis Joplin.  True stories of RV’s mom’s godparents who were California Bohemians of the 1930s, 40’s and 50’s, astrologers and friends with Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and their secret girlfriend. Plus, we learn about RV’s Grandma Kitty’s secret girlfriend (who was a psychic), the esoteric cults Grandma Kitty was into and RV’s mom’s friendships with musician Richie Valens (La Bamba) and racecar driver Donnie “the Snake” Prudhomme (the first driver to go 140 mph).   This juicy prequel to Radiate Ep 1 ends with new details about Sam Gee’s murder, his courtesan mother and the Wobblies.  If you’re into revolutionary art, artists and revolutionaries... this is for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How many counterculture brides can say that Janis Joplin sang at their wedding?   At least one and her name is Nicki Scully and host, Rainbow Valentine’s mom made her wedding rings.  Shamanic healer, Nicki Scully was an LSD-taking teenager who arrived in San Francisco during the 1967 Summer of Love, where she met and married Goldfinger, the infamous, one-handed smuggler who kept Nicki doped up and in a gilded cage before she left him for one of the managers of the Grateful Dead. In this gritty episode, Nicky Scully shares dark stories about surviving relationships with famous counterculture men, which gave her the tools to becoming a healer.  Along with Nicki's stories, Rainbow Valentine gets into the history of women’s shelters, abortion laws in America and Janis Joplin’s veterinarian… plus that time Nicki took LSD and delivered a baby without midwifery training, let alone the internet.  If you like counterculture history don’t miss the trippy true stories shared by Grateful Dead family member/shamanic healer, Nicki Scully. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do you call a deranged smuggler who asks you to stash a brick of gold under your pillow for 6 months?  A friend or an acquaintance?  Rainbow Valentine’s mom’s art patron, Goldfinger, was a one-handed smuggler who regularly moved thousands of pounds of hashish from Lebanon to the US before being busted by the CIA, which only turned him into a fugitive. Goldfinger was a bigger-than-life real outlaw in the SF counterculture scene of the 1960’s and 70’s...but then he disappeared in the 1980’s; everyone assumed he was dead but none of the psychedelic pioneers knew how he died. The second part of the saga of Goldfinger reveals brand new, never-before-heard information about the notorious, one-handed, counterculture smuggler, including details on his outlaw life in Europe, how he died and the major secret he kept from everyone in the SF counterculture scene; never revealed… until this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When your parents tell you about a real one-handed smuggler named Goldfinger who lost his hand in a smuggling trip gone wrong, there’s only one thing to do: dive deeper.  In The True Saga of Goldginger Part 1, Rainbow Valentine talks to psychedelic woman/counterculture, groundfloor member, Raechel Donahue (wife of Big Daddy Tom Donahue), about Goldfinger - the larger-than-life, counterculture smuggler who disappeared in the 1980’s and may or may not be dead… Raechel reveals all she remembers about the unhinged outlaw who traveled everywhere (including court) with a duffle bag-chemistry lab and eventually became a fugitive after running over a movie star’s kid, smuggling thousands of pounds of illegal drugs and being taken down by the CIA and Lebanese airforce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices