Welcome to the Smoking Spot! This week's episode features Amanda's newest project: TRIPPER Magazine! The first cannabis tourism magazine for the wanderers, the weedheads and the canna-curious travellers. Light up and look around! Tripper is the path less travelled for the path less travelled. In fact, there is no path. We’re here for the weird and wonderful sesh spots, chasing graffiti across alleyways and exploring a new city after the joint’s lit.Every issue is a new destination city, and this...
May 16, 2025•35 min
Are you "noseblind" to some of the most popular scents? Amanda and Ryan dive deep into the world of long-chain musks, the secret ingredient behind fragrances like Another 13, Baccarat 540 Extrait, Cloud 2.0, and Juliette Has A Gun. Explore the fascinating phenomenon of musk anosmia, uncover why these scents drive some wild (hint: it's primal), and learn about the historical impact of our obsession (we did hunt the musk civet to near extinction). Get ready for a scentsational journey into a hidde...
Mar 17, 2025•28 min
Amanda and Ryan have been holding it down in the industry for over a decade, witnessing its evolution firsthand. Now, we're bringing our combined experience to the table—or rather, to the jar—with actionable advice for breaking into the business. We’ll show you where to start, how to stand out, what you should be earning, and how to recognize when it’s time to level up or move on. Whether you're ready to replace your manager or finally launch that hash-rosin company you’ve been dreaming about, w...
Jan 21, 2025•54 min
We disappeared for a hot minute but we're back! After taking a couple months to launch some new projects, Ryan Herron and Amanda Breeze are back in the studio with some new book recommendations for 2025 Weed: Cannabis Culture in the Americas by Caitlin Donohue Chill: The Wine Lover's Guide to Cannabis by Jackie McAskill Buzz Kill: The Corporatization of Cannabis by Michael Devillaer All the books featured on this episode were released in 2024 and part of the Cannabis Literary Showcase! New! Get ...
Jan 02, 2025•47 min
Essentially a cheat sheet for how to start a vape brand. Cannabis purists step aside, the vape market is dominated by botanical terpene profiles, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Amanda Breeze and Ryan Herron discuss how vape brands can set themselves apart from their competitors and muse over the fact that most don't put the effort in. We talk about the restrictive effect descriptions Canadians are dealing with, what exactly Houndstooth tastes like, and what to do when the terps you orde...
Sep 11, 2024•41 min
We sit down with Marge from the Bite Me podcast to discuss this summer's Camp Canna. Amanda tells us the (tragic) story of being disqualified from the stoner-lympics, Marge tells us why summer camp fosters the best community, and Ryan listens intently while mentally practicing his archery skills. Stick around to hear the ladies' rating for this year's camp and details on the next. After camp, we bite down on the topic of creating your own edibles and the balancing act between creating something ...
Jul 29, 2024•53 min
We sit down this week with David Jacob Kramer, author of Heads Together to talk about the underground press culture of the 60's and 70's. At a time when artists, psychedelic explorers, and activists came together to optimistically smoke pot and push back against government control, we saw an explosion of creative material hit the streets. As ephemeral as newsprint is, some of these publications survived long enough for Kramer to go digging through the archives and share the best-of-the-best. We ...
Jul 15, 2024•45 min
We're back from our hiatus with a round-up about the latest scent-based news. We talk about A.I. perfume and why they're going to suck for a while. Amanda presents some newly trending scents in fragrance production and we both explore what "Opal" might smell like. Stick around and hold your nose while we try to describe that teen-boy smell (body spray, that is). No worries, herb fanatics, we focus on cannabis scents in everything from luxe perfumes to hard seltzers. Let's explore how we might so...
Jul 13, 2024•53 min
On this episode, Ryan and Amanda relive their tangie-scented trauma and talk about those big bright citrus profiles found in our favourite plant and the compounds that contribute to it. Despite the prevalence of Limonene-rich cultivars, we uncover why they don't always dominate citrus profiles as expected. Drawing from Leafly's compilation of limonene-dominant strains and Abstrax's insightful analysis, we dissect the draw of citrus profiles and how terpene tests are doing a disservice to the pro...
May 15, 2024•55 min
Join Ryan Herron and Amanda Breeze as they delve into the complexities of ADHD and focus for both diagnosed and undiagnosed individuals. Together, they sift through available research and draw from personal anecdotes to explore the impact of plant medicine on those affected by ADHD. Discover how our brains respond to stimuli, the nuances of our reward centers, and the role of plant medicine in this intricate equation. Ryan shares his journey of receiving an ADHD diagnosis as an adult and walks u...
May 06, 2024•55 min
Amanda Breeze and Ryan Herron sit down with an owner of Crop Circle Chocolate for an in-depth look at the last ten years in the Oregon edibles market. Jeremiah talks us through what it was like diving in head-first and admits, "I didn't even know what a logo was until we needed one." A decade ago, we were still eating mystery mg space cake and dreaming of the day we could open a box of truffles that didn't taste like stems and seeds. Today, we can stroll into any decent dispensary and walk out w...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Amanda is fresh off the Literary Showcase and Ryan wants to hear all about it. We touch on Germany's recent legal push and Thailand's retreat back toward prohibition before settling in and talking about the Expo. The book fair of our youth has been reimagined to showcase our favorite plant! Amanda talks about the months she spent sourcing the cream of the crop of our industry's best authors, educators, and storytellers. The trials and tribulations of setting up a portable library, and how findin...
Apr 12, 2024•1 hr 3 min
This week we've swapped out the pink couch for a boardroom table and invited the women making an impact on the Canadian industry to share their individual stories. With more knowledge than most C-suites, these founders cover everything from regulations to what it takes to gain major traction in the industry. Herb-inspired heartfelt moments are shared along with highlighting the shifts we'll need to see in the industry to continue leading global legalization. Hear what goes on the scenes when cre...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 19 min
Spice is tickling our taste buds this week on the vintage pink couch. Experts Amanda Breeze and Ryan Herron explore the Spicy wedge of the aroma wheel this week and delve into the nose-tingling and sneeze-inducing compounds found in our favorite plant. Dessert flavors are all well and good, but spice highlights the variety of life! We highlight some of our favorite spicy cultivars, smoke some Larry Bubba, and then go on a sprawling convo that starts with Beta Caryophyllenes unique properties as ...
Feb 29, 2024•47 min
The cases are laid out neatly with brightly packaged prerolls and uv jars of flower. Refrigerators line the wall with bevvies with names like Mellow Melonade and assuredly, the budtender has dreads. Though suspicions mount, you can't get a look inside that bag of "Cookies OG". There's no THC percentage in sight, and you're a hop, skip, and jump away from Caesar's Palace. You've stumbled into a fake dispensary, the increasingly common tourist trap that exists to sell dressed-up hemp products to v...
Feb 12, 2024•55 min
For thousands of years, humans have reached for herbs that help them sleep, wake, focus, relax, and elevate their moods but it only takes a week working at a dispensary before someone inevitably asks, "Will this make me horny?" So where does our favorite psychoactive plant fit in? Experts Amanda Breeze and Ryan Herron laugh their way through the important question, is this an aphrodisiac? Our conversation starts with prehistoric plants that are just starting to develop flowers and ends somewhere...
Feb 08, 2024•43 min
Ryan and Amanda sit down on a variety of pink couches as they go over their last year of podcasthood. Before the two hosts go through their past year of projects, Amanda launches the Cannabis Literary Showcase and Ryan goes to see Santa Claus. We talk virtual formulation, finally finishing that f*ckng writing project, and how Scentelligence and the aroma wheel came together. We promise it's better than a clip show! Grab a mix of jars from the head stash and roll up a plethora of interesting flav...
Jan 08, 2024•51 min
Join hosts Amanda and Ryan as they sit down with Leafly Editor, David Downs, in an engaging conversation about the standout strain of the year—Permanent Marker. We explore Leafly's meticulous criteria for selecting the flower, shedding light on the intersection of data and sensory evaluation in their decision-making process. For this episode, each of us tracks down a sample of Permanent Marker, sharing our unique perspectives and experiences on this stand-out strain. Don't miss out! Grab your ow...
Jan 02, 2024•40 min
Join hosts Amanda and Ryan in this fresh episode as they embark on a captivating journey with the esteemed cultivator, Brave Hearts. Together, they unravel the rich tapestry of craft cannabis history in Oregon, exploring the roots of the industry and its evolution from a breeder's refuge to the rosin capital of the world. Brave shares invaluable insights into how small farms can carve their niche and compete on a grand scale. Discover the secrets, tips, and tricks that growers leverage to clinch...
Dec 20, 2023•47 min
Amanda and Ryan go backstage with Eric as he walks us through his colorful history of being a magician, what it's like performing for an altered audience, and the time a guest marched out of the theater in the middle of a set (spoiler alert: the rest of the party stayed for the rest of the show). Catch an intimate look behind-the-scenes of his mega-popular Smokus Pocus show and hear more on why weed and magic are well-suited buds.
Nov 22, 2023•44 min
This week we sit down for a hosts-only episode to discuss the new white paper released by Abstrax. We discuss the role that flavorants play in cannabis, what the term Exotic has meant over the last decade, and dig into what these new discoveries mean for the future of the industry. Grab a jar of something tropical and hone your nose with this week's episode of the smoking spot.
Nov 14, 2023•1 hr 10 min
Amanda and Ryan cram the big pink couch into Chris Romaine's travel van this week. We talk to Chris about establishing his brand, Kandid Kush while traveling the world in search of unique opportunities. This includes finding triploids in massive pheno hunts, catching Dengue fever in the Jamaican bush, and creating larger-than-life interactive art for The House of Cannabis at THC NYC. Roll up something exotic and admire Chris's mind-boggling work while you listen to this week's episode of The Smo...
Oct 26, 2023•55 min
This week Amanda and Ryan invite Adrian Stein of Dope Cocktails to join them on the big pink couch. We talk about how the hospitality industry gets weed wrong, the surprising number of sober bartenders, and how to craft a cocktail that turns heads before the first sip. Drip a drop of Terpenes into that night cap and give this week's intimate episode a listen!
Oct 19, 2023•37 min
We have the multi-talented Tom Different, founder of the Different Collective and Urbanistic, guiding us through the full spectrum of what he and his team offer. We talk about the epiphany of admiring cannabis through a microscope, why grading herb at the commercial scale is integral to the success of the industry, and why "getting stoned" is not quite the right terminology we should be using. Break out the nice bong and grab the microscope for a much-needed closer look on this week's fresh epis...
Oct 02, 2023•1 hr 4 min
This week we're joined by Amanda Day, owner of @ terpodactyl_media and director of the Oregon Leaf. We dive right into the scene at this year's @thissmokingjacket, talk sophisticated photography setups, and explore ways to battle impostor syndrome. Not to mention a special appearance by @ endo_thepit ! Reach into the back of the freezer, grab a gram of something nice, and listen in as we explore what it's like battling migraines and pulling all-nighters to give cannabis the attention it deser...
Sep 27, 2023•56 min
Amanda and Ryan sit down on the big comfy pink couch and chat with the illustrious duo Jolyn and Alexis of @bluntsandbeans. They dig into what it takes to throw a big event for the cannabis industry, this year's @camp_canna and winning the Cannalympics (hint: sparking a J in a hurricane is just the beginning). Roll up your cheeriest herb and join us on the couch for this giggle filled and important conversation.
Sep 13, 2023•1 hr
Get ready to roll into Season 2! We're stoked to ignite your curiosity in this brand-new season of The Smoking Spot Podcast. Why are we so excited, you ask? Well, it's simple – we're diving headfirst into the world of cannabis careers, and we're shining a spotlight on the most intriguing jobs within the industry. Throughout this season, we'll introduce you to incredible community members, brands, and projects that are the heartbeat of the canna-community. This season we're bringing along some of...
Sep 06, 2023•45 min
From the archives! A short episode because Amanda had to catch the bus and head back to Canada! But before leaving Portland we had to explore some of the best pot and find smells for every category of the Cannabis Aroma Wheel. The Cannabis Aroma Wheel is a sensory tool designed to help cannasseurs take their knowledge to the next level. It categorizes scents into familiar categories and families to help distinguish precise aromatic notes. Use it to differentiate between the unique tastes of indi...
Aug 24, 2023•25 min
Humboldt is the spot this week as Amanda and Ryan dig into the legal and black market weed scene. We chase ice cream trucks home, help water the plants, and show how to catch the vibe of an area before you've even arrived. Amanda chats up prominent members of the Humboldt scene about their day to day on the farm and we're lucky enough to listen in. Grab that jar you've been saving and join us for an exploration of one the world's best weed spots.
Jul 21, 2023•48 min
Amanda and Ryan connect in person and dive into Portland's weed community. We visit a handful of dispensaries, smoke some homegrown herb, and talk about the difference in approach between Oregon and Toronto's dispensary scenes. Roll one up and enjoy some ganja-fueled travel from the comfort of your couch.
Jul 11, 2023•56 min
