The pieces in Pot Stories for the Soul are funny, whimsical, bizarre, poignant, informational, shocking, and, yeah, soulful. They are about love, hate, escape, reality, the paranormal, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Michelle Phillips, Hunter Thompson, Abbie Hoffman, Wavy Gravy and peanut butter. Ultimately, these stories reveal the wide, weird, and wonderful subculture of stoners, where the reefers are mad, the joints are fat, and the buzz lasts for six-and-a-half days. Mainstream America has had an uneasy relationship with marijuana. Once a legal substance, the 1930s saw a massive campaign against the "Devil's Harvest" that led to pot being rendered illegal. In the 1960s, marijuana became one of the defining elements of the counterculture before once again being shunted to the sidelines. Over the last decade, however, marijuana has gone mainstream and has been the topic of seminars, expos, concerts, comedy routines, movies, TV shows, and college courses across the country. Originally published by High Times in 1999, Pot Stories for the Soul won the Firecracker Alternative Book Award and also became a Quality Paperback Book Club selection. This brand-new edition includes several new essays by Paul Krassner, plus his foreword, his afterword, and the evolution of cannabis sanity in between.

Many women are stuck in their day-to-day routine with so much noise overwhelming them - who they should be, what they should be doing, and how they should be doing it. They don't realize that they are superheroes in disguise, donning invisible capes and capable of fulfilling their goals and ambitions. In Stirring the Pot, author Traci Mitchell takes a closer look at successful, accomplished women who are living their lives on purpose, and what it takes to be an inspiration to oneself and those around you. You'll hear lessons learned from well-known women including: Oprah Winfrey Ariana Grande Winnie Mandela Learn more about your inner strengths and gifts. See just how phenomenal you can truly be. Traci Mitchell's Stirring the Pot provides all the info you need for self-empowerment and purpose. Women are capable of making what may seem impossible, possible. It's as simple as believing in yourself and finding others to walk with you.

Rejection. Loss. Confusion. Pain. Our past and our future are intertwined. Each distinct memory becomes one life. What once hurt, eventually heals, and the lesson (or lessons) to be learned becomes one with our soul and our spirit. Our experiences provide strength instead of destruction. Our great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers -- all women of power who came before us -- were great descendants of the coastal lands of West Africa. They arrived in strange lands with their Gumbo - -their memories, rhythms, ingenuity, creativity, strength, and compassion. Their lived stories and conversation were recipes mixed with unique combinations of ingredients, dropped into the cast iron pot -- stirred, dropped in, seasoned, dropped in, stirred again, and again, and again, until done. This Gumbo is savory like the soul, carefully prepared, recipes rich with what our foremothers brought with them from their homeland. They brought the best of what they had to offer. Gumbo or Gombo is a Bantu word meaning ‘okra’. Okra is a rich vegetable that serves as the base (or gravy) for a delicately prepared stew. (Today’s Gumbo cooks use a ‘roux’ as the base- see the recipe on page 3). Gumbo’s West African origins have been modified over the past two centuries by people of varied ancestry: Native American, German, Spanish, and French (Moss, 2014). It is essential to understand the manner in which Gumbo is prepared: each ingredient must be placed into the stew at its specified time so that it can cook in and savor its own flavor. When completed, Gumbo is usually served over grits or rice. Gumbo has become a cornerstone of life in African-descended communities across the south and southwest spanning from South Carolina to Louisiana and Texas. Gumbo is a treasure… a reminder of the greatness that lived in the village in a time of strength and abundance…a reminder of the resilience and richness of our people over generations. This book -- a collection of memoirs written by Women of Color is shared to inspire and motivate readers. The authors of these precious, soulful stories are from across the globe and represent various backgrounds and professions. What these women have in common, though, is their drive to tell their story. Stories of pain, discovery, strength, and stories of beginnings. Many of the experiences, as difficult as they may have been, made the women who they are today. Telling these stories to a new generation will empower and encourage them in their experiences no matter how troubling or challenging (Harris, 2015). These stories, like our foremothers offering their Gumbo, present the best these women have to offer. These authors want the world to know that deep inside of each of us is a rich, vibrant, purposeful beginning. As our lives develop and we are “stirred and stirred again”, like Gumbo, our experiences begin to shape who we are and who we become. When the stirring is complete, a comforting meal -- one that says no matter what has gone into the dish, it’s going to be amazingly magnificent!! The authors hope these stories will inspire and motivate girls and Women of Color to trust their experiences -- whether good or bad -- to help them become. Our becoming means that after all that life has thrown our way, we are strong, purposeful, and powerful people who are a great treasure to a world that sometimes rejects and ignores our existence. Embedded in this book are stories of abuse and triumph, sadness and victory, disappointment and resilience, discovery and victory. We are very proud to be the keepers of these rich recipes. They represent the first in what we hope will become a collection or series of inspirational memoirs that will be shared to help others live out their destiny and become the women they were born to be.

Soul Survivors gives voice to women and children in Cambodia who survived the genocide (1975 - 1979), when nearly two million people died from execution, starvation, or disease. Through their detailed personal stories, fourteen people reveal the brutality of Pol Pot's regime, how they managed to survive, and what it took to rebuild their lives afterward. Although the survivors lives are fraught with suffering and times of despair, there is an under current of hope, courage, and resilience that comforts and inspires. Their stories are a testimony to the strength and goodness of the human spirit. Twelve of the fourteen survivors who tell their stories in Soul Survivors stayed in Cambodia after the genocide and worked against the odds to bring their family fragments back together and reclaim their culture. The fascinating details about life and traditions in Cambodia are revealed through their tales as the survivors come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including a medical doctor, classical dancer, landmine survivor, Buddhist nun, Muslim fisherwoman, Christian farmer, orphan, high school teacher, prostitute, silk weaver, social worker, and women's leader. Two survivors came to the United States of America as orphans, graduated from college, and returned to Cambodia as young adults to help rebuild their country. Sixty-four captivating photographs draw the reader into contemporary Cambodia to witness the survivors' courageous work to recover from three decades of war, genocide and poverty. Soul Survivors creates a comprehensive picture of Cambodia yesterday and today. In addition to the survivors stories, there are chapters on how the Khmer Rouge came to power, the role of the US, thelandmine situation, the Buddhist peace movement, and how to help people in Cambodia. It includes a chronology of Cambodian history, a map of Cambodia, and an index. This second edition of Soul Survivors was published as Cambodia's genocide trial began in 2008. The perpetrators, top leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, are being held accountable for mass murder and crimes against humanity 30 years after the tragedy. This new edition is updated and contains recent historical events and an epilog telling what happened to the survivors since the first edition was published in 2002. It also includes information about the two charitable humanitarian organizations the author and photographer were inspired to create to help the poor in Cambodia. "The book effectively demonstrates the political, economic, and psychological links between the destruction of Cambodian society carried out in the 1970s and the suffering experienced by so many Cambodians today," stated Susan Cook, Director of the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University. "These are stories that have to be told, that have to be held up to the light of humanity. For the sorrows of Cambodia have not ended. They have been repeated in greater or lesser forms in Rwanda and Bosnia, in Colombia, and continue even now in our history. Hatred never ceases by hatred but by love alone is healed," stated Jack Kornfield, a Buddhist teacher who worked in the Cambodian refugee camps.

The pieces in Pot Stories for the Soul are funny, whimsical, bizarre, poignant, informational, shocking, and, yeah, soulful. They are about love, hate, escape, reality, the paranormal, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Michelle Phillips, Hunter Thompson, Abbie Hoffman, Wavy Gravy and peanut butter. Ultimately, these stories reveal the wide, weird, and wonderful subculture of stoners, where the reefers are mad, the joints are fat, and the buzz lasts for six-and-a-half days. Mainstream America has had an uneasy relationship with marijuana. Once a legal substance, the 1930s saw a massive campaign against the "Devil's Harvest" that led to pot being rendered illegal. In the 1960s, marijuana became one of the defining elements of the counterculture before once again being shunted to the sidelines. Over the last decade, however, marijuana has gone mainstream and has been the topic of seminars, expos, concerts, comedy routines, movies, TV shows, and college courses across the country. Originally published by High Times in 1999, Pot Stories for the Soul won the Firecracker Alternative Book Award and also became a Quality Paperback Book Club selection. This brand-new edition includes several new essays by Paul Krassner, plus his foreword, his afterword, and the evolution of cannabis sanity in between.

In the army, I often wrote letters for my fellow comrades for a price. They would tell me the story and I would put them in words. It was a good hustle for me to make a little extra money. I would write poems for their ladies or wives for special occasions. You know I liked doing it but I never did make copies to keep for myself. Now, the education system was a very pleasant experience until about the sixth grade for me when I learned that black people were slaves to white people in our social studies classes. That was a defining moment for my educational experience because of the way it was taught. It really threw me for a loop as I went home crying to my mother. But she explained to me that the truth, if you will seek, you will find, and that will make you free. But from then on, I lost some faith in the American education system. As I learned later in life, it was all based upon the theory of white supremacy. For the facts that lead to truth were purposely left out of the mix to deprive black people of their righteous place in history and robbed white people of their truth in history. The school system was one of the two major vehicles by which the white people claimed themselves as superior and the black people as inferior. The other was religion, and together as a double edge sword, they still continue to put enmity between the different peoples and cultures of the world. I did not give up on my learning experience and started to read other materials such as magazines, comics, and biographies of great men of color, especially sports figures. But the number one thing that I used to learn how to read better was the sports page of the L.A. Times. I would read that section from front page to back page every morning before school. But in school, poetry was my most favored reading. I liked the rythming of words as well as the message. I think it was related to another love of mine as a child and that was music and dancing. It didn’t take long for me memorize the lyrics of a song as we danced along, singing aloud, as if we were endowed, with a gift from heaven above, with that special kind of love. That was the ultimate fun as a young man growing up to meet the girls. To write little poems to your girlfriends was what I liked most. The poetry of greeting cards was my cup of tea after my education experience on our family festivities and celebrations. I would add my own poems to the cards on these occasions. The family and friends always seemed to like them so very much, always complimenting and encouraging me to write more. But I did not pursue poetry much as I continued my quest for facts in pursuit of truth. When my marriage ended in divorce in the early 1980s, it was music and poetry that brought joy and peace within. That’s when my writing of poetry increased and my perspective about other things expanded. As a single man again, it was very interesting living the single life. Now, I have been married for 18 years, living the family life called the American dream with grand children and all the wrappings and trappings that go with it. But I don’t mind one little bit because most of us should be graceful for the material life this land has produced despite its inequities. For the horizon does not look as favorable for our future generations that must cope with the mess we have left for them in the physical, mental, and spiritual planes of life.

Uncensored, uncontained, and thoroughly demented, the memoirs of Paul Krassner are back in an updated and expanded edition. Paul Krassner, “father of the underground press” (People magazine), founder of the Realist, political radical, Yippie, and award-winning stand-up satirist, shares his stark raving adventures with the likes of Lenny Bruce, Abbie Hoffman, Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey, Groucho Marx, and Squeaky Fromme, revealing the patriarch of counterculture’s ultimate, intimate, uproarious life on the fringes of society. Whether he’s writing about his friendship with controversial comic Lenny Bruce, introducing Groucho Marx to LSD, his investigation of Scientology, or John Kennedy’s cadaver, no subject is too sacred to be skewered by Krassner. And yet his stories are soulful and philosophical, always authentic to his iconoclastic brand of personal journalism. As Art Spiegelman said, “Krassner is one of the best minds of his generational to be destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical, naked—but mainly hysterical. His true wacky, wackily true autobiography is the definitive book on the sixties.”

“Essentially an encyclopedia of pot, filled with such top 10 lists as ‘best stoner movies’ . . . plus a ‘pot-parazzi’ section with celebrities sneaking a toke.” —Billboard Do you know the difference between burning one and Burning Man? Does using the name Marley as an adjective make total sense to you? Do you chuckle to yourself when the clock strikes 4:20? Are you convinced that the movie Dazed and Confused deserved an Oscar? If you answered “Dude!” to any of these questions, then Pot Culture is the book you’ve been waiting for. For those in the know, it’s the stoner bible. For novices, it’s Pot 101. Either way, Pot Culture encapsulates the history, lifestyle, and language of a subculture that, with every generation, is constantly redefining itself. From exhaustive lists of stoner-friendly movies, music, and television shows to detailed explanations of various stoner tools to celebrity-authored how-tos and an A-Z compendium of slang words and terms, it’s the ultimate encyclopedia of pot. Written by former High Times editors Shirley Halperin (now a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly and a TV talking head) and Steve Bloom (publisher of CelebStoner.com), and featuring contributions by a host of celebrity stoners, including Melissa Etheridge, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Redman, Steve-O, and America’s Next Top Model’s Adrianne Curry, Pot Culture provides the answers to everything you ever wanted to know about pot but were too stoned to ask. “This is a fun book that every toker should get their sticky green fingers on. Clever and informative . . . Great book and a must-buy for all us loadies.” —Blogcritics

This collection of short stories and vignettes provides nine tales of not-so-ordinary life in Ikebukuro, including some reminiscing at Celty and Shinra’s big hotpot party, the coming-of-age ceremony of the older Raira gang, and another supernatural visitor to Tokyo!