April Pride: This podcast discusses cannabis and is intended for audiences 21 and over.

Sophie Saint Thomas: Whether it’s a friends with benefits or someone you’ve been married to for 20 years, the sex is going to be better if you’re feeling close with that other person. So I do think that the emotional and the mental effects of cannabis are very important to talk about when we talk about its role in sex. It’s not just the physical act of sex, it basically helps us think more positively and can really enhance emotional connection with our partner. It’s a really delightful whole package.

April Pride: Welcome back to How to Do the Pot. I’m April Pride and I do the pot. This is the audio newsletter. If you’d rather read it, visit dothepot.com and subscribe to our email newsletter. If you like How to Do the Pot, please share it with someone and rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It helps more people find our show. What if the phrase we heard growing up was, “Just add weed,” rather than, “Just say no”? Picture this. It’s a beautiful day at the beach, your aunt turns to your mom and asks, “Add weed?” As normal as, “Do you want a beer from the cooler?” What does adding weed bring to moments of our life? It’s simple, cannabis is like a sixth sense that heightens the other five, bringing more pleasure to most any activity, for sure. Even taxes, and especially quarantine.

April Pride: See what happens when you intentionally add weed to a typical daily, weekly, monthly experience, and let us know what you did and what the outcome was. To guide us through working with weed to invite more pleasure into every day, I spoke with Sophie Saint Thomas, and you can find her on Twitter and Instagram @theBowieCat. She’s the author of Finding Your Higher Self: Your Guide to Cannabis for Self-Care. She quite literally wrote the book on weed and pleasure. To be clear, pleasure comes in many forms, not just the sexual kind. As a sex writer, Sophie covers this topic with aplomb. And you can check out an earlier episode, a mini episode, that she recorded with us and she counted down five practical tips to use cannabis to amplify the pleasure we allow ourselves to enjoy. In her book, Sophie discusses the unknown pleasures list, so we created a list of activities for each of your five senses that we think you should try, especially considering the time we are in.

Sophie Saint Thomas: The idea of the unknown pleasure list is that you write down anything that would give you pleasure and you would like to experience, but is still unknown to you. And then as soon as you accomplish it, you check it off because it’s no longer unknown. It’s basically a bucket list, but a nicer way of saying it. The thing about cannabis that ties back to the unknown pleasures list is that I find that it just lowers your inhibitions, basically through calming you down and through your anxiety. And that can be a really, really amazing confidence boost.

April Pride: So for today’s High Five, how do I use the weed to amplify pleasure? Just add weed to any of the five senses and the ordinary becomes, at times, otherworldly. Couldn’t you just use something to help you get through these days? Number one, sight. Get lost in a physical copy of Interview Magazine or Art Zooming with Feist, and you can find links to each of these in our show notes, by the way. Number two, sound. Type 8D music into YouTube, find a song and listen, or download the Binaural app and listen before bed. Extra pleasure if you use 360 sound headphones and smoke, consume a heavier cannabis strain to quiet your mind, so you can be in the music rather than in your own head.

April Pride: Number three, smell. Before aromatherapy diffusers, there was potpourri boiled on the stove. That’s the way my mom did it, it made the house smell really nice. I’d say add that to your daily routine. Number four, taste. Create nonalcoholic drinks served in the best glassware, consider sipping Kin alongside your vape, a joint or low dose infusement. Zotz candies are really fun too. Number five, touch. Should you find yourself wrapped in a faux fur blanket, it’s an ideal time to just add weed.

April Pride: Hey, friends. Sarah Jane is a Michigan-based, woman-owned cannabis brand with pre-rolls, mints and dosed breath spray. They’re looking to reprogram the conversations we’re having around weed, as well as our experience with weed, and that starts with the products that we use to enhance these experiences. Sarah Jane’s MicroEssentials are here to help us steady our minds throughout the day. Their low dose products can be easily brought into our busy lives, in forms that we’re already familiar with. You get to choose what works for you, when you want to do it, and how you want to do the pot. There’s no right or wrong, you just enjoy the ride. You can follow them on Instagram at your.sarah.jane. That’s Sarah with an H. Sarah Jane products are currently available in Michigan, so visit their website at yoursarahjane.com to find out where you can buy.

April Pride: And of course, we offer three strain recs to amplify your pleasure. What about Chocolope? It’s a motivating, energizing strain that leaves you with a clear level head, making it well-suited for daytime use. It’s an ideal wake and bake strain, so Chocolope is a good bet for great morning sex. Strawberry Banana, it’s happy, peaceful, mellow high with sharper sensory awareness. This indica-dominant hybrid is the cherry on top of any sex session. Senses are heightened, thanks to the effects of the strain, and its universally appealing flavor certainly contributes to a well-rounded experience. Purple Arrow. Euphoric, calming, relaxing. The only thing standing between you and a good time in bed is the not so simple act of dropping your shoulders and that pesky to do list. Inter-Purple Arrow, the cannabis Cupid. One of the best strains for tackling pain without feeling medicated, should that other Purple Arrow strike more than one place below the waist. In warning, this strain can certainly leave you very hungry.

April Pride: Here are three podcasts that Ellen and I love and we’d like to share with you. I’m listening to Once Upon a Time in the Valley, created by Vanity Fair’s Lily Anolik, who uncovers the true story of Tracy Lords. Yep, that 1980s porn star. Ellen likes Dirty Diana, I do too, hosted by Demi Moore. It’s a fictional drama series about a woman who escapes from her carefully curated life and secretly runs an erotic website for women. And to do the pot, we recommend that you listen to The Sexually Liberated Woman, hosted by Ev’Yan Whitney. The Sex and Cannabis episode shares how to use weed to enhance your sex life.

April Pride: Thank you for listening to this audio newsletter. Let us know what you think. Find us on Instagram at Do the Pot, and you can follow me at April Pride. And for lots more information about cannabis and women, visit dothepot.com. Thanks to my co-founder, Ellen Scanlon, Madi Fair, our marketing manager, and our producer, Nick Patri. I’m April Pride, and we’ll be back here soon with more of How to Do the Pot.