Josiah Hesse on “On Fire for God,” Religious Trauma… & Runner’s High

About this episode

Josiah Hesse discusses his experiences with religious trauma and cannabis culture in athletics.

We got him! Josiah Hesse —journalist, author, and a guy who’s lived through some things most people only read about. We get into his books, including Runner’s High —a deep dive into the hidden culture of cannabis use among elite athletes and the emerging science behind the elusive, exhilarating “runner’s high” they’re all chasing—and his latest, On Fire for God … a brutally honest memoir about growing up in rural Iowa inside the world of fundamentalist Christianity, where faith, fear, poverty, and politics all collide in ways that are hard to fully understand unless you’ve been there—or read his story. So yeah… we went there. And touched the third rail: religion, politics… and cannabis. It’s real, it’s thoughtful, it’s surprisingly funny—and it lives right in that messy space where all of these worlds overlap. This is a must-listen episode—one that might challenge you a little, and stick with you longer than you expect.

People in this episode

Guest: Josiah Hesse

Topics covered

• religion
• cannabis
• fundamentalism
• memoir
• athletics
• politics
• trauma

Keywords

• religious trauma
• cannabis
• runner's high
• memoir
• fundamentalism
• Iowa
• politics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Two24media

Books & works: Runner’s High, On Fire for God

Places: Iowa