A TOAD TALK TIMELINE

How a poison-derived psychedelic went from underground obscurity to Page Six.

OVERHEARD AT DINNER

Somewhere in Beverly Hills, you sit next to someone who knows someone who had a transcendent toad trip.

POLLAN POWER

Michael Pollan details his toad venom adventure in 2018’s How to Change Your Mind. (Spoiler: It

ain’t pretty.)

FIGHTING WORDS

Boxing champ Mike Tyson talks up toad on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2019, describing the

mental shift it triggered as “inconceivable.”

PRESIDENTIAL ADJACENCIES

In his 2021 memoir Beautiful Things, Hunter Biden reveals that a 2014 experience with Bufo kept him

sober for a year.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

At the tail end of 2021, references to toad venom begin to appear everywhere, from InStyle to Forbes

to the New York Post.