We've been nominated for a Webby Award!
This is a really big deal.
How to Do the Pot has been nominated for a Webby Award!
The Webbys are the leading international awards honoring excellence on the Internet. They were founded in 1996 by Tiffany Shlain, a woman from the Bay Area who I really admire. Today, a Webby is one of the Internet’s most respected symbols of success. Past winners in the podcast category include influential shows like Serial and The Daily.
I’m proud that How to Do the Pot has already won three major media awards: two Signal Awards and one Anthem Award. I would love to add a Webby to that list!
We’re actually up for two Webby Awards, one awarded by a panel of judges, and the other called the People’s Voice Award. You can help us win the People’s Voice Award by voting. Voting ends on April 17, so please take a minute and vote today.
The Webby nomination is for our three-part podcast series, AIDS and Cannabis. It tells the story of how the AIDS crisis in San Francisco in the 1980s led to a new understanding of cannabis as medicine and sparked a national legalization movement.
In the series, you’ll hear from a pioneering AIDS doctor about how cannabis was helping dying patients. I talk to the woman who ran the largest illegal cannabis operation in San Francisco at the time, Sticky Fingers Brownies, and her daughter, Alia Volz, whose unforgettable book Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana & the Stoning of San Francisco brings the era vividly to life.
Did you know that while HIV is now considered a chronic condition, one in four people living with HIV in the U.S. are women, and disproportionately women of color? Experts weigh in on how cannabis helps HIV+ patients today, relieving pain, anxiety, inflammation, and low appetite, and how structural barriers to care still persist.
I started working on this series while I was displaced from my house and staying with a friend in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, the historic center of LGBTQ+ life in the city. It was a profound reminder of how beauty and life can sustain even when the worst things are happening around us.
Some stories, once you hear them, stay with you. This is one of them.
Thank you to the Webbys for honoring this story. I hope you enjoy the series!
Read (or Listen): The Tell by Amy Griffin. Chosen by Oprah, Reese, and Jenna’s book clubs, The Tell is a powerful memoir about reclaiming lost memories and finding healing. Amy Griffin, my sorority sister from UVA, shares her riveting story with hope and bravery. I saw her in conversation with Sheryl Sandberg at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park and left feeling deeply inspired. I highly recommend the audiobook, which Amy reads herself. I’m so grateful this book is out in the world- tell all your friends to read it too.
See: Marco Cochrane’s R-Evolution Sculpture. I’m excited to see R-Evolution by artist Marco Cochrane, a 45-foot kinetic sculpture that debuts today in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza. I first heard about his work from friends who love Burning Man, where his massive pieces celebrating strength, beauty, and power have become legendary.
Listen: More or Less Podcast. I’m fascinated by how AI and tech are reshaping our lives. More or Less, hosted by two married couples, feels like eavesdropping on a smart, opinionated tech insiders’ dinner party. They discuss startups, Silicon Valley, and share their collective experience having founded six companies, two venture funds, and working at Google, Apple, and Facebook.
Watch: Kendrick Lamar’s "Not Like Us" video. Guess who else was nominated for a Webby this year? Kendrick Lamar, the Pulitzer Prize winning, 47-time Grammy nominated superstar. You probably saw him perform this song at the Superbowl. I love the video, which he also directed.
Thank you for reading!
Warmly,
Ellen
🙌 Congrats! Voted ✔️