Woke Buddhism, Psychedelics, and the Path Through Pain - Featured on SpiritualFxckboy Podcast

Welcome to the first official episode of Spiritual Fxckboy, the reimagined evolution of The Duff Daddy Experience. In this raw, unfiltered conversation, host Ben Duffy and guest David Redish pull back the curtain on their shared journey through Naropa University’s Contemplative Psychotherapy and Buddhist Psychology program—a world where meditation meets modern mental health and “wokeness” collides with the human shadow.

From the struggles of identity and projection inside a Buddhist university, to navigating fatherhood, psychedelics, and the paradox of suffering, this episode dives deep into what it really means to be spiritual in a fractured world. The two explore how Buddhist concepts like emptiness, impermanence, and spaciousness shape modern psychotherapy—and how psychedelics might just be the missing bridge between healing the mind and liberating the soul.

This isn’t just another mindfulness chat. It’s two therapists exploring the edges of sanity, spirituality, and self—armed with truth, humor, and a whole lot of depth.

• Key Topics Covered Rebirth of a Podcast:
  From Duff Daddy Experience to Spiritual Fxckboy—why Ben rebranded and what it means

• Inside Naropa University: The beauty, chaos, and “woke wars” of a Buddhist-inspired grad program

• Buddhist Psychology in Practice: Emptiness, spaciousness, and learning to hold space for pain

• Working With Suffering: Why resistance amplifies pain and how “breathing into it” changes everything

• Trauma & Transformation: Orbiting around trauma until it’s ready to be felt and healed

• Rites of Passage & Community: Why being seen is an essential part of integration

• Burning Man as Medicine: Radical authenticity, dance, and self-expression as spiritual practice

• Fear vs. Love: The micro-decisions that shape our reality every day

• The Death Delusion: How our resistance to death keeps the ego alive—and why surrender is freedom

• Psychedelics & Psychotherapy: Ketamine, psilocybin, and the myth of “crazy” consciousness

• The Limits of Western Therapy: Why creativity, intuition, and embodiment matter more than diagnosis

• Liberation in Real Time: How to meet suffering without apology, and remember who you are before language

  Notable Takeaways “Freedom from suffering is found through suffering—not around it.” “Our suffering equals our pain multiplied by our resistance.” “Psychedelics don’t make you crazy—they show you how crazy the world already is.” “Life is the festival. Every moment invites authenticity or fear—your choice.” “There’s no real self to heal—just stories to release.”