September 22, 2016 8:20 pm

Tomorrow Night, Whoopi’s Back… and She’s Bringing the Weed!

Whoopi Goldberg returns to StarTalk Radio tomorrow night! Whoopi was first on the show back in December 2011 on the last episode of Season 2, and that episode has been a fan favorite ever since.

When it comes to an incredible talent like hers – Whoopi is one of the very few performers to ever win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony – you can never get enough. Especially because she’s also a “card carrying geek” according to her friend, and our host, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

So naturally, Neil and Whoopi talk all about her role as Guinan on StarTrek: The Next Generation, comic book superheroes (she wants one with “a big behind” like her), and space exploration. They’ve got a bit of help in studio from two of our other resident geeks, co-host Chuck Nice and StarTalk All-Stars host astrophysicist Charles Liu.

But what’s really new about tomorrow night’s episode is that Whoopi also brings up a subject that is very important to her: medical marijuana. (And she’s brought her vape pen along for the ride!)

For that segment, Neil swaps out geek expert Charles for cannabis expert Dr. Staci Gruber, the Harvard neuroscientist who runs the MIND program (Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery) and whose patients have nicknamed her the “Pot Doc.”

Between Neil’s interview with Whoopi and Staci’s in-studio comments, we find out just about everything you could ever want to know about weed, from all the different ways you can ingest cannabis without lighting up or getting high, like vaping or edibles, to some of the conditions like glaucoma, PTSD and chronic pain. You’ll hear about how pot got classified as a Schedule 1 drug like Heroin (it’s Richard Nixon’s fault), why it may be the solution for the growing epidemic of opiate abuse and addiction that’s plaguing the country, and how medical marijuana rescued a little girl named Charlotte Figi from a life overwhelmed by more than 300 epileptic seizures ever week.

Needless to say, our co-host Chuck Nice is all over this subject, and he even comes up with a plan to help Congress see the light about marijuana and change the drug laws that, in many people’s opinions, are doing much more harm than good.

Bill Nye even gets in on the pot parade, although as he puts it, he’d much rather get high on life than on THC.

Join us Friday night at 7pm EDT for Geeking Out with Whoopi Goldberg, right here on our website, as well as on iTunes Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher and TuneIn.

You might want to bring along your favorite munchies, if you’re so inclined.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons