This episode establishes the series through a narrative arc of discovery and suppression. Beginning with the Bwiti spiritual tradition in Gabon and the cultural significance of the iboga plant, the hosts trace Western scientific isolation of ibogaine in the early 1900s and its brief mid-century use as a stimulant tonic. The episode centers on the Howard Lotsof story — the 1962 accidental discovery of anti-addiction activity — and the patient-advocate movement that followed. It concludes by explaining U.S. Schedule I status and the rise of offshore clinics, then pivots to the modern psychedelic-medicine wave, state initiatives, and federal interest, finally laying out the ten-episode journey ahead.