Bicycle Day.
Most people have never heard of it. Every April 19th, a small and unusual community marks the anniversary of one of the most consequential accidents in modern history — the day a Swiss chemist got on his bicycle to ride home from work and the twentieth century changed forever.
His name was Albert Hofmann. He wasn’t looking for God. He wasn’t looking for enlightenment. He was looking for a circulatory stimulant.
What he found instead has been called everything from a miracle to a menace — and the argument is still not settled.
In this first video I tell the story of Bicycle Day, what actually happened in that Basel laboratory in 1943, and why it matters to anyone asking whether the sacred shows up in unexpected places.
This is also — loosely — where my book LSD to Galilee begins.
Welcome. I’m glad you’re here.
