DoubleBlind Magazine – Bridging Culture and Consciousness

Welcome to Psychedelics Design – where design meets psychedelics!

Shelby Hartman and Madison Margolin, co-founders of DoubleBlind Magazine, join us to discuss building the field’s most design-forward publication from scratch — and what it actually takes to maintain journalistic integrity in a space you care deeply about.

We trace the origin of DoubleBlind from a meditation-born idea in New Orleans to a print magazine, online platform, and now the first coffee table book on psychedelics. Shelby and Madison share the hard editorial decisions that come with covering a movement you’re embedded in, the “no fractals” design philosophy behind their aesthetic, and what it felt like to lose half their web traffic overnight to a Google algorithm that couldn’t tell psychedelic journalism from anti-mask content.

The conversation asks a question this field keeps circling: how do you tell the full story — including the uncomfortable parts — without becoming a mouthpiece for it?

1. Psychedelics as a lens, not just a substance DoubleBlind was never just about drugs — from the first issue they used psychedelics as a jumping-off point to explore awe, policy, culture, spirituality. That framing is what gave them longevity and a broader audience.

2. Design is not decoration — it’s positioning The “no fractals” rule was strategic, not aesthetic. By refusing every psychedelic cliché, they placed themselves in a different cultural conversation entirely. David Good’s design changed how people thought about the subject.

3. Journalistic independence is non-negotiable, even when it’s uncomfortable When people in their own network became subjects of stories, they held the line. The editorial standard stays separate from partnerships, events, sponsorships. Knowing which hat you’re wearing at any given moment is what protects both the journalism and the relationships.

4. Algorithms are not a foundation Losing 50%+ of traffic overnight to a Google update, being kicked off Instagram three times — their conclusion: Word of mouth and work that stands on its own are the only durable things.

5. Physical objects resist the attention economy Both the print magazine and the book were deliberate responses to distracted, scrolling consumption. Holding something in your hands is already an altered state relative to a screen. No algorithm can touch it.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Shelby Hartman is the co-founder and Publisher of DoubleBlind, a media company at the forefront of the psychedelic movement. She’s reported for Rolling Stone, VICE, Playboy, Quartz, LA Weekly, and the Huffington Post, among others. Her work has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, Business Insider, KCRW, Bustle, and Forbes, and she’s been invited to speak at SXSW, Horizons: Perspectives in Psychedelics, and Harvard Law School. In 2020, she was named by Forbes as a female leader in cannabis and psychedelics. She’s a graduate of Columbia Journalism School.

Madison Rachel Margolin is an author, journalist, and facilitator, trained in Lev Emunah Therapy (based in Kabbalistic and Breslov concepts), narrative therapy, and MAPS Zendo Sit (psychedelic space holding). Her first book is a journalistic memoir entitled Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass and Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground (Hay House, 2023), while her second and third books — The DoubleBlind Guide to Psychedelics (Artisan Books, 2026; co-written with Shelby Hartman) and Judaism is Psychedelic: A Practical Guide (Ayin Press, 2027) — are forthcoming. She is the co-founder of both DoubleBlind Magazine and the Jewish Psychedelic Summit, and hosts a podcast on the Be Here Now Network called Set & Setting. She has written for dozens of publications including Vice, Rolling Stone, and Playboy, and has presented on psychedelics, Judaism, and more at conferences around the world, spanning NYC, Denver, London, and Israel. Based between New York and Israel, Madison spends her free time practicing yoga and dancing.

DoubleBlind

DoubleBlind is a media company and education platform at the forefront of the rapidly growing psychedelic movement. With contributors around the globe, DoubleBlind covers stories from South America’s ayahuasca tourism industry to the microdosing trend and the groundbreaking research at leading universities. At the core of DoubleBlind’s reporting are some of the most important issues of our time: the depression epidemic, the corporatization of medicine, and the aching people feel for spirituality or some other collective sense of meaning — all presented in visually compelling, rigorous long-form features, poetry, art, and photo essays.

Learn more at doubleblindmag.com.

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