Recreational ketamine use is on the rise. But why are some people using it to dissociate in the club? Ketamine – a dissociative anesthetic – is illegal without a prescription and can potentially be harmful. Yet, it has had a massive rise in recreational use over the past decade. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032724020962?via%3Dihub"target="_blank" >One study</a> found that use increased by 81.8% from 2015 to 2019 and rose another 40% from 2021 to 2022. What is driving the illicit drug's sudden popularity? And is it's dissociative properties indicative of our times? Brittany chats with <a href="https://moskowitz.xyz/"target="_blank" >P.E. Moskowitz</a>, a journalist and author of <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Breaking-Awake/P-E-Moskowitz/9781668007778"target="_blank" >Breaking Awake: A Reporter’s Search for a New Life, and a New World, Through Drugs</a>, which explores our national mental health and drug use crises, and <a href="https://benjaminpbreen.com/"target="_blank" >Benjamin Breen</a>, associate professor of history at UC Santa Cruz, who specializes in the histories of science, medicine and drugs and is the author of the book, <a href="https://benjaminpbreen.com/books/tripping/"target="_blank" >Tripping on Utopia</a>. Together they investigate why ketamine is showing up in more people's social lives. Warning: this episode contains discussion of illegal drugs and drugs use and may not be suitable for all listeners. For more information on the science of ketamine, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/04/07/1243303437/psychedelics-ketamine-psilocybin-lyme-disease-magic-mushrooms"target="_blank" >check out NPR's Short Wave podcast</a>. Follow Brittany Luse on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bmluse/?hl=en"target="_blank" >@bmluse</a> For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at <a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pod-club"target="_blank" >npr.org/podclub</a>. Learn more about sponsor message choices: <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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