Ganja Granny
The Podcast
A former NPR Correspondent grows something new.
Sonically rich information about cannabis for older folks — and everyone curious enough to listen. Rooted in the Hudson Valley. Made by an audio artist who's been waiting her whole career to make this show.
Pull up a chair.
Press play.
You'll understand what this show is about in the first thirty seconds.
Ganja Granny — Podcast Tease
Sonically rich.
Solidly informative.
"Ganja Granny" is an experimental podcast combining a sonic environment and auditory exploration with solid information aimed at seniors and curious others wishing to explore the new cannabis territory.
Older adults (50+) are the fastest-growing population of cannabis users — and the most underserved when it comes to real, no-nonsense information. No scare tactics, no hype. Information, not advocacy.
Each episode runs about 15 minutes — interviews with consumers and experts, music, field recordings, dispensary visits, lively conversations. The kind of sonic storytelling that only a career audio artist brings to a subject.
~15
minutes per episode
50+
target audience age
Diverse
voices — growers, budtenders, doctors & consumers
The questions people are actually asking.
What's it like to be in a dispensary?
Medical vs. recreational — what's the difference?
Between strains — does it really matter?
How do prescription drugs interact?
I don't like getting high. Can I just feel better?
What forms of consumption are better for what ails me?
Are some types of cannabis better for pain? Or is it a myth?
Seniors need to know: go slow. Here's why.
Plus growers, processors, dispensary visits, field recordings — all of it shaped by a lifetime of knowing how to make sound sing.
Karen Michel
Audio Anthropologist · NPR Cultural Correspondent
For decades, Karen Michel filed features for NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered as a Freelance Cultural Correspondent — asking hard questions, chasing strange truths, building community through sound. She took the title "audio anthropologist" and meant it.
NYC born. LA raised. She earned a degree in Studio Art from San Francisco State and a Master's in cross-cultural education from the University of Alaska — where she also taught grades 2–10 above the Arctic Circle and established the first all-Indigenous bilingual program in the state. She's lived in a geodesic dome outside Fairbanks. She's shown work in the US and England. She's dog-mushed in rural Alaska.
A Fulbright Fellow in India. A Japan Foundation Fellow. An NEA Media Arts Fellow. She's taught at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, Marist College, and Duke University, where she was the first audio artist awarded the Lehman-Brady Endowed Chair Visiting Professorship in Documentary and American Studies.
Now she lives in the Hudson Valley, is an early medical marijuana qualifier in New York, and is very much a grandmother — to how many grandchildren she's not entirely sure. "Ganja Granny" is her first podcast helmed entirely by her. It's the project she's been waiting to make.
"Find the space where no one is, and go there."
— posted on Karen's whiteboard
Karen Michel
Host & Creator
Early qualifier
NY medical marijuana patient. Years of experience. Granny to ganja since the 60s in San Francisco.
The podcast is coming.
You can be part of it.
No crowdfunding. No tiers. Just a conversation waiting to happen.
Say Hello
Drop a line. Tell Granny who you are, what you think, what you grow, or what questions keep you up at night.
GanjaGrannyPodcast@gmail.com→Be a Guest
Got a story about cannabis that deserves to be told? Grower, maker, advocate, or just someone with a remarkable experience — reach out.
Pitch your story→Stay Tuned
The show is in production. Keep checking back here — and when it launches, you'll be the first to know if you're in touch.
Watch this space→Got a story? A question? Just say hi.
GanjaGrannyPodcast@gmail.comThe door is open.
Knock.
Whether you want to be a guest, share your story, or just say hello — Granny reads everything.
Send an email
GanjaGrannyPodcast@gmail.com
Stories, not prescriptions. Genuine conversations welcome.