Humboldt

Life on America's Marijuana Frontier

By: Emily Brady

Narrated by: Dan Woren, Sonny Warner, Erin Bennett, Will Collyer

In the vein of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief and Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox, journalist Emily Brady journeys into a secretive subculture--one that marijuana built.

Say the words "Humboldt County" to a stranger and you might receive a knowing grin. The name is infamous, and yet the place, and its inhabitants, have been nearly impenetrable. Until now.

Humboldt is a narrative exploration of an insular community in Northern California, which for nearly 40 years has existed primarily on the cultivation and sale of marijuana. It's a place where business is done with thick wads of cash and savings are buried in the backyard. In Humboldt County, marijuana supports everything from fire departments to schools, but it comes with a heavy price. As legalization looms, the community stands at a crossroads and its inhabitants are deeply divided on the issue--some want to claim their rightful heritage as master growers and have their livelihood legitimized, others want to continue reaping the inflated profits of the black market.

Emily Brady spent a year living with the highly secretive residents of Humboldt County, and her cast of eccentric, intimately drawn characters take us into a fascinating, alternate universe. It's the story of a small town that became dependent on a forbidden plant, and of how everything is changing as marijuana goes mainstream.

Good for outsiders.

Possibly nauseating for insiders. Still worth a read or listen. It is more about people than plants.

A well written story of the place.

The change in narrator for each character helps to follow the individuals accounts. The words help illustrate the area well, especially if you have ever been to the area.

Great book!

I'm going to read this again! Well listen to it again. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the culture behind the illicit marijuana growing industry in NORCAL.

In to the future and a glimpse of the past

This is a great subject for a book as this subject is still evolving in 2024 where so many states have legalized cannabis. I watched murder mountain and it was an eye opener. I grew up in Santa Cruz and pot was everywhere so it wasn’t a big deal for most people. I was even offered a job with two of my friends as young 20 something men to go to the mountains to grow for a local grower who used a small greenhouse to grow enough to make $25,000 extra $ along with his very small construction company he seemed to have cash all the time .
I liked how the Arthur spoke through her main characters and it brought more life to the story. Almost as if you were living with them in their own worlds . At the end I was left wanting more like a part 2 of a movie many more side spin off stories with the different characters still living their chosen paths.

Fascinating story

I listened to this on a drive up to Humboldt. It was a really compelling story about the nuances of marijuana legalization and the culture around it in one of the most beautiful areas of the state, told from the perspective of a few different people. Even though it’s a few years old and California has since legalized, it’s still a very interesting listen.