Toast & Jam with Peter Gorman

If The Most Interesting Man in the World were to sail farther, inhale deeper, get dirtier, and suffer more snakebites, he’d be Peter Gorman. The Fort Worth Weekly staff writer is a modern-day explorer, author, artifact hunter, and jungle guide. The sounds of New York saturate every one of Peter’s gravelly sentences even though he’s lived in Texas for years. Peter grew up in the Big Apple and was an investigative journalist and editor at High Times during the drug magazine’s heyday. Wanderlust grabbed hold early, and Peter would take breaks from school or work to hitchhike around the country. Eventually he began disappearing into the Amazon rain forest on exploratory adventures. In the 1990s, he met his ex-wife, Chepa, during one of those trips. She grabbed a machete to help him fend off a pack of drunken pirates, and he fell in love. Chepa moved to his New York apartment, and they had a daughter, Madeleina. Peter continued his jungle forays and was the first Westerner to ingest and write at length for a U.S. magazine about ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew made from boiled jungle plants. He was also an early proponent of sapo, a substance derived from frog secretions. When ingested, sapo makes people puke, defecate, and drop from exhaustion before coming alive with extremely heightened senses. The substance helps indigenous people hunt better. Peter and others use it on spiritual quests and psychic adventures. After Peter’s marriage ended, Chepa and Madeleina headed south and settled near Fort Worth. Peter followed. He wanted to remain close to his daughter. That’s how he wound up at the Weekly writing investigative articles that have earned him numerous awards. Peter has been profiled as the “ayahuasca king” in magazines, newspapers, and TV shows, and several documentaries have spotlighted him. Peter is a unique, beautifully flawed character and a great guest on Toast & Jam. I suggested he choose a song with a jungle theme. “Welcome to the Jungle!” Peter said. The Guns ’N Roses song definitely rocks, but Slash’s guitar part sounded so complicated, I told Peter I might not be able to help sing. “No problem,” Peter said. “I got it.” He was right. Peter sings in his own distinctive and memorable way, just like he lives his life! Rock on, Pedro. — Jeff Prince