WATCH: Trinidad James & Josh Kesselman On Flow State, Cannabis And The Art Of Living (High Times Podcast)
A Conversation That Moves
James shows up the way he sounds on his best records: present, grounded, funny, observant. Josh opens the door and, instead of a Q&A, the episode settles into something slower and more lived-in, like two old friends comparing notes in the middle of the smoke.
Early on, they slide into the emotional weather report of the times: anger, frustration, this feeling that everything is at a boil. James cuts through it: “Anger is really just aggravation,” he says. “If you’re not going to do nothing, you’re not fed up.” It’s a small line with big consequences, especially in a world where everyone feels pushed to pick a side and start swinging.
Josh responds with a family memory instead of theory. He talks about his grandfather, shot three times fighting Nazis, once in the head, and how he came home without hate, even going back after the war to visit the people who had once been “the enemy.” Then he quotes his grandmother: “There are no good people. There are no bad people. There’s just people.” It doesn’t need unpacking. It just sits there, like a joint in the ashtray, changing the air in the room.
Cannabis, Enhancement And The Limits We Imagine
Of course, they talk about weed. But not as a brand deck or a flex; more like a tool that can help or hurt depending on how you hold it. James is clear: “Do not be dependent on cannabis… let it enhance your life experience. I don’t believe in dependency. I believe in enhancement.”
From there, the theme settles in: the difference between using something to run away and using it to come back — to yourself, to your work, to the people around you. James talks about taking tolerance breaks just to feel like his “raw kid” self again for a day or two, and how that version of him still designs whole collections and albums in one inspired stretch.
Josh counters with pandemic flashbacks, when the whole world was locked inside and he turned his feeds into rolling school. “You’re running out of tips?” he says, remembering those days. “Let me show you how to an index card and fold it the right way… If you fold it the wrong way, it’ll square up. No, you got to go with the fibers. You can see them. Hold on to the light, maybe you can see the fibers.”
At first, it sounds like a stoner how-to. Then it lands as something else: a memory of improvising under pressure, of trying to keep people connected and uplifted when everything outside felt like a bad trip.
Vulnerability, Craft And The Long Road To Mastery
Midway through, the talk slows down and goes inward. They crack open vulnerability: how it works, how long people avoid it, and the strange triggers that finally kick those doors down. James doesn’t overcomplicate it. “Sometimes trauma breaks down walls,” he says. Simple. Heavy. True.
From there, they get deep into craft. Josh walks through the discipline behind things most people never think about: microphones, rolling papers, all the objects that quietly hold up a culture. He talks about studying the history of papers, the old mills, the forgotten brands, the people who came before. “Don’t be scared to study the step that you skipped,” he says. It’s half advice, half confession.
James brings it back to people and places. If you don’t study the culture or the community you’re trying to speak to, he says, your work might still sound good, but it won’t hit the same. Without that grounding, “you only hear the talent but you don’t feel the soul.”
That back-and-forth — materials and music, factories and feelings — is where the episode really breathes. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about being honest with the path.