I met Cesar Marin at a psychedelics event in Denver. I watched him on stage. He had a calm ease that carried across the room. Today he tells the story behind that calm.
Cesar spent twenty five years at CNN as a producer. He built live shows. He chased breaking news. He lived inside a clock. Then the layoffs came. He was fifty five. The title that shaped his life was gone.
Plant medicine had arrived in his life just before that fall. He did not come to it for healing. He was curious. He tried psychedelics once and felt a sharp shift. He started reading. He found communities. He learned how people use these tools for depression, anxiety, trauma, and habit change. He began to microdose with intent. He says it helped him change a hard relationship with cannabis. It also forced a question he had avoided. If the old job ends, what comes next.
His answer is Cultivating Wisdom. He built an apparel line that does one thing. It starts plain talk about psychedelics without the tie dye costume. He wanted a shirt you could wear under a blazer. He wanted words that open a conversation in a grocery line. He told a story about a woman who walked up to him, saw the word “microdosing” on his chest, and shared how small, planned doses helped her stop finishing a bottle of wine every night. One shirt. One talk. No stigma.
He also built microdosingover50.com. The site is for people who want clear, adult guidance. He does not prescribe. He does not diagnose. He shares what worked for him. He points to research. He asks people to read, ask questions, and go slow. No mystery bars from a gas station. Pick intent first, then protocol, then support.
We spoke about work and age. The market does not care about your years of service. It cares about cost and speed. If you are midlife and worried, his advice is simple. Take inventory. Write down what you know well. Turn that into assets that teach. Give something away. Build a course. Speak to people who know less than you, not to the few who know more. That is a sober way forward in a loud time.
He is now shaping the Summit Within. It is a small, private container for senior leaders. Five or six people at a time. The plan is to use legal plant work where allowed, breathwork, and other tools to improve focus, care, and honesty. Leave the status gear at the door. Bring your real problems. Learn how to run a company and still be a decent parent, partner, and neighbor. He calls it a move from “F-you wealth” to “love-you wealth.” Make enough to care for your family. Use the rest to make more people smile. That is the entire pitch.
We covered risk. We covered the old fears. He agrees that no one should treat this like a toy. Read the science. Talk to a doctor if you have a condition or take meds. Respect the law where you live. Do not do this alone if you can avoid it. These are tools. Tools can help. Tools can also hurt.
Cesar’s story is not tidy. He lost a career. He built a new one from scratch. He did it with help, and he says that out loud. Mentors showed up. Friends told the truth. His partner said the quiet line that kept him steady. “The universe has you where it needs you.” He believed it. He worked. He kept going.
If you want to learn more, go to cultivatingwisdom.net for the apparel and stories. Go to microdosingover50.com for his courses and community. He set up a 20 percent discount for our listeners. Use code KG20 at checkout. If you buy something and post a photo, he says he will send a bigger code you can share with your friends.
