When dispensary licensing stalled last year, many applicants and entrepreneurs had to adapt or dissolve.

For The Doobie Room dispensary applicants, the adaption started when one of them had the idea to start a podcast, as an extension of The Doobie Room, to engage with the local cannabis community.

So the dispensary applicants created That’s a Doobie podcast two weeks before the pandemic struck.

That’s a Doobie is hosted by Omari Jalan and co-host Keyston (aka Stone) and produced and edited by Renita Manley.

Submitted photos: Host Omari Jalan

With dispensary licensing in limbo, the That’s a Doobie team took a break and figured out how to record and produce a podcast in a socially distant environment with lockdowns. Once settled in to the “new normal” of staying at home, they began That’s a Doobie podcast.

The Doobie Room still exists, but That’s a Doobie is now a separate entity.

Submitted photo: Co-Host Keyston (aka Stone)

Always ready to adapt, the That’s a Doobie team said it’s too soon to know what the “ultimate” goal is because they are still fairly new and growing. That’s a Doobie is recorded in the Doobie Dugout, aka Omari Jalan’s basement.

“We want to keep ourselves open to a plethora of possibilities and to the opportunities that have already began to be presented to us,” Manley said.

Manley describes the style of the podcast as “where you go when you kind of want to escape all the MSO, legal cannabis talk, etc.”

That’s a Doobie podcast does touch on serious topics, but that is not what the podcast is known for or wants to be known for.

“We are known for engaging the authentic personalities and experiences of cannabis users, cannabis activists, cannapreneurs, and industry insiders/leaders,” Manley said. “We show what the power of the plant is, and that power is human connection. Weed and storytelling has always been a great way to bond us humans.”

Submitted photo: Producer Renita Manley

That’s a Doobie wants, as much as anything, authentic sesh time with great storytelling.

“And those stories include the fucked up shit we do, have done, have seen, and have heard,” she said, “the funny and not so funny stories that make us real, and the stories you can’t share at your team meetings, over family dinner, or in the board room. On That’s a Doobie podcast, we sesh together, laugh together, cry together (or at the minimum get teary eyed) and exchange ideas. Professional or otherwise, our guests let down their hair so to speak, on our show, and still spit knowledge.”

From the beginning, Hanley lets each guest know that the hosts appreciate organic conversations more than anything, so questions are simply a starting place.

“After all, when one gets high, ones thoughts don’t flow strategically, right?” Manley said. “Our thoughts flow like water. So we welcome the flow because we never know what beautiful conversation or thought may grow from it. When the time is right, Omari Jalan knows how to drive the conversation back to the topic/question.”

Ideal guess for the podcast incude Montell Williams, Demitri Downing, Eddie Moore, Mike Tyson, Kim Rivers, and Dr. Rachel Knox.

“With the exception of Mike Tyson, these industry leaders are publicly on the business or health side of the plant daily,” Manley said. “We’d love to get them in a moment where they can let loose, enjoy the plant with us, share knowledge, and tell us their craziest weed related stories.”

If only one of those guests were available, Mike Tyson would be the dream get.

Find That’s a Doobie on Instagram @thatsadoobie and Twitter @TheDoobieRoom.

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