We first learnt from The Sun, with their rather provoking headline, about “Channel 4’s new shock documentary as a group of strangers take magic mushrooms and psychedelic drugs”. This was followed by a more detailed piece from Broadcast Now, informing us that Channel 4 has indeed commissioned and filmed Higher Ground, an all-new YouTube series exploring how psychedelics impact the way people with opposing views relate to each other.
In each episode two different people come together to discuss their strongly held but sometimes controversial viewpoints and perhaps find some common ground.
The four-part series is produced by Dr Pluto and saw individuals discussing topics including climate change, cancel culture, veganism, and toxic masculinity. Filming took place in a controlled environment with appropriate health and safety checks in place, using substances that are legal in the filming location.
Channel 4‘s Digital Commissioning Editor Joe Churchill said: “Our cast all have strong and sometimes controversial opinions and finding out how psychedelics change their conversation is a fascinating watch.”
Higher Ground was produced by Dr Pluto and directed by James Abadi. The Executive Producers were James Abadi and Emma Kenny. It was commissioned for Channel 4 by Digital Commissioning Editor, Joe Churchill.
The cast includes recording artist and spiritual revolutionary NEO 10Y discussing a vegan future with Coach Bart K, actor Sean Ward speaking on the topic of climate change with Duval Reid, whilst broadcaster Dominique Samuels and editor and broadcaster Benjamin Butterworth debate cancel culture, and spiritual mother Jamila Marriot discusses toxic masculinity with modern man coach, Fidel Beauhill.
The series will launch on Channel 4’s Documentaries YouTube channel from 28th May.