Sandwiches With A Statement
Mary Jane Gibson has the makings of a hero with new feminist project, "My Sandwich, My Choice"
Remember how exciting it felt back in 2017 for those five whole minutes when millions of people around the world flooded the streets to march for women, and then two seconds later, Trump decided to give a noted rapist a permanent seat on the Supreme Court? Ugh, I hate it!
Sexism is alive and well, which is annoying because I have a very long list of things I would rather be doing than fighting anti-choicers—a chore that never seems to go away, no matter how many times I tell them to fuck off or how many Taco or Bev abortion fundraisers I participate in. Watching our fundamental, hard-earned rights being stripped bare since Roe vs. Wade was overturned in 2022 has been nauseating, to say the least, becoming such a shit show that it’s given writer Jessica Valenti enough material to make a whole Substack for it called Abortion, Every Day..
Abortion obviously doesn’t make it into the food, travel, or weed worlds that often as a hot button issue, but our latest guest has the makings of a hero: bringing reproductive rights and recipes to the front burner as a leading voice in cannabis.
On the show today: Mary Jane Gibson, a prominent female voice in cannabis media and former culture editor at High Times, who has been tracking the legalization and culture of medical marijuana and adult-use cannabis since 2007. After writing at High Times for over a decade, she now writes at-large at outlets like Rolling Stone and Vox where she covers cannabis culture, psychedelics, arts, entertainment, news, and cutting-edge trends. She is also an award-winning actor and playwright, and a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.
After penning an article on sexism in the cannabis industry, Gibson predictably received an onslaught of shitty comments from fragile dudes throwing tired “make me a sandwich” jokes. Rather than grin and bear it, she decided to take their advice and do just that: make delicious, nourishing, sandwiches all for herself, while educating the masses about the horrific rollback and daily assault on reproductive rights. Evolving from a clapback into a full-fledged project, “My Sandwich, My Choice” has gained the attention of over 30K followers on Instagram and 14K followers on TikTok as Gibson uses the platform to sling sandwiches with a statement. Most recently, she’s added a Substack (which you should absolutely subscribe to).
“I really started it as a little passion project to make a sandwich for myself and each sandwich is a different topic,” she says. “It just so happened that Roe vs. Wade had just been overturned, so a lot of these sandwiches are about the reproductive rights situation around the country—in Alabama, IVF, or a woman in Oklahoma being prosecuted because she didn’t have a medical marijuana card for her fetus—there’s just so much to be mad about. So, to make sandwiches and talk about it is just my way of hopefully bringing a little lightness to it so people can digest (ahem) the topic.”
On the latest Pipe Dreams podcast, Mary Jane shares her journey from theater kid to High Times editor, cultural commentator, reproductive rights activist, and legacy sand-weed-witch. Listen, like and share the episode. Follow Mary Jane on Instagram, TikTok, and Substack. And make sure to follow The Weed Witch for all of the latest and greatest.
Have someone in mind that you think should be on the show? Drop a line at itstheweedwitch@gmail.com.
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My hero! Go Mary Jane! I'll give it a listen on my road trip today!
✌️💚🥪