Working

How Does a Cannabis Researcher Do Her Job?

Meet Angela Bryan, a researcher at CU Boulder studying the effects of marijuana.

Angela Bryan.
Angela Bryan, professor and co-director of CU Change Lab.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by University of Colorado Boulder.

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This week Jordan takes a detour from the cannabis industry to take a look at the science of it all. Angela Bryan conducts research on marijuana at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies marijuana’s connection to risky teen behavior, its effects on cognition, and even why it might make you hit the gym more often.

And while cannabis is legal in Colorado, there are still all kinds of restrictions that have forced Bryan and her team to get creative. Their biggest innovation? A mobile laboratory known as the Cannavan—though if Bryan had her way, it totally would have been called the Magic Mystery Machine.

You can email us at working@slate.com.

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.