Michel Foucault in Death Valley

It happened in 1975, when Michel Foucault spent a weekend in Southern California at the invitation of Simeon Wade. Foucault—one of the brightest stars of twentieth-century philosophy—was at that moment at the zenith of his fame. After giving a lecture to graduate students at a local college, he agreed to embark on one of the most memorable journeys of his life. Together with Wade and his friend, Foucault experimented with psychotropic substances for the first time; by morning, he was weeping and saying that he had discovered the truth.