Shirley Halperin has made a name for herself as an established magazine editor, writer and frequent TV commentator. She is the author of Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life (released on 4/20/2008 and currently in its ninth printing) and also a regular contributor to highly regarded media outlets such as Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times and VH1.
Her journalism career began at High Times magazine, where she interned while attending college then joined the staff in 1999, first as photo editor and later as Managing Editor. During her tenure, Shirley helped book covers with pot-centric subjects like Ozzy Osbourne, Phish and Cypress Hill. In 2002, Shirley joined Us Weekly and truly refined her pop culture skills both as Music Editor and Entertainment Editor. She continued to apply her left-of-center ideas to a mainstream audience at Entertainment Weekly, where she worked from 2006 to 2008.
A broad knowledge of celebrity coupled with her bubbly personality made Shirley a natural fit for television and it wasn’t long after her hiring at Us that she started popping up all over MTV, E! and VH1. From The E! True Hollywood Story: Britney Spears to VH1’s Awesomely Bad Videos, there are few topics Shirley hasn’t talked about. Beyond music, Shirley, along with Pot Culture coauthor Steve Bloom, appeared on Bravo’s 100 Funniest Movies of All Time, where she discussed, among other things, classic stoner movies.
Steve Bloom was an integral member of the High Times editorial team from 1989-2005, first as News Editor, then Music Editor, Senior Editor and finally, Editor. He has interviewed dozens of celebrities and musicians and written countless cover stories during his High Times tenure, including Cypress Hill, the Black Crowes, Ziggy Marley, Jerry Garcia and Frances McDormand. And if he wasn’t talking to the entertainers directly, he was assigning features on Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg, Tommy Chong, Ozzy Osbourne, George Carlin and Jack Black, among others. In 1995 and 1998, Steve took his music expertise outside the High Times offices, co-producing two benefit albums for NORML (National Organization to Reform of Marijuana Laws). The Hempilation series featured 37 tracks and raised more than $150,000. In 2000, Steve created two annual High Times awards show, the Stonys (for movies and television) and the Doobies (for music). He left the magazine in 2005.
A lifelong New Yorker, Steve publishes the website celebstoner.com and works on other freelance projects out of his Brooklyn, NY office.
Shirley and Steve's second collaboration, Reefer Movie Madness: The Ultimate Stoner Film Guide (Abrams Image) was released on October 1, 2010.