Psychedelics Today Podcast

In this episode, Joe interviews Shahar Amit: psytrance musician who has created what may be the world's first modular album for psychedelic exploration under his project, Held By Sound. 

He talks about his background in the rave and festival scene, the moment he realized he wanted to make music, and the realization that he could create soundscapes specifically for journeys into non-ordinary states. And he digs into the 'choose your own adventure' framework of the free album: how he actually recorded 3 different albums and figured out how to transition into different moods based on which direction the listener wants to go – from more still to more expansive, to darker or more bittersweet. He has also created music for DMT trials in the UK, and talks a lot about the potential in extended-state DMT experiences.

He also discusses: 

• How he came up with the flow of the album related to phases of the trip
• How much of a catalyst and safe container music can be, with or without a complimentary substance
• How psychedelics in a fun, festival experience with lots of laughter can be extremely beneficial – you don't need to do them the 'correct' way
• Graham Hancock, Donald Hoffman, and the concept of consciousness as the building block of all reality
• Psytrance, classical music, traditional Bwiti music, Lady Gaga, and what music he feels is best for exploration 

and more! For links, head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Joe and special guest, Court Wing, interview Tommy Aceto: former Navy Seal and trauma medic, NCAA athlete, Michigan State Champion Wrestler, and now, psychedelic advocate and ambassador for the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition.

He discusses his journey from childhood to wanting to become a SEAL, and the toll that military life and its programming can take on a person: how a life built on high levels of endurance, deprivation, and constantly surviving in a fight-or-flight mindset often manifests in Operator Syndrome, chronic pain, depression, and addiction. Veterans are seeing the potential of psychedelics to rewire their brains and allow them to process pain differently, by allowing them to feel emotions they were trained to turn off: “You’ve got to feel to heal.”

Aceto discusses:

• The affirmation and approval many who join the military seek, and how that often translates into needing to stay at certain levels of risk to truly feel alive
• The similarities between soldiers and professional athletes and high performers
• Dealing with chronic pain, and how forcing movement is often the best tactic
• The Controlled Substances Act and how opioids became a business
• Why the most important thing vets can do today is to tell their healing stories

and more! For links, head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Kyle and Johanna catch up, interviewing each other about psychedelic education and what they’ve learned, the biggest challenges, and what advice they would give to anyone looking to get involved in the psychedelic field.

They discuss:

• How sometimes it’s not about the substance: If you want to be a psychedelic therapist, do you see yourself doing therapy without the psychedelics?
• How no part of education is exempt, and becoming truly psychedelically-competent can involve studying psychology, neuroscience, somatics, religion, history, etc.
• How people’s experiences are evidence – it doesn’t have to come from a research study to be valid
• The importance of figuring out what your gifts are and how you could best contribute to progress, and then finding the job that matches it

and more!

The next round of our year-long training program, Vital, begins in September, but for those who feel that that may be too much of a commitment, our most popular course – the 9-week Navigating Psychedelics for Clinicians and Wellness Practitioners, LIVE – begins on May 8. Head to the Psychedelic Education Center for more details! Click here to head to the show notes page.

In this episode, Joe interviews Philip Wolf: writer, member of Rolling Stone's Culture Council, founder of Cultivating Spirits (the first company in the U.S. to offer legal culinary cannabis experiences), and founder of CashoM, an education company offering a certificate in cannabis stewardship.

He discusses his recent Rolling Stone article about the need to divorce ourselves from the colonial mindset that pervades the psychedelic movement, and he talks about the difficult conversation that came about when he asked a very critical group of psychedelic leaders how they felt about the article, and how it taught him just how powerful having these difficult conversations can be. 

He also discusses: 

• The importance of asking questions and not making assumptions
• Why we may need to abandon the "no justice, no peace" attitude if we ever want to move forward
• The idea that instead of endlessly battling the establishment, maybe it makes more sense to change our consumer mindset and allow capitalism to do its thing
• The importance of reaching out to local Indigenous tribes and allocating resources to go to them, not make them come to you
• The challenge of merging spirituality and science, especially for a regulatory model focused on profit

and more! For links, head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Joe and Kyle interview Lenny Gibson, Ph.D.: philosopher, Grof-certified Holotropic Breathwork® facilitator, 20-year professor of transpersonal psychology at Burlington College, and the reason Joe and Kyle met many years ago.

He talks about his early LSD experiences and how his interest in the philosophy of Plato and Alfred North Whitehead provided a framework and language for understanding a new mystical world where time and space were abstractions. He believes that while culture sees the benefits of psychedelics in economic terms, the biggest takeaway from non-ordinary states is learning that value is the essence of everything. And as this is being released on Bicycle Day, he discusses Albert Hofmann’s discovery and whether or not it’s fair to say that Hofmann intentionally had the experience he did on that fateful day.

He also discusses:

• The end of Cartesian thinking and the need for a new understanding of reality that incorporates the insights of quantum mechanics
• How philosophy has been taught as an intellectual endeavor, and how we need to embrace the practical and conceptual side of life
• John Dewey and quantitative thinking, William James and pragmatism, and was Aristotle a Platonist?
• The novelty of the creation of LSD, and how it gave us a path to a mystical experience that wasn’t culturally bound

and more! For links, head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Joe interviews Joey Lichter, Ph.D.: professor in the Chemistry & Biochemistry department at Miami’s Florida International University, and one of the few professors in the U.S. teaching a course about psychedelics at the collegiate level.

He talks about his path towards the course, the challenge of creating a curriculum that covers everything in a few months, and the importance of teaching young minds about psychedelics the right away; shifting drug education from the “Just say no!” D.A.R.E. model to a more balanced, honest, and evidence-based approach. He aims for his students to think critically, ignore the hype, and see all possible angles with a fairly simple approach: Present the full story.

He discusses:

• The importance of teaching history, from Stan Grof to MKUltra
• The work of David Nichols, David Nutt’s drug harm scale, and the greatest lesson William Leonard Pickard took from LSD
• The representation of Spravato as a new drug, and his concerns with the over-medicalization of psychedelics
• Teaching about the complexities of Timothy Leary: Was he a positive or negative force?
• Decriminalization, legalization, and how he gets students to think about drug policy

and more! For links and more, head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Joe interviews Devon Phillips: community & partnerships officer for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

Phillips works on strategies to tackle the questions: How do we responsibly mainstream psychedelics? And how do we get culture engaged? He's focusing on being the bridge to psychedelics outside of research, facilitating workshops and psychedelic coming-out stories at music festivals and conferences. He talks about harm reduction and drug checking at festivals, the concept of training big names to become trustworthy resources, the differences found in a hop hop crowd compared to EDM, and the power in using psychedelics for pleasure and celebration – not just healing and growth. 

He also discusses: 

• MAPS' involvement with the NFL for their 'My Cause, My Cleats' campaign, and how the San Francisco 49ers' Jon Feliciano is bringing awareness to psychedelic healing
• Details about MAPS' first responders training, fiscal sponsorship program, international therapist education program, and upcoming membership program (launching in June)
• The success of MAPS' Psychedelic Science and his hopes for the 2024 edition, taking place June 16 - 20 at the Denver Convention Center
• Dr. Carl Hart, drug exceptionalism, and the importance of creating safe containers and inclusive drug policy 

and more! For links and more, head to the show notes page.

In this episode, Joe interviews Keeper Trout: archivist, author, photographer, co-founder of the Cactus Conservation Institute, and creator of Trout’s Notes, a website compiling personal research and collected data to help ethnobotanical researchers.

From an interest in cactus taxonomy, Sasha Shulgin urged Trout to go through his files, resulting in a friendship, and eventually, an 8-year project of digitizing all of these files into the ever-evolving Shulgin Archive.

Trout discusses:

• His relationship with Sasha and The Shulgin Farm project, which aims to make the farm a community resource for therapy, research, events, and more
• The messiness of cactus taxonomy, and how he believes we’re nearing the end of being able to properly identify plants
• The perception of LSD as unnatural and why the natural vs. synthetic argument is largely political
• Why repealing the Controlled Substances Act is the path we should take over decriminalization or legalization

and more!

For links and more, head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Alexa interviews creative entrepreneur, veteran of the cannabis space, and now, founder of SetSet, an educational platform and podcast (picking up where The High Guide left off) for women curious about psychedelics.

With Alexa about to embark on the journey of motherhood, she asks many of the questions parents working with psychedelics have to consider: How do you overcome the stigmas of being a psychedelic parent? How do you talk to your children about drugs? How do you know if a substance is ok to use during pregnancy?

Pride discusses:

• Being dubbed “the weed mom” and why she embraced the nickname
• Parenting children around drug use and how parents lose credibility when they lie (the kids are going to know)
• The need for more research into how substances interact with women’s cycles and changing hormones
• Knowing when to trust your doctor and how more conversations lead to more knowledgeable doctors
• Microdosing psilocybin and the developing SetSet protocol

and more! For links and more, head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Joe interviews Paul F. Daley, Ph.D., who worked with Sasha Shulgin in his lab for the last seven years of his life, helping him finish (and co-authoring) "The Shulgin Index, Volume One: Psychedelic Phenethylamines and Related Compounds."

He is now the co-founder, Chief Science Officer, and Director of Analytical Science at the Alexander Shulgin Research Institute (ASRI), focusing on the discovery and development of novel psychedelic compounds. While Sasha was passionate about self-experimentation, the Institute is aiming for the next step for these drugs: FDA approval.  

He discusses: 

• Meeting Sasha at the 2nd international conference on hallucinogenic mushrooms in Washington D.C.
• Bonding with Sasha while reviewing the autopsy of researcher Robert van den Bosch for possible foul play
• The two compounds ASRI is closest to being able to test in clinical trials
• The 5-HT2B receptor, risk of valvular disease, and why we will likely be hearing more about this going forward
• How AI and new technology can lead to better safety science  

and more! Click here to head to the show notes page.

In this episode, David interviews Osiris González Romero: philosopher and Postdoctoral researcher on cognitive freedom and psychedelic humanities at the University of Saskatchewan.

Romero believes that our weakest point of research is our knowledge of Indigenous languages, and is focused on highlighting different cultural uses of psychedelics to better inform future drug policy. He’s currently studying more than 100 documents (including one over 400 years old) to establish an honest understanding of why peyote was ever banned.

He discusses:

• Mesoamerican psychedelics and their relevance to cognitive liberty and decolonization
• How the War on Drugs is our main colonial legacy
• The concepts of an ontological turn and ontological pluralism
• The neocolonial, biomedical, and spiritual paradoxes found inside the ‘psychedelic renaissance’
• How imagination is often viewed through a lens of illusion rather than problem solving or creativity

and more!

Click here to head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Joe interviews Maria Mangini, Ph.D., FNP: researcher, educator, and midwife who has worked closely with many psychedelic innovators and was part of the original social network at Shulgin Farm – where this episode was recorded. She traces her journey from the influence of pioneers like the Wassons, Shulgins, and Grofs, and historic places like Esalen and Millbrook.

She discusses:

• Her early experiences with the Grofs at Esalen and how she met the Shulgins
• Gregory Bateson guiding her to become a midwife
• The similarities between midwifery and psychedelic facilitation
• The unsung work of Denis Berry in saving the Timothy Leary archives
• How the working relationship of the Shulgins is a perfect example of the coequality society should strive for

and more! Click here to head to the show notes page.

In this episode, released on Ann Shulgin’s birthday, Joe interviews Wendy Tucker: Daughter of Ann and Stepdaughter to Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin.

Recorded in Sasha’s old office, she recounts her formative years, giving an insider’s look into her Mother’s openness about psychedelics, working with Sasha in the lab, how the Shulgins made a perfect team, and watching a close-knit circle of self-experimenters start to form at Shulgin Farm – and keep coming back over the years.

She talks about the energy infused into the property from the decades of research and gatherings, and how she is trying to preserve it – not just to capture its history and the pioneering research that happened there, but as a beacon for future generations. She imagines weddings, conferences, other communal gatherings, and more. Imagine taking a chemistry course in Sasha Shulgin’s lab?

To learn more about the project and to donate, head to Shulginfarm.org.

Click here to head to the show notes page and watch the video.

In this episode, Joe interviews Juan Pablo Cappello: co-founder and former CEO of Nue Life Health, whose assets were subsequently acquired by Beckley Waves.

Cappello digs into his recent article which has been making waves across the psychedelic community: “Profit Over Patients? A Critical Look at At-Home Ketamine Therapy.” He created Nue Life with the goal of helping a million people address the root cause of their anxiety, and while the company was successful, he began to see a problematic trend: that using ketamine while providing services of a mental health company is very expensive and resource-consuming, and as companies saw a large percentage of clients requiring maintenance doses, the most profitable business model became essentially slinging ketamine to patients without providing any real integration or aftercare. Are these companies promising healing but really only guaranteeing recurring revenue?

He talks about:

• How this emerging model makes it harder for ethical practitioners to be able to provide their services
• The tools they built at Nue Life for long-term benefit, and why these should be the main focus – not repeated ketamine
• Matthew Perry’s death and how the media was quick to place the blame on ketamine
• The need for companies and communities to come to gather and create ethical industry standards for the at-home ketamine model
• How cannabis was almost decriminalized under the Carter administration

and more!

Click here to head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, David interviews Dr. 1Drea Pennington Wasio: integrative physician, psychedelic-assisted therapy facilitator and psilocybin retreat leader, international speaker, podcaster, and author of several books, including "Sacred Medicine: Exploring The Psychedelic Hero’s Journey."

She discusses her personal metamorphosis and name change inspired by a powerful ayahuasca experience, and how that moved her into a life more inspired by authenticity and self-love. She gives the details of her retreats, explains her PRISM sessions, and talks in depth about the magic of resiliency: How can we not just return to baseline, but experience post-traumatic growth?

She talks about:

• The power of tuning into creativity in times of depression
• The efficacy of narrative therapy and writing in general
• The universal themes of ‘The Hero’s Journey’ and how much agency matters
• The importance of embracing nonfiction, and her upcoming book series, "The Dreamweaver’s Legacy"
• The potential of microdosing psilocybin for menopause and more!

Her new course on trauma-informed psychedelic therapy begins this month, and her next retreat begins May 10. Head to 1drea.com for details. Click here to head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, David interviews Itzhak Beery: author, shamanic teacher, speaker, trip leader, and founder of ShamanPortal.org, an online community and resource for people who want to learn, practice, and teach shamanic traditions.

Beery shares his transformational journey, starting from his upbringing on a kibbutz in Israel, to his disillusioned advertising days in Manhattan, to the life-altering sweat lodge experience in Hawaii that eventually led him to write the book, Shamanic Transformations: True Stories of the Moment of Awakening, and realize his true purpose. He discusses the two major sides of trust: how to know when a healing path has truly become your life purpose, and how to know who to trust as a good healer in a world of self-initiated shamans.

He and David dig into:

• How we all have the innate ability to be a shaman
• How Westerners are often seeking healing too young, before they have the capacity to truly understand lessons they may receive
• His upcoming book which attempts to teach practitioners how to create narratives out of symbols, The Language of Spirit
• The importance in not denying the experiencer’s truth

and more!

Click here to head to the show notes page.

In this episode, Johanna interviews Laura Reeves: Glastonbury-based facilitator and medicine woman trained in craniosacral therapy, somatic experiencing, breathwork, and more, who holds retreats at sacred sites in the U.K. and Peruvian Amazon.

She tells of her journey from serendipitously booking a trip to Ecuador just as she first heard about ayahuasca, to the early ayahuasca experiences that showed her our true interconnectedness, to a heroic dose of psilocybin and a trip to the hospital, to being accepted into training with an Indigenous shaman in the Amazon. With a lifelong love of nature, paganism, and ancient traditions, she stresses the importance of connecting to the natural rhythms of the Earth and harnessing its energy.

She talks about:

• Self-initiated shamans and the dangers that can come from bad actors operating out of integrity and respect for the lineage
• Ayahuasca as a purgative and the power of energetic clearings
• Her experience with shamans using Icaros to channel the sounds of plants
• Shadow work and its role in personal growth and healing
• The energy of Glastonbury, feeling deep connections to sacred places, and how ley lines inspire places of pilgrimage and more!

Click here to head to the show notes page. 

In this episode, Joe and guest co-host Erica Rex interview Elizabeth Anglin: spirit medium, animal communicator, intuitive healer, alien abductee, and author of Experience: Memoirs of an Abducted Childhood.

She talks about her early abduction experiences, the time when she and her father realized they were both being abducted at the same time (from different locations), and the horrifying experience of six beings entering her apartment and realizing she knew one of them. These experiences led her to Budd Hopkins, and eventually John Mack (who did regression work with her) and the John E. Mack Institute, where she became a peer mentor for abductees. She talks about the validity of alien abductions, the concept of spiritual ecology, and the importance of listening to people: There’s so much we don’t know, so is it fair to label experiencers as schizophrenic just because we can’t replicate the experience?

She discusses:

• The commonality of people from the same family being abducted and why some people are lifetime abductees while others are only taken once
• The differences in abductions and how some seem to only be mental while others are physical and extremely painful
• The story of Linda Napolitano and the famous Brooklyn Bridge abduction
• Regressive hypnotherapy work: Are the memories you’re recovering accurate?
• Quantum biology, the Penrose-Hameroff quantum theory of consciousness, parallel realities, time travel, and quantum jumping and so much more! As the X-Files made famous: The truth is out there. And this episode is definitely pretty out there! Click here to head to the show notes page.

In this episode, Christopher Koddermann interviews Dr. Sam Banister: co-founder and chief scientific officer of Psylo, an Australian biotech company developing next-generation psychedelics.

Banister discusses how he got involved in drug development, how Psylo came about, and the hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonists Psylo is working on. He talks about the compromise between immediate need and ambition, and the ethical considerations and possibilities behind developing non-hallucinogenic compounds: What can we take from the psychedelic experience for people who aren’t ideal candidates for one? Is the psychedelic experience truly necessary? And for what indications will these new Gen 3 compounds be most useful?

He discusses:

• What we can infer about the volatility of biotech and the state of the psychedelic industry based on recent mergers and acquisitions
• The long-term challenges of drug development and the scalability of treatment options
• How the initial success of Spravato has played a role in allaying fears around new compounds
• Head twitch response and concerns it’s not as accurate of a metric as we’ve believed
• Australia’s decision to down-schedule psilocybin and MDMA, and the speed of implementation and licensing: How long will it be before people have easy access?
• What he sees for the future and why we need to be careful with language around expectations

and more! Click here to head to teh show notes page. 

In this episode, Joe interviews Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris: founder and head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, founding director of the Neuroscape Psychedelics Division at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and founder of the Carhart-Harris Lab.

A legendary researcher, he talks about his psychedelic origins: studying Freud, Jung, and eventually Stan Grof and depth psychology to try and better understand the unconscious. He discusses the growth of psychedelics and the cultural shifts he’s noticed (especially in the U.S.), as well as what he’s working on today: researching the influence of psychedelics on set and setting by studying experiences in both enriched and unenriched environments.

He also talks about:

• Plasticity: how he defines it, how it relates to critical reopening periods, and how it’s a fundamental thing that transcends the metrics we use to measure it
• Early LSD studies, the nervousness surrounding he and David Nutt dosing Ben Sessa, and the youthful energy that kept them going
• How plasticity could be exploited to help relieve chronic pain
• The potential of psychedelics to help with fibromyalgia and anorexia
• How psychedelic-assisted therapy brought care back to health care

and more!

UCSF is seeking survey volunteers, so if you’ve had more than three experiences with ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin (must have experiences with all three) and want to contribute, do so here. Click here to head to the show notes page.