Medicine has come a long way in the past 50 years, but here's what's fascinating: many of the breakthrough treatments we use today for pain, addiction, and mental health started with a handful of doctors who were willing to go against the grain.

In this conversation, Sam sits down with Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a triple board-certified physician whose career reads like a roadmap of medical innovation. We're talking five decades of pushing boundaries - from emergency medicine to nuclear war prevention to being at the ground floor of psychedelic research.

Dr. Kornfeld doesn't just share stories (though he has plenty). He walks us through his transformative experiences at Esalen Institute, his pioneering work with buprenorphine treatment, and his connections to the key figures who literally shaped modern psychedelic medicine as we know it.

What makes this conversation essential listening? Dr. Kornfeld's journey shows exactly how questioning established medical practices - while still maintaining rigorous, evidence-based standards - can lead to treatments that actually change lives. His story proves that individual physicians can drive real systemic change, but it requires persistence, innovation, and the willingness to work outside conventional healthcare systems.

If you've ever wondered how breakthrough treatments actually make it from "experimental" to mainstream, or if you're curious about what it really takes to challenge medical orthodoxy, this conversation will give you the historical context you need.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

・How questioning medical orthodoxy led to breakthrough treatments and career-defining insights
・The evolution of pain medicine from the 1920s through today and lessons for modern practice
・Dr. Kornfeld's journey from emergency medicine through nuclear activism to integrative practice
・Historical context for psychedelic medicine's current renaissance and key pioneering figures

Episode 39 show notes:

00:00 Teaser - Physicians as Shamans of Our Culture

00:34 Welcome Back To the Podcast 

03:04 Challenging Medical Orthodoxy: The Mastectomy Story 

07:04 Triple Board Certification Journey 

09:41 Cook County Hospital vs Prestigious Academics 

12:55 Esalen Institute: A Medical Education Like No Other 

17:37 Three Mile Island and Nuclear War Prevention 

31:08 Meeting Sasha Shulgin and Early MDMA Research 

35:32 Entering Addiction Medicine

36:43 The Esalen Psychedelic Research Conference 

49:05 From Nuclear Activism to Addiction Medicine 

53:037 Buprenorphine: Years Ahead of Everyone Else 

1:00:14 The Pendulum Swings of Pain Medicine 

1:14:15 Recovery Without Walls Clinic Model 

1:17:37 Ketamine's Paradoxical Nature in Addiction 

1:20:38 Treating Ketamine Use Disorder 

1:22:20 Starting Your Own Practice: Practical Advice 

1:28:21 Advice from Your 100-Year-Old Self 

1:31:52 Contact Information and Closing

Thanks for listening

Connect with Dr. Howard Kornfeld at:

Recovery Without Walls

👉 Disclosure: Some of the links in these show notes are affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase through them, we may earn a small commission—at no additional cost to you. Thanks for supporting the podcast!

Selected Links From the Episode:

Esalen Institute

Stanislav Grof

UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

📕Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science by Benjamin Breen

📗Person/Planet: The Creative Disintegration of Industrial Society By Theodore Roszak

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