Mind & Matter

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Nick talks to neuroscientist & psychologist, Dr. Chris Timmermann, a scientist at the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London. Chris led the first neuroimaging studies on the effects of the potent tryptamine psychedelic DMT on the brain. They discussed DMT and related psychedelics, including how DMT is normally consumed in both recreational and laboratory contexts, how people describe its effects, how it compares to psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD, and whether it is an endogenous compound present in our own bodies. Chris also described his research on how DMT affects patterns of brain activity, and what he hopes to learn from ongoing research, which includes extending the duration of DMT experiences from a few minutes up to 30 minutes per session.

*Not medical advice.

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Nick talks to gastroenterologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Emeran Mayer. Emeran is a distinguished professor at UCLA and an expert in gut health and the microbiome. His last book was titled, “The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Health.” His latest book builds on this, and is titled, “The Gut-Immune Connection.”

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Nick talks to Jon Kostakopoulos, an early participant in an NYU study looking at psilocybin for the treatment of alcoholism. Jon went through psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy over the course of many weeks for this study, which included three separate days of psilocybin administration. He talked about his battle with alcoholism leading up to the study, how he was recruited to the study, and what his psilocybin experiences were like. He also shared what he has been doing since his psilocybin experiences, including founding Apollo Pact, a non-profit working to advance research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin. 

*Not medical advice.

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Nick talks to neuroscientist and machine learning engineer, Alex Wiltschko, PhD. Alex is a senior scientist at Google Brain, where he leads the digital olfaction group, where are working to build machines with a sense of smell. Alex received a PhD in neurobiology from Harvard, where he developed sophisticated machine vision and machine learning techniques to study animal behavior. They discussed Alex's research, the neuroscience of olfactory perception and animal behavior, as well as Alex's thoughts on topics related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. 

*Not medical advice.

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Nick talks to science writer and NYT columnist Carl Zimmer about his new book, "Life's Edge: The Search For What It Means To Be Alive." They discuss the scientific quest to understand life: what is it, how does it arise, and how might scientists identify it elsewhere in the universe? They also discuss Carl's approach to science writing, including where he draws inspiration and what his writing process looks like.

*Not medical advice.

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Nick talks to biological anthropologist and cognitive scientist, Terrence Deacon. The conversation focuses on ideas from Terrence's book, "The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain." They spend nearly three hours talking about the origins of language. Topics include: what is language and how does it differ from animal communication? How do children acquire language so easily at a young age? What is symbolic cognition, how is it different from other forms of cognition, and how did this unlock our ability to evolve language?

See my other conversation with Terrence Deacon, "Purpose, Value, Evolution, Consciousness, Sentience, Life & Emergence of Mind From Matter"

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Nick talks to Dr. Yasmin Hurd, a neuroscientist studying medical cannabis, CBD, and opioid addiction. Dr. Hurd is investigating the ability of CBD to help treat withdrawal symptoms and prevent relapse in opioid-addicted individuals.

*Not medical advice.

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Nick talks to genetic engineer Alina Chan, PhD. She is working on engineering new forms of gene therapy using viral vectors to target diverse patient populations. In addition to her core scientific focus, Alina has recently investigated genomic data related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID19 pandemic.

They discuss the basics of virus biology, including what kind of virus SARS-CoV-2 is and how it infects human cells. They also talked about the published research on this virus that has come out in the past year, Alina's recent investigations into the origins of this virus and why it’s crucial for humanity to understand exactly how this virus originated, as well as new variants that have emerged, and where this virus might be going.

*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice.

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Nick talks to Dr. Michael Eisen, a biologist at UC-Berkeley and editor-in-chief for eLife, a non-profit open access science journal. Throughout his career, Dr. Eisen has been an advocate of open science, the free release of the results of scientific research, and has been critical of traditional forms of scientific publishing, which often place scientific results behind a paywall.

They discuss a variety of topics related to how academic science is conducted, including how it gets funded and what is involved in running a research lab. Much of the discussion centers on the business of scientific publishing, including what scientific journals are and their history, as well as the business models of for-profit journals and how they work. They also talk about open access journals and new ways that people are using technology to get around paywalls. 

Scientific publishing is an industry that most people have little awareness of (including many scientists), and the size and profitability of large scientific publishing groups may surprise you.  

*Not medical advice.

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Nick talks to Dr. Bob Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist and sleep expert. Dr. Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has been studying sleep, dreams, and memory for over 25 years. 

They discuss a variety of sleep topics, included sleep architecture and why there are different stages of sleep; the relationship between sleep stages and memory; how different drugs and disease states relate to sleep; how sleep differs as we develop and between species. Dr. Stickgold also shares various sleep-related health tips, including why it's important to get adequate sleep when you get vaccinated. 

*Not medical advice.

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