In this episode, Dr. J is joined by Dimitri Mugianis, who has previously been featured on This American Life, Psychedelics Today and stars in the documentary I’m Dangerous With Love, which chronicles his work and life.Through the podcast, they discuss the darker side of addiction, recovery through the use of Ibogaine and how Dimitri has come full circle to helping create space to meet people where they are. Topics covered may not be suitable for everyone as we discuss suicide, IV drug use and more.

He discusses his experiences in the underground treatment community, the cultural significance of Ibogaine, and the importance of creating safe, supportive spaces for healing. Dimitri emphasizes the need for radical hospitality and the needed shift of the field to recognize what frameworks are harmful in the psychedelic and psychiatric spaces, advocating for a more compassionate approach to addiction recovery and community support.

His company, Cardea aims to create unique and artistic spaces that allow people to experience full expressions of themselves. Through experimentation with sound, art, and comfort at all levels, they provide a psychedelic therapy that is atypical. Cardea is also partnering with community members across the globe to inspire radical change through the Furthur Fund. Check out more on https://cardea.net/.

In this episode, Dr. Jaster is joined by Andrew Ferns, a PhD Candidate at University North Texas, to discuss his unique journey from a chef struggling with addiction to clandestine chemist to PhD researching the effects of psychedelics on cognitive decline. Andrew's current research focuses on the role of psychedelics in aging and cognitive decline, exploring innovative methods to study these effects.

For some background reading on his research topics check out: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12bgnxnH3Eod_oGcz-jml1bBIfiy3Fjas?usp=sharing

This episode, Dr. Jaster is joined by Samantha Bumgardaner, MS, who is currently studying substance use disorders and psychedelics for her PhD at Saint Louis University.Her work employs mixed-method approaches to study the influence of state and trait factors on substance use and mental health outcomes in psychedelic therapies.

They discuss everything from qualitative vs. quantitative research, therapeutic outcomes, accessibility to psychedelics, behavioral vs. physiological addiction + more!

This special episode of Psychedelic Brain Science is a collaboration with Psychedelic State(s) of America. Here, Dr. Jaster is joined by Julie Barron of Michigan Psychedelic Society and MI State Rep. Mike McFall to discuss the evolving landscape of psychedelic advocacy in Michigan, recent legislative efforts, and the importance of events like the Entheo Cup.

For information about Rep. McFall + legislation: https://housedems.com/mike-mcfall/

https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1900001

For information about MI Psychedelic Society and Julie: https://mipsychedelicsociety.org/

For coverage on MI Community + Legislation:

https://www.lucid.news/michigans-psychedelic-advocates-persist/

https://www.lucid.news/michigan-psychedelic-community-entheogens-and-activism/

This episode Dr. Jaster is joined by Dr. Jérémie Richard, a psychologist and Assistant Professor at University of Ottawa. At the time of recording, Dr. Richard was a Banting Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

This episode discusses a recent publication by Richard and colleagues titled, "Patterns of Internalizing Problems, Substance Use and Cognitive Flexibility Before and After Naturalistic Psilocybin Use: A Repeated Measures Latent Profile Analysis"

We know that's a mouth full, but don't worry! As you listen you can follow along to the paper and the figure that Dr. Richard references available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zSIz4z4BM-EK7EHFi5dXEAJnjh1DbAGq?usp=sharing

In this special episode, Alaina discusses the ongoing fight for the rescheduling of psilocybin with Dr. Sunil Aggarwal and attorney Shane Pennington. They delve into the complexities of the rescheduling process, the legal challenges faced, and the importance of public advocacy in shaping drug policy. The conversation highlights the significance of psilocybin in therapeutic contexts, the right to try act, and the evolving landscape of drug regulation in the United States.

For more information check out these links:

AIMS Institute - IG @aimsinstituteseattlehttps://www.aimsinstitute.net/category/news/https://facebook.com/aimsinstitutepllc

National Psychedelics Association - https://yournpa.org/dea-petition/

Dr. Sunil Aggarwal - IG @sunil1007 -Twitter ⁠x.com/humansunilCannabinologist.org

https://Facebook.com/humansunil

https://Facebook.com/Sunil.aggarwal1

Shane Pennington -

https://www.blankrome.com/people/shane-a-pennington

Dr. Alaina Jaster is joined by Brooke Sanders, MS, a translational neuroscientist focused on understanding epigenetic impacts of synthetic cannabinoids on the human genome. She is also a Content Advisor for Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

They discuss a variety of projects Sanders is involved in including:

• Assessing social aspects of cannabis use in adolescents

• MS project studying epigenetic changes following synthetic cannabis administration
• Harm reduction and drug policy at the national and international level including her experience speaking at the United Nations

Is Cannabis a Psychedelic Episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ttrtyHJcwZbtkKkx3BvyN?si=W0i88lhyRmKZoSmb-104aQ

Cannabis and California Sober ft. Dr. Grinspoon: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0MPaF0ru4ZF2QUztqAugCZ?si=30PG-m2FSDCX8wgPhXqisw

PsyChild Database: https://www.psychild.info/

Other resources related to the episode: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sp-BaLozZN6FCHuEYAyNdM5hiokiKtX-?usp=sharing

Welcome to the first Causal Friday!

These short segments are all about chatting casually with friends, family or strangers and how the most random interests can intersect with science. They will air on a random Friday each month, so you have to subscribe to get the notification!

The first guest of this segment is Dr. Jaster's husband and voice of the famous podcast disclaimer, Chris Wood. Here, they discuss raw denim jeans and the ethics of gene therapy.

Let us know what you think and don't forget to like, subscribe, share and check out our patreon!

Dr. Alaina Jaster is joined by child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. David Sjöström who is at the University Hospital in Lund, Sweden. He is a current PhD candidate studying adolescent use of psychedelics and perceived effects on wellbeing.

They discuss a variety of projects Sjöström is involved in including:

• Clinical trial exploring the effects of psilocybin in young adults (ages 16–35) with anorexia nervosa which was just recently received full approval.

• psiTWIN, a twin study examining how age, personality, set/setting, and the quality of the acute psychedelic experience influence outcomes
• PhD project assessing psychedelic experiences in adolescents in Sweden and Brazil

For access to the papers referenced in this episode: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LNNKtTgDjLQNohKSKGHmwPb0PRxRD7oR?usp=sharing

PsyChild Database: https://www.psychild.info/

The final episode of Season 4 of Psychedelic Brain Science discusses a recent preprint that gets at the heart of reproducibility in science.

Dr. Jaster is joined by Berkeley PhD candidate Odilia Lu, Stanford researcher and professor Dr. Robert Malenka, and anesthesiologist and Stanford researcher Dr. Boris Heifets, all representing the laboratories involved in the Psychedelic Bay Area Animal Neuroscience Consortium; Psy-BAANC.

Five laboratories performed the same experiments at Stanford, Berkeley and UCSF  to test the acute and persistent effects of 2 mg/kg psilocybin on various behaviors that psychedelics have been proposed to affect in mouse models. Many of these methods have been featured in publications that have received a lot of media attention, but can be difficult to replicate.

This body of work titled “A multi-institutional investigation of psilocybin’s effects on mouse behavior” can be found on BioRxiv here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.08.647810v1