Jake Heilbrunn was suffering from crippling anxiety before embarking on a life-changing trip to South America. His experience during his travels connected him to his passion for helping others, so when he returned he began speaking and writing about his journey. Jake is now an extremely accomplished public speaker, author and mental health advocate, helping young people all over the world find their passions and overcome their fears.

When most people hear the term "psychedelic" it tends to conjure up images of tie dye and Woodstock at best, and people winding up homeless or losing their minds at worst. The media backlash after the 60's, and the war on drugs did a great job distorting the public's conception of these substances. What if I told you that despite what you may have heard, psychedelics may be the world's most powerful tool for healing trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? That over 60% of people could be completely PTSD free after just 3 sessions?

The research being done at the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is showing us just that.

Even though we've had them our entire lives, emotions confound just about all of us at times.  Joy, anger, sadness, fear...they can seemingly come out of nowhere, and often defy logic.  Thankfully, there are people like Joie Seldon who have made it their life's work to help us navigate choppy emotional waters with grace and understanding.  In this podcast, we discuss emotions on many different levels and at multiple scales.   Joie offers helpful tangible examples, and practical exercises from her practice as a coach and work as an author.  If you have emotions--and if you're reading this, that's you--you'll benefit from Joie's wisdom!

What if you could play a fun, intelligent, self-adapting video game to treat your ADHD or depression? What if a psychiatrist's office was no longer just a place to get pills, but a place to lay back and immerse yourself in a Virtual Reality treatment environment? It sounds like science fiction, but neurologist/neuroscientist Dr. Adam Gazzaley is working to make these things a reality. In this episode of Pure Curiosity, Adam describes his cutting-edge research and the future of digital medicine, including the development of what will likely be the world's first prescribable video game! The future is very bright indeed.

Over 20 million people over the age of 12 struggle with addiction in the United States alone (and that doesn't even include tobacco). Despite its prevalence, addiction is still considered taboo, and the stigma attached remains strong. As with most things that are kept under wraps, there are a ton of misconceptions about addiction and recovery. In this podcast I speak with Stephen Pfleiderer, a recovered addict, recovery coach and interventionist in San Francisco, and he shares his thoughts on these complex issues.

In this episode Jamie Thompson teaches us about boundary setting, accountability, and managing romantic partnerships while building a business or working from home. Whether you are in a romantic partnership, a business partnership (or both), work for yourself, or think you might in the future, this conversation will be relevant for you.

Intelligence comes in many forms, and until somewhat recently, emotional intelligence has been vastly underrated. In this episode of Pure Curiosity, Dan Stover and I discuss what it takes to increase emotional intelligence, tell the truth to ourselves and each other, and live a more purposeful life. He also shares fascinating stories from his time working with Suicide Prevention and Homeboy Industries.

This week’s episode of Pure Curiosity is a critical discussion about modern culture, media, parenting methods and our relationship with our bodies.

In this episode of Pure Curiosity we discuss the future of humanity. In particular we talk about Artificial Intelligence as being a mirror that reflects back to us both the light and dark sides of who we are. AI is a powerful tool that simultaneously solves problems and creates new--and some might say bigger--challenges. We also discuss the role of spirituality and psychedelic medicine in this new future, and how they could play an unexpected and pivotal role in righting the ship.

Dr. Jonathan Downar, neuroscientist and psychiatrist, and Dr. Don Vaughn, neuroscientist and behavioral consultant, share their thoughts on the future of mental health, and how Neuroscience is helping us solve complex human problems.