David Champion is the CEO of Maya PBC and Co-Founder & Director of Unlimited Sciences, which is a psychedelic research nonprofit that uses the thoughtful and anonymous collection of data to understand how psychedelic therapy can be offered with harm-free, positive outcomes at scale. Prior to this venture, David was the Co-Founder & CPO at Baker Technologies, the leading (and first of its kind) CRM for the cannabis industry. After successfully exiting the company with a valuation of $250MM, he served as a campaign lead in the Denver Psilocybin Initiative, which helped Denver become the first U.S. city to reform the psilocybin policy by decriminalizing the substance.
David graduated summa cum laude in Architecture from Cambridge University and built a nonprofit to help Kenyan children access adequate schooling. Brought up in Papau New Guinea, Portugal and Scotland, he took his wealth of world experience and began his career in New York with Daniel Libeskind, working on the Ground Zero masterplan.
David has a decade of experience designing consumer software and cultivating a wide variety of interest in behavioral data, digital art, user experience design, and mindfulness. Now, if you’re wondering if there’s anything this man hasn’t done, just wait to hear how Unlimited Sciences is pairing up with John Hopkins to change the way we approach mental wellness.
We also talk about:
- How David’s formative experiences with psychedelics influenced his interest in the space now.
- The work of The Zendo Project, a subsidiary of MAPS that works to reduce the number of psychiatric hospitalizations and arrests by creating an environment where volunteers can work alongside one another to improve harm reduction and “sitting” skills during psychedelic experiences.
- The problematic, binary philosophy presented in the US, where plant medicines are seen as strictly medicinal or strictly recreational.
- David’s involvement in decriminalizing psilocybin in Denver, Colorado.
- The importance (and enough-ness) of pushing just the first domino down to spark an entire movement.
- The collaborative efforts among the country’s change-makers to bring safe and sustainable entheogen use to the masses.
- Seeing psychedelic-assisted therapy as a cause, rather than an industry.
- Cannabis as a product-centric industry, and psychedelics as a service-oriented marketplace.
- The creation of a longitudinal, observational research study specifically designed to investigate entheogens in a naturalistic setting.
- The importance of set, setting, onboarding, and integration for safe and meaningful “trips.”
- How to amplify the neurogenesis component of psilocybin for long-term benefits.
We’re on the cusp of discovering how psychedelics can help heal humanity — and we need your help! Every dollar donated to Unlimited Sciences helps fund the groundbreaking research and storytelling they do every single day. Donate now!
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