The Trip Report

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio

Today, we have the honor of speaking with distinguished neuroscientist and researcher of consciousness, Christof Koch, Ph.D.

Christof is the Chief Scientist of the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation and Chief Scientist and President of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. 

He has been a prominent figure in the study of consciousness for over 40 years. His work includes collaborations with Nobel laureate Francis Crick and pioneering research in understanding the neural correlates of consciousness.

Christof recently published a memoir of sorts titled Then I am Myself the World, where he discusses his profound experiences with psychedelics, including a near-death experience induced by 5-MeO-DMT. These experiences have significantly influenced his perspective on consciousness and the nature of reality.

In our conversation, we explore:

* Christof's journey from a devout Catholic upbringing to becoming a leading neuroscientist in the study of consciousness

* His transformative experiences with psychedelics

* The implications of these experiences on his understanding of consciousness and reality

* The research and initiatives of the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation

* The role of psychedelics, breathwork, and other techniques in expanding our perception and understanding of consciousness

* The importance of integrating compassion, curiosity, and mindfulness in both personal and professional contexts

Christof’s insights offer a unique blend of scientific rigor and personal exploration, providing a fascinating perspective on the intersection of neuroscience and psychedelics.

And now, I bring you my conversation with Christof Koch.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

Today, I am speaking with Manesh Girn, Ph.D, a prominent researcher and science communicator in the field of psychedelics and neuroscience. 

Manesh is a postdoctoral researcher at UCSF in Robin Carhart-Harris's lab. His fascinating background bridges psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience.

Manesh's journey into the world of psychedelics began in his late teens through an interest in meditation and spirituality. 

A profound experience with psilocybin during his undergraduate years ignited his passion for exploring the therapeutic and cognitive potentials of psychedelics. 

His work has taken him from the University of British Columbia to McGill University, where he completed his PhD focusing on the default mode network and its role in human cognition and behavior.

In this conversation, we discuss:

* Manesh's introduction to psychedelics and how his early experiences shaped his academic and research career.

* The intersection of meditation, psychedelics, and the default mode network

* His extensive research on the default mode network and how psychedelics affect it.

* The concept of neurophenomenology and its significance in linking subjective experiences with brain dynamics.

* The ambitious projects at UCSF, including the most comprehensive psychedelic brain imaging study to date.

* His involvement in a large-scale international psychedelic brain imaging data-sharing consortium.

* The future of psychedelics in enhancing human potential and creativity, particularly through the work of the Center for MINDS.

Manesh is passionate about leveraging psychedelics to help people not just recover from mental health issues but also to thrive and reach their fullest potential.

And now, I bring you my conversation with Manesh Girn.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

Today, I am speaking with Dennis Walker, AKA the Mycopreneur.

I don’t know about you, but I am always flummoxed by the seriousness of the discourse among stakeholders in the ‘psychedelic renaissance.’

My guess is that this earnestness is the result of a few things:

* a reverence and respect for the medicine

* an attempt to extend objective scientific rigor to human communication and 

* the don’t-rock-the-boat-formality of the biopharmaceutical industry to avoid regulator scrutiny.

But whatever it is that has led to such formality we can be grateful that The Cosmic Joke will reliably appear on the timeline, thanks to Dennis.

I imagine that many Trip Report subscribers are familiar with Dennis as the Court Jester of Psychedelics through his satirical video shorts and articles with titles like “Netflix Announces America’s Next Top Shaman” and “Drake Enters MDMA-Assisted Therapy after Kendrick Traumatizes Him”.

But in addition to lighthearted satire, Dennis and Mycopreneur are also focused on mushroom entrepreneurship beyond psychedelics in areas like myco-materials, mycoremediation, mycofiltration, and mycelium-based food products.

It turns out that mushrooms have many, many potential and emerging uses in the modern economy.

In this conversation, Dennis and I discuss:

* The Origin and Evolution of Mycopreneur

* The potential impact of Mushroom-based-technology

* The importance of community in the mycological industry

* The redefinition of the 'legacy market' versus the 'black market' for psychedelics

* The gap between the demand for and the legal supply of legal psychedelic experiences 

* And much more

And now, I bring you my conversation with Dennis Walker.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

Today, we have the privilege of speaking with Bruce Damer, a distinguished astrobiologist from the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

He is also the Director and Chief Scientist at the BIOTA Institute and the co-founder and president of the Center for MINDS, which stands for the Multidisciplinary Investigation Into Novel Discoveries & Solutions.

Bruce is most well known for the Hot Spring Hypothesis for an Origin of Life. This groundbreaking theory challenges the conventional belief that life on Earth began in the oceans, suggesting instead that it emerged from hot springs. 

Important for our conversation today and for the work that the Center for MINDS is initiating, the hot spring hypothesis came to Bruce during an Ayahuasca ceremony.

The Center for MINDS is a non-profit organization co-founded by Bruce and colleagues to investigate the potential of psychedelics and mindfulness practices to catalyze states of creativity for innovative problem-solving in science, engineering, leadership, design, and other fields. MINDS is sponsoring the research and development of new protocols, facilitating public discourse, and supporting community education, with the goal of finding solutions to some of humanity's greatest challenges.

This project is inspired by research that was abruptly halted in the 1960s—which was studying the use of mescaline for promoting technical breakthroughs—along with Bruce’s own experience with the hot spring hypothesis.

In this conversation, we discuss:

* Bruce’s introduction to psilocybin from none other than Terrence Mckenna;

* How his Ayahuasca and breath work experiences revealed to him the biochemistry of the origin of life;

* The Center for MINDS origin story;

* The practice of set, setting, and set up—where set up is the crucial ingredient for creative breakthrough;

* The research programs and community building he is spearheading with the Center for MINDS; 

* Endotripping: a term Bruce coined to describe the exploration of the mind without drugs; 

* And much more.

And now, I bring you my conversation with Bruce Damer.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

Today, I am speaking with Dr. Pedro Texeira, Ph.D a scientist studying health behavior change and health psychology at the University of Lisbon and founder of the psychedelic educational non-profit Safe Journey.

About 18 months ago, I came across a paper authored by Pedro, Robin Carhart-Harris, and others titled Psychedelics and Health Behaviour Change about the potential role of psychedelics in promoting lifestyle changes that are conducive to overall health, and I knew that this would be an increasingly relevant area of research and practice.

Part of my intrigue with psychedelics as therapeutic tools is the wide array of conditions and issues for which they may be helpful.

At a time when the dominant prescriptive mode in healthcare is “a different pill for every ill,” it is intriguing to see an emerging treatment that has been used for centuries and for which people have organically found helpful for many different conditions from PTSD, to Depression, to Cluster Headaches.

Furthermore, the idea that society’s most pressing healthcare challenges—chronic diseases—are downstream of environment and lifestyle is an inconvenient truth. The reality is that we can’t ignore the impact of nutrition, exercise, sleep, our social environment, and other non-medical lifestyle factors that can be difficult to change.

So, can psychedelic-based approaches help people make positive changes? Develop greater agency? Feel less compulsion?

These are the questions that Pedro and his team are researching.

In this conversation, we discuss:

* Pedro’s research in nutritional science and health activity

* The rise of environmental and lifestyle-based chronic diseases

* The early years of the field of behavioral psychology

* Self Determination Theory and the relationship between one’s perceived competence and motivation for change

* The underlying psychological mechanisms of action in self-perception and health behavior change

* The potential power of combining established behavioral interventions with psychedelics

* What we can learn about behavior change following psychedelic experiences in naturalistic settings

* And the importance of psychedelic public education 

And now I bring you my conversation with Dr. Pedro Teixeira.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

This week, I am speaking with Dr. Jackie von Salm, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Psilera, a biotech company pioneering early-stage psychedelic-inspired drug discovery and development for neurological conditions.

If you’ve ever been curious about the intricate and fascinating world of drug discovery, this conversation is a must-listen.

Jackie walks me through the entire process, from scaffolds to IND submission and all the steps in between.

Along the way, we discuss her background in natural product chemistry, the role of secondary metabolites, and a unique property of adaptive physiology whereby some types of stress actually strengthen organisms.

We discuss the origin story of Psilera and the inspiration from 2 Bromo-LSD, a non-hallucinogenic compound that has been successfully used by people suffering from cluster headaches, among other neurological conditions.

We discuss the increasing role of AI and computation in the drug discovery process but also the ‘chemical intuition’ that one develops after years of practicing chemistry. 

We dive into the emerging field of neuropsychiatric biomarkers, a toolset that has eluded researchers, clinicians, and patients in this particular field, and how EEG and other brain imaging technologies may be the answer.

We discuss the perception of psychedelic drug development in the eyes of the pharma world and much more.

And now, I bring you my conversation with Dr. Jackie von Salm.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

Today, I'm speaking with Shirelle Noble, Deb Gardner, and Danielle Herrera, LMFT from Beckley Academy. They recently published A Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Learning Framework.

This is a research initiative that aims to foster a unified and comprehensive educational paradigm for psychedelic practitioners across the field.

With the advent of psychedelic-assisted therapy in regulated, unregulated, and legal grey areas, more and more therapists are seeking out training to learn how to administer this novel modality. 

In response, there is a growing market of educational providers that are vying for their business.

However, there are no agreed-upon standards for training, certification, and licensing.

As a result, the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy is at a pivotal juncture. Its potential to revolutionize mental health treatment is immense, yet the absence of agreed-upon training standards and certifications for practitioners remains a critical gap.

Beckley Academy co-founding team members Deborah Gardner and Shirelle Noble recognized the opportunity to analyze existing publications and create a unified learning framework – a first step in the direction of such standards.

The conversation I am about to share with you highlights the framework's pivotal role in addressing the current gaps within the field and the necessity for a standardized set of learning objectives. 

This open-sourced Learning Framework is a foundational step towards establishing a coherent and comprehensive educational standard for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and advocating for a multifaceted and experiential learning approach that includes somatic and relational practices.

And now, I bring you my conversation with Shirelle Noble, Deb Gardner, and Danielle Herrera from Beckley Academy.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

Today, I am speaking with Rick Doblin, founder and President of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

December of last year was a milestone for Doblin and MAPS, as the organization submitted a New Drug Application for MDMA Assisted Therapy to the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Then, in the first week of January, the MAPS Public Benefit Corp announced its rebranding to Lykos Therapeutics and a $100 million Series A financing.

Needless to say, it has been a pivotal period in the organization’s history and a watershed moment for the revival of psychedelic medicine, science, and policy.

In February, the FDA accepted the application and granted a priority review, putting the decision timeline at August of this year.

That’s just around the corner.

And so much is still up in the air—of course the big question—will the FDA grant approval? 

But also so many granular details that will have significant downstream effects on the commercial rollout, access, and cost.

* What language will be on the drug label? 

* What will the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy entail? 

* How will patients be able to access the drug? 

* What will the FDA say about the role of therapy?

Among others.

So, I wanted to sit down with Rick to talk about it and get his perspective on the organization’s evolution, the path ahead, and, most importantly, the many uncertainties that hang in the balance.

In this conversation, we discuss:

* The importance of therapy in conjunction with MDMA (and his loathing of the acronym MDMA-AT)

* The many regulatory and bureaucratic details that go into the FDA’s decision and subsequent commercial rollout, including:

* Drug labeling

* Therapist credentialing 

* Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies

* The negotiations he’s led with the FDA over the last 20 years

* Lykos’ goal of getting MDMA-Assisted Therapy FDA approved and MAPS’ goal of getting MDMA federally legalized

* The role of therapist’s first-hand experience with MDMA and the regulatory battle of ensuring legal access to this group

* His future humanitarian and scientific plans

And much more.

And now I bring you my conversation with Rick Doblin.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

Today, I am speaking with Marcus Capone, co-founder of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), a non-profit that seeks to create access to psychedelic medicine for veterans of the Armed Forces. 

He is also co-founder and CEO of Tara Mind, a public benefit corporation that is making psychedelic medicine a widely available employee benefit.

Whenever you hear about federal programs, senate bills, or congressional initiatives for psychedelics, two things usually stand out: first, they are often bipartisan efforts—a rarity in the current political environment—and second, they seek to fund research or access for veterans.

In my experience, the Veterans-as-champions-of-psychedelic-medicine narrative catches a lot of people by surprise when they first hear about it, but quickly connect the dots as they recollect the staggering numbers of veteran suicides that periodically make the news.

As Marcus and I discuss, having veterans as proponents of Psychedelic Medicine is one of the biggest levers changing the public perception of these compounds. 

Unfortunately, access through the Veterans Health Administration is not possible due to their illegal status, and so many vets seeking treatment have to leave the country they fought for to access the medicine that they need.

This is where VETS and other veteran-focused non-profits come in.

In this conversation, Marcus and I discuss:

* His military career and the difficulty of his post-deployment return to civilian life

* The origin story of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions 

* The persistent stigma of psychedelics in the military community

* The power of Ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT

* The challenge of Non-profit work

* Tara Mind and the future of integrating Psychedelics into healthcare

And now, I bring you my conversation with Marcus Capone.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.

This week, I am speaking with Greg Kubin, co-host of the Business Trip Podcast and co-founder and partner at PsyMed Ventures, a fund investing in frontier mental health technologies and treatments.

Greg and I chat pretty regularly, sometimes weekly, about the state of play in psychedelics, neurotech, investing, consciousness, and a rapidly changing world.

As an early-stage investor in frontier mental health and wellness technologies, Greg has a unique lens into what future approaches and landscapes might look like.

A recent focus in my writing has been the ‘emergent paradigms’ afoot that are nearing—or achieved—tipping points in their acceptance and application; in this conversation, Greg and I discuss a handful of these topics, including:

* The Gut-Brain-Axis and the innovations afoot in diagnostics and precision pre & probiotics

* Metabolic Health, its impact on mental health, and tools like the ketogenic diet

* Neurotechnology and Brain-Computer Interface for diagnostics and therapeutics

We also discuss:

* The origin story of PsyMed Ventures and the Business Trip Podcast

* The pharmaceutical industrial complex

* The relationship between academic research and commercialization and the archetype of the “Entrepreneurial Scientist.”

As well as many colorful tangents, digressions, and detours.

And now, I bring you my conversation with Greg Kubin.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary