MIND CURIOUS: Recent Episodes

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This episode closes out this season of MIND CURIOUS. Dr. Sherry Walling sits down with co-founder and CEO of Mind Cure Health, Kelsey Ramsden, to chat about the emerging landscape of psychedelic businesses. Kelsey describes her own journey to this market and explores what she's learning as the psychedelic renaissance gains momentum.

• Intro (0:00 – 1:42)
• Why Psychedelics? (1:43 – 3:54)
• The Mental Health Piece (3:55 – 7:35)
• The Stigma of Psychedelics (7:36 – 10:31)
• A Vulnerable Industry (10:32 – 13:10)
• Traditional vs Cutting-Edge (13:11 – 17:18)
• Her Inspiration (17:19 – 19:19)
• Mountains of Work (19:20 – 20:52)
• Meditating on a Rocket (20:53 – 23:43)
• End (23:44 – 24:37)

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Ketamine is sometimes overlooked in conversations about psychedelics and mental health. Overlooked no more, this conversation with father-son duo Dr. Steven Mandel and Sam Mandel of the Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles focuses on the many potential uses of ketamine to alleviate mental suffering. We explore why ketamine is potentially underutilized in mental health and examine barriers to access that affect its use.

• Intro (0:00 – 1:37)
• Their Background (1:38 – 3:45)
• The Scope of Their Clinics (3:46 – 5:31)
• From Anesthesiology to Ketamine (5:32 – 8:59)
• In The Underground (9:00 – 12:32)
• Best Practice of Ketamine Treatment (12:33 – 17:03)
• How Ketamine is Delivered to the Patient (17:04 – 21:58)
• No Talk Therapy (21:59 – 25:23)
• Best Practices 2.0 (25:24 – 28:29)
• The Role of Dissociation (28:30 – 35:56)
• Ketamine’s Usefulness Against Suicidality (35:57 – 41:05)
• Final Thoughts (41:06 – 44:18)
• End (44:19 – 45:59)

About the guests: https://ketamineclinics.com/about-us/

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Full, unedited conversation with Leia Friedman, also known as the Psychedologist. This conversation focuses on the relationship between psychedelics, individual healing, and holistic ecology. Leia shares her own healing journey and how psychedelic work has catalyzed and deepened her relationship with the earth. 

Check out her website: https://thepsychedologist.com/

• Intro (0:00 – 1:37)
• Life on a Farm (1:38 – 2:25)
• Settled vs Nomad Life (2:26 – 3:34)
• Lessons from the Land (3:35 – 6:08)
• Psychedelics and Her Relationship to the Land (6:09 – 8:37)
• Integrating with Nature (8:38 – 10:52)
• Environmental Justice (10:53 – 14:33)
• Psychedelics’ Role (14:34 – 16:48)
• Balancing Psychedelics with Capitalism (16:49 – 20:51)
• Pros and Cons of Synthesized Ibogaine (20:52 – 26:02)
• Regenerative Solutions (26:03 – 28:45)
• Pleasure as Healing (28:46 – 31:11)
• End (31:12 – 31:57)

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Precision Medicine is a new field that uses data to tailor specific medical interventions to the needs of an individual body. MINDCURE has been pioneering a precision medicine tool, iSTRYM. I asked the experts about how they use large data sets to customize care and what that might mean for the emerging field of psychedelic-supported treatments. Our guests, Dr. John Brownstein and Dr. Ty Tashiro are experts in innovation & big data and mental health-related data science respectively.

Intro (0:00 – 2:24)

First Guest: Dr. John Brownstein (2:25 – 10:30)

• What is Precision Medicine?
• From Large-Scale to The Individual
• Big Brother
• Data From Regular Interactions
• Data and Psychedelics
• From Company to Clinician
• The Tools’ Components

Second Guest: Dr. Ty Tashiro (10:31 – 19:12)

• ISTRYM’s Technology
• Natural Language Processing
• Understanding Oneself Better
• iSTRYM and Psychedelics (19:13 – 25:27)
• Personalized Care
• The Mystical Aspect and the Data
• The Clinician Experience

End (25:28 – 26:27)

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Persistent, recurrent problems with sexual response, desire, orgasm, or pain — that distress you or strain your relationship with your partner — are known medically as sexual dysfunction. The most common sexual dysfunction among women is low sexual desire - a lack of sexual interest and willingness to be sexual. A nationally representative sample of 2207 American households found that the prevalence of low sexual desire ranged from 26.7% among premenopausal women to 52.4% among naturally menopausal women.

MINDCURE is embarking on a clinical trial to test the possibility that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy will effectively treat low desire in women.

Dr. Sherry Walling talks with three experts about the potential that psychedelics may hold for helping to heal desire, including two of MINDCURE's advisors, as well as the company's founder and CEO.

Guests:

• Dr. Anita Clayton
• Hamilton Morris
• Kelsey Ramsden

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In this uncut episode, we return to our conversation with Fawad Kalsi to give you his full ibogaine experience, from opioid addiction to hardships to discovering ibogaine, and finally, to recovery.

• Intro (0:00 – 1:31)
• Intro to Fawad (1:32 – 3:03)
• The Start of Fawad’s Addiction (3:04 – 11:20)
• Finding Out About Ibogaine (11:21 – 22:42)
• Fawad’s Experience with Ibogaine (22:43 – 33:28)
• Integrating with Faith (33:29 – 38:10)
• His Advice to Others (38:11 – 42:09)
• Breaking Religious Stigma (42:10 – 46:23)
• Community Pushback (46:24 – 48:03)
• End (48:04 – 51:05)

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Sexual trauma has the power to destroy well-being. Sexual violations are among the human experiences most likely to cause long-term psychological distress and mental illness.

Sexual trauma has the power to destroy well-being. Sexual violations are among the human experiences most likely to cause long-term psychological distress and mental illness. Psychotherapy is incredibly intimate and, when combined with psychedelics, can have significant power to help heal past experiences of sexual violation and restore a sense of pleasure and healthy sexuality. One concern among many clinicians is the potential that these tools have in increasing the risk of sexual or romantic transference between clinician and client, and this could leave people vulnerable to new instances of abuse. This episode discusses the power to heal and the potential for harm when interweaving the worlds of sexual trauma and psychedelics. Welcome special guests, Dee Dee Goldpaugh and Laura Mae Northrup.

Intro (0:00 – 1:49)

First Guest: Laura Mae Northrup (1:50 – 11:23)

• The Spiritual Component of Sexual Trauma
• Edge States
• Shaking Up the Healing Process

Second Guest: Dee Dee Goldpaugh (11:24 – 19:23)

• Psychedelics’ Potential for Sexual Trauma Survivors
• The Potential to Step Backwards

Laura Mae Northrup 2.0 (19:24 – 24:06)

• Bringing Stories to Emotions

Dee Dee Goldpaugh 2.0 (24:07 – 30:09)

• Romantic Transference

Laura Mae Northrup 3.0 (30:10 – 34:17)

• Potential Sexual Trauma Treatment Complications
• Power Imbalance

Dee Dee Goldpaugh 3.0 (34:18 – 38:51)

• Navigating the Choice to Do Psychedelic Therapy

Laura Mae Northrup 4.0 (38:52 – 41:08)

• Building to Becoming an Empowered Sexual Being

End (41:09 – 42:27)

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The enthusiasm about psychedelic-assisted therapies has a dark side: without intention and caution, the psychedelic community risks repeating the colonial sins of the past. We are in danger of taking the resources we want and value without concern for, and often to the detriment of, the people and ecosystems who have grown and preserved those resources for a millennium. Today’s far-reaching conversation touches on the people and plants that have long held sacred medicine. It is an invitation for all within the curious community to carefully consider how to support sustainability, reciprocity, and regenerative strategies to honor the medicine keepers.

Intro (0:00 – 1:55)

First Guest: Leia Friedman (1:56 – 5:05)

• The Meaning of Ayni

Second Guest: Joseph Mays (5:06 – 9:15)

• The Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative

Leia Friedman 2.0 (9:16 – 16:30)

• Her Take on Synthesizing Psychedelics
• Regenerative Solutions

Joseph Mays 2.0 (16:31 – 24:54)

• The Stories of the Communities
• How Ayahuasca Is Cultivated
• Communities Continued
• A Message to the Capitalists

End (24:55 – 26:11)

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September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in the US. In an uncharacteristically personal episode, MIND CURIOUS host Dr. Sherry Walling talks about losing her brother, Dave, to suicide in 2019. She reflects on the gaps in the mental health system that she believes contributed to his death and she explores the potential for psychedelic-assisted therapies to give hope and create better outcomes for those struggling with addiction, grief, and mental anguish. Sherry covers the importance of integration, safety, and accessibility in mental health care and why she believes psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy pose a solution.

Intro (0:00 – 1:44)

Dr. Walling’s Background (1:45 – 4:00)

Seeds of Her Brother Dave’s Illness (4:01 – 10:18)

Failures of the Current Treatment Systems (10:19 – 14:52)

What Psychedelics Are Capable Of (14:53 – 19:22)

Her Journey (19:23 – 22:38)

End (22:39 – 23:34)

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Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive compound extracted from the root of the Tabernanthe iboga shrub, native to the Congo and Gabon. The compound offers therapeutic potential for neurological disorders and is claimed to be among the most powerful anti-addiction drugs. However, natural sources of ibogaine are extremely limited and these plants are at risk of extinction due to the growing global demand and environmental pressures threatening their natural habitat. This episode, which features Fawad Kalsi, Dr. Dan Engle, and Hamilton Morris covers all things ibogaine. What is it? How can it be used in healing? And how can this rare, endangered plant be accessed sustainably? 

Intro (0:00 – 1:53) 

First Guest: Fawad Kalsi (1:54 – 21:12) 

• How His Addiction Started
• Learning About Ibogaine (From Law & Order)
• His Journey Through Treatment

Second Guest: Dr. Dan Engle (21:13 – 32:14) 

• Exciting Times
• The Research on Ibogaine

Third Guest: Hamilton Morris (32:15 – 40:34) 

• Ibogaine’s Potential
• Natural vs Synthetic Ibogaine

End (40:35 – 42:27) 

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MIND CURIOUS is going on summer vacation. You'll have plenty of time to catch up on episodes you've missed or revisit your favorite moments. We'll see you back on September 15th, with all new content and big announcements! Mark your calendars — big things are coming.

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Therapy isn’t just tackling singular aspects of a person’s humanity anymore; the whole person is worth both seeing and healing. Integration will always be a core part of this process, which is where our guest comes in. Today, Dr. Walling talks with integration therapist Dee Dee Goldpaugh about their work which focuses on the use of psychedelics to recover from sexual trauma.

• Intro (0:00 – 2:50)
• Why The Field of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy? (2:51 – 5:06)
• Their Personal Experiences (5:07 – 7:04)
• Thought, Intuition, and Healing (7:05 – 9:22)
• Their Take on Integration (9:23 – 11:48)
• The Hard Work (11:49 – 16:59)
• How Can Psychedelics Help with Sexual Trauma? (17:00 – 19:43)
• Can Psychedelics Be Unhelpful During Therapy? (19:44 – 23:22)
• Potential Boundary Issues (23:23 – 27:46)
• Is Psychedelic Therapy For You? (27:47 – 31:10)
• Spirituality and Sexuality (31:11 – 35:37)
• End (35:38 – 36:34)

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Integration is partly a buzzword thrown around by corporate boards and clinicians everywhere, but it also has a simple and predictable meaning: putting things together to create something bigger. Here, we use the word to mean pairing psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions with smaller-scale, day-to-day stuff. The field of psychedelic medicine is currently exploring how this actually works, and we’ve invited three practitioners in the field to help the conversation along today:

Intro (0:00 – 1:34)

What Integration Means (1:35 – 2:31)

First Guest: Stephanie Dreis (2:32 – 7:18)

• How Everyone Else Understands Integration
• What It Means to Her
• Perspective From the Therapist’s Chair

Second Guest: Laura Mae Northrup (7:19 – 17:27)

• How Medicine and Integration Integrate
• Components of Integration
• Sitting With The Bad

Third Guest: Dr. Dan Engle (17:28 – 26:18)

• What Qualifies Someone As A Therapist?
• Challenging the Training Norms

Stephanie 2.0 (26:19 – 32:40)

• How Does A Group Integration Circle Work?
• Does The Inner Therapist Show Up?
• Common Integration Struggles

End (32:41 – 34:28)

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How do we make meaning of psychedelic experiences? Dr. Sam S. B. Shonkoff, Jewish scholar at GTU, helps redefine healing through the lenses of psychedelic experiences and spiritual traditions. We talk about mysticism, divinity, Neo-Hasidism, religious interpretations, guides, and preparation in connection with psychedelic experiences:

• Intro (0:00 – 2:00)
• His Background (2:01 – 4:42)
• Defining a Mystical Experience (4:43 – 10:51)
• Psychedelics and the Neo-Hasidic Tradition (10:52 – 17:49)
• How Does the Community View Psychedelics (17:50 – 22:31)
• The Mystical Part of Wellness (22:32 – 28:29)
• Psychedelic Chaplaincy (28:30 – 36:14)
• End (36:15 – 40:17)

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Bruce Sanguin, BA, M.Div., RMFT, is the author of seven books, his latest being Dismantled: How Love and Psychedelics Broke a Clergyman Apart and Put Him Back Together. This amazing book describes his healing journey with psychedelic medicine. Today, we’ve re-released our conversation with him found in one of last month’s episodes “Trauma Lives in the Body, Too: Opening Up With Psychedelics”. Tune in for some amazing pearls of wisdom about how expectations can obstruct truth and authenticity in the healing experience:

Episode notes

• Intro (0:00 – 1:45)
• What He Currently Does (1:46 – 2:47)
• Healing As a Long Process (2:48 – 5:16)
• His Experiences and His Book (5:17 – 9:04)
• Navigating Expectations as a Therapist (9:05 – 10:26)
• His Psychedelic Journey (10:27 – 16:25)
• Feeling Love in the Body (16:26 – 18:28)
• The Clergyman’s Perspective (18:29 – 21:43)
• Dr. Walling’s Christian Background (21:44 – 23:36)
• Spirituality in His Present Work (23:37 – 31:27)
• Potential Pitfalls of This Work (31:29 – 37:22)
• Coming Full Circle (37:23 – 40:38)
• End (40:39 – 41:59)

https://www.brucesanguin.ca 

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As psychedelics are entering the discourse of the Western medical world, we are starting to comprehend (or at least scientifically investigate) the connection between psychedelics and spirituality. However, the nature of this connection can be pretty different between different religions. Our three guests today are all leaders and experts within their traditions:

Intro (0:00 – 1:37)

First Guest: Imam Fawad Kalsi (1:38 – 9:15)

• What Ibogaine Was Able to Do for Him
• Accessibility to the Divine

Second Guest: Reverend Rita Powell (9:16 – 22:00)

• Her Experiences
• Reality as a Construct
  • Big Spiritual Ideas
• Mapping Her Experiences
• The Apophatic Tradition

Third Guest: Dr. Sam Shonkoff (22:01 – 37:56)

• His Background
• Defining a Mystical Experience
• Psychedelics and The Neo-Hasidic Tradition

Imam Kalsi 2.0 (37:57 – 40:17)

• How Their Community Received the Idea of Psychedelics

Reverend Powell 2.0 (40:18 – 42:46)

• How Their Community Received the Idea of Psychedelics

Dr. Shonkoff 2.0 (42:47 – 45:55)

• How Their Community Received the Idea of Psychedelics

End (45:56 – 47:17)

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The psychedelics industry is booming. Everyone wants a piece of it — between the startup companies, the regulatory bodies, the university medical schools, and ultimately, the people in need of these products and services. As Chief Medical Officer at MINDCURE, Dr. Joel Raskin provides deep insight into the interactions between these institutions as well as his robust knowledge of the scientific process:

• Intro (0:00 – 2:10)
• Exciting Times (2:11 – 3:50)
• Two Sides of the Same Coin (3:51 – 5:12)
• First Encounters with Psychedelic Treatments (5:13 – 7:16)
• A Rigorous Process (7:17 – 10:37)
• Integrating Psychedelics’ History into Western Science (10:38 – 13:51)
• Excitement About the Unknown (13:52 – 16:34)
• What It’s Like in Startup-Land (16:35 – 19:27)
• Getting Past Your Own Interests To Help People (19:28 – 22:31)
• A New Chapter (22:32 – 25:08)
• End (25:09 – 25:52)

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Dr. Alex Belser, the Chief Clinical Officer at Cybin, has been a leader in psychedelic research for 20 years. His resume includes serving as an investigator in clinical trials of psilocybin and MDMA as well as being a Co-Investigator at Yale University, one of his five alma matters. He also studied at Georgetown University, The University of Cambridge, Columbia University, and NYU. Today, he and host Sherry Walling take a deep dive into the intersection between the LGBT and psychedelic research communities including:

• What Queering Is (2:00 – 3:52)
• The Overlap and Exclusion of the LGBT and Psychedelic Research Communities (3:52 – 10:29)
• Reckoning with the History (10:30 – 14:06)
• How to Make The Room Safer (14:07 – 16:23)
• The Scientific Factoring of Joy (16:24 – 20:33)
• End-Of-Life Anxiety (20:34 – 25:01)
• Psychedelics and Suicide Prevention Among LGBT Youth (25:02 – 29:23)

His writing is available at http://alexbelser.com. His private practice site is http://centerforbreakthroughs.com.

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From ancient yoga practices like breathwork and shaking to just getting lost in the music, there are many ways to achieve altered states of consciousness. Today, we’re joined by Breathwork expert Niraj Naik, CEO of SOMA Breath and The Renegade Pharmacist Ltd as we dive into non-ordinary states and the breathwork that can get you there:

• Intro (0:00 – 2:53)
• Framing Non-Ordinary States (2:54 – 7:59)
• What’s The Difference? (8:00 – 12:11)
• Dr. Walling’s Interest in Breathwork (12:12 – 15:08)
• Breaking Down Breathwork (15:09 – 24:02)
• Music, Breathing, and Altered States of Consciousness (24:03 – 27:22)
• Room for Movement (27:23 – 32:52)
• Barriers to Accessing Breathwork (32:53 – 35:39)
• End (35:40 – 37:13)

Check out his personal website: https://nirajnaik.com/

Check out one of his guided breathwork meditations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97-cLiXcO70&t=428s

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Modern medicine has constructed an arbitrary barrier between the mind and the body. We are not segmented beings; our bodies carry us through all the experiences in our lives — the pleasures and the traumas. We’ll be taking a deep dive into the latter and how psychedelics integrate into somatic experiences along with our three insightful guests.

Intro (0:00 – 2:20)

Our First Guest: Kelly Street (2:21 – 11:23)

• A Bit About Her
• The Body’s Integration Into The Healing Journey
• What Yoga Contributed To This Journey
• Enter Psychedelic Therapy

Our Second Guest: Dr. Jeff Sawyer (11:24 – 21:50)

• A Bit About Dr. Sawyer
• The Impact of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
• How Do You Unlock The Body?
• How Does Your Relationship With Your Body Change?

Our Third Guest: Bruce Sanguin (21:51 – 33:13)

• A Bit About Mr. Sanguin And His Journey
• Psychedelic vs. Relational Therapy (In His Experience)
• Disassembly
• Reconstruction

Dr. Sawyer on Dissociation (33:14 – 36:52)

Mr. Sanguin on Psychedelics’ Spiritual Influence (36:53 – 39:50)

End (39:51 – 40:56)

Bruce Sanguin, BA, M.Div., RMFT Bruce is a psychotherapist living in Victoria BC Canada. He is the author of seven books. His latest Dismantled: How Love and Psychedelics Broke a Clergyman Apart and Put Him Back Together describes his healing journey with psychedelic medicine. brucesanguin.ca.

Kelly Street is passionate about the power of the mind-body connection for healing. She loves to learn and teach others how to bring that connection from the yoga mat and healing work into everyday life by adding daily practices, mantras, and body awareness. She is a yoga teacher, business coach, and the owner of Happy Rebel, a mindset-based product company. More recently, she is a student of Clinical Psychology, having realized her next life purpose is to learn and teach whole-body healing.

Dr. Jeff Sawyer MD is the co-founder and CEO of The Remedy MN Ketamine TMS and brings decades of psychiatry experience to the practice, including work with patients at organizations such as Minnesota Alternatives, Alltyr Clinic, and more. He studied psychology at Brown University before moving on to S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook School of Medicine for his M.D., Hennepin County Medical Center for Family Medicine training, and psychiatric training at Mayo Clinic. He is board-certified in Adult and Addiction Psychiatry with previous board certification in Family Medicine and Integrative Medicine.

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We’ve got a very special episode today! As we’ll discover in more detail, music and psychedelics have a very long and interconnected history where some ancient traditions are alive even today. Along with our four guests (yes, four!), we journey into their relationship scaling from a single healing session to larger subcultures such as the rave scene, as well as the exciting and realistic possibilities for the future:

Intro (0:00 – 2:23)

First Guest: Bob Fisk (2:24 – 19:56)

• Music As a Facilitator
• The Music Creator’s Perspective
• Wrong Song, Wrong Time
• Knowing in Advance

Second Guest: Mitchell Gomez (19:57 – 35:45)

• Why The Rave Scene?
• The Mission of DanceSafe
• Psychedelics and the Rave Scene
• How Important is Music in a Psychedelic Therapy Session?
• Consistency vs. Variety
• False Separation

Third Guest: Heather Smith (35:46 – 51:21)

• Help or Obstacle?
• Expectations vs. Reality
• How the Researchers Do It
• Learning to DJ on the Fly
• A Very Short Story
• Music in the Integration Process

Last Guest: Zach McMahon (51:22 – 71:51)

• About LUCID
• What Is Actually Being Measured?
• Music to Personalize the Psychedelic Experience
• Music as a Humanizing Tool
• Why Music?

End and Special Treat (71:52 – 77:23)

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We, humans, are pretty terrible at recognizing our internal states of being or what our own bodily cues have to tell us. Technology can bridge that gap with insights such as heart rate variability, sleep monitoring, and other datasets that give clues about our inner states. This can have massive implications such as the future of therapy or addiction treatment, but only if used in a transparent, humanistic way. Today, we explore digital therapeutics and psychedelic therapy with our two guests:

Intro (0:00 – 2:13)

First Guest: Geoff Belair (2:14 – 13:29)

• What Are Digital Therapeutics?
• What Goes Into Building iSTRYM?
• Data-Driven Insights
• After-Session Integration

Second Guest: Erik Kerr (13:30 – 27:48)

• Making Our Own Data Accessible to Us
• Predicting Outcomes
• Pilot Study on Addiction

Geoff 2.0 (27:49 – 36:04)

• The Human Element
• The Concerns With Digital Therapeutics
• Psychedelics’ Disruption of the Healthcare System

End (36:05 – 37:38)

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So you're curious, huh? Welcome to MIND CURIOUS. In this podcast, we explore big themes of human well-being such as existential dilemmas, how to heal, and how psychedelics can play a role in all of it. We dive deep and test our understanding of these important topics while talking to experts in the field who know how to tap into the mind’s curiosities. Let’s dive in:

• The Big Themes (0:00 – 0:30)
• The Psychedelic Renaissance (0:31 – 1:08)
• Curious Conversation (1:09 – 1:40)
• A Bit About Our Host Dr. Walling (1:41 – 2:47)
• A Bit About Our Partner MindCure (2:48 – 3:10)
• A Quick Summary and Disclaimer (3:11 – 4:00)