Babbage: How psychedelics could fix the brain
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.4 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 27 September 2022
⏱️ 46 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Psychedelic drugs—such as LSD and psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms—may be coming to the medicine cabinet. Research into their use to treat mental-health conditions was long blocked by law and stigma. But in recent years, there has been a revival of interest in the drugs, which are now being trialled to treat conditions such as depression. The Economist’s Ainslie Johnstone visits one of Britain's most high-profile psilocybin research facilities, and investigates how the drug could help scientists better understand autism. And, as investors pile in, Natasha Loder, our health policy editor, separates the hope from the hype. Plus, we ask whether the drugs’ hallucinatory effects are necessary for their health benefits, and meet a researcher who hopes to develop psychedelics without the trip. Alok Jha hosts.
Listen to our other episodes on psychedelics in health care at economist.com/psychedelics-pod.
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Transcript
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| 0:45.6 | People have used psychedelic substances for thousands of years |
| 0:49.8 | as part of traditional medicine for example or as a way to heighten spiritual or religious connections. |
| 1:01.0 | In the late 1930s, the chemist Albert Hoffman was scouring laboratories for a drug that might |
| 1:07.4 | improve blood circulation. Instead he found what turned out to be LSD. |
| 1:13.9 | More commonly known today is acid. |
| 1:20.8 | It wasn't long before acid and other hallucinogenic drugs made their way into recreational use. |
| 1:28.4 | I took acid and it just blew my mind. |
| 1:34.4 | I mean it stimulates nice parts of your consciousness. |
| 1:36.8 | But I can guarantee it man if you take a psychedelic something will happen every time. |
| 1:43.2 | You have it or hell. |
| 1:44.8 | I'm trying to be as still as possible so that I can feel my body and feel nature. |
| 1:54.6 | In the early 1960s on the east coast of America the psychologist Timothy Leary |
| 2:01.0 | founded the Harvard Silasibon project. Silasibon is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. |
| 2:10.0 | I took Mexican mushrooms, the so-called magic mushrooms at Mexico. |
| 2:15.7 | And I learned more about my brain and its possibilities. |
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