Welcome to the Joy of Why. This is Jan 11. On June 4th, an advisory panel for the Federal Drug

Administration recommended against approving the use of the psychedelic drug MDMA as a treatment

for post-traumatic stress disorder. Various concerns, some about safety, overshadowed the demonstrable value of the drug in the opinion of the panel.

The path to approval for drug therapies is notoriously fraught with profound complexities, a high bar on

proof in clinical trials, the medical injunction to do no harm, as well as social and political nuances.

But what's the fundamental neuroscience behind the news story?

Why are so many psychiatric researchers enthusiastic about the promise of psychedelics?

We happened to take on this subject a few weeks ago with neuroscientist Gould Dolan.

Here is that episode.

New drug leads can come from practically anywhere.

Penicillin's discovery was spurred from mold spores that

accidentally landed in a petri dish. Cancer treatments can be dredged from the bottom of the sea,

and synthetic antibodies can now be engineered from scratch. But there's a class of drugs

that mainstream medicine has generally overlooked that could prove

life-changing for many people facing addiction, depression, post-traumatic stress if scientists

embrace the potential power of psychedelics.

I'm Jan 11, and this is The Joy of why, a podcast from Quantum Magazine, where I take

turns with my co-host, Steve Strogetz, exploring some of the most exciting research in math

and science today.

Here to take us on a trip, though a very scientific one, mind you, into the latest research

on psychedelics is Gould Dolan, Professor and Parsons-in-dowed chair of psychology, psychedelics,

and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. Gull holds an MD and PhD from Brown University and MIT

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