You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day.

I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

Nolan Williams, who passed in October of this year, was an interventional neuropsychiatrist

and the director of the Stanford

Brain Stimulation Lab.

His groundbreaking research ranged from rapid acting plant-based medicines to medical devices

that can retrain misfiring brain circuits.

He gave a talk at TED 2025 in April about his latest research,

the potential of a plant-derived psychoactive compound called Ibogain to treat traumatic brain injury and PTSD.

We're sharing his talk today in memory of Nolan

and to honor the legacy of his work.

It's coming up.

Thank you. of his work. It's coming up. All right, at 1756, you're all aboard a British naval vessel headed to the new world. You're down below deck with your fellow sailors, and you're all sick.

Your legs are swollen, your gums are bleeding, you just lost a tooth.

You go to the ship's doctor, and he tells you this is due to internal decay and laziness.

You ask about this foreign fruit medicine,

this citrus medicine that you could take,

and he tells you that this is not a treatment for what you have.

It's too simple.

It's a plant medicine, and he's an anti-fruter.

And instead, he prescribes you arsenic tonics.

True story.

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