Luminous: Your Brain on Shrooms
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
Wisconsin Public Radio
4.7 • 844 Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2024
⏱️ 53 minutes
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Summary
Can neuroscience explain what happens to the brain on psychedelics? And even if we map the brain while it’s tripping, does that tell us why these experiences can be so transformative?
We’ll talk with some of the pioneers in psychedelic research — from Amanda Feilding’s boundary-busting work to Robin Carhart-Harris’ theory of the "entropic brain." Also, renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch goes down the rabbit hole on 5-MeO-DMT, also known as toad venom.
Original Air Date: July 15, 2023
Interviews In This Hour:
Exploring consciousness on toad venom — The godmother of the European psychedelic revival — How therapeutic psilocybin could help heal long-buried trauma — Magic mushrooms and the 'entropic brain'
Guests:
Christof Koch, Amanda Feilding, David Nutt, Robin Carhart-Harris
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Steve. |
| 0:05.0 | And this is Luminous, a podcast series about psychedelics from to the best of our knowledge. |
| 0:12.6 | The reason I got so interested in psychedelics in the first place and why I wanted to do this series is because I have a particular obsession. |
| 0:23.0 | I really want to understand the nature of consciousness, what it is and where it comes from. Is it all brain-based, somehow |
| 0:30.0 | the product of all those billions of neurons and trillions of synaptic connections? Or does the mind |
| 0:35.7 | have some other dimension beyond that three-pound mass |
| 0:39.1 | of wet goo? And especially when you enter the truly weird states of consciousness, the kinds |
| 0:45.0 | of transcendent and otherworldly experiences you get with psychedelics, how do you explain what's going |
| 0:50.7 | on? Can you? I wanted to get to know the neuroscientists on the front |
| 0:56.1 | lines of psychedelic research, why they got so obsessed, and how this has shaped their own |
| 1:01.6 | understanding of the mind and reality itself. And I also wanted to hear about their own psychedelic |
| 1:07.8 | trips, which sometimes they're willing to talk about. |
| 1:14.9 | So, can psychedelics unlock the mystery of consciousness? |
| 1:19.6 | Can neuroscience explain what happens during a psychedelic experience? |
| 1:30.8 | Wisconsin Public Radio It's to the best of our knowledge. |
| 1:41.5 | I'm And Strain Champs. |
| 1:42.7 | And I'm Steve Paulson. |
| 1:44.4 | And this is Luminous, our series on the philosophy and future of psychedelics. |
| 1:51.2 | This episode, your brain on shrooms. So where are you taking us this time, Steve? |
| 1:57.7 | Well, we're going to go down the rabbit hole, specifically down the neural circuits that |
| 2:03.4 | light up on psilocybin and other psychedelics. |
| 2:07.4 | You know, for scientists who study the brain, these drugs are tools that can open a window |
... |
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