PT458 – Imran Khan – When Science, Society, and Policy Collide
Psychedelics Today
Psychedelics Today, LLC
4.6 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 7 November 2023
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Joe interviews Imran Khan: Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Khan shares his journey into the world of science and policymaking, beginning with science journalism and inspired by David Nutt's famous 'Equicy' paper and subsequent firing for telling the truth. Realizing how strong the disconnect was between political and science worlds, his goal became to represent science when it comes under attack; using campaigning, lobbying, advocacy work, etc., and essentially becoming a translator between science and society – bringing these overly complicated concepts down to a level every day culture can understand. At UC Berkeley, he's focusing on research, training scientists to be better communicators, educating the public on the benefits of psychedelics, and trying to make research more trustworthy.
He discusses the word "science" and how it's used to describe lots of things; the hard problem of consciousness; color constancy, perception, and the influence of priors; the risk of abuse in all therapies; trust and why people don't always "trust the science"; the risks of putting too much faith in experience insights; the word "sacred"; and more. He concludes by discussing the findings of the first UC Berkeley psychedelic survey, which revealed public sentiments and attitudes towards psychedelics, and, while mostly positive, truly proved the need for people like Khan to be out there educating the public.
Click here to head to the show notes page.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Psychedelics today is excited to announce our partnership with Apollo Neuro. |
| 0:04.0 | The Apollo is a groundbreaking wearable device designed by neuroscientists |
| 0:08.0 | to help you control how you want to feel throughout the day, |
| 0:11.0 | giving you more energy, restful sleep, and deep relaxation. |
| 0:15.0 | The Apollo wearable delivers soothing vibrations called Apollo vibes |
| 0:19.0 | that are like music your body can feel. |
| 0:26.0 | Higher vibrations help improve your energy and focus, while lower vibrations reduce stress and help you relax. The Apollo wearable transforms how you feel through your sense of touch, |
| 0:30.5 | giving you more energy, less stress, a brighter mood, deeper relaxation, and better flow. |
| 0:35.7 | I absolutely love my device and find that it provides exactly what I need when I need it. |
| 0:40.3 | Whether that's focus in the morning or anxiety relief when I'm on edge, |
| 0:43.7 | I can easily change the settings and feel the effects right away. |
| 0:47.2 | As a member of our psychedelics today community, |
| 0:49.3 | you can get $50 off yours at apollo neuro.com slash p-t. That's A-P-O-L-L-O-N-E-U-R-O-com forward-slash PT. |
| 1:01.7 | Discount is automatically applied at checkout. Let us know what you think. |
| 1:06.4 | Hey, everybody. What's up? This Joe here. Just wanted to let you know about an upcoming class we have going in Denver. |
| 1:12.6 | We're actually producing a Navigating Psychedelics Today edition for all of you out there that wants some in-person ed. |
| 1:20.3 | So we just ran it in Miami, and it was an amazing success. And we're going to do it again in Denver on November 10 and 11, |
| 1:29.4 | and we would love to have you there. If you want to learn about it, psychedelics today.com |
| 1:32.9 | slash events. We are going to run through two days of material. We're actually even going to give |
| 1:39.3 | you an impressive breathwork experience that hopefully helps you understand that experience and how it's |
| 1:46.0 | useful. So anyway, go over to psychedelicsday.com slash events to learn more and we would love to |
| 1:51.3 | see you there in Denver, November 10 and 11. Bye-bye. Psychedelics today is excited to announce we are |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Psychedelics Today, LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Psychedelics Today, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.