This is the reason interview with Nick Gillespie. Thanks for listening. This episode is sponsored by Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotics drink. More on them later in the show. My guest is Rachel Neuer, author of I Feel Love, MDMA, and The Quest for Connection in a Fractured World.

It's a rollicking history of the drug known as Molly in Ecstasy that the FDA is currently

evaluating as an aid in fighting PTSD.

Here is the Reason interview with Rachel Neuer.

Rachel Neuer, thanks for talking to Reason.

Thanks so much for having me.

Why did you write, I Feel Love?

Great question. There's really two answers to that.

The first is the sort of common good answer, which is there wasn't a book about MDMA.

It's this huge cultural phenomenon. We're probably going to see

it, we'll hopefully see it approved by the FDA for PTSD treatment within the next year. Yet there

wasn't a resource that brought all the information about this complex nuanced drug together in

one place. It just felt like people needed to have that touchstone.

And there's just so many misconceptions about MDMA that I want to dispel those, not just

for readers, but also for myself.

The other part of that answer is a more personal one.

It was the height of the pandemic.

Like many people, I was kind of having a crisis, you know, what am I doing with my life?

Am I going in the right direction?

And for me, that was really manifesting and worries over my career.

I had spent about a decade reporting about illegal wildlife trade, which is not a cheery topic.

We're talking like, you know, slaughtered rhinos and elephants, and there just

...