Hi, I'm Naomi Shaven. Welcome to Axios Recap, where we cover one big story. Today is Tuesday,

December 21st, and we're focused on a big bet on psychedelics. I've been talking with my Axios

coworkers about the biggest stories in their beats over the last year

and what they're watching heading into 2022. Today, I'm talking with Alison Snyder, managing editor and author of the Axioscience newsletter.

When I asked Allison for a big science trend she's followed this year, I was really surprised

by her answer. With everything else going on this year, I had entirely missed what she said

was a huge story on her beat. Biotech and government funding has poured into research into the

therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds. Think really trippy drugs like LSD and shrooms.

The idea is that these compounds could help treat severe forms of depression. These treatments

aren't available to the public. But this was in some ways the year psychedelics went mainstream,

at least in the research community. In a moment, I'll be joined by Allison

to discuss what these trials are like and what researchers are hoping to discover.

I'm joined now by Axios Managing Editor Alison Snyder. She writes the Axiose Science newsletter. Hi,

Allison. Hi, Naomi. Alison, could you start with a vocabulary lesson?

What are the major drugs and compounds being looked at? And what are the words people need to know

in this industry? So the major ones that people are looking at are psilocybin, which is found in

magic mushrooms, MDMA, which is found in ecstasy, LSD.

And then those are sort of known as classic psychedelics.

On top of that, there's ketamine, which is another drug that is actually legal.

And so therefore has actually has a bit of a, there's more and more use of that in

ketamine-assisted therapy.

Can you walk us quickly through the history?

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