Episodes
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Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, I am speaking with Dr. Pedro Texeira, Ph.D a scientist studying health behavior change and health psychology at the University of Lisbon and founder of the psychedelic educational non-profit Safe Journey.
About 18 months ago, I came across a paper authored by Pedro, Robin Carhart-Harris, and others titled Psychedelics and Health Behaviour Change about the potential role of psychedelics in promoting lifestyle changes that are conducive to overall health, and I knew that this would be an increasingly relevant area of research and practice.
Part of my intrigue with psychedelics as therapeutic tools is the wide array of conditions and issues for which they may be helpful.
At a time when the dominant prescriptive mode in healthcare is “a different pill for every ill,” it is intriguing to see an emerging treatment that has been used for centuries and for which people have organically found helpful for many different conditions from PTSD, to Depression, to Cluster Headaches.
Furthermore, the idea that society’s most pressing healthcare challenges—chronic diseases—are downstream of environment and lifestyle is an inconvenient truth. The reality is that we can’t ignore the impact of nutrition, exercise, sleep, our social environment, and other non-medical lifestyle factors that can be difficult to change.
So, can psychedelic-based approaches help people make positive changes? Develop greater agency? Feel less compulsion?
These are the questions that Pedro and his team are researching.
In this conversation, we discuss:
* Pedro’s research in nutritional science and health activity
* The rise of environmental and lifestyle-based chronic diseases
* The early years of the field of behavioral psychology
* Self Determination Theory and the relationship between one’s perceived competence and motivation for change
* The underlying psychological mechanisms of action in self-perception and health behavior change
* The potential power of combining established behavioral interventions with psychedelics
* What we can learn about behavior change following psychedelic experiences in naturalistic settings
* And the importance of psychedelic public education
And now I bring you my conversation with Dr. Pedro Teixeira.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
This week, I am speaking with Dr. Jackie von Salm, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Psilera, a biotech company pioneering early-stage psychedelic-inspired drug discovery and development for neurological conditions.
If you’ve ever been curious about the intricate and fascinating world of drug discovery, this conversation is a must-listen.
Jackie walks me through the entire process, from scaffolds to IND submission and all the steps in between.
Along the way, we discuss her background in natural product chemistry, the role of secondary metabolites, and a unique property of adaptive physiology whereby some types of stress actually strengthen organisms.
We discuss the origin story of Psilera and the inspiration from 2 Bromo-LSD, a non-hallucinogenic compound that has been successfully used by people suffering from cluster headaches, among other neurological conditions.
We discuss the increasing role of AI and computation in the drug discovery process but also the ‘chemical intuition’ that one develops after years of practicing chemistry.
We dive into the emerging field of neuropsychiatric biomarkers, a toolset that has eluded researchers, clinicians, and patients in this particular field, and how EEG and other brain imaging technologies may be the answer.
We discuss the perception of psychedelic drug development in the eyes of the pharma world and much more.
And now, I bring you my conversation with Dr. Jackie von Salm.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Episodes manquant?
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Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, I'm speaking with Shirelle Noble, Deb Gardner, and Danielle Herrera, LMFT from Beckley Academy. They recently published A Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Learning Framework.
This is a research initiative that aims to foster a unified and comprehensive educational paradigm for psychedelic practitioners across the field.
With the advent of psychedelic-assisted therapy in regulated, unregulated, and legal grey areas, more and more therapists are seeking out training to learn how to administer this novel modality.
In response, there is a growing market of educational providers that are vying for their business.
However, there are no agreed-upon standards for training, certification, and licensing.
As a result, the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy is at a pivotal juncture. Its potential to revolutionize mental health treatment is immense, yet the absence of agreed-upon training standards and certifications for practitioners remains a critical gap.
Beckley Academy co-founding team members Deborah Gardner and Shirelle Noble recognized the opportunity to analyze existing publications and create a unified learning framework – a first step in the direction of such standards.
The conversation I am about to share with you highlights the framework's pivotal role in addressing the current gaps within the field and the necessity for a standardized set of learning objectives.
This open-sourced Learning Framework is a foundational step towards establishing a coherent and comprehensive educational standard for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and advocating for a multifaceted and experiential learning approach that includes somatic and relational practices.
And now, I bring you my conversation with Shirelle Noble, Deb Gardner, and Danielle Herrera from Beckley Academy.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, I am speaking with Rick Doblin, founder and President of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
December of last year was a milestone for Doblin and MAPS, as the organization submitted a New Drug Application for MDMA Assisted Therapy to the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Then, in the first week of January, the MAPS Public Benefit Corp announced its rebranding to Lykos Therapeutics and a $100 million Series A financing.
Needless to say, it has been a pivotal period in the organization’s history and a watershed moment for the revival of psychedelic medicine, science, and policy.
In February, the FDA accepted the application and granted a priority review, putting the decision timeline at August of this year.
That’s just around the corner.
And so much is still up in the air—of course the big question—will the FDA grant approval?
But also so many granular details that will have significant downstream effects on the commercial rollout, access, and cost.
* What language will be on the drug label?
* What will the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy entail?
* How will patients be able to access the drug?
* What will the FDA say about the role of therapy?
Among others.
So, I wanted to sit down with Rick to talk about it and get his perspective on the organization’s evolution, the path ahead, and, most importantly, the many uncertainties that hang in the balance.
In this conversation, we discuss:
* The importance of therapy in conjunction with MDMA (and his loathing of the acronym MDMA-AT)
* The many regulatory and bureaucratic details that go into the FDA’s decision and subsequent commercial rollout, including:
* Drug labeling
* Therapist credentialing
* Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies
* The negotiations he’s led with the FDA over the last 20 years
* Lykos’ goal of getting MDMA-Assisted Therapy FDA approved and MAPS’ goal of getting MDMA federally legalized
* The role of therapist’s first-hand experience with MDMA and the regulatory battle of ensuring legal access to this group
* His future humanitarian and scientific plans
And much more.
And now I bring you my conversation with Rick Doblin.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, I am speaking with Marcus Capone, co-founder of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS), a non-profit that seeks to create access to psychedelic medicine for veterans of the Armed Forces.
He is also co-founder and CEO of Tara Mind, a public benefit corporation that is making psychedelic medicine a widely available employee benefit.
Whenever you hear about federal programs, senate bills, or congressional initiatives for psychedelics, two things usually stand out: first, they are often bipartisan efforts—a rarity in the current political environment—and second, they seek to fund research or access for veterans.
In my experience, the Veterans-as-champions-of-psychedelic-medicine narrative catches a lot of people by surprise when they first hear about it, but quickly connect the dots as they recollect the staggering numbers of veteran suicides that periodically make the news.
As Marcus and I discuss, having veterans as proponents of Psychedelic Medicine is one of the biggest levers changing the public perception of these compounds.
Unfortunately, access through the Veterans Health Administration is not possible due to their illegal status, and so many vets seeking treatment have to leave the country they fought for to access the medicine that they need.
This is where VETS and other veteran-focused non-profits come in.
In this conversation, Marcus and I discuss:
* His military career and the difficulty of his post-deployment return to civilian life
* The origin story of Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions
* The persistent stigma of psychedelics in the military community
* The power of Ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT
* The challenge of Non-profit work
* Tara Mind and the future of integrating Psychedelics into healthcare
And now, I bring you my conversation with Marcus Capone.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
This week, I am speaking with Greg Kubin, co-host of the Business Trip Podcast and co-founder and partner at PsyMed Ventures, a fund investing in frontier mental health technologies and treatments.
Greg and I chat pretty regularly, sometimes weekly, about the state of play in psychedelics, neurotech, investing, consciousness, and a rapidly changing world.
As an early-stage investor in frontier mental health and wellness technologies, Greg has a unique lens into what future approaches and landscapes might look like.
A recent focus in my writing has been the ‘emergent paradigms’ afoot that are nearing—or achieved—tipping points in their acceptance and application; in this conversation, Greg and I discuss a handful of these topics, including:
* The Gut-Brain-Axis and the innovations afoot in diagnostics and precision pre & probiotics
* Metabolic Health, its impact on mental health, and tools like the ketogenic diet
* Neurotechnology and Brain-Computer Interface for diagnostics and therapeutics
We also discuss:
* The origin story of PsyMed Ventures and the Business Trip Podcast
* The pharmaceutical industrial complex
* The relationship between academic research and commercialization and the archetype of the “Entrepreneurial Scientist.”
As well as many colorful tangents, digressions, and detours.
And now, I bring you my conversation with Greg Kubin.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, I am speaking with Brandon Deroche, founder of the PORTAL—the Partnership of Responsible Trippers Advocating Legalization.
PORTAL is a project from Propeller, the social impact and advocacy organization Brandon started more than 15 years ago to drive awareness and action for social movements.
I was intrigued when I first learned about Propeller–and their methodology for advocacy and advancing causes.
Propeller collaborates with big-name artists and musicians to leverage their platforms to raise awareness and inspire action.
With PORTAL, Brandon and his team are taking this approach to advancing the psychedelic cause.
I wanted to speak with Brandon because I love a good acronym, and PORTAL may be the best I’ve ever heard—and because I wanted to learn more about how social movements form and grow.
In this episode, we discuss:
* Brandon’s experience working with some of the biggest celebrities in the world, like Justin Bieber, Lizzo, and Brian Cranston
* His experience working with the spiritual teacher Ram Dass
* The cultural adoption and destigmatization of psychedelics through artists with massive audiences—like Dua Lipa, Post Malone, and Zach Bryan
* Leveraging these voices for psychedelic education, harm reduction, and best practices
* The eventual political polarization of social movements
* And much more
And now, I bring you my conversation with Brand Deroche.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, I am speaking with Ken Jordan, co-founder and Editorial Director of Lucid News, an AP-style journalistic platform covering all aspects of the psychedelic field.
Ken is a longtime journalist, writer, and media entrepreneur. In 2007, Ken co-founded The Evolver and Reality Sandwich, digital media platforms dedicated to the emerging consciousness movement. And in 2020, he and his co-founder, journalist Ann Harrison, founded Lucid News to cover the psychedelics field.
My goal for this conversation is to get a snapshot of the moment, as difficult as that may be, with the help of someone who has been in the weeds as much as I have for the last four years.
Like other guests on The Trip Report, Ken and I regularly connect to swap ideas, share insights, and discuss the evolution of the psychedelic movement.
A theme of this conversation is the growing pains the field is undergoing, the challenges of macroeconomic headwinds, and the relatively slow progress of policy reform and clinical trials compared to the amount of hype and optimism of 18-24 months ago.
In this conversation, we talk about:
* The early days of the psychedelic “sector”
* Ken’s perspective as a longtime media entrepreneur with an interest and focus on psychedelics and consciousness
* The major inflection point that was the MAPS Psychedelic Science 2023 conference, an overwhelming convergence of the many factions and siloed psychedelic communities
* “The wild idea,” as Ken says, “that the money right now is in a really active gray market. That's making chocolates you can buy in every cannabis bodega in New York.”
* Ken’s optimism about the authorities’ loosening of concern about psychedelics
* The lack of organized opposition against decriminalization and legalization efforts
* The key differences between the psychedelic renaissance of the 1960s and today
And now, without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Ken Jordan.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, we’re speaking with John MacLean, AKA The Juan MacLean, an electronic music artist, DJ, and co-founder and co-owner of Cardea—a psychedelic medicine space that facilitates experiences in New York City and Jamaica.
I wanted to speak with John because he has a unique lens into the emerging psychedelic world given his role as a DJ and psychedelic facilitator in a wide variety of settings. He has also had one of the most fascinating careers of anyone I have ever met.
What started as a fascination with music and psychedelic states as a teenager has led to a career combining the two for more than three decades.
As a Brooklyn-based DJ and producer, John has been a mainstay in the NYC music scene for decades while also touring at legendary international venues across Europe, Asia, and North America. Since the release of his first records on his DFA record label in 2002, he has built a reputation for eclectic, genre-bending sets that have earned him residencies at iconic clubs around the world.
He has been a practitioner of Ashtanga Yoga and Zen and trained as an Ayahuasquero in the Shipibo tradition. He credits the 12-step program with saving his life and ayahuasca with renewing it.
In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss:
* How the changing cultural landscape allows John to feel comfortable talking publicly about the psychedelic side of his work;
* A period of his life in which he experienced intense depression and occasionally contemplated suicide;
* His hope that his first ayahuasca experience would relieve his symptoms, only to be hurled onto a spiritual path, having had his worldview and belief structure completely recast;
* His training in the Shipibo tradition;
* The authenticity, legitimacy, and originality of traditional lineage-based knowledge in a rapidly changing world;
* And much, much more.
And now I bring you my conversation with John Maclean.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, we’re joined by Dr. Gita Vaid, an NYU-trained psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and founder of The Center for Natural Intelligence in New York City.
Dr. Vaid has been working with the likes of Richard Schwartz, Phillip Wolfson, and Deepak Chopra over the last several years to train healthcare providers on psychedelic-assisted therapies and to develop novel psychotherapeutic protocols.
Dr. Vaid’s Innovation Project at the Center for Natural Intelligence is a think tank and incubator that aims to develop novel Psychotherapy modalities suited for working with psychedelics and altered states.
One such approach she is developing with Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, the canonical book that really kickstarted the movement for trauma-informed, somatically based approaches that are gaining traction in the treatment of trauma and other mental health conditions.
This conversation came at the perfect time, as my work at The Trip Report and Beckley Waves is focused on the development of suitable and tailored “wrap-around” support for psychedelic-assisted therapies.
As psychedelic-assisted healing continues to gain traction across the culture and as we inch closer to FDA-approved psychedelic substances, the need for innovative, effective, and tailored approaches to support and therapy is a top priority for the field, and Gita’s work is a great example of innovation in this area.
In this episode, we discuss
* Freud’s interest in non-ordinary states of consciousness
* The similarities and differences between hypnosis and psychedelic experiences
* The importance of the body and feelings in the body for emotional regulation
* The therapeutic utility of ego dissolution
* And, of course, what the future of psychotherapy looks like
I hope you enjoy it, and without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Gita Vaid.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, we’re speaking with Matt Zorn.
Matt is a partner at the law firm Yetter Coleman. His law practice is uniquely focused on regulatory law, and importantly for this conversation, he has been working on several psychedelic-related cases.
I should warn you we get into the weeds straight out of the gates on this one as I ask Matt about his experience deposing the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)—and what that actually means.
This is probably the most technical conversation we’ve had on the podcast, and so you’ll hear me ask Matt to clarify or explain things several times.
I would ask listeners to keep in mind while listening to this that the matter of illegality of psychedelics and the punishment mandated by the law was not established through science, public health, or respect for individual liberties– but rather, this state of affairs was established to consolidate political power.
The Controlled Substances Act, established in 1970—more than 50 years ago—created the DEA and established formidable barriers to revising the government’s position on psychedelics and other scheduled substances.
Matt, along with a handful of other attorneys working in the field, are holding the DEA’s feet to the flame, so to speak, and forcing the agency to clarify its position on several fronts and through this process—and this is my personal opinion— exposing that the emperor, in fact, is wearing no clothes.
We discuss one specific area in which Matt and his colleagues are pushing the DEA for clarity; this is a trial AIMS vs the DEA where defendants are seeking clarity on the matter of whether psilocybin is eligible for terminally ill patients through The Right to Try Act.
We also dive into:
* Cannabis rescheduling
* The Freedom of Information Act
* How the FDA came to be the other federal agency involved in the drug classification schema and the concept of “Medically Accepted Use”
* The legal concept of the Chevron Deference and
* The differences between state-level legalization and decriminalization
And, without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Matt Zorn.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, The Trip Report is speaking with Hadas Alterman, and let me warn you, you are in for a doozy.
Hadas is the Director of Communications and Policy at the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association (APPA), and in this conversation, we leave no stone unturned.
We discuss APPA, the organization, the mission, and the specific work they’re doing to support psychedelic therapists, guides, and facilitators.
But we also dive into the concept of power and influence and how these forces are shaping the emerging psychedelic ecosystem.
We get into the weeds on the most important legal and policy topics in the psychedelic space right now, like the influence of Big Pharma on the DEA and how that is affecting the field now and could in the future.
We talk about “The Establishment” and the institutions that have outsized influence on the path of the psychedelic emergence, including the FDA’s meddling with the practice of medicine, most famously during COVID and now with public comments on the use of off-label ketamine.
We also discuss:
* Bridging the wisdom of the underground and traditional lineages with the modern medical system;
* The process of bringing together stakeholders from different parts of the psychedelic ecosystem for constructive dialogue and consensus-building;
* The varieties of psychedelic access routes and the tradeoffs inherent in them; and
* The current geopolitical situation unfolding in the Middle East.
And now, without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Hadas Alterman.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a psychedelic venture studio.
Today, we are speaking with Yuriy Blokhin, founder and CEO of Homecoming, an all-in-one platform for transformational coaches, therapists, healers, and their clients.
Yuriy is another entrepreneur in the psychedelic space that I occasionally have long and meandering conversations with about the developing field, where it is headed, and what he is seeing and learning firsthand.
These are always insightful and enjoyable conversations, and so we decided to do a podcast.
The idea for Homecoming was born out of the need to support people before and after psychedelic ceremonies that catalyzed profound and transformative changes but were potentially short-lived if not suitably prepared for and integrated.
In the early days, Yuriy volunteered with Heroic Hearts, a non-profit that supports military veterans seeking psychedelic therapies for PTSD, and he came to recognize that the results were significantly more profound when paired with pre- and post-experience coaching—but facilitating this level of connection, especially when people return to their homes in different parts of the world, was a technological challenge.
With the rise in psychedelic retreats, clinics, and all-around general hype and enthusiasm over the last few years, the opportunity to build such a product became a reality.
We touch on his early hypothesis that Homecoming would be the technological infrastructure layer for psychedelic clinics and retreats, only to find that the real customer base was the broad category of practitioners that he calls “transformative and integrative providers.”
This includes coaches, therapists, and integration specialists, but also somatic therapists, functional medicine providers, bodyworkers, and a whole network of alternative therapy providers that are increasingly using psychedelics, breathwork, and other transformative modalities in their practices and have been underserved by technology providers to date.
Beckley Waves, with its focus on the operational and infrastructure layer of the psychedelic ecosystem, jumped at the opportunity to invest in Homecoming’s seed round back in 2021.
In this episode, we discuss:
* The variety of structured approaches to psychedelic experiences;
* Epistemic and ontological shock in the healing process;
* The uses and limitations of the scientific method;
* The origin story of Homecoming;
* Early-stage entrepreneurship and the balance between conviction and radical open-mindedness; and
* Co-creating technology with your early customers.
And without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Yuriy Blokhin.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a psychedelic venture studio.
Today, we are speaking with Oshan Jarow.
Oshan is a writer, podcaster, and a fellow at Vox Media’s Future Perfect, a division focused on covering the crucially important issues that are often under-reported.
In this role, Oshan writes about the intersection of economics and the contemplative sciences–this includes things like psychedelics, meditation, and as we get into some depth, the emerging science of the mind.
I’ve been following Oshan’s work for a few years, but a recent essay in Vox titled “The psychedelic renaissance is at risk of missing the bigger picture” prompted me to invite him on The Trip Report Podcast.
At the time of its publication, I noted that it is one of the best summaries of the dynamics at play in the psychedelic space that I have ever seen.
But it is Oshan’s essay, titled “A General Theory of Spirituality” that got me excited to speak with him. As we discuss, there is a bit of a scientific revolution afoot at the intersection of modern neuroscience and the spiritual and contemplative traditions of the past.
This is the first in what I believe will be a series of episodes with writers, scientists, and meditators that will explore this rich field at the intersection of spiritual insight, psychedelic states and the emerging model of the brain and mind: the predictive processing framework.
Also, in this episode, we discuss:
* The connection between a society’s economic incentives and the effect on individuals’ subjective experience and well-being;
* The potential of psychedelics for spiritual practice and the betterment of the well;
* The concept of entropy and functional integration of neural pathways and the effect of psychedelics on these parameters; and
* The free energy principle, predictive processing, and a General Theory of Spirituality.
And without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Oshan Jarow.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a Psychedelic Venture Studio.
Today, we’re speaking with Jonathan Sabbagh, founder of Journey Clinical, a digital health tech company pioneering a collaborative care model for psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Journey Clinical was founded in 2021 with the mission of creating a decentralized clinic model that would enable licensed therapists to incorporate ketamine-assisted therapy (KAT) into their practice.
Jonathan and his co-founder (and wife) Miriam Barthes interviewed 600 therapists before starting Journey Clinical to understand their biggest pain points and challenges.
When it came to KAT, a promising treatment for several mental health conditions, the overwhelming response from the therapists they interviewed was that it’s difficult to find medical professionals with whom they can collaborate on care. After all, therapists do not prescribe medications, and most physicians do not do therapy.
Thus, connecting therapists with partner prescribers was the core need, and with this insight, the Journey Clinical model was born.
As many who are well-steeped in the psychedelic field are aware, KAT is a promising modality for stubborn mental health conditions, especially when paired with psychotherapeutic support. However, the majority of ketamine usage for mental health is as a standalone treatment at specialized clinics. What is missing from this brick-and-mortar care delivery environment is supportive wrap-around care.
And in my opinion, this is the promise of technology-enabled support for psychedelic therapies.
I have been a fan of the Journey Clinical model since I first met Jonathan and Miriam back in 2021. From the outset, it was clear they had a unique insight and mission.
In this episode, we discuss:
* Leaving a career in finance to study clinical psychology;
* The role of psychotherapy in supporting transformational perspectives;
* The importance of therapeutic alliance;
* The origin story of Journey Clinical and the pivot from a service provider to a health tech company; and
* The Ryan Haight Act Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008.
I should also note that Beckley Waves is an investor in Journey Clinical.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast!
Today, I am speaking with Dr. Jeeshan Chowdhury, M.D., Ph.D., founder & CEO of Journey Colab, a psychedelic startup developing a synthetic form of mescaline and an innovative care model for addiction treatment.
I met up with Jeeshan at the recent MAPS Psychedelic Science conference in Denver for a conversation about the emerging field, his company, and how he sees the future unfolding.
Journey Colab is taking a contrarian approach to the psychedelic drug development process. While many companies are seeking to engineer shorter trips or non-hallucinogenic compounds, Journey Colab is developing a synthetic form of mescaline, one of the longer-acting psychedelic compounds with trips lasting 12-14 hours.
While the common approach is to identify how to limit or reduce the amount of psychotherapy or psychological support to increase efficiencies, Journey Colab is working with rehab centers to incorporate psychological and community support.
And like my conversations with Talia Eisenberg and Manish Agrawal, a central theme is the infrastructure for psychedelic care delivery.
On the one hand, they are taking mescaline through the standard drug approval process; on the other, they have formed a unique partnership with All Points North, a treatment and rehab center in Colorado.
The Journey Colab–All Points North Center of Excellence will conduct research on the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies for alcohol use disorder in a community healthcare setting.
As we discuss, this contrarian approach has had its fair share of challenges. However, Journey Colab has the unique distinction of having Sam Altman, the former president of Y Combinator and CEO of Open AI, as an early-stage investor and advisor.
In this conversation, we discuss:
* How Sam Altman told Jeeshan that he should start a psychedelic company back in 2018;
* What happens when we take very powerful psychoactive compounds and apply traditional capitalist structures;
* The challenge of delivering psychedelic care safely, effectively and at scale; and
* The stigma of using medication in alcohol rehabilitation.
And now, I bring you my conversation with Jeeshan Chowdhury.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast! Today, we are talking with Dr. Rick Barnett.
Rick is the founder of the Center for Addiction Recognition, Treatment, Education, and Recovery in Stowe, Vermont, and the Co-Founder of the Psychedelic Society of Vermont.
He is also a clinical psychologist and licensed alcohol and drug counselor with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology.
This combination of training, clinical practice, and education made for a really interesting discussion of the emerging use of psychedelics in therapy and drug and alcohol recovery.
There is a massive difference between the emerging “psychedelic industry”— clinical trials, drug development, policy reform efforts, and legal retreats—and the reality of the situation outside of these contexts.
This dichotomy is one of the most fascinating features of this whole domain. While we wait for the Overton Window to shift—for FDA approval, for VA buy-in, for lawmakers and regulators to get comfortable—the use of psychedelics in unregulated, personal, grey and illegal settings is skyrocketing.
This is where the psychedelic industry differs from so many other industries or technologies: there is a major distinction between the so-called “above ground” business and investment landscape, which is dominated by commercial drug development and services designed to fit into the modern healthcare system, and the so-called “underground,” a decentralized, unregulated, bottom-up psychedelic market.
The need is for education, support, and community to midwife the mainstreaming of psychedelics, not suppression.
In this conversation, we discuss:
* The connective tissue of the psychedelic ecosystem.
* The integration of psychedelic, ecstatic, and expressive approaches to clinical practice in Western healthcare systems;
* Dr. Barnett’s experience responding to the cultural interest in psychedelics as a clinical psychologist;
* The importance of community among healthcare professionals to increase education and best practices; and
In Greek mythology, the God Hermes is said to have possessed the ability to move freely between different realms—he could travel between the mortal world, the divine realm of Olympus, and the Underworld.
This capacity made him unique in Greek Mythology.
As a trained psychologist, educator, and community organizer, Dr. Barnett is like a modern-day Hermes—interfacing with the clinical and research worlds as well as the local and digital peer-to-peer community networks of the psychedelic-curious.
And now, I bring you my conversation with Dr. Rick Barnett.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Today I am speaking with Talia Eisenberg.
Talia is the co-founder of Beond Ibogaine, an addiction and chemical dependence treatment center in Cancún, Mexico.
I wanted to speak with Talia because the Beond model – a modern, medical-grade center – seems to me like the closest approximation to what the psychedelic medicine practice of the future will look like.
Ibogaine has developed a reputation as one of the most effective psychedelic substances for the treatment of opioid dependencies, including painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl. Recently, the state of Kentucky’s Opioid Commission announced that it would be evaluating a $42 million grant to study ibogaine for the treatment of opioid addiction and withdrawal.
However, by all accounts, the ibogaine experience is no walk in the park. A longer treatment duration and heightened risks compared to other psychedelics makes ibogaine unique among this class of substances.
To me, ibogaine best captures the duality of an incredibly promising new treatment model for one of society's most pressing problems coupled with the need for caution, screening, preparation, and safety monitoring due to the associated risks.
Talia brings a unique perspective to the discussion of this opportunity and its challenges, as she credits ibogaine with saving her own life and now operates one of the leading ibogaine treatment centers.
Talia received an undergrad degree from New School in New York City and earned an MBA from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco. She is a serial entrepreneur, a mother, a wife, and in long-term recovery.
In this episode, we discuss:
* The history and impact of the opioid epidemic;
* Talia’s personal story of addiction, treatment, and renewal;
* The traditional rehab industry; and
* The importance of short and long-term integration with ibogaine.
As you’ll hear, I am not too familiar with ibogaine. I have never tried it and, since it has a smaller research footprint than psilocybin, MDMA and other compounds, I haven’t spent as much time learning about it. Thankfully, Talia was the perfect person to speak with to bring me up to speed.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Today I am speaking with Josh Hardman.
Josh is the founder and Editor of Psychedelic Alpha, the preeminent business and policy data resource for the psychedelic industry.
I first met Josh in 2020 when this whole domain of psychedelic business and investment was really taking off. Those were strange times—this was the peak of covid lockdowns, the lead up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. You might call it a pivotal mental state for society.
All the while, we were seeing a massive influx of capital into dozens of psychedelic startups—many of which no longer exist—several of the most prestigious universities were announcing psychedelic research programs, and many local and state policy reform efforts were launched.
All throughout, Josh and his team at Psychedelic Alpha were busy building publicly available databases, including company profiles and drug development, policy, and patent trackers to help make sense of this craziness.
Fast forward to 2023, Josh and I sat down in Denver during the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference for a conversation about the field, where it’s been, and where it’s heading.
In this conversation, Josh and I discuss:
* His background and the Psychedelic Alpha origin story;
* His initial shock at seeing psychedelics on the commercialization pathway;
* The “Wild West” of the 2020 psychedelic business environment;
* The challenges to payor reimbursement for psychedelics;
* The FDA approval process; and
* The shifting Overton window.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google, or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com -
Today I am speaking with Dr. Manish Agrawal.
Manish is the founder and CEO of Sunstone Therapies and co-director of clinical research at Aquilino Cancer Center in Rockville, Maryland.
Manish studied engineering at Auburn University and graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine. He did his medical residency at Georgetown University, where he also earned a master’s in Philosophy. After Georgetown, he did a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.
He then went on to a more than 20-year career as an oncologist.
In 2017, Manish met Roland Griffiths from Johns Hopkins University, and his interest in psychedelic research was piqued, which led to the founding of Sunstone Therapies.
Sunstone serves as an independent research site that carries out clinical trials for psychedelic drug developers like MAPS, Usona, and Compass Pathways, as well as their own investigator-initiated trials. They also train therapists.
In this episode, we discuss:
* Manish’s career as an oncologist and researcher;
* His time at the National Institutes of Health (NIH);
* The role his philosophy training has played in his life as a physician;
* The origin story of Sunstone Therapies;
* The similarities between delivering cancer treatment and the delivering psychedelic medicine; and
* Preparing for FDA approval.
Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google, or Apple.
Credits:
* Hosted by Zach Haigney
* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari
* Find us at thetripreport.com
* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thetripreport.com - Montre plus
