MINDBEND with Matthew Dunehoo

Birth is a trip! A few years back I interviewed a psychotherapist working with ketamine assisted psychotherapy who had written on the psychedelic nature of childbirth, the parallels drawn between that ceremony, and plan medicine ceremonies that she had participated in.  Some of the key figures on the frontline of birth and birthing in the US are doulas and midwives. They hold space and share knowl...

Diego Ugalde is the founder of The Trident Approach, where retired Navy Seals lead instructional programs for corporations, athletes and performance-minded civilians on how to emulate the efficiency and results-driven approach embodied by the ethos of the Seal Teams. Diego has been influenced immeasurably by lessons learned during psychedelic medicine ceremonies. His life has been changed and he h...

The idea of being hypnotized has always fascinated me. What's actually taking place when one is under hypnosis? Where does your mind...go? And can modalities like past life regression hypnotherapy really help a person, much less be scientific proof for the phenomenon of reincarnation and therefore indicate definitively that there is indeed, life after death? Bringing Cheyenne onto the show made se...

Kerstin Hern (she/her), is a Los Angeles-based registered Associate Marriage & Family Therapist (AMFT #139178) supervised by Gaea Woods (LMFT #117978). She earned my M.A. in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Spiritual, Jungian & Depth Psychology from  Antioch University, Los Angeles . She also hold a B.A. in English Literature, spent many years working in the music industry, and has stu...

Cristianna Hougland is the founder of Mushee Medicinal, which is a functional mushroom elixir company, working to create the purest possible functional mushroom supplement product, for individuals to use in "elevating their wellness." What exactly are "functional mushrooms?" This is how she explains this magic on the Mushee website: "These (functional) mushrooms have been traditionally used in anc...

Jodi Green and Mike Goldfarb were two of the first people working within the greater "psychedelic community" that I met when I first moved to Los Angeles, a year and change ago at the time of this writing. I'm fortunate to say that I was at the inaugural gathering of the Department of Consciousness and have wanted to have them on the show ever since. It's fitting, as Mike pointed out, that this in...

Laughing Dragon is a man who has dedicated his life to exploring consciousness and teaching the world about the power of Amanitas Muscaria. He and I connected at the Psychedelic Awakening conference in July, 2023 here in Los Angeles. Spending nine years in South America he learned from many masters of plant medicines until developing his own path by utilizing psychedelics to study the mechanics of...

Narrative-Shifting Artist, Leader, and CEO, Mr $now doesn't "rap" - he speaks to the soul from self-love, painting pictures with words, reconnecting the collective to our Higher Selves — introducing new ways to observe our experience and new ways to express the consciouness, viewing external factors simply as extensions of ourselves, like tools. He has lead countless individuals to life-changing r...

Banana Jane Garnett, MFT, is an Oxford Educated psychotherapist with a background in film. She and I met while checking into our hotel at the 2023 MAPS Psychedelic Science conference in Denver, and it was mirth at first sight! Producing in Hollywood Jane discovered a passion for psychology and transitioned to mental health, only to discover a disempowered and exploitative industry, in need of a vi...

Because I used to live in NYC I still get emails about theater performances from time to time. Fortunately, one of those recent mailers was promoting a one-man play called GRIEF: A ONE MAN SHITSHOW about a man, Colin Campbell, and his wife, whose two children, Ruby and Hart, were murdered when an intoxicated driver crashed into their car. Colin had channeled his suffering into an extraordinary wor...

I first became aware of Craig Wedren in high school and discovering new bands that resonated with you was absolute magic. You had to work for it. You were lucky if you got tipped off by a knowledgeable friend, or read a review in the odd zine to serve as an access point into the psyche of a new sonic hero, broadcasting from some far-off corner of an as-yet unexplored world. In this particular inst...

Everybody learns from everybody else. Sometimes, our friends can be our greatest teachers. And sometimes, mushrooms can be our greatest friends and teachers. For Edward Crowe, the relationships he values in his life are connected to and empowered by his experiences with psychedelic substances as expressed through plant medicine, specifically psilocybin mushrooms. As the confidant and manager of th...

Juan and I needed to reconvene in order to bring this two-part episode to a sensible conclusion, and it just coincidentally fell on the week of his one-year anniversary clean from opioid addiction! Oftentimes for those suffering from substance use disorder, they might be able to break the addiction temporarily through rehab, but getting results to stick is a whole other challenge. In part two of o...

I met Juan at the book release event for Amanda Siebert's PSYCHED, here in Los Angeles. It's always good to try and take a chance by extending an introduction to a stranger, striking up a bit of chit-chat. Sometimes it's over quickly, sometimes something more is in store. I invited Juan onto the podcast after finding out just how much more was in store. He'd found his way to the event after workin...

Christian Cintron is a comedian with on a mission to teach people that the expression of pain, personality, and power through comedy can be an incredibly healing, if not altogether psychedelic experience. From his website: " Comedy comes from tension, pain, and discomfort. But on the other side of all of that is power. You can use humor to set boundaries, speak up for yourself, and even inspire an...

Megan and Nicole Michelena are the creators of Zenchronicty, a comprehensive program for wellness that includes guidance in consideration of utilizing psychedelic healing modalities. Their mission statement is as follows... "Our mission at Zenchronicity is to take the fearful and hopeless on a journey to discover their innate selves. The synchronizing of the mind, body and spirit through the suppo...

Hannah Mason is a yoga instructor and entrepreneur who, through her work, is intent on creating a bridge between the earthly, and the ethereal. I connected with Hannah at Light On Lotus yoga studio, here in Los Angeles. Hannah has made it a point to explore the integration of plant medicines, particularly cannabis, into her own yoga practice, and incorporates this method in her teaching programs....

Idahosa Ness is the founder of The Mimic Method. The Mimic Method is the name of the unique approach he used to learn six foreign languages (and counting). The conventional approach starts with reading and writing and ends with hearing and pronunciation, but The Mimic Method goes in the opposite (and natural) order: Master hearing and pronunciation first, so that your ears, mouth and brain are phy...

Kat Walsh is the Creator and Host of TRIP ON THIS, a psychedelic podcast with one common through line — trippy stories and expansive thinking. Prior to launching TRIP ON THIS in December 2020, Walsh worked behind the scenes in the entertainment industry working with talent at Creative Artist Agency (CAA), developing series as Director of Development at Edyson Entertainment, and overseeing major ma...

Dr. Steven Mandel and his son, CEO Sam Mandel, founded Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles in 2014, which in psychedelic awareness and acceptance years seems eons ago. That's where we began our discussion, with Dr. Mandel relating just how foreign and at times scary navigating this novel territory was. As an anesthesiologist with a thriving practice and a deep interest in psychology, it took a profession...

Paul Nolan is an Artist, Audio Engineer, Producer and Sound Designer, as well as a qualified Sound Therapist and Yoga Teacher, who works at the intersection of Electronic Music, Artist Development and Immersive Audio Technology. Early on Paul was known to be an inspiration to friends on the floor. His exuberant embrace of the club scene was notorious. And he did it all without augmenting his centr...

"Biohacking" is a term that brings any number of pictures to mind. For me, it was often images of the exclusively privileged, with time and resources to spare, hellbent on prolonging an already fabulous and exceptional lifestyle with tighter skin, longer lifespans, and unwavering virility. Then along came Nat Niddam, willing to share her perspective and paint a more informed picture. Nat is a self...

Breana Mazzagatte started a podcast called MY DEAD PARENTS to discuss the loss of both her parents in 2018, but that was only part of the story. The grief Breana sought to transcend through public discussion of personal pain and commiserating with others about loss, also included the residual hurt from the dissolution of her marriage, the anxiety of becoming a single mother, and a history of unrec...

Donick Cary is an Emmy-winning writer and producer who got his start writing for "Late Night with David Letterman" and would go on to work as co-Executive Producer for The Simpsons, Bored To Death, Just Shoot Me and so much more! But what got him onto MINDBEND was the film he wrote and directed for Netflix, HAVE A GOOD TRIP. When I first saw the film, I thought it was hilarious. But I also saw it...

Rod Benson is a native Californian who grew up in San Diego and Los Angeles. After four years playing College Basketball at UC Berkeley, he began a 12-year professional basketball career that would take him all over the world. At the same time, he built a career as a writer. Upon retiring from his athletic career, he decided to go in a different direction; he began to explore his talents as a fine...