The Psychonaut Show

Our guest on this episode is Dr. Harold Kudler, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, former co-chair of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Special Committee on PTSD, and member of the American Psychiatric Association's psychedelics workgroup. Our conversation journeys through historical understandings of trauma, military psychiatry, and psychedelic medicine. Along the way, Dr. Harold revisits figur...

In this episode of The Psychonaut Show, we sit down with Dr. Diana Moga to explore the intersection of neurodiversity, psychoanalysis, and psychedelic-assisted healing. Dr. Diana holds an MD and a PhD in neuroscience and is also trained in psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and her work extends across the topics of gender and sexuality, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, and neurodiversity. In this e...

In this episode, we hear from Dr. Larry Fischman, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst whose work has long bridged the gap between psychedelic states and the human unconscious. Dr. Fischman enters the journey with his own "arbitrary beginning" in 1973 when a high school road trip to see the Grateful Dead led to his first LSD experience—a profound departure from his known world that opened a lifelong i...

In this reflection episode, Dr. Tracy and Dr. John pause to integrate the groundbreaking work and far-reaching associations generated in their conversations with their first three guests: Dr. Alexa Albert on using MDMA to treat pathological narcissism, Dr. Jeffrey Guss on the "lost sisters" of psychoanalysis and psychedelics and their current reunion, and Dr. Megan Rundel on reframing mystical sta...

In this episode, we speak with clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and Zen teacher Dr. Megan Rundel about her work at the intersection of psychoanalysis, psychedelics, and spirituality. Drawing on her recent paper “Expansion and Regression in Oceanic Experience: A Model of Psychedelic Consciousness for Psychoanalysis,” Dr. Megan explores how psychedelic states and psychoanalytic treatment approa...

In this episode, Dr. Jeffrey Guss shares his journey in psychedelics starting as a curious 14-year-old during the Summer of Love, to becoming a leading researcher and trainer in psychedelic therapy. We break down the historical relationship between psychoanalysis and psychedelics -- from the 1950's psycholytic therapy with LSD to criminalization in the 1970's through the Controlled Substances Act...

In the first interview episode of The Psychonaut Show, hosts Dr. John and Dr. Tracy welcome Dr. Alexa Albert. Dr. Alexa’s clinical work focuses on the enduring psychological patterns shaped by early relational trauma, particularly pathological narcissism. This episode centers on Dr. Alexa’s groundbreaking work leading the first clinical trial to investigate MDMA-assisted psychotherapy...

In this inaugural episode, psychoanalysts Dr. Tracy and Dr. John introduce The Psychonaut Show and explore the growing convergence between psychoanalysis and psychedelics. Reflecting on their personal and professional journeys, they trace how curiosity about the unconscious, skepticism shaped by the war on drugs, and evolving research in trauma and mental health led them to this shared space. Thro...