Mind & Matter

Send us Fan Mail Harvard-MIT geneticist George Church, PhD talks about advances in genome sequencing and editing technologies, interesting biotech startups using CRISPR genome editing to tackle human disease, and interesting areas in synthetic biology. Dr. Church also discussed how he has coped with both narcolepsy and dyslexia throughout his life, and became a successful scientist despite have th...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Berra Yazar-Klosinski, the Chief Science Officer for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies  (MAPS). Berra talked about the results of MAPS' recent Phase III clinical trials for treating severe PTSD, how these studies are conducted, and what we know about the underlying biology of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the drug MDMA.  ...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to neuroscientist & psychologist, Dr. Chris Timmermann, a scientist at the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London. Chris led the first neuroimaging studies on the effects of the potent tryptamine psychedelic DMT on the brain. They discussed DMT and related psychedelics, including how DMT is normally consumed in both recreational and laboratory co...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to gastroenterologist and neuroscientist, Dr. Emeran Mayer. Emeran is a distinguished professor at UCLA and an expert in gut health and the microbiome. His last book was titled, “The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Health.” His latest book builds on this, and is titled, “The Gut-Immune Connection....

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Jon Kostakopoulos, an early participant in an NYU study looking at psilocybin for the treatment of alcoholism. Jon went through psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy over the course of many weeks for this study, which included three separate days of psilocybin administration. He talked about his battle with alcoholism leading up to the study, how he was recruited to the...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to neuroscientist and machine learning engineer, Alex Wiltschko, PhD. Alex is a senior scientist at Google Brain, where he leads the digital olfaction group, where are working to build machines with a sense of smell. Alex received a PhD in neurobiology from Harvard, where he developed sophisticated machine vision and machine learning techniques to study animal behavior....

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to science writer and NYT columnist Carl Zimmer about his new book, "Life's Edge: The Search For What It Means To Be Alive." They discuss the scientific quest to understand life: what is it, how does it arise, and how might scientists identify it elsewhere in the universe? They also discuss Carl's approach to science writing, including where he draws...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to biological anthropologist and cognitive scientist, Terrence Deacon. The conversation focuses on ideas from Terrence's book, "The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain." They spend nearly three hours talking about the origins of language. Topics include: what is language and how does it differ from animal communication? How do chi...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Yasmin Hurd, a neuroscientist studying medical cannabis, CBD, and opioid addiction. Dr. Hurd is investigating the ability of CBD to help treat withdrawal symptoms and prevent relapse in opioid-addicted individuals. *Not medical advice. Support the show Support my work: Good Chemistry : Science-based health consulting AquaTru : Water filtration devices that remove...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to genetic engineer Alina Chan, PhD. She is working on engineering new forms of gene therapy using viral vectors to target diverse patient populations. In addition to her core scientific focus, Alina has recently investigated genomic data related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID19 pandemic. They discuss the basics of virus biology, including what kind...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Michael Eisen, a biologist at UC-Berkeley and editor-in-chief for eLife, a non-profit open access science journal. Throughout his career, Dr. Eisen has been an advocate of open science, the free release of the results of scientific research, and has been critical of traditional forms of scientific publishing, which often place scientific results behind a paywall....

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Bob Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist and sleep expert. Dr. Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has been studying sleep, dreams, and memory for over 25 years.  They discuss a variety of sleep topics, included sleep architecture and why there are different stages of sleep; the relationship between sleep stages and memory; how d...

Send us Fan Mail This bonus episode is a lecture given by mushroom expert Dr. Michael Beug (probably from the 1980s). Professor Beug describes the results of his work analyzing the chemical contents of various psilocybin-containing ("magic") mushrooms native to the Pacific Northwest. You'll learn some interesting observations about different Psilocybe mushrooms, including how psiloc...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Ziva Cooper, Director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, discusses the latest medical cannabis research. She goes into everything from the potential interactive of effects of cannabinoids and terpenes, to the efficacy of cannabidiol (CBD), to sex- and age-dependent differences in how cannabinoids affect the body.  *Not medical advice. Support the show Support my work: G...

Send us Fan Mail Nick Jikomes talks to Jeff Ubersax, PhD, CEO of the biotechnology company Demetrix (who supported this episode). Jeff discussed the science behind how Demetrix is engineering baker's yeast to produce cannabinoids at an industrial scale, with a focus on making rare cannabinoids other than THC and CBD. Jeff also discussed how he transitioned from academic science to running his...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Elizabeth Hobson, PhD, whose lab studies the evolution of decision-making, social cognition, social networks, and dominance hierarchies using a combination of naturalistic field observations of animal behavior combined with computational modeling and network analysis.  They discuss social behavior in animals, including when and why members of a group display aggressi...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to theoretical physicist Dr. Geoffrey West about the universal scaling laws that describe how organisms, companies, and cities grow and die. Dr. West is the Shannan Distinguished Professor and former President of the Santa Fe Institute, as well as author of, "Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies."  *Not medic...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Dr. Matthew Hill about the role of the endocannabinoid system in regulating stress and emotional behavior. They also discuss how plant cannabinoids from Cannabis , such as THC and CBD, impact the endocannabinoid system.  *Not medical advice. Support the show Support my work: Good Chemistry : Science-based health consulting AquaTru : Water filtration devices that remo...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to paleoanthropologist John Hawks about the story of human evolution. Listen to a more recent conversation with John Hawks. Support the show Support my work: Good Chemistry : Science-based health consulting AquaTru : Water filtration devices that remove microplastics, metals, bacteria, and more from your drinking water. Through link, $100 off AquaTru Carafe, Classic &am...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to neurologist and plant medicine expert Dr. Ethan Russo about medical cannabis and related topics, such as cannabinoids (e.g. THC, CBD, CBG, THCV), terpenes (myrcene, limonene, beta-caryophyllene), endocannabinoid biology, and Ethan's thoughts on the legal cannabis industry, including whether the terms "Indica" and "Sativa" are meaningful. *Not...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to neuropsychologist Katrin Preller, PhD about psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin, empathogens like MDMA, and stimulants like cocaine. Katrin explains how each type of drug affects the brain differently and what that means for their impact on empathy, social cognition, and their addictive potential. *Not medical advice. Support the show Support my work: Good Chemistry...

Send us Fan Mail Hamilton Morris discussing his documentary series on psychoactive drugs, their science, cultural impacts, and misconceptions. Topics Discussed: Origins of Hamilton's Pharmacopeia: Started as a column and web series to provide honest, science-based discussions on drugs, countering 1990s media stigma. Drug education and media bias: Traditional scare tactics fail; honest informa...

Send us Fan Mail Nick talks to Peter Addy, PhD about the atypical, dissociative psychedelic, salvia. Peter is a psychotherapist and spent several years at the Yale, studying human experiences with atypical psychedelics such as Salvia divinorum .  Nick and Peter talked about salvia, including how it works and how it differs from other psychedelics, as well as dissociative and dysphoric effects, and...

Send us Fan Mail Jonathan Page, PhD is a botanist and entrepreneur with deep expertise in Cannabis. Nick and Jon talked about all things Cannabis science including the botany and natural history of Cannabis, the chemistry and biology of Cannabis and its psychoactive effects, and whether or not different types of Cannabis can cause different effects. Jon also shared amazing stories about transition...

Send us Fan Mail Bryan Roth, MD, PhD discusses his career studying how psychedelics and other psychoactive drugs affect the brain, the massive $27 million research effort he is leading to understand psychedelics and develop novel drugs for psychiatric disease, and the practice of zen meditation. *Not medical advice. Support the show Support my work: Good Chemistry : Science-based health consulting...