Mind & Matter

Nick talks to medicinal chemist Dr. David Nichols, who has spent decades studying the chemistry and pharmacology of psychedelics. Dr. Nichols shared his knowledge of psychedelic tryptamine, including LSD and DMT, as well as phenethylamines such as mescaline and MDMA. He also discussed his relationship with the late Dr. Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, and how his thoughts companies trying to m...

Nick talks with evolutionary biologist Dr. Sarah Otto about the evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, the emergence of new variants, whether she thinks we will need shots every year (like with the flu), mRNA  vaccines, and more. SUPPORT Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www.nickjikomes.com ] Support the show on Patreon & get early access to episodes [ https://www.patreon.c...

Nick talks to neuroscientist Dr. Aaron Gruber about topics related to cognition and learning in the brain, including what we know about how the brain detects salience and assigns value, makes decisions, and constructs flexible models of the world, sometimes called ‘schemas.’ They also discuss how neuropsychiatric disorders like depression can influence the brain’s schemas, as well as how they can...

Nick talks to applied physicist and neuroscientist, Dr. Alex Kwan. His lab studies how neuropsychiatric drugs, such as psilocybin and ketamine, affect neural circuits in the brain’s of mice. They discuss how his lab actually conducts this research, what they have discovered so far, and look at some real data, images and movies of neurons in the brain, which you can see for yourself in the video ve...

Nick talks to neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Monteggia about research on psychiatric disorders of the brain. Lisa described how psychiatric disorders like depression manifest in the brain, how traditional anti-depressant drugs like SSRIs work in the brain, and her research on how the drug ketamine can have rapid depressant effects in treatment-resistant patients. USEFUL LINKS: Download the podcast &...

Nick talks to chemist Dr. Lee Cronin about life: how it originated on Earth, how we might detect signs of alien life in the universe, whether it can be created in the lab, and related topics. Lee talked about his work on "assembly theory," which provides a framework for thinking about these questions and providing an unbiased way to detect signatures of life in the universe. They also di...

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 we has cope with both narcolepsy and dyslexia throughout his life, and became a successful scientist despite have these brain disorder...

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.  USEFUL LINKS: Down...

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 contexts, how peopl...

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.” USEFUL LINKS: D...

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 study, and what h...

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. They discussed A...

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 inspiration and...

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 children acquire lan...

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. USEFUL LINKS: Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www.nickjikomes.com ] Support the show on Patreon & get early access to episodes [ https://ww...

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 of virus SARS-Co...

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. They discuss a v...

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 different drugs and...

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. USEFUL LINKS: Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www....

Nick talks to Jeff Ubserax, 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 own company, and offered...

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 aggression, how animal dom...

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. USEFUL LINKS: Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www.nickjikomes.com ] Support the show on Patreon & get early access to episodes [ https://w...

Nick talks to paleoanthropologist John Hawks about the story of human evolution. USEFUL LINKS: Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www.nickjikomes.com ] Support the show on Patreon & get early access to episodes [ https://www.patreon.com/nickjikomes ] Sign up for the weekly Mind & Matter newsletter [ http://eepurl.com/hFlc7H ] Try MUD/WTR , a mushroom-based coffee alter...

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. USEFUL LINKS: Downloa...

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. USEFUL LINKS: Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www.nickjikomes....