Mind & Matter

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...

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 Pascific Northwest. You'll learn some interesting observations about different Psilocybe mushrooms, including how psilocybin content var...

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 theoretical physicist Geoffrey West about the universal scaling laws that describe how organisms, companies, and cities grow. 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://eepu...

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....

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 how his research...

Nick talks to Hamilton Morris, creator of the show, "Hamilton's Pharmacopeia," currently in its third and final season. They discuss the newest season of his show, including the content itself and what it took to actually make the show. They also talked about a variety of drugs and their effects, ranging from methamphetamine and ketamine, to various forms of DMT, to ibogaine and xen...

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 transitioning from scientif...

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. USEFUL LINKS: Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www.nickjikomes.com ] Support the show on Patreon...

Sean B. Carroll, PhD is an award-winning biologist, author, and filmmaker. Nick and Sean discuss everything from Sean's unique career trajectory and writing process, to dinosaurs and snake venom, to COVID19, the evolution of viruses, and why comedians and scientists are kindred spirits. USEFUL LINKS: Download the podcast & follow Nick at his website [ www.nickjikomes.com ] Support the sho...

Dr. Nichols is a professor of pharmacology at Louisiana State University. He has been studying the molecular, genetic, and behavioral effects of psychedelics for nearly 25 years and is considered one of the world’s top experts on the biological effects of psychedelics in the brain and body. Nick spoke to Charles for almost two hours, covering a wide range of topics related to how psychedelics work...

Brian is the author of the New York Times-bestselling book, "The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion With No Name." Brian is fluent in Ancient Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, and spent over a decade putting together an incredible story about the intentional use of psychoactive plants in the ancient world, including scientific evidence for the ritual use of spiked beers and wi...