Mind & Matter

Nick talks to psychiatrist Dr. Joanna Moncrieff about depression. What causes it? How do SSRIs work? How well do antidepressants work? What are the risks & benefits of long-term antidepressant use? What is the evidence that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance (too little serotonin) in the brain? How is social media & technology influencing mental health? * Click here to download audio, wa...

Nick talks to journalist & documentary filmmaker Leighton Woodhouse. They discuss: homelessness & drug addiction; religion & ideology; sociology & social psychology; the social function of laws and norms; economic vs. cultural capital & the "overproduction of elites"; institutional science; civilizational decline & the future of American society. * Click here to download audio, watch video, or rea...

Nick talks to anthropologist Dr. Michael Winkelman, who was a professor at Arizona State University for many years, where he studied topics related to shamanism as practiced by early hunter gatherer societies, and other topics related to human cultural evolution. He is now retired and conducts independent research from Brazil, where he now lives. They discuss: what shamanism is & the core features...

Nick talks to pharmaceutical microbiologist Dr. Dirk Hoffmeister, who is professor at the Hans Knöll Institute in Germany. Professor Hoffmeister has a background in botany and mycology, the study of fungi. His lab studies various aspects of fungal biochemistry & molecular biology, including the biochemistry and molecular genetics of psilocybin production in magic mushrooms.  We spoke about various...

Nick talks to climatologist Dr. Judith Curry, the former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests have included hurricanes, atmospheric modeling, air-sea interactions, and a variety of other areas in climate science. She runs Climate, Etc., an online blog focused on climate science. She is also writing a new book called, “...

Nick talks to Dr. David Cohen, a professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. His research looks at psychoactive drugs (prescribed, licit, and illicit) and their desirable and undesirable effects as socio-cultural phenomena “constructed” through language, policy, attitudes, and social interactions. They discuss: prescription psychiatric drugs, including SSRIs, benzodiazepines and stimula...

Christian Lüscher, MD, PhD is a neuroscientist and neurologist who runs a research lab at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Dr. Lusher's lab studies the mechanisms that underlie drug reinforcement and addiction in the brain and he is an expert in the neuroscience of drug addiction. Christian Lüscher talks to Nick Jikomes about: what is addiction is and what some key parts of the brain and n...

* Download .WAV audio version * Watch video version * Show notes & episode transcripts Nick talks to Dr. Shruti Naik, assistant professor of pathology & medicine at the NYU Langone. Her lab studies the interactions between immune cells, epithelial cells, and microbes in barrier tissues that interface with the environment (e.g. skin, lungs & gut). They discuss: inflammatory memory; how cells store...

Nick talks to neuroscientist Dr. Margaret McCarthy, whose lab at the University of Maryland studies the origins and mechanisms of sex differences in the brain, the endocannabinoid system, and neural basis of animal behavior. They discuss: the nature of sex differences observed in the mammalian brain, including differences in the susceptibility to various diseases and disorders of the brain; differ...

Nick talks to science writer Matt Ridley, who most recently published the book, "Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19" together with molecular biologist Dr. Alina Chan. They discussed what is known and still unknown about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the latest developments in that mystery which have come to light in the past few months; the relationship between institutional scien...

Nick talks to medicinal chemist Sam Banister, who is co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Psylo, a biotech startup focused on developing next-generation psychedelic medicines. They discuss: the past, present, and future of psychedelic science; Sam's journey from academia to biotech startup co-founder; Alexander Shulgin; psychedelics like psilocybin, DMT, and others; and psychedelics & society. ...

Nick talks to neuroscientist & geneticist Dr. Kevin Mitchell about: 'Nature vs. Nurture,' the genetics of brain development, autism & schizophrenia, human brain and psychological variation, synesthesia, agency & free will, and more. * Click here to download audio, watch video, or read show notes & transcripts. * If you enjoy my content and want to further support M&M, please read this . This is a...

* Download .WAV audio version * Watch video version * Show notes & episode transcripts Nick talks to neurologist & neuroscientist Michael Fox, MD, PhD about his recent work mapping out an "addiction remission network" in the brain. They discuss addiction, brain networks involved in addiction, neurotechnologies like Deep Brain Stimulation and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Parkinson's Disease,...

Nick talks to physiologist and neuroscientist Dr. Dominic D'Agostino about human metabolism & nutrition; fats, carbohydrates, sugar, and protein; ketogenic diet, ketosis, BHB supplementation; inflammation and polyunsaturated fats; personal health and metabolism monitoring; and general questions related to the quality of the nutritional information we receive from our institutions. * Click here to...

Nick talks to anthropologist Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas, who is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut. His research interests center around human ritual behavior and the interaction between cognition and culture. They discuss his new Book, " Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living ." Topics covered: Rituals vs. habits; the psychological purpose of ritual; ritualis...

Nick talks to cognitive psychopharmacologist Dr. Manoj Doss about the effects of psychoactive drugs on memory, including sedatives, stimulants, psychedelics, cannabinoids, and MDMA. They also talk about recent research on the effects of psilocybin on the human brain. * Click here to download audio, watch video, or read show notes & transcripts. * If you enjoy my content and want to further support...

Nick talks to neuroscientist Dr. Joseph LeDoux, who runs a research lab at New York University. His research focuses on the neurobiology of emotion, memory, and behavior. He has written several popular science books including, "The Deep History of Ourselves." They discuss: brain evolution; what is behavior? what are emotion and cognition, and how are they intertwined; consciousness, language, and...

Dr. Maayan Levy is an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, where her lab studies the communication between the microbiome and its host, with a focus on the gut microbiome and its relationship to diet, immune system function, and disease. We discuss: her recent study linking the ketogenic diet to lower risk of colon cancer; what the ketogenic diet is and what the m...

Nick talks to chemist & patent attorney Dr. Andrew Chadeayne, who is the CEO of the psychedelic startup CaaMTech. They discussed: the chemistry of magic mushrooms, including compounds beyond psilocybin, found in many species of psilocybin-containing mushrooms; the so-called entourage effect, the idea that multiple compounds found in plants and fungi might work together in a synergistic fashion to...

Nick talks to Dr. Martin Picard, a biologist at Columbia University whose lab studies mitochondrial psychobiology, linking together molecular processes within mitochondria with human experience. They discussed; what mitochondria are and where they came from: their role in energy & metabolism; the mitochondrial genome; the importance of mitochondria in stress & aging; how exercise, diet, and geneti...

Nick talks to biologist Dr. Leonard Guarente about the biology of aging, life extension, health supplements, and related topics. Dr. Guarente is a Professor of Biology at MIT, where his lab has studied the molecular and cellular mechanisms of aging for many years. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist of Elysium Health, which uses the science of aging to develop health supplements to comba...

Nick talks to cell & developmental biologist Dr. Blanche Capel. They discussed the nature of sexual reproduction and sexual dimorphism, including when these these things evolved, the evolutionary reasons for sexual reproduction, and the amazing diversity of mechanisms that determine the development of sexual traits across the animal kingdom; the contribution of genetic vs. environmental factors in...

* Download .wav audio version * Watch video version * Show notes & episode transcripts Nick talks to neuroscientist & clinical researcher Dr. Rachel Yehuda, who is a professor of psychiatry & neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York. They discuss the biology and neuroscience of stress, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), why people can be sensitive or resilient t...

Nick speaks to writer Robert Greene, who is the author of several books exploring different, and sometimes dark, aspects of human psychology. The discussion focuses on the subject of his first book, " The 48 Laws of Power ."They discuss what power is and how it's used. Different psychological traits that people who successfully acquire power tend to have. Strategies that have been useful throughou...

Nick talks to cognitive scientist Dr. Donald Hoffman, who is professor emeritus of cognitive sciences at UC-Irvine and the author of many scientific papers and books, including "The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes.” They discussed a variety of topics related to consciousness, the nature of perception, and evolution, including: how perception works; whether our consc...