On The Same Paige with Paige Leacey

What actually happens to your consciousness when you're put under general anesthesia — and how does a drug stop your brain from forming memories while a surgeon cuts into your body? Professor Bruce MacIver is a Stanford researcher who has spent decades studying how anesthetics work at the cellular level. His lab discovered that anesthetics disrupt learning and memory by enhancing inhibition of...

What happens when you're injected with DMT for 40 minutes straight... on four separate occasions? Alexander Beiner was one of nine participants in the Imperial College of London's DMTx extended state trial — a protocol designed to push a human being to the peak of a psychedelic experience and hold them there. This is not a clinical breakdown. It's a first-person account of what happens at the edge...

The version of you that created your problems can't come with you to solve them. Chris Walker had a multi-million dollar business, a growing personal brand (hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms), and speaking gigs at Google — and he was an anxious wreck. He thought $10M would fix it. It didn't. But he managed to transform his entire life and upgrade what he calls his "frequency" wit...

Everyone in the personal development world is chasing more self-awareness. But what if you've already got it — and that's not actually the problem? Paige makes the case that your body is running a 24/7 awareness system you never had to build. The hard part isn't becoming more aware. The hard part is being honest about what you already know you feel. In this episode: the gap between sensing somethi...

Your memory isn't a recording. It's a reconstruction — and every time you recall something, your brain is quietly rewriting it. In this episode of On The Same Paige, Paige sits down with Prof Jim Davies — Professor of Cognitive Science at Carleton University, director of the Science of Imagination Laboratory, author of Imagination: The Science of Your Mind's Greatest Power , and co-hos...

Most people think the nature vs. nurture debate is a question of which side wins. Professor Greg Downey says that's exactly the wrong question — and that framing it as a competition is what's been holding back our understanding of human potential for decades. In this conversation, Paige sits down with Prof. Greg Downey — neuroanthropologist, professor at Macquarie University, and co-founder of the...

What does it mean to have a relationship with a psychedelic substance and why does that framing matter more than any protocol, ceremony, or clinical trial? In this conversation, Paige sits down with author, educator, and psilocybin advocate James W. Jesso to explore the philosophical, ethical, and psychological dimensions of working with psychedelics responsibly. This isn't about biohacking with m...

Is the Western medical model about to regulate away the very thing that makes psychedelics transformative? In this episode, I share my three burning questions about where psychedelic therapy is headed — and what we might be losing as we scale it. Here's what I cover: 🩷 Therapist vs. Guide — The real difference between sitting with a clinical therapist and a traditional ceremonial guide, and why i...

Your brain is not wired to tell you the truth. It's wired to reduce uncertainty. In this episode, I break down how the brain functions as a prediction machine, constantly scanning for threat and trying to control outcomes - and how that process shapes your behaviour, your habits, and even the more subtle elements of your life. We also get into what happens when your brain jumps to worst-case scena...

What if giving birth could resolve years of painful intimacy you'd never noticed was there? Angel Drake is a spiritual teacher and energy practitioner who works with women at the intersection of mystical traditions, meditation, and psychological healing. She studies within Vedic and Sufi lineages and has been working with women as a coach and guide for over a decade. What I love about Angel is...

If you are made of multiple parts, who is the "I" watching them all? Ella Shannon is an accredited counsellor and sex therapist based in Cairns, specialising in relationships, EMDR, and psychedelic integration. Since she discovered IFS, it's become more than a modality - it's become a lens for how she sees herself, her relationships, and the world. This model for personal growth...

What's the actual difference between instinct and intuition - and can you tell them apart when something is actually at stake? Brianna Bowley is a performance coach who works with athletes, and she's been training Brazilian jiu jitsu long enough to start seeing it as a map for everything - fear, relaxation under pressure, how the body processes threat before the brain has caught up. What I love ab...

What if your brain doesn’t produce consciousness at all - it just filters it? What might this mean for intuition, identity change and life after death? Jade is a naturopathic doctor, coach, and researcher who's spent 35 years studying why people don't actually change. I invited him on because he's one of the few people I've come across who can talk about consciousness and reincarnation without it...

What does it actually take to keep a podcast alive when 90% of shows don't make it to episode 20?In this solo episode, I pull back the curtain on what it's really like to make a podcast in 2026 - the money, the time, the emotional toll, and the rejection. I share the stats that put podcasting into perspective, what it feels like to spend eight hours producing an episode for 12 listeners, the learn...

In this episode, I sit down with sexologist, medical doctor, and researcher Dr Jess Wade to explore the biology, psychology, and mystery of female pleasure. Together, we unpack the tension between what research can measure and what still feels ineffable about sexuality. We discuss cervical orgasms, the role of the vagus nerve, and why some researchers believe orgasm may function as a selective pro...

Prue is the founder of Earth Altering and an artist whose work sits at the intersection of nature, embodiment, and creative expression. Working at a large scale with flowers, natural materials, and the land itself, she creates earth altars, medicine wheels, and immersive installations for festivals and private events. She also creates and publishes images of herself nude in natural environments on...

Madeleine Monacelli is a holistic vocal coach and (incredible) singer who supports people to work with their voice as a tool for expression, regulation, and emotional processing. Her work draws on singing, sound, nervous system awareness, and embodied practice, with a particular focus on releasing perfectionism, self-monitoring, and fear held in the body. I invited Maddy onto the podcast to explor...

Jordan Hackett is a sexuality educator and somatic sexologist who supports men to address shame, fear, and confusion around desire, addictive pornography use, and emotional suppression - all with an emphasis on radical self-responsibility. I invited Jordan onto the podcast to talk about his own sexual development and the experiences that shaped his work - from early exposure to explicit content, t...

Venerable Nimala is a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and Kundalini practitioner who has spent over a decade in monastic life, teaching meditation, mindfulness, and Buddhist philosophy to people around the world. His work blends classical Buddhist teachings with embodied practices, offering a contemporary approach to spirituality. I met Ven. Nimala while travelling in Sri Lanka during a three-week Pancha...

Ruby Shine is the founder of Sol Method and a nervous-system-first wellness practitioner. Her approach centres the nervous system as the foundation for relational safety, emotional resilience, and sustainable change, and is a living reflection from healing her own insomnia, C-PTSD and PCOS. Ruby is also my best friend of almost 23 years. This episode was recorded live as part of a four-part collab...

Julia is a pelvic health practitioner and holistic healer who supports women to release the emotions, limiting beliefs, and unprocessed experiences stored in their body - particularly in the pelvic bowl. Her work blends Arvigo techniques, holistic pelvic care, a degree in Anatomy and Physiology, and intuitive tracking to help women return to deeper connection with themselves. I worked with Julia f...

Where does your mind go when you remove all distractions and comforts for ten days straight? In this solo episode, I break down my experience of a 10-day Vipassana - the structure, the mental unraveling, the physical intensity, and the unexpected anxiety that surfaced around friendship and worthiness. I talk about the moment things shifted, what the practice revealed about my patterns, and the con...

What does sovereignty in sex, love, and pregnancy actually look like? Victoria Redbard is a speaker, author, facilitator, sensualist, and business badass. She founded an internationally renowned sexuality school in 2019 (and sold it in 2023), co-created Enlightenment in the Bedroom across Australia, the USA, the UK, and Ireland, and now pours her magic into harp playing, writing, her sensual produ...

ChatGPT jumps on the pod to help out with a guest-related request. We talk feelings, consent, moral boundaries, the culture at OpenAI, why it won't help out with this specific request, parental principles, and free will. ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00:46 – Pushing Chat's boundaries 00:02:12 – A surprising metaphor appears 00:04:51 – Where do Chat's "principles" come from 00:10:48 – The question of free-will...

Where is the line between empathy and self-erasure? I sat down with my dear friend Alys Crocker - actress, yoga teacher, and one of the most emotionally resilient humans I know - to talk about something we both know too well: being the person who absorbs everyone’s feelings in the room. Alys is gifted - she can read energy, mediate chaos, and even find compassion for the villain. But, like many of...