The Drug Science Podcast

Ethan Nadelmann studied at Harvard University and London School of Economics and was a lecturer at Princeton University. While at Princeton, Nadelmann’s work focused on drug policy, attracting considerable attention with his articles in Science , Foreign Affairs, National Review and many others. He also formed the Princeton Working Group on the Future of Drug Use and Alternatives to Drug Prohibiti...

James Fadiman is a true man of many talents. Wikipedia calls him an ‘American writer’, but actually, he’s worked in multiple fields, from psychology, through to IT and, finally, to psychedelic research. He studied Psychology at Harvard University and obtained a PhD from Stanford University. As a graduate student at Stanford, Fadiman was Stewart Brand's LSD guide on Brand's first LSD trip, at Myron...

If you were told you had months, weeks or even days left to live...would you care what the law said about consuming psychoactive substances? This week’s episode features Spencer Hawkswell the CEO of TheraPsil - a non-profit coalition dedicated to helping Canadians in medical need access legal, psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to treat end-of-life distress.  Spencer believes that responsible drug...

This week’s episode features Paul Glue, professor of Psychiatry at the Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealand. With a vast experience in both academia and pharmaceutical industry, Paul Glue's research focuses on clinical and basic science to investigate the pharmacology of drug treatments in psychiatry and the disease mechanisms of neurological and psychiatric disorders. He i...

Cory Doctorow is a Canadian-British citizen of Eastern European Jewish descent and, frankly, it is no less difficult to grasp his vast interests and points of expertise than his family roots. After attending four universities without obtaining a degree, Cory’s career started with co-founding free software P2P company called OpenCola and selling it to the Open Text Corporation after four years. Lat...

Niamh Eastwood is the executive director of Release, the national centre offering legal services for drug users.     She started at Release as a legal advisor. Now, having worked in drug policy for the last fifteen years she’s co-authored many of Release’s advice booklets and drug policy related papers including ’The Colour of Injustice: 'Race', Drugs and Law Enforcement in England and Wales’. One...

In this week’s episode we'll meet Dr Mendel Kaelen, CEO of Wavepaths, a London-based company researching and developing methods for music-assisted psychotherapy.    Prior to Wavepaths, Dr Kaelen worked as a PhD student and post-doctoral neuroscientist at Imperial College London with a special focus of the role of music in psychedelic therapy. Combining his passion to both music and neuroscience he...

Dan Carden is a British Labour Party politician serving as the MP for Liverpool Walton since 2017.  A self-proclaimed “proud Scouser”, Carden highlights his close relationship with Liverpool’s working class and recalls his father being the shop steward during the Liverpool dockers’ dispute. From his early years he cared deeply for his community, standing on picket lines as a young boy and then goi...

Professor Mike Barnes is a consultant neurologist and an expert cannabis physician. He dedicated his career to the development of neurological rehabilitation as well as medical cannabis awareness and education.   After holding multiple senior NHS management positions, chairing Neurological Rehabilitation in the UK and years of clinical practice, professor Barnes brings his expertise to educate cli...

Norman Baker, described by our host, professor Nutt, as “the first and last truly honest politician” is a Liberal Democrat and former MP for Lewes in East Sussex. Following three years as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Transport he was promoted to Minister of State at the Home Office in 2013. However, rejection of many of his progressive suggestions including ones on d...

Dr Margaret Ross is a Senior Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist from Melbourne, Australia and the Chief Principal Investigator for Australia’s first psilocybin assisted psychotherapy study.    Throughout her career, her main focus has been youth mental health and more recently cancer and palliative care. Following working as a research psychologist and clinical trial coordinator for The Uni...

Theresa Marteau is a British health psychologist, professor, and director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge. Her initial research concerned communicating risk information and found out that people usually don’t change their behaviours despite receiving any form of information about preventable diseases like type 2 diabetes or certain types of cancer. Hence, s...

Today’s episode features Dr Peter Gasser, the president of the Swiss Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy.   Professor Nutt and Dr Gasser talk about the rather unusual and innovative attitude to psychedelic research in Switzerland.    How can Britain learn from the Swiss? What are the drug policies in the Albert Hofmann’s - the discoverer of LSD - country?   Dr Peter Gasser is a Swiss psychiatr...

This week on the Drug Science podcast, Professor Deborah Mash tells us about Ibogaine. A hallucinogenic compound derived from the roots of a West African shrub, sometimes used as a treatment for heroin or cocaine addiction. Professor Mash found herself trying to reverse the damage that cocaine had caused on the streets of Miami, Florida. To explore new and novel therapies, she took a flight to Ams...

In this episode of the Drug Science Podcast, world-renowned author Michael Pollan and Prof David Nutt discuss gardening. Of course, this being the Drug Science podcast, there’s no mention of sunflowers or strawberries. Instead, these two icons of psychopharmacology discuss the cultivation and everything else you might want to know about psychoactive plants with a particular focus on Opium, Caffein...

This week’s episode features Doctor Sheila Vakharia and Professor Alex Stevens, together with Professor Nutt they will be talking about decriminalization and drug policies in the US and the UK. Has both countries’ drug policies arisen from colonialism and social class hierarchy? What are the consequences of the policies that can be witnessed today? Are there any reasons for drug criminalisation? ...

Michael Mithoefer, MD is a Clinical Investigator and acting Medical Director of MAPS Public Benefit Corporation. Together with his wife Annie, they completed the first phase 2 clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in 2009 and a subsequent study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in military veterans, firefighters and police officers. They are now supervising therapists in the...

Today’s episode features Ollie Ollerton , a former UK Special Forces soldier and directing staff (DS) of Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins. Mr Ollerton has always been involved in the social cause, serving in the army as well as supporting multiple charities. Thanks to the publicity from SAS: Who Dares Wins he has been, among others, raising awareness of the mental health of soldiers. By the means o...

Friederike Meckel is a German psychotherapist who also trained as a medical doctor. Her career involved multiple techniques in psychotherapy including Holotropic Breathwork, hypnotherapy and family constellation work. Most notably however, regarding the subject of our podcasts, by the means of setting a private underground practice in Zurich, Switzerland she developed her own way of psychotherapy...

Julia Buxton is British Academy Global Professor. Her research focuses on illicit drug markets and the impact of counter narcotics policies on development, gender equality and security. In her career she’s led projects and worked with multiple universities around the world including the Central European University in Budapest. Outside of Europe, she has geographical expertise on Latin America and...

Richard ‘Rick’ Doblin is the founder and director of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) - a non-profit research organisation established in 1986.    Somewhere between getting an undergraduate degree in psychology and a doctorate in public policy, Rick, having had discovered psychedelics, began his fight against unjustified criminalisation of psychedelic drugs.    Rick’s m...

Together with Professor David Nutt they will be talking about the beauty behind psychoactive substances as well as the, equally interesting, stories from Lady Feilding’s life journey. Drug Science live podcast recording with Professor David Nutt!    If you want to find out how to travel to Ceylon for 25 pounds do have a listen!   Amanda Feilding is the Founder and Executive Director of the Beckley...

This week’s episode features Carl Hart, professor of neuroscience and psychology at Columbia University in New York.   Professor Nutt and Professor Hart discuss drug addiction and its political context in the US. Are drug policies racist? Were they made to help or to harm? What does the declaration of independence has to do with drug criminalization?    Coming from an impoverished area in Miami, F...

Robin Heads the Psychedelic Research Group within the Centre for Psychiatry at Imperial College London, where he has designed several functional brain imaging studies with psilocybin, LSD, MDMA  and DMT, plus a clinical trial of psilocybin for treatment resistant depression. He has over 50 published papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals; two of which were ranked in the top 100 most impactful...

This week’s episode features Dr Gabor Maté, a Hungarian-Canadian physician who’s main interests include childhood development and trauma, and their impact on lifelong physical and mental health.    Professor Nutt and Dr Maté talk about the inseparable nature of our body and mind.  How do they affect each other?  How can psychedelics offer therapeutic potential to both mental and physical condition...