The Ketamine StartUp Podcast

We're taking it a little easy in July, and in the spirit of that, we're launching something new: Soundbites from the Vault. These are shorter, standalone segments from earlier episodes that we think are worth revisiting, easy to digest, and immediately relevant to your practice. For our first soundbite, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations from Episode 32 with Steve Gelberg, author o...

This week, host Sam Ko goes upstream from our usual clinical and business topics to sit down with Dr. Roberto Malinow, emeritus professor at UC San Diego, member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, and one of the world's leading researchers on synaptic plasticity and NMDA receptor biology. His work has been cited more than 30,000 times, and his recent per...

In this conversation, Dr. Marc Smith shares his journey from hedge fund trading in New York's financial district to building an integrated ketamine psychiatry practice in California.  After three years in finance doing trading and sales, Dr. Smith made the bold decision to completely pivot his career toward medicine, driven by a desire for purpose and meaning that his financial career couldn'...

In this conversation, Dr. Michelle Weiner shares her evolution from chief resident in interventional pain medicine to pioneering integrative practitioner who treats chronic pain through a biopsychosocial-spiritual lens. Double board-certified in Interventional Pain Medicine, Physical Medicine, and Rehabilitation, Dr. Weiner reveals why traditional procedure-focused approaches often fail chronic pa...

In this news roundup episode, we're covering four major developments that have emerged in recent months, all pointing toward increased accountability and oversight in the ketamine and psychedelic therapy space. This isn't our typical interview content - it's breaking news analysis that every provider in this community needs to understand. We start with the final chapter of the Matthew Perry case,...

In this conversation, Dr. Ruchir Gupta shares his unconventional journey from established anesthesiologist to successful pain medicine entrepreneur. After 10 years of practicing anesthesia, he made the bold decision to return for a pain fellowship at Mayo Clinic, where he was older than most of his attendings. Dr. Gupta's story shows how strategic career reinvention can create competitive advantag...

🚨 Content Warning: This episode contains discussions about mental health challenges including suicidal ideation, psychedelic substances from cultural and therapeutic perspectives, and occasional strong language. Listener discretion is advised, as some content may not be suitable for all audiences. Please prioritize your well-being while listening. If you or someone you know is struggling with men...

In Part 2 of our conversation with Charles Miller from Scenic City Neurotherapy, we get into the practical side of his controversial "collective lie" thesis from Part 1. Charles walks through his MSKIT (Minimally Stimulated Ketamine Infusion Therapy) approach, explaining when he believes therapeutic integration should actually happen: weeks after treatment during the neuroplasticity window, not du...

In this first part of what became a two-part conversation, we sat down with anesthesia provider Charles Miller from Scenic City Neurotherapy for a discussion that challenged so many assumptions about ketamine therapy. Charles presents what he calls the "collective lie" in ketamine therapy - the argument that the obsession with psychedelic experiences and mystical insights for a growing segment of...

Every ketamine clinic goes through predictable life cycle stages, just like human development. And understanding which stage you're in changes everything about how you make decisions. In this episode, we introduce a framework for understanding the four distinct phases every ketamine clinic experiences: infancy (startup survival), teenage years (identity formation), prime adult years (optimization...

What happens when a 20 year mental health veteran has her own existential crisis then undergoes her own psychedelic therapy? In Inna Zelikman's case, it completely transformed how she practices medicine. Inna Zelikman, RN, MS, ANP, PMH-NP, is the Director of Integrative Mental Health at Recovery Without Walls and a MAPS certified MDMA practitioner. Five years ago, her own psychedelic healing journ...

We're breaking into our regular schedule with urgent news that affects everyone in the ketamine therapy space, not just Texas providers. On January 2, 2026, the Texas Medical Board published proposed regulations in the Texas Register that could fundamentally change how ketamine therapy is delivered in the state. These would be the first comprehensive regulatory rules specifically for ketamine ther...

Welcome back to the Ketamine Startup Podcast! It's great to be back with you for our first new episode of 2026. After sharing a couple episodes from the vault in December, we are excited to dive back into fresh content. In this episode, we tackle the most frequently asked question we get: "Do I need to be present in the room during every ketamine infusion?" This isn't just about regulations. It's...

We're continuing our holiday break from regularly scheduled programming to bring you another foundational resource: the patient communication strategies that transform ketamine therapy from a clinical procedure into a truly healing experience . This episode originally came from one of our mastermind sessions with students from our Ketamine Startup 101 course, where we dove deep into patient prepar...

We're taking a break from our regularly scheduled programming for the holidays to bring you something a bit different: a foundational episode that covers everything you need to know about ketamine therapy in one comprehensive resource. Sam originally delivered this presentation to the UCLA and Betty Ford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and it's become one of those episodes that medical professional...

Dr. Randy Frederick isn't your typical ketamine provider. As a former military flight surgeon and EM physician, he's spent nearly several years developing a "psychospiritual" approach to ketamine therapy. And his perspective challenges a lot of the conventional thinking in this field. In this conversation, Randy shares his evolution from following traditional clinical protocols to building somethi...

What happens when an ER physician and a psychologist both hit burnout at the same time? In Dr. Jack Hay and Dr. Harry Pepper's case, they decided to build something different together. In this episode, Dr. Hay and Dr. Pepper share the real story behind opening Oberlin Ketamine Clinic in Ohio. Including their unique physician-psychologist partnership model, how they've made personalized music a cor...

Remember when you were a hospital employee and licensing was just... someone else's problem? Yeah, those days are over. When you open a ketamine clinic, you're suddenly responsible for every license, permit, and regulatory checkbox that used to magically get handled by administrators. And here's the thing, get this stuff wrong and you can expect delays. In this episode, we break down the exact lic...

Running a ketamine clinic? Clinical skills alone won't cut it. You also need to protect your practice from regulatory and financial landmines. In this compilation episode, two experts break down the complex world of DEA compliance and insurance coverage for ketamine clinics. Whether you're about to open your doors or already treating patients, understanding what triggers regulatory scrutiny and ho...

Starting a ketamine clinic can mean challenging the status quo - and that can feel isolating when colleagues question your vision or patients don't understand the treatment. But here's what's reassuring: every major breakthrough in medicine started with physicians who were willing to stand alone and persist through doubt. In this compilation episode, we're featuring three remarkable doctors who fa...

Most doctors dream about leaving the ER grind, but here's what's remarkable: Dr. Nico Grundmann didn't just escape - he built something that's actually changing how we think about mental healthcare at scale. In this conversation, Sam sits down with Dr. Grundmann, an emergency physician who took his systems-thinking background and created something unprecedented: a five-location ketamine practice t...

Medicine has come a long way in the past 50 years, but here's what's fascinating: many of the breakthrough treatments we use today for pain, addiction, and mental health started with a handful of doctors who were willing to go against the grain. In this conversation, Sam sits down with Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a triple board-certified physician whose career reads like a roadmap of medical innovation....

Making the jump from hospital employment to opening your own practice? We've been there, and we know it's terrifying. When we first started talking about leaving our stable salaried hospital jobs to open a ketamine clinic back in 2018, everyone thought we were crazy. And honestly? Some days we wondered if they were right. In this episode, we're sharing the real story behind Reset Ketamine and how...

Running a private practice is challenging, but ketamine clinics face unique complexities that amplify every difficulty. Navigating regulatory hurdles, staffing challenges, supply chain disruptions, and shifting public perception about ketamine are just a few of the obstacles you'll encounter. These aren't anomalies - they're the norm. The question isn't whether you'll face difficulties, but how yo...

While your ketamine therapy practice may be transformative for individual patients, it represents only one piece of a larger healing puzzle. When mental health conditions appear ubiquitously across a culture, it signals systemic-level problems that require community-based solutions alongside your individual treatment approach. In this conversation, Sam Ko interviews Mike Margolies, co-founder of t...