On The Same Paige with Paige Leacey

What is trauma actually – the event itself, the way we respond to it, or the meaning it takes on in our lives? In this episode of On The Same Paige, Paige speaks with trauma researcher Dr. Rachel Yehuda about how trauma shapes the brain, body, memory and identity. Rachel explains why the word trauma is often used in different ways, how stress and trauma overlap, why people can respond so different...

What if women naturally move through altered states – not only through psychedelics, but through movement, the menstrual cycle and childbirth? In this episode of On The Same Paige, Paige sits down with birth worker and women’s health educator Karissa Bollinger to explore the altered states that can emerge across the female experience. Karissa shares how severe PMDD symptoms, burnout and a frighten...

Psychedelic educator, James W. Jesso, joins the show again to discuss the profound nature of a DMT experience and what it reveals about our reality. Paige and James revisit their shared interest in the edges of human experience, specifically focusing on the intersection of consciousness and plant medicine. They unpack the complexities of navigating these intense altered states, reflecting on how s...

Can one psychedelic experience change a pattern you’ve lived with for a decade – without magically fixing everything else? In this solo episode of On The Same Paige, I share one of the most personal parts of my story: my ten-year struggle with bulimia, the ayahuasca ceremony that unexpectedly became a turning point, and why the difficult work of integration still mattered afterwards. This isn’t a...

Can music and ritual trigger an out-of-body experience without psychedelics? Anthropologist Dr Tamara D. Turner has spent years studying trance, consciousness and healing rituals in North Africa – and eventually experienced trance herself. In this conversation, Tamara takes us inside all-night rituals among Black communities in Algeria whose traditions developed over centuries following the trans-...

Can psilocybin microdosing actually treat depression – or are expectation and the placebo effect doing far more of the work than we realise? Dr. Rotem Petranker is a clinician, researcher and therapist who has spent years studying psychedelic microdosing. In one of the most rigorous clinical trials of microdosing for depression to date, his team gave people diagnosed with major depressive disorder...

What is an Iboga journey really like – and what should you know before considering one? In this episode of On The Same Paige, Paige Leacey sits down with herbalist and plant medicine practitioner Rachel Marie for an in-depth conversation about Iboga, one of the world’s most intense and misunderstood plant medicines. Rachel shares her own experiences with Iboga, including her first journey in her t...

Could biphasic sleep change the way we think, create and connect? I’m trying a biphasic sleep schedule for one week – splitting my night into a “first sleep” and “second sleep,” with two quiet waking hours in between. The idea came from the viral claim that our modern eight-hour sleep routine is an industrial invention. Although that version of the story may be oversimplified, historical research...

The placebo effect is real – but are clinical trials designed to understand it, or suppress it? Dr Balázs Szigeti joins Paige Leacey to explain how the placebo effect shapes clinical trials, antidepressant research and psychedelic therapy. They explore why pharmaceutical companies try to minimise placebo responses, how patients can work out whether they received the active drug, and whether the ap...

What does grief do to the body and brain – and how can loss change the way we understand consciousness, identity, and the meaning of life? Grief is more than an emotion. It can affect how we think, remember, connect with others, and understand ourselves. In this episode, Paige explores why loss can feel so disorienting, why healing is rarely a simple or linear process, and how people begin rebuild...

I spent 48 hours in an iboga ceremony purging, confronting my deepest fears, and coming out the other side completely transformed. This is my full, unfiltered experience with this very unique plant medicine. In this episode, I take you through the entire journey: what iboga (Tabernanthe Iboga) actually is, its origins in the Bwiti spiritual tradition of Central Africa, and why this plant medicine...

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...