A Brave New Mind - Psychedelic Medicine in Aotearoa Dr Will Evans and Susi Maclean

We wrap up season 1 back where we started, with Dr BJ Miller, one of the world's leading voices in palliative care. The connection between psychedelics and his field is a strong one, with a lot of the current research focused on easing suffering at the end of life. Amongst other things, BJ and Will talk about how they think about their own deaths, their visions for the future of their profession, the need for more humanity in medicine and where spirituality fits, and BJ's new online palliativ...

While we count down to the end of the year and the end of Season One, we thought it was timely to take stock of the emerging field of psychedelic medicine in New Zealand.In this episode, Will covers off the country's first psychedelic medicine conference, the momentum that's building in the research community, what's happening with the only psychedelic that's legal here for therapy - ketamine - and what lies ahead. Be sure to tune in next week as we wrap up the season the way we started ...

Psychologist Dr Rosalind Watts is best known for her work at Imperial College London where she has done pioneering work in using psilocybin for depression.More recently, she became Clinical Director at Synthesis Retreats, an organisation that offers medically supervised psychedelic retreats in Amsterdam.Having had experience working with psychedelics in both research and commercial settings, Ros brings a unique perspective to the conversation. Amongst other things In this epis...

Dr Marg Ross is a senior psychologist working in Palliative Care at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, and the clinical lead in Australia’s first ever psychedelic medicine trial, which is looking at psilocybin and psychotherapy for end of life depression and anxiety.Marg had watched what was going on in the Northern Hemisphere with interest and waited for somebody to get a study off the ground in Australia before deciding nothing was going to happen in a hurry - so she’d better do it her...

Dr Steven Mandel and his son, Sam, run Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles - one of the first infusion clinics in the United States.At KCLA they do ketamine infusions all day, every day, and they have developed their own regimen of personalised dosing that takes patients to optimal 'altitude' to change their minds, as well as their brains. The Mandels are firm believers in the value of stand alone ketamine infusions, even without psychotherapy, and say they've seen near-miraculous and lastin...

Professor David Nutt is the Chair of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London and a world-leading psychedelic researcher. He's a strong advocate for a rational, evidence based approach to psychedelics, and continues to, in his own words, 'call out the lies' about them, wherever he can. David is currently Chair of DrugScience and President of the European Brain Council, has edited the Journal of Psychopharmacology for over two decades and acts as the psychiatry drugs advi...