The Mind-Gut Conversation Podcast

Emeran Mayer, MD

The Mind-Gut Conversation brings in experts within various fields of health & science to have a discussion with world-renowned gastroenterologist, neuroscientist and bestselling author of The Mind Gut Connection, Emeran Mayer, MD.

  1. 1d ago

    Why Are We Living Longer But Not Healthier? with Emeran Mayer, MD | MGC Ep. 124

    Modern medicine has never been better at keeping people alive. So why are we spending more of our lives unwell? In this episode of The Mind-Gut Conversation, Dr. Emeran Mayer examines a new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease project, published in Lancet Public Health, comparing how long people live with how many of those years are lived in good health across 204 countries and territories. The difference between those two numbers is called the morbidity gap. In 1990 the average person could expect to spend 8.8 years of life in poor health. By 2023 that had risen to 10.7 years, and the gap widened in 203 of the 204 places studied. The wealthiest countries fare worst of all, with the United States leading globally at 14 years. Dr. Mayer explains what is actually driving those unhealthy years, why the trend now extends across the entire adult lifespan rather than clustering in old age, and why two of the largest contributors sit squarely within the brain-gut-microbiome system. Topics discussed include: • What the morbidity gap is and how it is measured • Why the 45-year-old compression of morbidity hypothesis is being challenged • Why high-income countries carry the largest health gaps • The five conditions responsible for most unhealthy years worldwide • Why health decline is starting in middle age • The gender health paradox • Why years lived may be the wrong scoreboard This is a science-driven discussion for anyone interested in healthspan, healthy aging, and chronic disease prevention. --------------------------- This episode is sponsored by Mayer Nutrition. Food comes first, always. For the places where diet leaves a gap, use code MINDGUT for 10% off your first order. --------------------------- Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 1:00 - What This Study Set Out to Test 2:23 - The Morbidity Gap Explained 3:35 - Why Wealthy Countries Rank Worst 5:05 - Health Decline in Middle Age 6:10 - What Fills the Unhealthy Years 7:28 - Men, Women, and the Health Gap 8:31 - Rethinking How We Measure Success 9:39 - Closing Thoughts 11:25 - A Word From Our Sponsor

  2. Aug 4

    Psychedelics for IBS: Inside the First Clinical Trial with Erin Mauney, MD

    For most of the last forty years, irritable bowel syndrome was treated as a problem of the gut alone. The idea that the brain plays a central role took decades to gain acceptance, and it remains contested today. In this episode of The Mind-Gut Conversation, Dr. Mayer is joined by Dr. Erin Mauney, a pediatric gastroenterologist and researcher at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital, who has completed one of the first clinical trials of psilocybin-assisted therapy for patients with treatment-resistant IBS. They discuss why a compound acting primarily on the brain might change how the gut is experienced, what happens when the brain’s prediction machinery becomes locked into a cycle of pain and anticipation, and why the therapy surrounding the dosing sessions may matter as much as the molecule itself. The conversation also takes on the harder questions. How do you run a placebo-controlled trial when every participant knows they received the drug? Can the psychedelic experience be engineered out of psychedelic medicine, and what is lost if it is? And what can practices used ritually for millennia still teach a reductionist Western model of care? This is early-stage science, and Dr. Mauney is refreshingly clear about the limits of what is currently known. It is also a glimpse at what the next chapter of brain-gut medicine might look like. Topics discussed include: • Why IBS is best understood as a disorder of gut-brain interaction • How the brain’s predictive coding can become locked into chronic pain • What psilocybin-assisted therapy actually involves, session by session • Whether the psychedelic experience itself is essential to the benefit • The placebo problem in psychedelic trials, and why it may be unsolvable • How long the benefits appear to last after treatment ends • Where psychedelic research in gastroenterology may be headed This is a careful, evidence-based conversation for anyone interested in IBS, chronic pain, and the future of brain-gut medicine. Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 3:23 - IBS as a Brain-Gut Disorder 7:40 - Entering Psychedelic Research 13:22 - How Psilocybin Could Affect the Gut 15:43 - Inside the Trial 17:50 - The Brain and Pain Prediction 21:18 - Side Effects and Patient Experience 25:40 - Does the Psychedelic Experience Matter? 29:57 - Ritual and Western Medicine 32:15 - The Placebo Question 36:33 - Combining Therapies 39:10 - Brain Imaging 40:56 - Practical Challenges 44:07 - Durability of Benefits 47:23 - Overlap With Other Conditions 49:28 - Where the Research Goes Next 54:11 - Looking Ahead

  3. Jul 23

    Does Your Daily Probiotic Actually Work, or Is It Just Hype? with Kiran Krishnan, PhD | MGC Ep. 122

    Millions of people take a daily probiotic without ever asking a basic question: does any of it survive long enough to do anything? In this episode of The Mind-Gut Conversation, Dr. Mayer is joined by Kiran Krishnan, a research microbiologist and Chief Scientific Officer at Microbiome Labs who has spent his career studying the human microbiome and the science behind probiotics. Kiran is best known for popularizing spore-based probiotics and for his work on metabolic endotoxemia, the mechanism behind what many people call leaky gut. The conversation opens with a hard look at what happens to probiotics in the stomach. Kiran describes testing 40 of the leading probiotic brands under standard gastric conditions and finding that none of the strains survived the passage intact. From there they examine why CFU counts have become the industry's main marketing lever despite telling consumers almost nothing, why multi-strain formulas can cause individual strains to cancel each other out, and why some probiotic strains may trigger an inflammatory response rather than calm one. They also address one of the most persistent myths in the field, the idea that probiotics colonize the gut and reseed the microbiome. Kiran explains why nearly all probiotics, including spores, are transient, and what that means for how these products should actually be evaluated. The second half turns to the missing microbes hypothesis: the argument that modern agriculture has stripped soil-derived spore-forming bacteria out of our food supply, along with the tilling, monocropping, and synthetic fertilizer practices driving that loss. Dr. Mayer and Kiran connect the health of the soil to the health of the gut, and close with practical guidance on how an ordinary consumer can evaluate a probiotic in an unregulated market. Topics discussed include: Why most probiotics do not survive stomach acidWhat CFU counts really tell you, and what they do notWhy multi-strain formulas can work against themselvesThe myth of probiotic colonization and reseeding the microbiomeHow modern agriculture changed the soil microbiomeHow to evaluate a probiotic before you buy it This is a candid, evidence-based conversation for anyone interested in gut health, the microbiome, and separating probiotic science from probiotic marketing. -------------------------------------------------------------------- This episode is brought to you by Mayer Nutrition. Use code MINDGUT to save 10% on your first order of Synaptic Bloom. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 2:23 - The Missing Microbes Hypothesis and the Role of Spores 11:51 - Why Most Probiotics Don't Survive the Stomach 20:24 - The Problem With Multi-Strain Formulas 27:41 - How Modern Agriculture Changed Our Soil 43:14 - Colonization, Survival, and What the Evidence Shows 50:03 - How to Choose a Probiotic That Actually Works

  4. Jul 9

    What We Get Wrong About Menopause: Hormones & The Gut Microbiome with Emeran Mayer, MD | MGC Ep. 121

    Menopause isn't just hot flashes — it's brain fog, bone loss, sleep, mood, and your gut. In this solo episode of The Mind-Gut Conversation, Dr. Emeran Mayer unpacks the ~34 symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, the 2002 hormone-therapy scare that still shapes care today, and what current science says about estrogen and HRT. Then he turns to the part almost no one is talking about: the estrobolome — the gut microbes that recycle estrogen as part of the brain-gut microbiome system. It may explain why symptom severity varies so widely between women, and why fiber, phytoestrogens, soy isoflavones, and equol point toward a new generation of non-hormonal menopause treatments. A myth-busting, hopeful look at what we get wrong about menopause — and the science finally setting it right. Key Topics Covered: The ~34 symptoms of perimenopause and menopauseThe 2002 WHI study and the hormone-therapy backlashWhat current science says about estrogen, HRT, and vaginal estrogenThe estrobolome and how the gut recycles estrogenPhytoestrogens, equol, and fiber as non-hormonal leversWhy there's real reason for hope Chapters: 0:00 – How many symptoms does menopause really have? 2:21 – Why menopause care was abandoned for a generation 4:40 – The 2002 scare & what we know now about hormone therapy 7:05 – The estrobolome: how your gut recycles estrogen 7:50 – A non-hormonal approach: phytoestrogens & Dr. David Meriwether's research 10:25 – Fiber, ultra-processed foods & the probiotic myth 11:45 – The reframe & the equity gap in menopause care 14:05 – Reasons for hope Connect with Dr. Mayer: Website: https://www.emeranmayer.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emeranmayer/ X: https://www.x.com/emeranmayermd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmeranMayerMD/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emeranmayer/

  5. Jun 23

    Is Soil Health the Missing Piece of Human Health? with Sadhguru | MGC Ep. 120

    This episode is brought to you by Mayer Nutrition. Use code MINDGUT at checkout to save 10% on your first order of our polyphenol blend, Synaptic Bloom, at https://www.mayernutrition.com. The health of our soil and the health of our gut may be expressions of the same crisis — and healing one may depend on healing the other. In this episode of The Mind–Gut Conversation, Dr. Mayer continues his conversation with Sadhguru, recorded at the Isha Foundation in Tennessee, turning from consciousness and inner intelligence to the ground beneath us — quite literally. Sadhguru has spent years leading the Save Soil movement, one of the most far-reaching environmental campaigns in recent history, reaching nearly four billion people in a hundred days. In this conversation, they explore why the collapse of microbial life in our soil, the chlorination of our water supply, and the devitalization of our food may be driving a slow, generational deterioration in human health — one that science is only beginning to measure. Sadhguru argues that the soil crisis and the gut health crisis are not separate problems, but deeply intertwined expressions of the same disconnect from the living systems that sustain us. Dr. Mayer traces how that impoverishment travels from the earth to the root, to the gut, to the brain. Topics discussed include: Why soil degradation and gut health are part of the same crisis How the loss of microbial life in soil, water, and food affects human biology The gut-soil continuum and what ancient yogic science understood about the microbiome Whether the Save Soil movement can outpace the speed of environmental decline Why Sadhguru believes science and spirituality are searching for the same truth What it means to live at full capacity — from microbe to human being Connect with Dr. Mayer: Website: https://www.emeranmayer.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emeranmayer/ X: https://www.x.com/emeranmayermd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmeranMayerMD/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emeranmayer/ Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 1:45 - Is the Save Soil Movement Enough to Turn the Tide? 5:30 - Human Well-Being Is What's in Peril 9:00 - The Gut-Soil Continuum 13:00 - What Ancient Yogic Science Knew About Microbial Life 16:30 - Chlorinated Water, Devitalized Food, and Generational Health 19:30 - You Are a Walking Lump of Soil 22:00 - Where Science and Spirituality Meet

  6. Jun 9

    What Science Gets Wrong About Intelligence with Sadhguru | MGC Ep. 119

    Neuroscience is built on an assumption most scientists never examine: that the brain is the seat of consciousness, intelligence, and everything that makes us human. Sadhguru thinks that’s like a child staring at a phone while a sunset unfolds right in front of them. In this episode of The Mind-Gut Conversation, Dr. Emeran Mayer sits down with Sadhguru — yogi, mystic, and founder of the Isha Foundation — for a conversation recorded at the Isha Foundation’s retreat center in Tennessee. Sadhguru draws a sharp distinction between intellect — the data-gathering, pattern-finding capacity that AI now replicates — and intelligence, which he sees as something far more fundamental, distributed across all living systems from microbes to complex organisms. He argues that consciousness is not a product of the brain, but something far wider, and that our current scientific frameworks are designed for manipulation of the world rather than understanding of it. Topics discussed include: • Why the brain may be evolution’s newest gadget, not its crowning achievement • Intelligence vs. intellect: what the distinction reveals • The phenomenal intelligence of microbes and living systems • Why AI leads to more certainty, not more understanding • Memory as a boundary and the concept of Samskara • What consciousness actually means when used precisely Dr. Mayer engages critically throughout, bringing a scientist’s perspective and pushing back where he sees tension with evidence from his own decades of research. The result is a rare, unscripted exchange across very different worldviews — science, mysticism, and the gut microbiome all at the table. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Dr. Mayer: Website: https://www.emeranmayer.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emeranmayer/ X (Twitter): https://www.x.com/emeranmayermd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmeranMayerMD/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emeranmayer/ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapters: 0:00 – Introduction 1:26 – Does the Brain Deserve Its Central Role? 6:14 – Intelligence vs. Intellect 10:49 – AI, Data, and the Limits of the Analytical Mind 15:39 – What Is Consciousness, Really? 22:25 – Memory, Samskara, and the Boundaries of Perception

  7. May 27

    What Overwork Actually Does To Your Body with Dr. Emeran Mayer | MGC Ep. 118

    Most of us know overwork isn't good for us. But the research on just how damaging it can be, and how quietly the damage accumulates, is more sobering than most people realize. In this episode of The Mind–Gut Conversation, Dr. Emeran Mayer reflects on his own experience of sustained overwork throughout his career. We're talking 80-hour weeks, chronic sleep disruption, borderline hypertension, and eventually atrial fibrillation. He also digs into what the science says about why this pattern is so common and so easy to miss. Drawing on findings from the World Health Organization, the Cleveland Clinic, and Harvard Business Review, he explores the biological and behavioral mechanisms through which chronic overwork damages the body over time, identifies six key warning signs that your work-life balance is already off, and makes a practical case for reconnecting with physical signals that most of us have learned to override. Topics discussed include: Why working more than 54 hours a week is linked to measurable increases in stroke and heart disease riskWhat allostatic load is and how chronic stress accumulates invisiblySix red flags that signal your work-life balance is offDr. Mayer's personal experience with atrial fibrillation and what prompted a rethinkThe role of mindfulness, movement, and nature in nervous system recoveryWhy your body keeps the score, even when you're not paying attention This is a candid, evidence-based episode for anyone who has normalized pushing through exhaustion and wonders what it may be costing them. Connect with Dr. Mayer: Website: https://www.emeranmayer.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emeranmayer/ X: https://x.com/emeranmayermd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmeranMayerMD/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emeranmayer/ Chapters: 0:00 – Introduction 0:35 – The Science of Overwork 1:06 – Dr. Mayer's Personal Experience 3:00 – Six Warning Signs 4:55 – Reconnecting with Your Body

  8. May 12

    What if Consciousness Starts in Your Gut, Not Your Brain? with Michael Pollan | MGC Ep. 117

    Consciousness is one of science's deepest mysteries — and it may be under threat. In this episode of The Mind–Gut Conversation, Dr. Mayer is joined by Michael Pollan, author and one of our most important thinkers on the relationship between humans and the natural world, to discuss consciousness, the subject of Michael's latest book. They explore what consciousness actually is, how it differs from sentience and intelligence, and why the gut operates with remarkable sophistication outside conscious awareness. Michael explains how his lifelong interest in plants, food, and psychedelics eventually led him to confront fundamental questions about awareness — including why humans seem evolutionarily driven to alter their consciousness despite the obvious risks. But the conversation takes a contemporary turn when Michael describes his growing concern that technology platforms — social media, smartphones, AI chatbots — are eroding human consciousness by keeping us in a state of minimal awareness for hours each day. He argues that corporations are monetizing our headspace, fragmenting our attention, and undermining our ability to think independently and connect authentically. Michael also discusses his personal meditation practice and why caring for consciousness is not about withdrawing from the world, but strengthening our capacity to engage with it responsibly. This episode offers an essential, wide-ranging exploration of consciousness, attention, the brain-gut connection, and what it means to be fully human in an age of unprecedented distraction. Topics discussed include: • What consciousness is and how it differs from sentience • Why the gut's intelligence operates outside awareness • How plants and animals co-evolve with humans • Why humans seek altered states of consciousness • The relationship between interoception and consciousness • How technology threatens human awareness and attention • Why meditation strengthens engagement with the world This is a thought-provoking discussion for anyone interested in consciousness, the mind-body connection, and preserving human awareness in a distracted world. ————————————————————————————— Connect with Dr. Mayer: Website: https://www.emeranmayer.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emeranmayer/ X: https://www.x.com/emeranmayermd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmeranMayerMD/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emeranmayer/ ————————————————————————————— Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 2:48 - From Gardens to Consciousness: Michael's Journey 6:08 - Do Plants Manipulate Humans? 8:27 - Sentience vs. Consciousness 13:32 - Why Humans Alter Consciousness 18:36 - The Brain-Gut Connection and Consciousness 25:42 - What Is Consciousness Really For? 33:06 - Different Forms of Consciousness in Nature 40:20 - Is Consciousness Under Threat from Technology? 43:51 - Defending Consciousness in an Age of Distraction 45:41 - Michael's Personal Meditation Practice 46:21 - Closing Remarks

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4.9
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17 Ratings

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The Mind-Gut Conversation brings in experts within various fields of health & science to have a discussion with world-renowned gastroenterologist, neuroscientist and bestselling author of The Mind Gut Connection, Emeran Mayer, MD.

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