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Psychedelic Brain Science is a multimedia approach dedicated to bringing scientific, psychological, anthropological, and cultural information as it relates to psychedelics. Join scientists Alaina Jaster, PhD and Zarmeen Zahid, PhD as they work to provide better understanding of the ongoing research about psychedelics through their two segments: Your Brain on Science and Your Brain Beyond Science. Content only reflects opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or auth ...
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Welcome to a super extra special episode of Psychedelic Brain Science! Dr. Jaster has finally settled back into real life after spending a week at DEA HQ fighting with Students for Sensible Drug Policy and many other scientists to keep DOI and DOC legal. She's joined today by psychedelic journalist Jack Gorsline, who was embedded with the team. The…
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This episode is the second installment of the mini-series focused on brain circuits outside of the typical frontal cortex conversation. Today, we hear from Alaina on the basics of pain and touch perception, as well as how our nerves send information to our brains. Alaina is then joined by Dr. Raul Ramos of UC Berkeley, an expert on studying sensory…
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This episode is the first of three in a mini-series focused on brain circuits outside of the typical conversations. Today, we hear from Alaina on the basics of how neurons talk to each other and a refresher on serotonin signaling. Alaina is then joined by special guest Tanner Anderson, a PhD candidate at University of Kentucky and soon to be postdo…
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This special episode includes presentations from a recent workshop, where Dr. Alaina Jaster, Dr. Neşe Devenot of Johns Hopkins and Dr. Gill Bedi of University of Melbourne presented their expertise and perspectives on how the psychedelic research field can move forward from the recent FDA rejection of MDMA-AT. Dr. Jaster's presentation sets the ton…
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In this episode, Alaina discusses the evolving language about some of our favorite substances and how we got to the term psychedelic. In the first segment, she highlights some historical names for psychedelic substances in western medicine. In the second segment, she is joined by Stanford anesthesiologist and psychedelic researcher Dr. Boris Heifet…
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Welcome to season 4. In this two part episode, Alaina talks about the ongoing petition against the DEA's proposed rule to schedule DOI and DOC. In the first half of this episode, Alaina is joined by Elijah Z. Ullman, of the SSDP Science Policy Committee. They discuss the background and specific reasons why DOI and DOC should not be scheduled. In th…
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Join us for this special episode featuring discussion from the Richmond, VA annual Mushroom Mania festival presented by the RVA Moon Market. Alaina is joined by fellow panelists: Will E. Nelson, Co-founder of Decriminalize Nature RVA Isa Boliver, South American Medicine Woman Dr. Harrison Elder, postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins researching …
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Alaina and Zarmeen are BACK BABY! In this short episode, they wanted to give some updates on their lives, explain what the heck is going on with the podcast and preview a couple exciting upcoming episodes. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/psychedelicbrainscience/support…
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Alaina and Zarmeen announce their hiatus for YBOS while they finish up their PhDs! Time flies when you're running a podcast and being a scientist full time... That being said, listen to them briefly chat about what they've been up to, where you can find them in the next few months and a few papers that recently came out (because even if they're bus…
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To bring this series full circle, Alaina does a quick summary of some of the current clinical and preclinical literature supporting using psychedelics for the treatment of various substance use disorders. Links to the studies references will be posted on our blog at psychedelicbrainscience.com/blog. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spot…
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Alaina is joined by physician, author, activist and educator Dr. Peter Grinspoon to discuss the use of psychedelics and cannabis in recovery, the stigma associated with drug use and the idea of "california sober."Have questions or want to read his book? Check out Dr. Grinspoon's website https://www.petergrinspoon.com/--- Support this podcast: https…
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Alaina is joined by Dr. Albert Garcia-Romeu, a clinical researcher and associate professor at Johns Hopkins. They discuss some historical considerations of psychedelics, patterns of use, and how these compounds can be useful in treating unhealthy patterns in folks with Substance Use Disorders.--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com…
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Alaina gives a quick and dirty breakdown about all things drug use. She breaks down the different definitions of drug abuse and drug use, discusses how psychedelics are different from other drugs and then talks about the possible ways psychedelics may be helping people with substance use disorders. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spoti…
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This week A & Z do a journal club style episode where they briefly discuss the rationale, methods and results of a recent psychedelic paper. The paper titled "Comparing neural correlates of consciousness from psychedelics to hypnosis and meditation" by Moujaes et al. at the university of Zurich explores the differences and similarities between phar…
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Alaina is joined by fellow PhD candidate Abigail Calder to discuss her ongoing work on psychedelics including neuroplasticity and how we can measure that in humans, as well as the importance in understanding how subjective effects can be positive, negative, both or neither. Abigail is currently studying all of this and more at the University of Fri…
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In this episode of YBOS, Zarmeen chats with former NHL player and now co-founder of Athletes for Care, Riley Cote. In their conversation Zarmeen and Riley talk about the unique challenges of being an NHL enforcer and what that meant for Riley during and after the sport. In their conversation, Riley details the healing he sought after his career and…
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Happy fourth everyone!! Join Zarmeen as she kicks of her psychedelics and sports series with former professional athlete and now director of the Etheridge foundation, Anna Symonds. This series explores the use of psychedelics in the lives of athletes. The utility of these drugs during an athletic career, and beyond. This is the first episode in an …
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Join Alaina and Dr. Charles Nichols, professor of pharmacology and researcher at Louisiana State University, as they discuss how psychedelics may be useful in treating inflammation. They dive into inflammatory processes, the interaction of serotonin and serotonergic agonists in these pathways and how psychedelics could be used as a potential treatm…
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This week's episode of Your Brain on Science, Alaina is going to try and get some answers to the question everyone is dying to know: If you give a mouse DMT, do they see mouse god? Alaina is joined by two VCU professors and preclinical researchs, Dr. Jennifer Wolstenholme and Dr. Peter Hamilton, who will assist in breaking down the term anthropomor…
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Alaina is joined by colleague and friend, Dr. Mario de la Fuente Revenga to discuss the popular psychedelic preclinical experiment - head twitch response. Mario talks about the automation of the procedure, what head twitch really means, and if there are any similarities between this behavior in mice and some human behaviors when taking psychedelics…
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A & Z catch you up on all the things that have happened in the last few months! We also feature a new sound artist this season: Charlie Hausfeld. Welcome to season 3 of Your Brain on Science! All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additi…
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Welcome to a special episode with A & Z, where they are joined by US Congressman Earl Blumenauer to discuss his fight against criminalization of addiction. They discuss the many things Blumenaur has accomplished in his career in regards to cannabis reform, as well as the ongoing fight to pass the Right to Try Act in Oregon. All content published by…
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For the last episode of season 2, Alaina & Zarmeen are joined by journalist Sasha Sisko to discuss their public call for the resignation of Rick Doblin from The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Please note that part of our discussion is on suicidal ideation and sexual assault and takes place at 39 to. 50 minutes. Tune into Sis…
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Happy 420! Join Alaina and Zarmeen for this special episode about cannabis, where they discuss how its different and similar from classical psychedelics both in pharmacology and subjective effects. The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations. --- Support this podcast: https://p…
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Happy Bicycle Day!!! To celebrate, A & Z have brought you a very special episode of Your Brain on Science. Join them both as they talk with Leonard Pickard about the current state of psychedelics, his fascinating past and his new book: The Rose of Parascelsus: On Secrets & Sacrements. All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the auth…
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Alaina & Zarmeen do a crash course in LSD, discussing the pharmacology, subjective effects and history of the drug. All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com…
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Join A & Z as they discuss a recent journal article focused on the safety and tolerability of LSD microdosing in a naturalistic setting. This research was funded by MindBio Therapeutics and is the peer-reviewed version of what we discussed on our previous microdosing episode. All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and d…
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In this episode, Zarmeen speaks with Russell Hausfeld of Psymposia about psychedelics and the corporate world. Their conversation dives into the current corporate landscape and the implications of corporatization into every aspect of psychedelic field growth. Check out our website for more on this episode! psychedelicbrainscience.com All content pu…
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Alaina is joined today by Dr. Jacob S. Aday, first author of a recent publication surveying psychedelic therapists about their use of psychedelics. This paper raised the question to many: Should therapists providing psychedelic-assisted therapy be required to have a psychedelic experience? Whatever your answer may be, this episode dives into the pa…
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Alaina sits down with Dr. Neşe Devenot, a psychedelics and bioethics researcher to talk about their work with understanding different aspects of phenomenon associated with ego-dissolution and self-concept. Dr. Devenot & colleagues recent paper, analyzing outcomes and the research manual from the Johns Hopkins smoking cessation study, identifies som…
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In this weeks episode Zarmeen tackles predictive coding! She chats about what this neuroscientific framework is and how it relates to evidence in the psychedelic field. All content published by YBOS is solely the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of any parties affiliated with the authors or any additional third parties. ---…
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This week Alaina is joined by Dr. Natalie Gukasyan, a psychiatrist and clinical researcher at Johns Hopkins University. They discuss the common factors of psychotherapy and how they are affected in the psychedelic-assisted therapy models. From the "myth" or rationale of the treatment to the ritual of the practice, they cover all things related to t…
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Join Zarmeen and Alaina this week as they discuss a recent research article challenging the currently accepted mechanism of psychedelic action. This paper titled "Psychedelics promote neuroplasticity through the activation of intracellular 5-HT2A receptors" by Vargas and colleagues uses several techniques in neuroscience and chemistry to understand…
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In this episode of YBOS, Zarmeen speaks with PhD candidate Jason Day about his thesis work which looks to understand the phenomenology of the psychedelic experience. Jason theorizes a change in attention as a crucial aspect of the psychedelic experience. In this episode he explains his theory and also introduces a more controversial take on attenti…
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In this episode of YBOS, Alaina and Zarmeen talk about harm reduction! From the origins of these programs, to different forms of harm reduction across the board, to considerations for psychedelic assisted therapy… they’ve covered it all! Do you have any tips, tricks or favorite harm reduction groups? Let us know in the comments! All content publish…
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This week on YBOS, Alaina is joined by cannabis and psychedelic patent lawyer, Graham Pechenik. Here they'll discuss the big news in the world of psychedelics, clear up some misunderstood notions of patent law, and discuss how the psychedelic industry can potentially influence policy and what it all means moving forward to legalization (whatever th…
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This week on Your Brain on Science, Alaina is joined by two fellow pharmacologist and activists, Lindsey Galbo-Thomma and Elijah Ullman. Join them as they talk about general concerns and ongoing discussions with the space of drug policy including decriminalization, harm reduction and more. The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does …
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Join Zarmeen and Alaina as they discuss the first paper for Journal Club 2023! This is one of the first 2023 clinical trial publications and focuses on a different kind of placebo, for the randomized placebo-controlled trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for Major Depression Disorder. This study is super cool and has a lot of results that will (we…
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Welcome back to the official second season of Your Brain on Science with Zarmeen and Alaina! This episode we're answering some listener questions and talking about some of the latest and greatest psychedelic news. We can't wait to bring you more content and get into some interesting topics this season! Stay tuned and reach out to us via email (your…
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Join Alaina and Zarmeen in the final episode of Season 1!! They are jumping right into all things microdosing. They'll get into methodology, clinical data, preclinical data and considerations for the field moving forward. Get ready for some strong opinions by self-identified "Microdosing Skeptic" Alaina. Catch the gals on the airwaves again in Janu…
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Alaina is joined this week by Dr. Lindsay Cameron, a PhD graduate from University San Diego and current post-doc at Stanford. This episode is all about that funny word, psychoplastogens, and how creating new compounds is kind of like taking a part a puzzle and using the pieces to make something new. Dr. Cameron talks about her work as a PhD student…
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In this weeks episode Zarmeen kicks off the plasticity mini series with a dive into functional plasticity and current literature in the field. She talks about what exactly plasticity is (we know its been a psychedelic buzzword!) and how it intersects with psychiatric disorders. She also talks about different experimental measures of plasticity and …
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In this weeks episode Zarmeen talks to you about the Default Mode Network and its utility in theories of psychedelic action. This episode features special guest Haley Dourron a PhD student in psychology who talks about her Self Entropic Broadening theory which attempts to identify a mechanism for ego dissolution and separate the action of psychedel…
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Join Alaina and Zarmeen this week as they celebrate Zarmeen's birthday by diving into the recently published report of a phase 2 clinical trial of psilocybin for treatment resistant depression. They go over some background, methodology and results surrounding the study and what it means moving forward. Of course, they also give their interpretation…
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This week Alaina and Harrison continue their discussion about structure, function and some of the ways we figure out the pharmacological profiles of psychedelic drugs. As Harrison puts it, these drugs are beautiful in their structural simplicity but have some of those most interesting subjective effects. Join the duo and dive into why these drugs a…
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Join Alaina as she jumps into her favorite topic - how drugs work! She's going to discuss the basics of biology and how the structural and functional characteristics of compounds can determine how psychedelics work. Harrison Elder, a PhD student and behavioral pharmacologist at Virginia Commonwealth University joins Alaina to talk about the differe…
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Join Alaina and Zarmeen as they discuss the paper titled "Bespoke library docking for 5-HT2A receptor agonists with antidepressant activity" by Kaplan et al., 2022. A very topical paper in which researchers identified new drugs based on structural similarities to LSD that are selective at the 5-HT2A receptor. These compounds show promising antidepr…
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Alaina and Zarmeen finally share their thoughts on the How to Change Your Mind Docuseries. The content of YBOS is the opinion of the authors and does not reflect the opinion of others or author affiliations. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/psychedelicbrainscience/support…
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In this episode of Your Brain on Science, Zarmeen talks about the Hope in psychedelic research! She goes through some landmark clinical studies in psychedelic science, including those investigating the potential therapeutic effect of psychedelics to treat depression and substance use disorders. She also briefly talks about some important concepts l…
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This episode of Your Brain on Science, Alaina breaks down the sensationalist hype in the psychedelic science field. She talks about what these drugs are, how to understand the potential caveats to their therapeutic effects and safe practices when getting into psychedelics (take a shot or eat a m&m for every time she says caveat). Alaina will also d…
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