Philosophy For Our Times29 Aug 2025

Will psychedelics revolutionize mental health treatment? | Matthew Johnson, Shayla Love, and Kevin Sabet

The psychedelic revolution

Will LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA, and Ketamine treatments live up to the hype?

For decades, psychedelics were derided as dangerous recreational drugs; now many claim they have the potential to revolutionise the treatment of mental health. With hundreds of clinical trials now taking place, the psychedelic therapeutic market is predicted to be over ten billion within the decade. It has been widely thought that psychedelics are effective at treating mental health because of the way they change brain chemistry. But studies from King's College London and Johns Hopkins suggest this is an error, arguing that it's the psychedelic experience that aids mental wellbeing, not the physical brain changes.

Should we stop focussing on brain chemistry as the solution to mental health? What is it about psychedelic experience that can aid mental well being and will psychedelics live up to their promise and usher in a mental health renaissance? Or is the hype bubble about to burst and should we look elsewhere for the silver bullet to the mental health crisis of our age?

Matthew Johnson is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Shayla Love is a freelance reporter and former senior science writer at Vice News, focusing on psychedelics. Kevin Sabet is the founder of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, and he has been described as the "quarterback of the new anti-drug movement".

Don't hesitate to email us at podcast@iai.tv with your thoughts or questions on the episode!

To witness such debates live buy tickets for our upcoming festival: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/

And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/

You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(565)

The secret history of cool | Joel Dinerstein

Who was the first person to be cool? What connects the civil rights movement and Albert Camus' 'The Rebel'? How has the coopting of black terminology impacted American society more broadly?From James ...

25 Aug 29min

Rebalancing the global order | Kishore Mahbubani

Is it truly the beginning of the end of Western dominance? Where did it all go wrong? And is this more than just an upheaval of the status quo?For centuries, Western powers dominated the global order ...

18 Aug 33min

The future of the right | Sohrab Ahmari, Gawain Towler, Rachel Maclean, Mark Littlewood

Is the populist right opposed to liberalism and the free market? Does this mark a change in what it is to be right-wing, or was it a mistake to see populism as far right in the first place? Or is ther...

11 Aug 44min

Love is more than magic | Alain de Botton

What do voyeurs want? What can the Greeks teach us about love? Why do we pursue those who we now are going to hurt us?Despite our longing for lasting connection, love often falters on the rocks of mis...

4 Aug 35min

In the name of reason | Steve Fuller, Miriam Schoenfield, Dan Sperber

Is the future one where we accept tribalism and conflict as inherent in the human condition, where moral and scientific beliefs based on reason are badges, shaped by class, nation, ethnicity and cultu...

28 Jul 40min

The mind is not a machine | Iain McGilchrist

For most scientists, the mind is little more than a machine. With the rise of AI, some now claim that computers may themselves become conscious. For acclaimed neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and philoso...

21 Jul 21min

Anxiety and the soul's itch | Sarah Wilson

Is anxiety something to be embraced, rather than fixed? Why are more and more of us feeling the 'soul's itch'? How we can start living more meaningfully?Anxiety is often understood as a problem to fix...

14 Jul 26min

Truth, beauty and other misconceptions | Lisa Randall

Is beauty a reliable indicator of scientific truth? Or is it merely a distraction?Some of the best scientists throughout history have equated beauty with truth. But is this a mistake? Join pioneering ...

7 Jul 22min