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Altered States

PRX

Psychedelics are now at the center of a global conversation about mental health, mysticism, and even how we experience illness and death. In Altered States, host Arielle Duhaime-Ross explores how people are taking these drugs, who has access to them, how they're regulated, who stands to profit, and what these substances might offer us as individuals and as a society.

UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics

Psychedelics are now at the center of a global conversation about mental health, mysticism, and even how we experience illness and death. In Altered States, host Arielle Duhaime-Ross explores how people are taking these drugs, who has access to them, how they're regulated, who stands to profit, and what these substances might offer us as individuals and as a society.

UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics
9hr 43min
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What happens when a New York Times reporter takes ayahuasca in the Amazon?
Thumbnail for "Was Ayahuasca Used for Political Indoctrination in Brazil?".
How did a psychedelic religion founded to promote peace end up spreading right-wing political propaganda?
Thumbnail for "An Ayahuasca Message".
On the road with Indigenous leaders from the Amazon
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An investigation into near-death experiences
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What music should accompany a trip?
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What happens when religious clergy take magic mushrooms?
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Psychedelic science, religion, and everything in between.
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A story of traumatic brain injury and a 24-hour trip.
Thumbnail for "The Peyote Plan".
A big saga, a small cactus.
Thumbnail for " What if Ketamine is More Addictive Than We Thought?".
A cautionary tale of k-holes, pharmaceuticals, party drugs and friends
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Will voters pass state ballot measures to legalize psychedelics like they did for cannabis?
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Thumbnail for "Fair Trade Ibogaine ".
The story of one man’s journey from the jungles of Gabon to the NBA to the business of ibogaine.
Thumbnail for "The Longest Trip".
What happens when the effects of a psychedelic experience won’t fully go away?
Thumbnail for "The Peace Seekers".
A story of intergenerational trauma and a psychedelic brew
Thumbnail for "An FDA Update".
Big news in the world of psychedelics
Thumbnail for "Will Doctors Soon Prescribe Ecstasy?".
Can a psychedelic drug be a medicine? The federal government will soon decide.
Thumbnail for "The Oregon Experiment".
A report from the first state in the country to allow people to take mushrooms legally.
Thumbnail for "Coming Soon: Altered States".
A podcast about what science can tell us about psychedelics–and what psychedelics can tell us about ourselves.

A Former War Correspondent Unravels

Thumbnail for "A Former War Correspondent Unravels".
September 25, 202448min

Ernesto Londoño is a national correspondent and former war correspondent at The New York Times. For most of his life, Ernesto was a classic journalist – skeptical, stoic – whose early life in war-torn Colombia and reporting experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan left him traumatized, though he didn’t know it. Then Ernesto signs up for a retreat in the Amazon where he drinks ayahuasca. This retreat is followed by many more throughout Latin America. These experiences began to melt some of his armor, revealing a surprising new side of himself. Along the way, Ernesto reports on the strange world of international psychedelics retreats.

For a transcript of this episode, please visit this link.

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A Former War Correspondent Unravels
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48:00