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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.
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Recent Episodes
S2E11 Sex, Psychedelics and Consent (Pt. 2)
Allegations of sexual, financial, and psychological abuse sometimes arise in the growing psychedelic church movement in Utah and beyond. A leader or guide might use their authority to pressure people…
S2E10 Psychedelic Church vs. State of Utah (Pt. 1)
In November 2024, police raided Singularism, an establishment that claims to be a new religion founded by a former Mormon man. But before the state could press charges, Singularism went on the…
S2E9 Psychedelics for Anorexia?
In South Africa, a former ballet dancer and horseback rider struggled for years with anorexia. After undergoing in-patient treatment and regular therapy, she tried psychedelics, and that’s when she…
S2E8 In Texas’s Peyote Gardens
Reporter Adreanna Rodriguez gets invited to Texas to harvest peyote, a psychoactive cactus often caught in the crosshairs of the so-called psychedelic Renaissance. When she arrives, she finds a…
S2E7 Mice on Magic Mushrooms
How do you know if a mouse is on a psychedelic? It might just shake its head. This behavior, known as the head-twitch response, signals whether a molecule is a psychedelic-like hallucinogen. Head…
S2E6 UPDATE: A Navy SEAL Goes to Mexico to take Ibogaine
A former Navy SEAL named Craig deployed nine times over nearly three decades in the military. When he left the service, he felt lucky to have all his limbs, toes and fingers. But he found himself…
S2E5 Was Ayahuasca Used for Political Indoctrination in Brazil?
In 2023, supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro violently stormed the capital in an attempted coup. Among Bolsonaro’s most loyal supporters were leaders in the União do Vegetal, one…
S2E4 An Ayahuasca Message
The Noke Koi are an Indigenous group from Acre, Brazil who consider themselves guardians of the psychoactive plant brew ayahuasca, which they call “uni.” This summer, they traveled to the U.S. to…
S2E3 Was it DMT? Or was it heaven?
When a neurosurgeon claimed he glimpsed the afterlife during a coma, skeptics offered a more earthly interpretation – a surge of DMT produced by his own body. Was his tale of eternity a trick of the…
S2E2 The Psychedelic Playlist
Vivaldi. Bach. The Beatles. The Johns Hopkins playlist has been the standard soundtrack in psychedelic trials at Johns Hopkins and therapy rooms around the world for more than 25 years. It also skews…
S2E1 A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Muslim Leader Get High
Nearly a decade ago, researchers at Johns Hopkins University gave some two dozen religious leaders from various faith backgrounds a high dose of psilocybin. Now, the long-awaited results of the study…
S2 Coming Soon: Altered States Season 2
Over the next ten episodes we’re going to explore two distinct camps in the world of psychedelics. On one side there’s the realm of spiritualists, mystical experiences, and psychedelic churches. And…
S1 A Navy SEAL Goes to Mexico to take Ibogaine
A former Navy SEAL named Craig deployed nine times over nearly three decades in the military. When he left the service, he felt lucky to have all his limbs, toes and fingers. But he found himself…
S1 The Peyote Plan
A plan to protect the peyote cactus is taking shape on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska during this summer’s Native American Church of North America conference. Indigenous leaders are hustling…
S1 What if Ketamine is More Addictive Than We Thought?
When journalist Anna Silman started reporting on ketamine five years ago she did so because people in her friend group had begun taking the drug recreationally. She was intrigued by the ways that…
S1 Psychedelics on the Ballot
At first the effort in Oregon to legalize psilocybin seemed doomed. Then the organizers started talking to the architect behind the carefully coordinated, state-by-state campaign to legalize…
S1 A Former War Correspondent Unravels
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…
S1 Show Update
Altered States is taking a short breather and will be back soon. In the meantime, consider joining host Arielle Duhaime-Ross and other journalists for a virtual panel called The New Psychedelic Beat:…
S1 Fair Trade Ibogaine
In recent years, an increasing number of international clinics have begun offering treatments using ibogaine, a psychedelic drug that comes from a West African plant, to help treat conditions such as…
S1 The Longest Trip
Several years ago, Heather was given three doses of psilocybin as part of a clinical study for treatment-resistant depression. Ever since, she’s been experiencing strange visual distortions,…
Frequently Asked Questions
Altered States has published 25 episodes since July 2024, covering topics in Science.
Altered States is currently dormant with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 33m.
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