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    Health & Fitness

    Luminous: A Podcast about Psychedelics from To The Best Of Our Knowledge

    Are you ready for the psychedelic revolution? In the next few years, the FDA is likely to approve these mind-bending drugs for treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Some states have already decriminalized psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic” mushrooms.

    But for all the headlines, many questions are swirling around this psychedelic renaissance. How do we make these drugs effective, safe and accessible to the people who need the most help? And how can they be used ethically, when much of the knowledge about plant medicines comes from Indigenous cultures?

    Psychedelics also raise profound questions about the nature of consciousness and mystical experience. People often describe their psychedelic experiences as “more real” than everyday life. Is this just an illusion, or do these experiences tap into some deeper reality?

    In “Luminous,” TTBOOK executive producer Steve Paulson explores the philosophical and cultural implications of psychedelics.

    “Luminous” is a series from “To The Best Of Our Knowledge” featuring conversations about psychedelics with scientists, healers and religious scholars. You can listen to each episode on the radio or find the series plus bonus extended conversations on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

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    Copyright: Wisconsin Public Radio ©️ 2023

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    Latest Episodes:
    Reclaiming the Acid Queen Nov 08, 2025
    Show notes

    We all know Timothy Leary, the high priest of ‘60s psychedelia, but his partner, Rosemary Woodruff Leary, has largely been forgotten. She also had a remarkable life, even breaking Leary out of prison with the help of the Weather Underground. Now, biographer Susannah Cahalan tells her story — from the heady Sixties to a life on the run for decades.

    Original Air Date: November 08, 2025

    Interviews In This Hour:

    Guests:
    Susannah Cahalan

    Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast.
    Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

    For more from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    Thomas Metzinger on why we need a “culture of consciousness” Aug 02, 2025
    Show notes

    Thomas Metzinger is a renowned German philosopher. He has a longtime fascination with psychedelics, stemming from his own experience and also from his work as an analytic philosopher. He says altered states of consciousness give us profound insights into the nature of the mind. And he believes modern society has an ethical imperative to foster a “culture of consciousness.”

    Original Air Date: August 02, 2025

    Interviews In This Hour:

    Guests:
    Thomas Metzinger


    Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast.
    Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

    For more from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    Marcelo and Kari Gleiser on tripping with your partner May 09, 2025
    Show notes

    Most psychedelic stories are highly personal, but there’s a different dynamic when two people share the experience — especially a married couple. Steve talks with theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser and clinical psychologist Kari Gleiser about their transformative experiences.

    Original Air Date: May 9, 2025

    Guests:
    Marcelo Gleiser, Kari Gleiser


    Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast.
    Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

    For more from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    Chris Timmerman on how DMT can deconstruct the mind Mar 01, 2025
    Show notes

    Chris Timmerman is a neuroscientist with a deep interest in phenomenology—what’s actually happening in our minds during psychedelic experiences. He leads the DMT Research Group at Imperial College, where he’s found that a single psychedelic experience can transform a person’s belief system, often turning materialists into panpsychists. In this wide-ranging conversation, Steve talks with Chris about everything from fractals and ayahuasca ceremonies to whether scientists who study psychedelics should talk openly about their own experiences.

    Original Air Date: March 01, 2025

    Guests:
    Chris Timmerman

    More from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    Spring Washam, the Buddhist Shaman Jan 25, 2025
    Show notes

    Buddhist meditation and psychedelic journeys have a lot of shared DNA—both take you deep inside your mind and can change your life. But many Buddhists say psychedelics violate the prohibition against intoxicants. Do they? Spring Washam straddles this divide as both a Buddhist teacher and founder of an ayahuasca church. Her own story is fascinating—how she’s merged these two practices.

    Original Air Date: January 25, 2025

    Guests:
    Spring Washam

    More from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    Do psychedelics reveal a deeper dimension of reality? Nov 30, 2024
    Show notes

    There’s a huge question swirling around the really big psychedelic experiences. Are these mind-blowing trips just hallucinations – the brain shot full of chemicals, playing tricks on you - or do they crack open some transpersonal dimension of consciousness? Most scholars who study psychedelics won’t go anywhere near this question, and yet it’s central to how you interpret these experiences. If you’re in psychedelic-assisted therapy, you want to know if this glimpse of the divine was real or just some figment of your imagination. Philosopher Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes believes we need a metaphysics of psychedelics to explain these powerful experiences.

    Original Air Date: November 30, 2024

    Interviews In This Hour:

    Guests:
    Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes


    For more from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    Katherine MacLean on Mushrooms and the Limits of Consensus Reality Aug 31, 2024
    Show notes

    Psychedelic people are practicing at the very edge of anyone else’s comfort zone,” says psychologist Katherine MacLean, author of the psychedelic memoir “Midnight Water.” MacLean was a pioneering psychedelic researcher at Johns Hopkins, who then left her job to pursue her own unconventional psychedelic journey. She talks with Steve Paulson about her work as a psychedelic guide, her personal history with psychoactive substances, and why she reveres the Mexican healer Maria Sabina.

    Original Air Date: August 30, 2024

    Guests:
    Katherine MacLean

    For more from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    Erik Davis on LSD, the psychedelic underground and visionary experience Jul 20, 2024
    Show notes

    Erik Davis’ “Blotter” is really three books in one: It’s about the way LSD tabs were embedded in blotter paper so they wouldn’t be detected by the authorities; it’s also a deep dive into the psychedelic underground; and finally, it’s an art book — gorgeously illustrated, with lots of very trippy blotter art. Steve talks with Erik about the wildness of psychedelic experiences and whether they reveal a deeper dimension of consciousness.

    Original Air Date: July 20, 2024

    Guests:
    Erik Davis


    For more from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    Did the ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? May 04, 2024
    Show notes

    Brian Muraresku makes the controversial argument that the famous Eleusinian Mysteries were fueled by a psychedelic wine. And he speculates that this secret ceremony, with its mind-altering drugs, became the Eucharist — the foundational event of early Christianity.

    Original Air Date: May 04, 2024

    Guests:

    Brian Muraresku

    More from Luminous: ttbook.org/luminous


    A brief history of getting high Jan 27, 2024
    Show notes

    It’s remarkable how fast psychedelics have gone mainstream. Just look at how so many major universities are racing to set up their own psychedelic institutes. Psilocybin and MDMA are now considered the most promising treatments for depression and PTSD that we’ve had in decades. But this is not the first time psychoactive drugs were hailed as miracle cures. Heroin and cocaine were also once considered wonder drugs. Today, what’s so striking is how the public conversation about psychedelics ignores this deeper history of intoxicants.

    British historian Mike Jay wants to challenge this narrative of psychedelic “exceptionalism.” In his book “Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind,” he digs into the 19th century’s rich history of psychoactive experiences — and tells the story of seminal figures like Humphry Davy, Sigmund Freud and William James – and lots of other people I’d never heard of.

    Jay is also upfront about his own psychedelic experiences. He’s had plenty of them. And he believes the scientists and doctors who study psychedelics should talk more openly about their own mind-altering experiences — which is definitely not the case for most of them.

    Original Air Date: January 27, 2024

    Guests:

    Mike Jay

    Further Reading:

    "Psychonauts Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind"—Nautilus: "Why Scientists Need to Get High"

    Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast.

    Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.


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