The Psilocybin Question

What we talk about

This is a solo episode on psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms. I look at two bodies of research: Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind, which gathers what was known about psychedelic-assisted therapy and the questions it raises, and a 2023 study by Jules Evans and colleagues on something the trials don't usually cover: the difficulties some people report after psychedelic use, sometimes long after the drug has worn off.

Rather than trying to settle the tension between them, I sit with what each can and cannot tell us, and what remains to be figured out.

In this episode, I explore

• What psilocybin actually is, and the idea behind the word "psychedelic"
• The "mystical experience" at the heart of Michael Pollan's case for psychedelic-assisted therapy
• What the early trials at NYU, Johns Hopkins, and Imperial College London actually showed
• The default mode network, ego dissolution, and what might be happening in the brain
• The limits Pollan names himself, and where his case stops
• Jules Evans and colleagues' 2023 study on the difficulties that can linger after psychedelic use
• What those difficulties looked like, from anxiety to depersonalisation
• The more serious end: psychotic episodes, self-harm, and two reported deaths
• The complicating question: why most of those 608 participants still said the benefits would be worth the risks
• What's still unsettled: how long the benefits last, and who's most likely to struggle
• The newest 2026 brain study from Robin Carhart-Harris's team, and what it does and doesn't show
• A closing thought, and a question to take away