About the Guest: Dr. Bryan Roth is a distinguished professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC). He runs a large research group which, among other things, is studying the mechanisms of action of psychedelic drugs.
Episode Summary: Bryan Roth, MD, PhD discusses his career studying how psychedelics and other psychoactive drugs affect the brain, the massive $27 million research effort he is leading to understand psychedelics and develop novel drugs for psychiatric disease, and the practice of zen meditation.
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Audio Clip:
Conversation Timeline:
0:00:00 Intro
0:00:24 Bryan's background
0:01:47 What are drugs & drug receptors?
0:04:18 What are GPCRs?
0:07:35 Psychedelic drugs & serotonin 2A receptor
0:16:18 Long- vs. short-acting psychedelics
0:17:44 What Bryan's lab studies
0:25:52 Psilocybin trials for depression
0:35:16 Origins of Bryan's interests
0:45:27 Present-day psychedelic research & companies
0:51:10 Bryan's $27 million drug "Manhattan project"
1:01:01 How DARPA research funding works
1:08:38 Bryan's morning meditation routine
1:10:08 What is Zen meditation?
1:19:48 Non-dual awareness
1:26:13 The brain's 'default mode'
1:30:04 Origins of Bryan's meditation practice
1:42:56 What's exciting about research?