“Behind the Shrooms—Part 2” The Future of LSD
Ready for round two? Last week, Research Radio released “Behind the Shrooms,” a first installment in a two-part series that details the last half-century of psychedelic research. In this second episode, we sit down once again with New School for Social Research anthropologist Nick Langlitz to talk about how 1960’s counterculture colored popular perception of psychedelics, and what a therapeutic future for drugs like MDMA and LSD would look like.
Click on the player below to listen to “Behind the Shrooms, Part 2”
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“Not all students interested in psychedelics back then ‘turned on, tuned in, and dropped out’ like Timothy Leary asked them to,” says Langlitz, who foresees a growing future for the study of psychedelics. Many finished their dissertations, got their PhD’s, and—with federal restrictions on the drugs lifted in recent years—are now continuing research in the field that initially sparked so much controversy. Combine that with wealthy individuals in the tech industry (the late Steve Jobs was but one of many who publicly endorse LSD experimentation) to support the research and now is a moment of opportunity.
However, whether the future holds a prescription remedy housed in a therapeutic setting for maladies like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as well as counseling sessions to ease the fears of end-stage cancer patients, is still up in the air.
To listen to part one of “Behind the Shrooms,” click here. Don’t forget to subscribe to Research Radio through iTunes.
Research Radio is a New School podcast series that tells stories of academic inquiry at the university. From sustainability to psychology to politics, our faculty and students have been researching pressing social and scientific issues for nearly a century–and now you can listen to their latest findings. Subscribe on iTunes.