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A solo episode exploring psilocybin through two different bodies of research: Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind (2018), which gathers a wide range of what was known at the time about psychedelic-assisted therapy, and a 2023 study by Jules Evans and colleagues on something the trials don't usually cover, namely the difficulties some people report after psychedelic use, sometimes long after the drug itself has worn off. Rather than trying to settle the tension between these two accounts, the episode takes the time to look at what each is, what it can and cannot tell us, and what remains to be figured out.
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Sources:
Pollan, M. (2018). How to Change Your Mind. Penguin. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/303866/how-to-change-your-mind-by-pollan-michael/9780141985138
Evans, J., Robinson, O. C., et al. (2023). "Extended difficulties following the use of psychedelic drugs: A mixed methods study." PLOS ONE, 18(10): e0293349. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293349
Lyons, T., Carhart-Harris, R. L., et al. (2026). "Human brain changes after first psilocybin use." Nature Communications, 17: 3977. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71962-3
Davis, A. K., et al. (2025). "Five-year outcomes of psilocybin-assisted therapy for Major Depressive Disorder." Journal of Psychedelic Studies. https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2025.00461
Ellis, R. J., et al. (2025). "Long-term outcomes of single-dose psilocybin for US military Veterans with severe TRD: 12-month data." Journal of Affective Disorders. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032725010973
A related Instagram post, on the comparison between brain scans of experienced meditators and people on psilocybin (relevant to the brain section starting at 5:10): https://instagram.com/p/DYDCTnWlzWq/?img_index=1
One clarification on the recent brain study: The authors describe the dramatic acute brain changes as "largely absent" one month after the dose, but with one exception. A measure called "brain network modularity" did persist, and the people in whom this change was strongest also saw the biggest well-being increase. So the kind of cross-network communication Pollan describes does seem to persist, in this one specific form, at the one-month mark.
Second Start is the podcast that welcomes stories of change and the science of starting again. secondstartpodcast.com.
