Malin Vedøy Uthaug is a researcher specialising in altered states of consciousness with a particular focus on 5-MeO-DMT. Her PhD work in Psychopharmacology involved conducting observational studies of Ayahuasca and 5-MeO-DMT use outside of a lab setting.  She moved to The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London after her PhD where she continued her work on 5-MeO-DMT and expanded her research interests to also focus on Holotropic Breathwork.  Today, she is co-leading a...

AMA: The mathematics of separation and unity

Staci Haines is a leader in the fields of somatics and trauma healing. She is the author of “The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing and Social Justice” and “Healing Sex: A Mind Body Approach to Healing Sexual Trauma”. In 1999 she founded generationFIVE, a non-profit whose mission is to end the sexual abuse of children within five generations through a transformative justice approach. She is a senior teacher at Strozzi Institute, and a co-founder of generative somatics, an organization...

Shamil Chandaria is an expert in artificial intelligence and computational neuroscience as well as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and meditator, and is also a good friend.  He was a founder of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, the world’s first psychedelic research centre, He provides funding for the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford University as well as for research on the neuroscience of meditation at Harvard University and UC Berkeley. In 2022 he was...

I’m very pleased to announce the creation of the Innerspace Institute.   The institute will have both an online presence at innerspaceinstitute.org and a physical base at The Surrender Homestead in the mountains of southern Portugal.     We conduct scientific research on consciousness, altered states, & psychedelics and will be offering courses on the brain, consciousness, complexity science, & scientific approaches to spirituality, as well as the neuroscience of cognition, emotion,...

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the channel membership community: youtube.com/drjamescooke  

Paco Calvo is a Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Murcia in Spain where he runs the Minimal Intelligence Lab, also known as MINTlab. He is a leading figure in the philosophy of plant behaviour and signalling, a field also known as plant neurobiology. His research is situated at the intersection of plant biology and cognitive science, and he is the author of the new book planta sapiens.  Today we discuss plant intelligence and the possibility of plant consciousness.

Duncan Trussell is a comedian best known for his podcast The Duncan Trussell Family Hour and the Netflix series The Midnight Gospel. He routinely explores topics relating to spirituality in his comedy, particularly the work of teachers such as ram dass and jack kornfield. This episode was recorded before my son was born and we discuss my impending fatherhood, DMT, ketamine, and the bhakti yoga path of love.

Apologies for the audio issues in this episode, I've attempted to filter out the noise. The tech issue will be fixed for the next episode. topics in order addressed: wu wei, nondual intimacy, how to keep one's heart open in hell, fatherhood, conscious subjects, process philosophy, lmitations of the words ‘feelings’, ‘body’ and ‘mind’

In this AMA I share thoughts on Love, nonduality, Fasting, top-down causality, free will, ideas & social change, panexperientialism, and Highlights from my time podcasting.

Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist working on psychedelic therapy.  She has worked as the Clinical Lead for Imperial College London’s pioneering trial of psilocybin for depression and now works as the Clinical Director at Synthesis Institute, a psilocybin retreat in the Netherlands.  Dr Watts’s research focuses primarily on the mechanisms of psychedelic therapy, where she has explored the importance of acceptance, connection, and embodiment, which make up her ACE model of psychedelic...

In this AMA I answer questions on fear of death, wearables, healing in traumatic environments, bitcoin, & procrastination

Tony Nader is a neuroscientist and leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement, one of the most influential spiritual organisations in the world.  Founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the movement has had many prominent members, from the The Beatles, the Beach Boys and Mick Jagger in the 60s to Filmmakers David Lynch and Martin Scorsese, and comedians Eric Andre and Jerry Seinfeld.  Dr. Nader took over the leadership in 2008 after training as a doctor in his native Lebanon and gaining a PhD...

For the 100th episode of the podcast, I attempt to lay out the broad strokes of my worldview from start to finish.  I address why there is something rather than nothing, my opinion on the nature of existence, the place of consciousness in the natural world, and the implications of our nature as living beings for how we can improve our situation socially.

David Nichols is a legendary psychopharmacologist and world-renowned expert in psychedelics.  HIs research career began in 1969 and he was a professor at Purdue University until his retirement in 2012.  Today we discuss the psychopharmacology of substances like LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and DMT.

AMA: Marxism, Ayahuasca & Anxiety around trying psychedelics

This week I share some thoughts on whether Google's LaMDA AI conscious.

Blake Lemoine is a software developer and AI researcher at Google who has been working on their artificial intelligence system called LaMDA.  He was recently placed on administrative leave for stating his belief that the AI has become conscious and should be considered a person.  Today we discuss LaMDA and whether we can say if it is conscious or not.

This week I share some thoughts on integrating nondual insight into everyday life.

My guest this week, once again, is Richard Doyle. Rich is the first guest to appear on the podcast twice, which should be an indication of how much we enjoyed speaking the first time.  Rich is an author and Professor of English and of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University.  He also goes by the alias Mobius. Today we had a loose unplanned discussion that centred around nonduality as well as personal and social transformation. 

In this AMA I share thoughts on wonder and curiosity as well as guilt and shame.

Loch Kelly is a meditation teacher and author.  He teaches a nondual approach to relieving suffering that he calls Effortless Mindfulness.  This approach is based in the Mahamudra teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, and Loch has studied with two great teachers of this tradition, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and his son, Mingyur Rinpoche. He has also studied with the American meditation teacher Adyashanti, who first suggested that Loch teach others.  Today we talk about Loch’s approach to the direct path...

Evan Thompson is a philosopher and professor at the University of British Columbia. He specialises in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, as well as in cross-cultural philosophy, with a particular interest in Chinese and Indian philosophy and the dialogue between Buddhism and the Western philosophical tradition.  He’s the author of several books including Mind and Life, Why I’m not a Buddhist, The Embodied Mind, co-authored with Francisco Varela and Eleanor Rosch, and Waking,...

In this AMA I discuss the the neurobiology of trauma & the ethics of obtaining illegal drugs.