Psychedelic Alpha

Last month, our Editor, Josh Hardman, attended the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) five-day annual meeting in San Francisco. There, he took the temperature of a field that is struggling to make sense of its standing in American society, and that is now confronted with a class of potential therapeutics—psychedelics—that it can’t quite place. Over the course of the mee...

Last week, I (the Editor, Josh Hardman) returned from a trip to the U.S. West Coast, visiting San Francisco for the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting and Palo Alto, where I caught up with researchers, investors, and others close to the psychedelics field. While I was there, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) generated several headlines, including the resig...

Today, we’re introducing Field Notes. Field Notes are timely, candid voice notes from our Founder and Editor, Josh Hardman, that provide our Pα+ readers with a pulse on the recent developments in psychedelic drug development, policy, and access in under fifteen minutes. Rather than publishing these audio clips on a set schedule, we will do so when our on-the-ground reporting ...

Nora Volkow has been Director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) since 2003, making her one of the longest-serving Directors of a National Institute, perhaps second only to Anthony Fauci. During that time, and by her own admission, Volkow’s views on psychedelics have changed substantially, as larger datasets and more rigorous studies have emerged. Today, she ...