In this episode, we chat with Doug Drysdale, CEO of Cybin.  Cybin, is a life sciences company advancing mushroom based psychedelic pharmaceuticals and non-psychedelic nutraceutical products as potential therapies for psychiatric and neurological conditions. Cybin is developing technologies and delivery systems aimed at improving bioavailability to achieve the desired effects of psychedelics at low dosage levels.  Doug is an extremely accomplished and experienced CEO who has chaired a NASDAQ-listed company and has built and turned around 3 different pharmaceutical companies over the last 12 years.  He has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector broadly and brings a level of expertise to the psychedelics space that is truly incredible. You can connect with Doug here: LinkedIn, Doug’s website, Cybin website Links mentioned in the show:Press Release:  Cybin Completes Reverse Take-Over Transaction Benzinga Article: Cybin Corp: Canada’s Largest Go-Public Financing in the Psychedelics Sector Forbes Article: Pharmaceutical Startup Developing Sublingual Psilocybin Raises $34 Million to Fund Clinical Trials What If Fellowship Program: https://whatif.vc/fellowship   HERE ARE SOME THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT Doug tells us about his 30 years of experience in the healthcare field and how it led him most recently to the psychedelics space. Doug shares that his experience working in a hospital lab gave him the motivation to begin work in the mental health field. In his time in the ER, he shares that he saw many teenage suicide attempts and drug overdoses. Like so many of us, his personal connection to depression and addiction is another contributing factor to wanting to work in this space. We discuss how the pandemic has affected the psychedelic space and how mental health issues have been elevated through recent events. We talk about the speed at which psychedelics are growing as a treatment for mental health differences and whether or not it this growth, and the ensuring hype are sustainable or not. Doug explains that while it may seem that psychedelics are this “new solution” that these treatments have been around for more than 50 years, but they are just now coming into the light. Doug explains that the decriminalization in Oregon is a potential “pilot” of sorts, for the rest of the United States. Doug talks about the data that has been collected on psychedelic treatments lately and what we are learning about how these drugs work in ways we never even knew before including by opening up new connections and networks so that the brain is essence, healing itself. We discuss the comparison of the psychedelic space to the cannabis space and how they are quite the opposite of each other. Doug explains the long history of scientific research supporting the use of psychedelics spanning 4-5 decades.  Doug shares his hope that we will see a strong network of compassionate use programs or palliative care centers being developed in the future. People at the end of their life have anxiety and depression, so they could benefit greatly from the use of psychedelics during this particular journey. Finally, we discuss how the future of psychedelics look as investors. Doug advises to start looking beyond just psilocybin as the only molecule that can help people. There could be better compounds out there that we haven’t discovered yet because politics has dampened the growth in this space.   Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)  

Stigma Podcast - Mental Health

#76 - Cybin CEO: Doug Drysdale on The Future of Psychedelic Treatments

Today’s guest is Ali Abramovitz. She is the co-founder of Chorus Meditation and she is here to talk about the work she is doing to make meditation a group activity. In this episode, we will talk about why group meditation is beneficial, how to do it, and what exactly the benefits are.   You can connect with Ali here: Linked In, Chorus Website, Facebook, Instagram What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship   HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Ali shares about her background in business and as an investor, and how her own personal journey with meditation led her to create Chorus Meditation. We discuss the stigma around meditation, what roadblocks exist for traditional meditation, and how Chorus is finding ways around these roadblocks. Ali shares the ideas behind making meditation a group activity, the story of their development of Chorus, and how making meditation a shared experience benefits an individual. We discuss the power of shared experiences and how it changes the mindset of the individuals involved, and the resulting relationships that can form from this. Ali shares that the main problem they’re helping with is stress and how stress can affect your life and relationships. We discuss how the group dynamic has changed since the pandemic, the changes that were made to Chorus, what changes had to occur to continue to bring these benefits to people, and what the user interface looks like post-pandemic. We discuss where Ali sees Chorus going in the long run and what goals they have for the company. Finally, Ali shares her final thoughts on consistency being the key to real change and how Chorus can help everyone.   Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

#81 - Is Meditation Really Hard? - with Chorus Meditation Founder Ali Abramovitz

Sean McBride, VP Partnerships at Lyra Health joins us in this episode to talk about Lyra, behavioral health care broadly, and he experience working to reform the healthcare system throughout his career.  Sean was the first employee at Lyra Health and shares with us about how the Company has scaled into a unicorn over the last 6 years.  Lyra Health is focused on making behavioral health care more accessible and easier to find.  Prior to Lyra, Sean worked at Castlight Health, The White House’s National Economic Council, and The Brookings Institution’s Health Care Reform Center among other positions. You can connect with Sean here: LinkedIn What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship   HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Sean shares his background in the healthcare industry, how it led him to Lyra Health, and his personal struggles with mental health. We discuss what Sean thinks is the thing keeping employees from using the tools that their employer provides and what an employer can do to create a supportive culture in the workplace. We talk about value-based care, what it is, and if we are moving in that direction in our system. We discuss the need to get our society to focus on our mental health and make it more of a priority like our physical health. Sean shares about Lyra Health, who they are, what they do for companies that they work with, and what benefits the employees get from an employer who works with Lyra. We discuss what Lyra Health looked like in the early days and how the objective of the company remains the same since then. Sean shares what he thinks is the ideal partner or customer for Lyra and what their marketing strategy looks like to reach this ideal audience. Finally, Sean gives his opinion on where he sees the most opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs who are just starting out in this space and where the problems that need to be fixed are. Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)    

#80 - Lyra's VP of Partnerships (employee #1) - Sean McBride

In this episode, we are talking about entrepreneur mental health.  Our guest, Matthew Cooper, stepped down from his role as CEO of EarnUp after growing the business successfully for 7 years after creating it.  When he stepped down, he cited mental health as the primary driver and wrote an incredibly authentic, vulnerable and amazing blog post about his decision on December 18, 2020. You can connect with Matthew here: Blog, Twitter, Linked In What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship   HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Matthew shares his story about his history of mental illness and how it led him to the place that he is at today in both his personal life and his career. We talk about the stressors that come with starting a business and how certain beliefs can lead to a feeling of isolation while being successful at the same time. We discuss what options are available for real support to entrepreneurs and founders of companies to prevent a mental health emergency or burnout. Matthew shares what tools he has tried and what worked for him, his experiences with in-patient treatments, and his mental health cycles that he has gone through. We discuss how mental health is not a linear journey for many people and how worth it it is to keep trying to find the right solution to your problem. We talk about what we can be doing to better support entrepreneurs as an ecosystem of founders and investors, but also as friends or family members of entrepreneurs. Finally, Matthew shares that human connection with safe people is a huge factor in keeping your mental health in a positive space as well as just sharing your story and being open with where you’re at mentally. Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)    

#79 - Matthew Cooper on Stepping Down as CEO for His Mental Health

In this episode we chat with long time healthcare startup investor, Esther Dyson.  Esther has been very influential in the healthcare investing space for quite some time.  It’s very hard to run into anyone doing anything meaningful in the broader healthcare space and not find a connection to Esther in some way. She’s the executive founder of Way to Wellville, a non-profit dedicated to demonstrating the value of investing in health, including how the benefits of investing in health accrue over time and not always to the investors directly. Esther spends her time investing in startups, a lot of them in the health space, and she is a board member at a bunch of companies such as 23&Me, Meetup, Yandez, as well as being an early investor in Square and many others. You can connect with Esther here: LinkedIn, Twitter, Wellville Website What If Fellowship Program: https://whatif.vc/fellowship   HERE ARE SOME THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Esther shares how she found her way into the mental health space as an investor and as an advocate encouraging more people to invest in the space. We talk about the difference between short-term and long-term thinking regarding health solutions and how society needs to decide to invest in better health overall rather than focusing on only the individual. Esther shared her opinion on what is actually beneficial to making a healthier society. It’s not what is being focused on now because we are too busy focusing on the short-term solutions. There’s a disconnect between the number of people who want to fix the healthcare problems and the money that is actually being put towards the solutions. Esther shares why she thinks there is a disconnect and what can be done about it. We discuss the wide range of the meaning of the word addiction and how it is not a moral failing, but rather a learned behavior. Esther shares what early investors should be looking for when choosing which companies to invest in to avoid investing in predatory companies and how to evaluate your investing opportunities to find the right one for you. We talk about what is the most important problem to focus on in the health space and how your personal mission affects your opinion on which problems are the main priority. We talk about the effect that the poor educational system is having on our country and how fixing the health issues around kids in school will hopefully lead to a better future with a healthier society with better access to care.   Connect with the What If Ventures and the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email   Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)  

#78 - Esther Dyson: Building a Healthier Society by Investing in Healthcare Startups

In this episode we speak with Dr. Errol De Souza, PhD, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at Bionomics.  Bionomics just raised nearly $16mm to conduct clinical trials on their revolutionary drug to treat PTSD.  Dr. De Souza is one of the premier entrepreneurs in the biotech space with a special focus on development of therapeutics for treatment of Central Nervous System disorders. During his career as an entrepreneur, Dr. De Souza has raised several hundred million dollars in capital in both private and public markets and has taken companies public (Neurocrine Biosciences IPO) and sold companies (Synaptic sale to Lundbeck). Over Dr. De Souza's career, he has served in a number of high-ranking R&D roles, including SVP and U.S. head of Aventis (1998-2002), co-founder and EVP of R&D at Neurocrine (1992-1998) and Head of CNS at DuPont Merck (1990-1992). Dr. De Souza is currently a Director of several public and private companies and currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Catalyst Biosciences (CBIO). He has previously served on the board of directors of several public companies including IDEXX Laboratories (IDXX), Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX), Palatin Technologies (PTN) and Synaptic Pharmaceuticals (SNAP).  HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: De Souza shares his background and how it led him to the biopharmaceutical industry. We discuss what goes into the process of developing a drug for the Central Nervous System and ways that this process is the same and different from the development of other pharmaceuticals. De Souza discusses the two categories of disorders that come from the Central Nervous System, psychiatric and neurological, and the drug development history of the two dating back to the 50’s. We talk about the story behind Bionomics, their new compound BNC210 which is used for the treatment of PTSD which received a “Fast Track” designation from the FDA. De Souza helps us break down exactly what is PTSD, how it occurs, what’s going on in the brain and talks about how we can use that knowledge to develop biopharmaceutical treatments for PTSD (which is what Bionomics is leading the way on right now). He talks about current PTSD treatments and their shortcomings as well. We talk about the Bionomics collaboration with Merck which uses similar compounds in the clinical treatment of cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s disease and why there are similarities between Alzheimer’s and PTSD based on the neurochemistry of the brain. Finally, Dr. De Souza gives some advice for entrepreneurs who are starting out early in their career and investors that are coming into this space who lack the background knowledge. Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)    

#77 - Central Nervous System Drug Development with Industry Expert Dr. Errol De Souza (Chairman @Bionomics)

In this mental health market update episode, we are covering valuation trends, investor sentiment, and our 9 key takeaways from the mental health startup market heading into 2021. We cover public and private market valuation trends impacting mental health startups, and we dig into results from a 150-investor survey we recently conducted on valuation expectations and market sentiment.  We also share our 9 key takeaways on the mental health startup market going into 2021 based on our 2020 experience investing $5.4mm dollars into 9 startups in the space at What If Ventures. Links Mentioned: Blog: Mental Health Investor Sentiment Survey: Extreme Optimism Going Into 2021 What If Fellowship:  https://whatif.vc/fellowship   Connect with the What If Ventures and the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

#75 - Mental Health Startup Valuation Trends and Investor Sentiment in 2021

Steve Gatena is the founder of Pray.com, the word’s #1 app for daily prayer and faith-based audio content. Prior to becoming an American Entrepreneur, Steve was an NCAA Champion. He played football for the University of Southern California where he won a Rose Bowl Championship as well as UC Davis where he won a Great West Conference Championship. As a young entrepreneur, Steve started his first company at 22 which was a video agency. In 2012, he launched his 2nd company which quickly grew. In 2014, Steven was honored as an “Entrepreneur of the Year” at the United Nations. In 2016, after the loss of his close friend and mentor, Steve started Pray.com. You can connect with Steve here: LinkedIn, Pray.com What If Fellowship Program: https://whatif.vc/   HERE ARE SOME THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT Steve tells us his story of personal loss and how it led him to the creation of Pray.com. We discuss how Covid has had a huge impact on the popularity of Pray.com and their services, both free and premium. Steve shares how Pray.com has experienced stigma and pushback but that there has been a lot of positive feedback and support. He shares about how stigma doesn’t hold him back and how his faith gives him the strength to continue forward. Steve discusses what the future of digital faith looks like and what his vision for his company is moving forward in the next couple of years. We discuss tips for entrepreneurs who want to grow in the religion and faith space, and how to follow your calling. We finish by talking about how the group of people you choose to work with and the dynamic between these people has a huge impact on your entrepreneurial success Connect with the What If Ventures and the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

#74 - Pray.com CEO Steve Gatena on the Digitization of Faith

Tom Insel is the mental health “czar” of the State of California, he’s a co-founder of Mindstrong Health, and formerly Director of the NIMH.  Tom is someone I look up to greatly as a trailblazer in the mental health space around what can be done, what is being done and what could be done to improve access to high quality care.  Tom has a rare combination of skills as a highly experienced neuroscientist, founder, entrepreneur, and investor in mental health startups.  His advice and thought leadership help lead policy initiatives around the country on the topic of access to high quality, evidence based mental health care.  This episode is an excerpt from a Zoom call between Tom and the first cohort of founders from the What If Fellowship. The audio quality isn’t perfect as it was not originally intended to be a “podcast”, but the insights from decades of experience trying to solve for better access to care are priceless and I am excited to share these insights with you. If you are a founder building in this space, you will want to consider what Tom has to share from his experience.   Links: Tom’s LinkedIn, Humanest Website,  Tom’s Ted Talk: Can Smartphones Solve the Mental Health Crisis? What If Fellowship Program (Mental Health Accelerator): https://whatif.vc/fellowship   HERE ARE SOME THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT Tom talks about his experience in the mental health space, about his book that will be released next year, and he reflects on how 2020 has changed the mental health landscape. We discuss the huge shift in the need for telehealth resources in 2020 due to the pandemic and how there will be a huge market for it even after the pandemic is finished. Tom shares what he calls the three P’s for mental health and addiction recovery: 1) People, 2) Place, and 3) Purpose, and how long-term solutions need to take these three things into consideration. Tom shares what he thinks is the recipe for a good startup company in this space and tips for how to build and grow in this space. We talk about how the current system is broken for patients and their families when insurers and companies are the ones footing the bill and at the same time, trying to reduce costs for het sake of profit. We discuss how we could tear down the whole system and build something new! Tom shares his idea for what hasn’t been done yet for the mental health space but that could be a true game changer he would like to see by 2030. Finally, Tom weighs in on the use of psychedelics in the treatment of mental disorders.   Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)    

#73 - Tom Insel Addresses What If Fellowship Cohort #1 on The Future of Mental Health Care

Today’s guest is Megan Bell, Chief Strategy and Science Officer at Headspace where she directs a team focused on global corporate strategy, technology strategy, and new ventures including Headspace’s digital therapeutics subsidiary, Headspace Health. She also oversees medical and clinical affairs, behavioral science and clinical research, and design research including implementation of a human-centered design process in product and content development. Prior to Headspace, she was chief science officer and scientific founder at digital mental health startup, Lantern, whose core IP went on to become part of Omada Health, Ginger, and others. As part of her incredible, pioneering digital health research, she developed and validated over 20 digital health interventions.  Megan is an adjunct clinical assistant professor at Stanford as well. You can connect with Megan here: Megan on LinkedIn, Headspace Website   HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Megan Bell joins us to talk about her background in the behavioral health world as a family member and daughter of someone who experienced severe mental health issues chronically. Additionally, as someone who has recovered from her own mental health disorders. Megan shares how her past experiences led her to be an advocate for others who faced similar struggles and how she was determined to change the culture around mental health. Specifically, she wanted to focus primarily on prevention strategies. When asked about her role in Headspace, Megan shares that she has been there for four years and how the company has evolved from a startup since she has been there. She shares that while she has had the title of many different roles over her time with the company that the passion remains the same: to make preventative mental health care more accessible to people. We asked Megan about evidence-based care and why it’s so important. She shares that it requires commitment from all involved and holds them accountable for the help they are wanting to provide to members. Not only are they focused on solutions to the problem that your customers are having, but you are focused on the effectiveness of your solutions when you have evidence-based care. How does Headspace measure to determine their effectiveness? Megan explains that Headspace is focused on resilience to stress and reduction of stress and that there is great evidence that mindfulness-based interventions can improve these areas. Megan talks about entrepreneurs who are interested in innovating in the mental health space. She gives advice to those interested to pay close attention to who your target audience is, how you can sustain your company, and how many different things you want to introduce to the market at once when you are just starting out. We discuss development teams and how it takes more than just passion to make changes in the mental health space. You need expertise in order to make a product that is beneficial to the consumer. Megan shares about the importance of changing the culture around mental health and addressing mental health when one is healthy, not just when it becomes a disorder. Finally, Megan discusses the ethics behind supporting a company that works in the mental health space and making sure you are choosing to invest in something that has processes in place for risk management, quality assurance, and overall choosing to support something that is making the world a better place. Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)  

#72 - Headspace's Chief Strategy and Science Officer - Megan Jones Bell

Michael Acton Smith, co-Founder of Calm joins us to talk about building the #1 app for sleep, meditation and relaxation, with over 75 million downloads and over 700,000 5-star reviews. Michael tells us about how the idea was born from his own personal discovery of the power of meditation. In our conversation he tells the Calm founding story, and talks about the journey to making medication accessible to tens of millions of people while taking on stigma around meditation and mental health long before the recent surge in interest around the space. In addition to being the co-founder of Calm, Michael also was the founder of Mind Candy and creator of Moshi Monsters, the online world for children that grew to 80 million registered users and expanded offline into books, toys, games, magazines, music and movies. Michael is also the founder of Firebox.com, Ping Pong Fight Club, and Berwickstock music festival. In 2014, he was awarded an Order of the British Empire for his service to the creative industries. You can connect with Michael here: LinkedIn, Twitter, Calm Website What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship   HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Michael Acton Smith joins us to talk about how he came to find meditation as a resource for himself in his personal life. Michael shares the story of how his experience in the entertainment industry left him feeling burnt out and how meditation is the most valuable skill he has learned in his lifetime. Calm origin story: With his co-founder Alex Tew, Michael wanted to bring meditation to people through something that was accessible, relatable, and simple. The app creation was their idea to achieve all of these goals in their attempt to change the world of mental health for the better. Michael talks about how meditation is so much more than just sitting quietly and breathing. It is a neuroscience that helps to rewire your brain to get out of the fight or flight mindset and how to help your prefrontal cortex frequencies to be normalized. How has Covid-19 and the pandemic affected Calm? Isolation mixed with anxiety surrounding the pandemic has caused mental health to be on the forefront of everyone’s minds. Michael talks about how his business was growing before this but now it has grown dramatically. He tells about his sense of responsibility to react to this current situation and to provide more content for subscribers. Michael shares how calm has extended its reach to not only individuals but to companies as well. Calm is being used in businesses to learn how to manage stress, how to connect with colleagues, and how to increase emotional intelligence within the workplace. Not only is this an affordable and life-changing choice for companies, but he states that it is a no brainer. If companies offer gym memberships to increase physical wellness, they should be offering calm memberships to increase mental wellness too. How do you see the business of Calm evolving over the next few years? Michael talks with us about the breadth of growth opportunities in front of the business in the coming years. He compares it to the scale of Netflix or Spotify subscriptions. In addition to that growth, he would like to see Calm being offered on a global scale in multiple languages. Michael discusses expanding calm into a lifestyle brand featuring clothing, hotels, even a resort on an island of Calm! When asked about what a Calm island would look like, he described it as a week or two getaway to focus on recentering yourself with healthy food, exercise, and meditation services. Advice for mental health founders: We talked about what founders in the mental health space could do if they are just starting to splash around in this space. Michael recommends above all else, patience. He says to not go after the first idea that pops into your head. He gives other tips to get yourself into the right mindset to find the big opportunities. To expand on this, we discussed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are most important to pay attention to early on as a founder. Michael shares that finances are so key to tracking as well as being incredibly mindful with hiring and workspace. Additionally, Michael shares that in order to keep retention up of your customers, you need to create new content and how you want to keep your business on the front of your customers' minds. Michael talks about the importance of teaching meditation to younger generations. He shares his excitement surrounding how we are seeing mindfulness education in schools.  He raises the question, “what is more important than teaching the next generation how to improve their emotional intelligence?” Finally, Michael shares how meditation is a skill that you can learn, and that means you have to be taught how to utilize it. Not only that, but you need to practice using it in your daily life in order to get better at it. We are starting to move in a direction where more and more people are using these skills in their life and being more open about mental health. Michael shares how he feels privileged to be able to be a part of this movement.                                Connect with the What If Ventures and the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)  

#71 - Calm Co-Founder, Michael Acton Smith a Pioneer in Mental Health and Wellness

Ronan Levy is co-founder and the Executive Chairman of Field Trip Health, a psychedelic assisted treatment business.  Ronan joins us to talk about how psychedelic treatments work, what all the hype is about, where we are by way of regulation in the industry and the future use cases of psychedelic treatments. Prior to Field Trip, he was an early pioneer in the medical cannabis industry which gave him a unique perspective on launching the world’s first integrated company in legal psychedelics.   Field Trip currently has operations in North America, the Caribbean and Europe where their goal is to become to leader in medical and therapeutic applications of psychedelics. Links mentioned in the show: Ronan Levy on LinkedIn, https://www.fieldtriphealth.com/ MAPS Research Results (MDMA used for PTSD treatment) David Nutt: Psychedelic Psychiatry’s Brave New World (Cell 2020) NYU End of Life Psychedelic Study (long term positive impact of psychedelics) HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Ronan talked about how he found his way into the Psychedelic space by way of the legal cannabis industry from 2013 through 2018. Ronan told the founding story of Field Trip Health and talked about what exactly they do, and their mission which is to “heal the sick, and better the well, through psychedelic medicine and therapies.” We talked about how psychedelic treatments have been used to cure mental health problems that so far, through other treatments, have only been mitigated, not cured. Ronan talked about what Field Trip Health does as a company.  In addition to covering the obvious stuff around running psychedelic assisted psychotherapy clinics, he explains other components of their business including content creation, and their efforts around drug development. How do psychedelics work? Ronan took time to explain how psychedelic treatments work by breaking them down into three primary effects: Psychedelics provide a rather immediate natural anti-depressant effect. Most people report incredibly significant improvement in mood after using psychedelics. When on a trip, people report re-living or experiencing emotions or events with some degree of objectivity or detachment allowing that person to go back into feelings and emotions from their past and start to process those feelings and embrace emotional healing from those instances. Following a trip, people experience a period of neural plasticity where the circuitry of your brain is more adept and responsive to change and the influence of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Between the dynamics of the mood improvement, the emotional processing, and the CBT that can accelerate the emotional processing that lead to fundamental changes in our neurology.  This is why psychedelics can be so effective. Some of the clinical trials, such as the trial at MAPS using MDMA to treat PTSD are showing total resolution of all symptoms of PTSD in 70% of people with chronic, severe PTSD.   This is fundamentally different than any other treatment for mental health differences on the market today. We talked about the neuroscience around how psychedelics impact the brain. We discussed how psychedelic treatments impact the “Default Mode Network” (or the “operating system) of the brain).  Ronan explains that during a trip, the Default Mode Network is quieted.  This is the part of the brain where our “ego” lives. Our ego is what holds our self-identity and when you can reduce or remove that barrier then you are able to dig into the machinery of how you define yourself and fundamentally address who you are, and address past trauma and pain in a way that leads to real changes. We talked about the regulatory landscape as well. Ronan explained that he is 100% convinced that psilocybin and MDMA will be removed from schedule 1.  The only question is around timing and it could be anywhere from 6 months to 5 years from now depending on who you ask and how things unfold politically. We talked about how far along MAPS is with their phase 3 study using MDMA for treatment of PTSD and how MAPS has spoken publicly about expecting approval by 2022 or 2023 for their use of MDMA for treating PTSD.  We also talked about how synthetic psilocybin developers such as Compass Pathways have indicated progress toward approvals that would lead to widespread use by 2025. We talked at length about where people can read more to get smart on the psychedelic space. Many of those resources are linked above in the “links” section. I asked Ronan why now the time for the psychedelic renaissance. He explains that as a society we are going through a mental health and wellbeing revolution.  Additionally, research has picked up in earnest at Johns Hopkins, NYU, Imperial College and others on the medical use of psychedelics. At the same time, MAPS has made such enormous progress in showing the effect of MDMA on treating things like PTSD that it is hard to ignore the healing potential.  Also, the broader changing attitudes toward cannabis are helping people revisit stigmatized medicines more broadly.  And finally, the Opioid crisis has done a lot to destroy trust in big pharma / industrial medical complex which is fueling a desire to find more alternative treatments. We talked about the differences between the early cannabis industry and the early psychedelic industry as well. The biggest differences that that the renaissance around psychedelics is driven by academic and clinical research.  The evidence around psychedelics is much more persuasive than it ever had been for cannabis.  There are endless volumes of research pointing to the clinical effectiveness of psychedelics.  Some of this is linked above in the “links” section of these show notes. We also talked about how the industry around psychedelic medicine has emerged versus how the cannabis industry emerged.  Cannabis is more of a product focused market where consumer purchase cannabis and use it alone, at home privately.    In the psychedelic space, its different.  Psychedelic drug delivery is more of a service-based approach.  It is not just the drug that matters. It’s the set and setting and the protocols around the trip that matter.  It’s not something you can just do at home as easily as you can with cannabis.   Where do we go from here? What is the future of psychedelics?  What can it be used to treat?Ronan explained that mental health use-cases are really the low hanging fruit of psychedelic use-cases.  He believes that we can use the anti-inflammatory nature of the drugs to treat things such as wounds, other injuries, and really any condition that includes inflammation . Ronan talked about work currently being done around treating Alzheimer’s patients and how there is also a growing body of evidence around the expansive properties of psychedelic medicines to enhance creativity, empathy, and general wellbeing. Ronan explains that psychedelic treatments will revolutionize psychiatry to the point where in 20-30 years we will look back on psychiatric practices before psychedelics as barbaric.   Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)  

#70 - How Psychedelic Treatments Work with Ronan Levy, Founder of Field Trip Health

Aimee-Louisse Carton, founder of KeepAppy, shares her story with us which includes getting cornered in a bathroom by an investor at a startup event, where the investor called her “suicide girl.”   This investor continued to tell Aimee she would never be able to raise money because of her past suicide attempt.    In this episode, Aimee talks to us about her struggles with mental health and how they did lead her to an attempt on her own life and how that moment has ultimately led her to build something to help many people who have experienced similar pain.  Aimee describes herself as a social entrepreneur, leveraging tech-for-good to destigmatize mental unwellness and to empower people with the tools they need to regain control over their well-being. She is on a mission to create the most comprehensive and engaging wellness app out there, aiming to create something that can be used and made accessible for all! Her startup, KeepAppy is a mission-driven social enterprise.  They are actively seeking partnerships with emergency helplines, student unions and corporate wellness officers across the globe. Connected with Aimee and KeepAppy: www.keepappy.com, Aimee-Louise Carton on LinkedIn, Aimee’s Email: alcarton@keepappy.com   HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: We spoke with Aimee about her own mental health journey. She shared about a time when she made an attempt to take her own life at the culmination of mental health, and physical health struggles she had and how that led her to pursue mental health and wellness and ultimately to create her own startup in the space. We talked about proactive and positive techniques she learned to use to take control of her mental health from a preventative perspective (journaling, goal setting, meditation, and more). Aimee created Keepappy, just over 1 year ago which has reached over 25,000 people in over 100 countries – we talked about how her journey, and her pain has been turned into a resource to help people all over the world. Aimee told us about how she has been discriminated against by rather influential investors in her local startup ecosystem because of her mental health past. After a startup event in Ireland, she was cornered in the restroom by an investor who told her that mental health was just a fad, and that she would be forever known as “that suicide girl” and nobody would ever invest in her because they couldn’t trust her.  Aimee talks about how that incident cut her to her core. She felt reduced to one moment in her life and that one moment was going to define her to some people.  Many people who struggle with mental health differences feel like they will be defined by that one moment if they come forward and ask for help.  This is stigma, and this is what we exist to combat.  We are so grateful that people like Aimee are willing to come forward and tell their stories.  This is the only way we will ever overcome stigma as a society and encourage people to take care of their mental health broadly. Thankfully, Aimee and her team were able to overcome that moment and raise their pre-seed round. I shared with Aimee about a time when I was fundraising when an investor told me I could not raise money because of my past. In the coming weeks, I plan to share more about times when I’ve been singled out and discriminated against because of my past with addiction and bipolar disorder as well. Aimee and I talked about needing to change the conversation around mental health so that people who need help managing stress, or anxiety etc. feel comfortable coming forward to get help before their problems turn into a major mental health issue that could lead them to where Aimee was with her struggles. Aimee talks about how we spend a lot of time building solutions for the 1 in 4 people who struggle with mental illness, but we also need solutions to help the 3 in 4 who do not technically have an illness, but who do need to proactively manage their mental health just like they manage their physical health on a daily basis. We also talked about reducing stigma in order to foster more mental health startup creation. Aimee talked about the high concentrations of occurrences of mental health differences within the entrepreneurial ecosystem and how entrepreneurship attracts people with these differences to it, like moths to a flame she said.  We’ve talked about this and the numbers that support this claim in past episodes with Dr. Michael Free man and others as well (see episode #2).   Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)  

#69 - "Suicide Girl" - How One Founder Was Labeled by an Investor Due to Her Past

Today’s guest is Johnny Chen, founder, and CEO of Sail.  Sail is a coaching community that empowers men to be more vulnerable.  The focus of their platform is the “Peloton of the mind” specifically for men. Sail currently offers several 4-week coaching programs designed specifically for men.  These programs are comprised of four, 90-minute sessions on specific topics such as leadership, relationships, emotional intelligence, etc.  The groups are comprised of 10 like-minded men who are seeking self-improvement.  These programs are a mix of teaching, coaching, and coach-led practice around certain skill sets.  It’s a safe space for men to open up learn to share and be vulnerable. Johnny talks to us in this episode about how they help men learn to focus on training their mental and emotional muscles with a focus on active learning backed by the guidance of a coach and a community of like-minded peers. Links mentioned in the show: Sail Website, Johnny on LinkedIn, Johnny on Twitter, Sail on Twitter, Join the Sail Men’s Slack Community Here HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Johnny shares his personal story about why and how he found his way into the mental health space as an entrepreneur. Johnny set out to build a platform that helps men that changes the narrative around men’s mental health. We talked about how in America, men have been conditioned to suppress their feelings, “boys don’t cry” and we need to “man up.” The result is that men are 4x more likely to commit suicide, 3x more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, and 99% of school shooters are men.  We compared the physical fitness revolution to the brewing mental health revolution. We talked about how people spend time working on their physical health, even in the absence of a physical health diagnosis.  We need to get men to the place where they seek to work on their mental health, in the absence of a diagnosis. Johnny talks about who his typical customer is. The profile he described is a male, between 25 and 54 who are hyper focused on improving their lives already.  Johnny calls these people “self-optimizers”.  They are likely already doing some kind of meditation or yoga, and they may participate in CrossFit or run marathons or some other personal performance challenge activity. We talked about how we get people who either do not want help, or don’t know that they need help to self-optimize around their mental health.   We talked about societal pressures, behavioral norms and how we are conditioned as men to think we can do everything ourselves and we do not need help.  Sail is positioning itself to help men get comfortable asking for help even when they are already doing “well.” Sail products / services: Coaching Programs – Currently offer several 4-week coaching programs. These programs are comprised of four, 90-minute sessions on specific topics such as leadership, relationships, emotional intelligence, etc.  The groups are comprised of 10 like-minded men who are seeking self-improvement.  These programs are a mix of teaching, coaching, and coach-led practice around certain skill sets.  It’s a safe space for men to open up learn to share and be vulnerable. Sail Community – A free community where men can come to connect with other men and talk about challenges they are facing around life, career, productivity hacks, relationships, or anything that’s on their mind.   Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)  

#68 - "Peloton of the mind" - Training for Mental Fitness with Sail Founder, Johnny Chen

Dr. Adam Gazzaley, founder of Akili Interactive joins us to talk about the intersection of molecular and experiential treatments for mental health conditions.  Akili is the maker of the first ever video game to be approved by the FDA as a digital therapeutic treatment for a clinical condition.  We talked about how Adam and his team figured out how to use video games in this manner, how they got approval to do so and the science that proves a video game can help improve cognitive function. We dig into the future interactions of molecular and experiential medicine and where his revolutionary treatments can take us as we learn to leverage technology to help us get better when it comes to mental health, not tear us down or make us worse which is often how people think of technology these days. In addition to his role as Founder of Akili Interactive, Adam is a co-founder of Jazz Venture Partners, and a professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Physiology at UCSF.  Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and postdoctoral training at University of California, Berkeley. Links mentioned in the show: Adam on LinkedIn, https://www.akiliinteractive.com/ Adam’s book: “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World” Neuroscape at UCSF,  Sensync: The Future of Wellness   HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT: Adam Gazzaley joins us to talk about his work in neuroscience and neurology and how he found his way to the startup world and ultimately building the first video game, ever approved by the FDA as a therapeutic treatment (Akili Interactive). Adam talks about what drew him into the startup world and explains how he really did it out of necessity. The solutions his research was pointing to had not been built and he felt compelled to create what he felt the world needed. Adam tells the founding story of Akili Interactive, a therapeutic closed-loop video game company. Akili recently obtained FDA approval for their prescription video game for treating mental health differences. EndeavorRx is the name of the gaming platform that was approved by the FDA in June of 2020.  Cleared by the FDA as a class 2 medical device to treat children with ADHD. How can a video game be a therapeutic? Adam explains how experiences have been used to change our brain for thousands of years and how video games are just another experience.  Because video game experiences are highly adaptable, and because we now have technology that allows us to measure how the brain is reacting to experiences, we can craft experiences in real time to target different cognitive functions. Designing and developing a video game as medicine is an entire process that involves understanding all the complexities of game mechanics, art, music, the story, etc. and combine that with the targeting of specific neural systems.  Then there’s the Long slow validation process that takes a lot of time, people, money, etc.  This took a decade to accomplish. Is this the first time the FDA has approved a video game as digital therapeutics? Yes, this is the first video game of any kind to be approved for clinical treatment by the FDA.  Adam explained how a video game actually helps an individual improve their attention and focus. It works by challenging an individual to focus their attention on a goal, then rapidly move their attention to other goals.  Adam and his team found this leads to benefits that could be quantified and later proved that some of those improvements were in abilities not even directly challenged in the game. We talked about the future, and where this technology can go. Adam explains that he is incredibly optimistic about a future where our technology is not tearing us down or being used to make us lazy or offload us of things that are natural to us, but to really enhance us. Adam is currently doing research on the intersection of molecular and experiential treatments with a specific focus on psychedelics. He is studying ways to measure the impact of the experience (the set and setting) in which psychedelic treatments are administered.  He is using multi-modal biosensing during treatment sessions to understand the impact of the treatment and further develop more personalized and precise treatment plans for individuals. Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures  

#67 - Video Games as Medicine with Dr. Adam Gazzaley, Founder of Akili Interactive

We talk about mental health, addiction, and recovery. Our purpose is to reduce stigma by elevating the conversation on these topics. We interview people about their personal recovery, we talk to clinicians about mental health, illness and addiction and we talk to entrepreneurs building the next generation of solutions to help people achieve mental and emotional wellness. Our goal is to get people talking about mental health, the same way we talk about our physical health in order to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and addiction.

#76 - Cybin CEO: Doug Drysdale on The Future of Psychedelic ...