The Oprah Podcast
Can Psychedelics Heal Mental Trauma? With Harvard Professor Michael Pollan
Tue, 04 Mar 2025
BUY THE BOOK! “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence” by Michael Pollan “Fire in the Hole!: The Untold Story of My Traumatic Life and Explosive Success” by Bob Parsons In this episode of The Oprah Podcast, Oprah and bestselling author Michael Pollan discuss the potential of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin (also known as magic mushrooms) and LSD as a benefit to help relieve symptoms of PTSD, OCD, anxiety, addiction, or depression. Michael’s 2018 book, "How to Change Your Mind", was a watershed moment in the rising national conversation about the use of psychedelics in guided therapy. Michael describes his own psychedelic experiences as well as additional guests, including GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons, who share their stories about how psychedelics helped them improve their mental well-being, cope with trauma and grief and achieve spiritual transcendence. Pollan taught for many years at UC Berkeley and is currently a professor teaching creative writing at Harvard. This episode is brought to you in part by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at http://www.betterhelp.com/OPRAHPODCAST For more information on The Roland R. Griffiths, Ph.D. Professorship Fund, Psychedelic Research On Secular Spirituality And Well-Being - https://griffithsfund.org/ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@Oprah Follow Oprah Winfrey on Social: https://www.instagram.com/oprah/ https://www.facebook.com/oprahwinfrey/ Listen to the full podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tEVrfNp92a7lbjDe6GMLI https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-oprah-podcast/id1782960381 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the healing potentials of psychedelics?
Hi, I am so glad that you all are here with me. Welcome to the Oprah Podcast. They are as controversial as they are fascinating, and I know many of you are really curious as I am. So let's hop right into this question. Can psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms, MDMA, also known as ecstasy, and even LSD, can they heal?
mental trauma, or even help people reach a transcendent, transformational spiritual experience. Joining me, the man who's an expert on all of this, Michael Pollan. Great to see you again, Michael. Great to see you too, Oprah. Once again, Michael Pollan is at the forefront of a revelatory national conversation.
For newcomers, what is a psychedelic?
Today, there's a new and growing fight to make psychedelics legal again in the United States.
Up next on StarTalk, all about psychedelics.
Psychedelics, once demonized as a dangerous counterculture threat, are being reexamined as a possible tool for treatment for anxiety, depression, addiction, PTSD, and for spiritual transcendence.
It had been 49 years since the war. And I like to say this, I finally came home.
Michael's best known for his blockbuster books about food, like The Omnivore's Dilemma and Cooked. But his groundbreaking 2018 work, How to Change Your Mind, created an opening for a new way to think about psychedelics.
It's literally like magic. I was like, how is this possible?
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Chapter 2: What inspired Michael Pollan to explore psychedelics?
Yeah, yeah, 100%. And it's not finding love, it's knowing how to be loved. Oh. Because when you suffer from PTSD, man, you don't feel that way at all. Yeah. And so that was big.
So you and your wife, Renee, now have donated millions, I understand, to research, even funding a center on psychedelic healing at Mount Sinai in New York. What are you hoping for?
I am hoping that we're going to see this gradually made legal. everywhere and becoming a normal treatment because when we do, I think it will be a renaissance in the country. I mean, we could have people in jail getting out better than they went in. if they're treated with psychedelics, because it'll get at the root causes, whatever all the ugly stuff that is causing them to be like they are.
So, Bob, can I ask you, do you continue to try various forms of psychedelics or other drugs? Or was that experience that four days enough for you?
Well, you know, I have went through the process another time with two guys that I served in Vietnam with, the squad leader and the machine gunner. And so I went through it again, which reinforced what I did the first time. And, you know, I'm happy to tell you that, you know, when I had my psychedelic experience, it had been 49 years since the war. And I like to say this, I finally came home.
And, you know, I'm going to tell you that when I went through it with the machine gunner and and the squad leader, they both came home. And I'm aware of a number of others who have went through it that I had nothing to do with. And, you know, the totally different people afterwards.
Yeah. That's why you and Renee have created the center.
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I cannot think of a better gift to give the United States or the world than to fund this stuff.
Thank you, Bob, for joining us and sharing that story. And maybe one day we'll have that beer.
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