Presented as part of the Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit Series in collaboration with Aspen Public Radio
Featuring Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor in Neurology, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, in conversation with Jon Hamilton, correspondent for NPR’s Science Desk. A leading researcher on how psychedelics affect the brain and their potential as groundbreaking treatments for mental health disorders, Dr. Carhart-Harris will explore the mechanisms behind psychedelic compounds such as LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and DMT, sharing insights from his brain imaging studies and clinical trials. He will also explore how these substances alter brain function, promote neural plasticity, and may offer new hope for conditions like depression, PTSD, and addiction.
Paepcke Auditorium, doors at 5:30 pm
While attendance at the event is free and open to everyone, registration is required, and capacity is established on a first-come, first-served basis. Register here.
Parking
Parking is very limited. Please carpool, walk, bike, or ride RFTA.
Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, is an esteemed neuropharmacologist, psychologist, and became the Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professor in Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco in 2021.With a PhD in psychopharmacology from the University of Bristol, Dr. Carhart-Harris and his colleagues have completed multimodal human functional neuroimaging studies with LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and DMT, and clinical trials of psilocybin therapy for various disorders. His current research program at UCSF is focused on the mechanisms of action of psychedelics and psychedelic-therapy. Dr. Carhart-Harris has published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, Lancet Psychiatry, and more. He was named among the top 31 medical scientists by The Times newspaper in 2020, listed in TIME magazine’s “100 Next” in 2021, voted psychedelic researcher of the year in 2021, and listed in Vox Magazine’s “Future 50” in 2023. His website is carhartharrislab.com.
Jon Hamilton has been a science correspondent at NPR News since 1998. His current beat includes neuroscience, the origins of language, environmental health risks, and biomedicine. Recent stories have looked at the use of stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease, how scientists recreated a human pain pathway in a dish, and efforts to restore a sense of touch to people who are paralyzed. In 2020, Hamilton covered early efforts to detect the first cases of COVID in Seattle, Washington. In 2014, he was part of the NPR team that covered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and received a Peabody Award. He also was part of the team that covered the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011. He received a Master’s in journalism from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College.
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