Mental Disorder

Jules Evans is the Director of the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project and the lead author and editor of the Substack newsletter Ecstatic Integration. Kristin Nash is the executive director of the William G. Nash Foundation which focuses on harm reduction and psychedelic safety, and is involved with an important initiative to improve public communication on psychedelics as

William Fleming holds a PhD in sociology from The University of Cambridge, and is currently a post-doctoral research fellow at Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Center. He joins me on the podcast to talk about the lack of evidence for workplace mental health and wellbeing initiatives. William starts by giving a history of workplace wellbeing initiatives tracing back to the B

Caleb Ontiveros is the founder of Stoa, an app that combines the ancient philosophy of stoicism with mindfulness and meditation. He writes The Stoa Letter, co-hosts the podcast Stoa Conversations, and is the editor of The Classical Futurist. Caleb and I talk about the philosophy of Stoicism and what Stoics have to say about psychology, mental health, and human flourishing. We discu

Awais Aftab is a psychiatrist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University and writes the substack Psychiatry at the Margins. I invited him on the podcast to talk about how criticisms of psychiatry – such as critical, philosophical, and anti-psychiatry – affect mainstream theory and practice. We also discuss his recent exchange with Mad in A

John Hirschauer is an assistant editor for City Journal and a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow at The Fund for American Studies. I invited him on the podcast to talk about the history, ethics, and politics of deinstitutionalization, which he has reported on extensively. In the first half of the conversation, John provides a detailed history of institutionalization in America, and how

Kevin McCaffree is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of North Texas, author of multiple books, editor of the journals Theoretical Sociology and Evolutionary Analysis in the Social Sciences, and a chief researcher at the Skeptic Research Center. I invited him to talk about his new paper “Pulling Back the Curtain on Suicide Research,” which shows that decades of

Mel is an ex-management consultant who now writes about the mental health economy and startup world. I invited her on the podcast to ask her about the latest trends in mental health tech and therapy, and where she thinks the industry is headed. Both of us are excited about the potential for new tech, drugs, and therapies to improve mental health, or at least make mental health trea

Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal. I invited him on the podcast to talk about his recent article “How I Changed my Mind About Marijuana.” As Charles says in our podcast, the public debate around marijuana has largely been about whether criminalization is bad rather than whether legalization is good. Since it’s

Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal. I invited him on the podcast to talk about how moral and epistemic values structure public policy debates around homelessness and mental illness. We talk about how relativism has paved the way for a team-up between “trust the science” technocrats and those with the right kinds

Ives Parr is an independent scholar known for his work on the science and ethics of genetic enhancement. For the first episode of the Mental Disorder podcast, I invited him on to talk about how polygenic screening and embryo selection could be used to prevent or reduce the risk of mental illness. Ives and I discuss whether there are tradeoffs between mental wellbeing and other trai