Smart Drug Smarts: Brain Optimization | Nootropics | Neuroscience

Jesse talks with Dr. Carhart-Harris about the prototypical psychedelic, LSD, how it changes the brain in long-lasting ways, and why you'll never look at bicycles the same way again.

We’ve all heard of the 10,000 Hour Rule, but what about deliberate practice? Dr. Ericsson talks us through becoming an expert through deliberate practice, including visualization, finding a mentor, and more.

More intelligence is "lost" to inadequate fetal nutrition than to anything else, period. In this special Mother's Day episode, Jesse speaks with Dr. Kavitha Menon about the greatest dangers to the development of baby brains, in both the developing and the developed world. Get your maternity checklist ready with items from iodine supplements to skillets to workout videos and give yourself better odds at a little Einstein.

In episode 126, Professor Con Stough talks to Jesse about Bacopa, the oldest herbal medicine in the world. A powerful memory enhancer that promotes synaptogenesis, this is one herb you'll want to want to add to your medicine cabinet, regardless of your age.

Brains and Brawn, long positioned as polar opposites, turn out to be anything but. In this episode, Jesse talks with fitness trainer Sal di Stefano -- also the co-host and resident science geek at the MindPump podcast -- about best practices to use physical exercise to enhance your cognition.

Compounds in the hemp plant are so potent within the human body that an entire class of naturally-occurring molecules inside humans (the "endocannabinoids") are named after the plant -- ​not the other way around! In Episode 124, Jesse interviews athlete, author and fitness trainer Ben Greenfield about Cannabidiol (CBD), the most medically versatile of the cannabinoids.

In his book "Consciousness and the Social Brain," Princeton neuroscientist Dr. Michael Graziano lays out his compelling Attention-Schema Theory. Has he solved the "Hard Problem" of Consciousness?

Dr. Andreet Mankala is the creator and leading advocate for one of the most cutting-edge medical procedures being performed today. At least, that's what her proponents say. Others are not so sure, pointing out that her experimental chakra transplantation may not yet ready for human testing.

LabDoor's goal is full-spectrum testing of the majority of consumer supplements -- upwards of 10,000 different products. One piece of their innovative approach is to have users vote on what category of supplements gets added to their next battery of tests.

Dr. Mark Mattson, neurologist at Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute of Health (NIH), has decades of work in the fields of nutrition, brain health, and the complex interplay between diet, exercise, "feeding windows," and macronutrient ratios. Join us in Episode #120 to learn his many insights.

As the popularity of smart drugs and cognitive enhancement technologies becomes more widespread, questions of ethics and fairness rise to the surface. We remember that along with the scientific question of "can we" is the ethical sibling question "should we"?

The adaptogen plant turmeric has been a mainstay of Indian and Asian cooking for millenia. Its root is chock-full of bioactive curcuminoid compounds that have been shown to provide wide-ranging benefits from the reduction of oxidative stress to the reduction of psychological stress.

"Textbooks are going to need to change." That was the general consensus around the 2015 discovery that previously unknown lymphatic vessels connect the brain directly to the immune system. Hear about the breakthrough discovery from co-discoverer Professor Jonathan Kipnis.

"Grinders" take their stylistic queues from piercing shops, tattoo parlors and custom auto mechanics -- combining skills in electrical circuitry and biology to leap past "wearable" technology straight into integrated doodads like an LED compass that lives in your hand, or under-the-skin magnets (which some claim allow them to "feel" magnetic fields after a few months of brain plasticity and practice).

Dr. Frederick Barrett discusses recent and upcoming studies into psilocybin -- the psychoactive ingredient that puts the "magic" in magic mushrooms.  This currently "Schedule 1" drug, in addition to reasonably reliably provoking mystical experiences in users, also shows promise as a therapeutic treatment for depression, PTSD, and hospice care.  Dr. Barrett and colleagues at Johns Hopkins Medical Center are at the forefront of the latest research.