JLS Podcast

🎙️ JLS Podcast: Hosted by William Leonard Pickard   🚀 About Eric André Eric André is a comedian and performer known for taking things into strange and unpredictable territory. He joins Leonard for a conversation that goes just about everywhere — comedy, performing, drugs, God, caffeine, altered states, prison, and what it takes to stand in front of a room and make people laugh.   😂 Comedy vs. Philosophy What can a comedian say that a philosopher can’t? Eric and Leonard talk about the freedom that comes with comedy, where the boundaries are, and why sometimes the funniest things are the things you probably shouldn’t say.   🎤 Making People Laugh Eric talks about how he develops material, tries out new jokes, watches what works and what doesn’t, and keeps a performance from feeling rehearsed even when he’s done it over and over again. Sometimes you prepare. Sometimes you just wing it.   💡 Getting on Stage Leonard asks Eric what actually happens in those few moments before walking onstage. They talk about nerves, confidence, experience, and how performing changes after you’ve spent years in front of an audience.   🌌 God, Drugs & Caffeine Things get a little weird. Eric and Leonard talk about God, drugs, altered states, religious experiences, and, perhaps most importantly, caffeine. Leonard shares his own complicated relationship with coffee and the appeal of experiencing life with a completely clear mind.   🔒 Stories from Prison Leonard shares a few stories from his years in maximum-security federal prison — the importance of respect, spending time in the prison library, staying out of prison politics, and walking lap after lap around a small dirt track just to get outside.   🤯 Richard Pryor, Bad Jokes & Times Square The conversation bounces from Richard Pryor to jokes that completely fail, learning how to work a room, and Eric getting naked in Times Square. Behind all the craziness, Eric talks about the work that actually goes into becoming comfortable enough onstage to let things happen.   ☄️ Five Minutes Before the End And finally: an asteroid is going to hit Manhattan in five minutes. Where are you? Who are you with? And what’s the last joke you tell?   🏆 Final Takeaways This one is a little different. It’s funny, loose, strange, and occasionally gets surprisingly deep. Eric and Leonard talk comedy, drugs, prison, creativity, God, performing, and whatever else comes up along the way.   ✨ Support this work and unlock exclusive conversations on science, consciousness, psychedelics, and the future of civilization on Patreon: /thelastalchemist   🔗 Subscribe for more conversations on psychedelics, consciousness, creativity, human potential, and the people exploring the edges of all of it.

🎙️ JLS Podcast: Hosted by William Leonard Pickard   🚀 About Rick Doblin Rick Doblin is the founder of MAPS and one of the central figures in the modern psychedelic movement. For decades, his work has focused on bringing psychedelic research out of the underground and into legitimate science, medicine, and public conversation.   ❤️ The Personal Story Behind the Mission Doblin shares how his grandmother’s severe depression became a powerful motivation for his work. After the FDA refused compassionate access to MDMA, the experience strengthened his determination to challenge policies that could prevent suffering people from accessing potentially helpful treatments.   🌍 A World of “Net Zero Trauma” After decades focused on advancing MDMA research, Doblin describes his next great ambition: a world of “net zero trauma” by 2070. The goal is not to eliminate suffering, but to reduce the accumulation and transmission of trauma across individuals, communities, and generations.   🧠 Helping People Heal Themselves For Doblin, psychedelic therapy is not about the therapist having all the answers. By creating a safe and supportive environment, the goal is to help people access their own capacity for healing and develop tools they can carry forward beyond the psychedelic experience itself.   🌌 Psychedelics, Aging, and the End of Life Doblin explores the potential of psychedelics to help people confront mortality, find meaning, reconnect with loved ones, and appreciate the limited time they have left. Experiences of ego dissolution and connection to something larger may offer profound comfort as people approach the end of life.   🕊️ From Self-Actualization to Self-Transcendence The conversation moves beyond individual healing toward the idea of self-transcendence: recognizing that we are part of something larger than ourselves. For Doblin, psychedelics may help cultivate the emotional and spiritual development needed to meet humanity’s increasingly powerful technologies.   ⚖️ Beyond Prohibition Doblin envisions a future that extends beyond the medicalization of psychedelics toward ending prohibition and creating a more psychedelic-literate society. The larger goal is not simply greater access, but finding ways for humanity to live in greater balance with one another and the planet.   🏆 Final Takeaways A deeply personal conversation exploring psychedelics, MDMA, trauma, healing, mortality, consciousness, and the future of humanity. Rick Doblin reflects on the movement he helped bring into the mainstream while looking toward an even larger goal: using psychedelic healing to help create a more compassionate, connected, and emotionally resilient world.   ✨ Support this work and unlock exclusive conversations on science, consciousness, psychedelics, and the future of civilization on Patreon: /thelastalchemist   🔗 Subscribe for more dialogues exploring psychedelic science, consciousness, human potential, healing, and the emerging frontiers of the future.

🎙️ JLS Podcast: Hosted by William Leonard Pickard   🚀 About Peter Grinspoon Dr. Peter Grinspoon is a primary care physician at Mass General Hospital, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, and an author and public voice on cannabis, addiction, recovery, and drug policy. His perspective combines clinical experience, personal recovery, and a lifelong connection to the evolving conversation around cannabis.   🌿 Cannabis Beyond the Hype Cannabis is neither a miracle cure nor the menace portrayed by decades of prohibition. Grinspoon examines its genuine medical benefits alongside real risks including addiction, impairment, high-potency products, and concerns for younger users. The goal is not to be pro- or anti-cannabis, but to follow the evidence.   ⚖️ The Failure of the Drug War The conversation examines the enormous human consequences of cannabis prohibition and the millions of arrests for simple possession. Grinspoon argues for moving beyond fear-based drug policy toward an approach grounded in science, public health, and harm reduction.   🧠 Addiction from the Inside Grinspoon speaks candidly about his own addiction to prescription opioids, losing his medical license, rebuilding his life, and eventually helping others struggling with addiction. That lived experience profoundly changed how he understands patients, recovery, compassion, and the importance of human connection.   🔄 Rethinking Recovery Does recovery always require complete abstinence? Grinspoon advocates for a larger recovery tent that can include abstinence, moderation, medications, harm reduction, and approaches such as “California sober.” Instead of imposing a single definition of recovery, he argues for meeting people where they are.   🌌 A Family That Challenged the Consensus Peter reflects on his father, pioneering cannabis and psychedelic advocate Dr. Lester Grinspoon, and an extraordinary childhood surrounded by thinkers and activists including Carl Sagan. Ideas once considered radical have since moved dramatically closer to the scientific mainstream.   💊 Cannabis as Medicine From chronic pain and insomnia to anxiety and reducing reliance on more dangerous medications, cannabis can offer meaningful benefits for some patients. But Grinspoon emphasizes responsible dosing, informed decision-making, and honest conversations between physicians and patients about both benefits and risks.   👵 Cannabis and Aging Older adults are one of the fastest-growing groups embracing cannabis. Grinspoon explores its potential for chronic pain and quality of life while emphasizing a simple rule for today’s much stronger cannabis: start low and go slow.   🏆 Final Takeaways A candid conversation exploring cannabis, addiction, recovery, medicine, drug policy, and harm reduction. Peter Grinspoon offers a balanced perspective that rejects both fear and hype, asking what our relationship with drugs might look like if the ultimate goal were informed choice, compassion, and reducing human suffering.   ✨ Support this work and unlock exclusive conversations on science, consciousness, psychedelics, and the future of civilization on Patreon: /thelastalchemist   🔗 Subscribe for more dialogues exploring medicine, consciousness, drug policy, human potential, and the emerging frontiers of science.

🎙️ JLS Fund Podcast: Bohan Lou in conversation with William Leonard Pickard   🚀 Background on Bohan Lou: Partner at Chemistry.vc, host of the Deus Ex Machina podcast, and investor focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and frontier technologies. Known for his interdisciplinary thinking, Liu explores the future of civilization through the lenses of science, entrepreneurship, and philosophy.   🧠 The Art of Venture Capital Lou explains why early-stage investing is ultimately a study of human judgment under uncertainty. Rather than betting on business models, the conversation explores why the greatest venture investors back founders—their resilience, agency, curiosity, and ability to adapt as technology reshapes entire industries.   🤖 Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Civilization The discussion examines why Lou believes AI is not another technology bubble, but a civilizational turning point. Together they explore AGI, labor displacement, the future of work, brain-computer interfaces, and what humanity may look like as machine intelligence begins to surpass our own.   🌏 China, America & the AI Race Pickard and Lou compare the strengths of the United States and China in artificial intelligence, semiconductor development, venture capital, and scientific innovation. They discuss the geopolitical competition shaping the coming decades and what each nation can learn from the other.   🧬 Biotechnology, Longevity & Human Enhancement From AI-designed medicines to embryo selection, CRISPR, reproductive technologies, and longevity research, the conversation explores how biology is becoming an engineering discipline—and the profound ethical questions that accompany humanity's growing ability to redesign itself.   🚀 Founders, Innovation & Building the Future Lou shares what separates exceptional founders from merely intelligent people, why curiosity must be balanced with execution, and how great entrepreneurs combine vision with relentless determination to build companies capable of changing the world.   🔮 The Long View Looking toward 2040 and beyond, the two explore the Singularity, the possibility of merging with AI, existential risk, and the philosophical questions that emerge as humanity approaches unprecedented technological transformation.   🏆 Final Takeaways This wide-ranging conversation blends venture capital, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, philosophy, and the future of civilization into a thought-provoking dialogue about where humanity is headed—and how individuals can play a meaningful role in shaping that future.   ✨ Support this work and unlock exclusive conversations with pioneers in AI, biotechnology, psychedelics, and frontier science on Patreon: / thelastalchemist   🔗 Stay tuned for more conversations exploring the ideas, technologies, and visionaries shaping the future of humanity.

🎙️ JLS Fund Podcast: Kenneth Shinozuka in conversation with William Leonard Pickard**   🚀 **Background on Kenneth Shinozuka** Stanford postdoctoral researcher studying psychedelic neuroscience, with a focus on ibogaine, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, addiction, veterans, and consciousness. His path into science began as a teenager, when he invented a wearable sensor to help care for his grandfather with Alzheimer’s.   🧠 **Ibogaine, Trauma & the Brain** Shinozuka discusses Stanford research showing striking improvements in PTSD, depression, anxiety, cognitive function, and disability among Special Operations veterans following ibogaine treatment—and why larger controlled studies are still needed.   🌀 **The Ibogaine Experience** Often described as a dreamlike life review, ibogaine can surface buried memories, childhood trauma, and guilt. The conversation explores why this intense confrontation with the past may be central to its therapeutic potential.   🧬 **How Ibogaine Changes the Brain** From the default mode network and dopamine pathways to “matrix pharmacology,” Shinozuka explains what scientists are beginning to understand about ibogaine—and how much remains mysterious.   ⚡ **Addiction, Ordeal & Transformation** Pickard and Shinozuka explore why profound healing may sometimes require an ordeal. They discuss addiction, catharsis, the “long night of the soul,” and whether confronting suffering is part of what makes psychedelics transformative.   🌍 **Bwiti Tradition & Spirituality** The discussion turns to iboga’s roots in Bwiti traditions in Gabon and what Western psychedelic medicine might learn from Indigenous approaches to ceremony, music, preparation, and integration.   🧠 **The Mystery of Consciousness** Shinozuka explains why consciousness drew him into psychedelic neuroscience and why it remains so difficult to study. Can science measure experiences like ego death and spirituality without reducing what makes them meaningful?   ⚕️ **Promise, Risk & Responsible Treatment** Ibogaine carries serious cardiac risks and requires careful screening and medical monitoring. Shinozuka also emphasizes that it is not a panacea: some experience profound change, while others see temporary or minimal benefits.   🔬 **What Science Still Needs to Prove** Despite promising early results, larger controlled trials are essential. Shinozuka explains what evidence would convince him ibogaine belongs in mainstream medicine—and what might show that the early enthusiasm was overstated.   🏆 **Final Takeaways** A wide-ranging exploration of ibogaine, trauma, addiction, neuroscience, spirituality, and consciousness—and the challenge of scientifically understanding one of psychedelics’ most mysterious compounds.   ✨ **Support this work and unlock exclusive conversations with pioneers in psychedelics, neuroscience, consciousness, and frontier science on Patreon:** / thelastalchemist   🔗 **Stay tuned for more conversations exploring the ideas, science, and people reshaping our understanding of the mind and human potential.**