On episode 51 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with Dr. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD—associate professor at Stanford, anesthesiologist, neuroscientist, & one of the most extraordinary scientists & clinicians who is truly revolutionizing mental health! He pushes the boundaries of how we approach consciousness, mental health, & pharmacology—asking questions most people are too afraid to traverse: Do we need to be awake for drugs to heal the brain? What exactly are ketamine, MDMA, & psilocybin doing when they flip a circuit? Could anesthesiology itself hold keys to psychiatry’s future?

And yet what makes Boris remarkable isn’t only the science—it’s who he is. Over two hours, he shares not just his cutting-edge research but his story: moving from Moscow to the U.S., struggling with belonging, discovering MDMA & LSD in college, & how those experiences of connection still shape his lab’s vision today. We explore MDMA for OCD & autism, the limits of “magic bullet” thinking, why context & lifestyle matter more than a single intervention, & how anesthesiology lets him practice applied neuroscience in real time. If you want to understand where psychiatry is heading & hear from one of field's foremost minds, this is an episode you cannot miss.

Topics Discussed (+ Timestamps):

(00:00:00 ) Introduction & welcome to Dr. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD!

(00:08:44 ) How Boris & I first met, & why I've admired him since!

(00:11:00 ) Who Boris is beyond titles: curiosity, sci-fi imagination, & breaking boundaries

(00:16:00 ) Childhood across Moscow, Denver, St. Louis, Philly → disconnection & search for belonging

(00:17:30 ) College discoveries: MDMA & LSD → the shock of true connection

(00:19:30 ) MDMA for autism spectrum: Alicia Danforth’s trial & showing connection for the first time

(00:22:00 ) Psychedelics as tools, not cures → lifestyle & comorbidities vs. one-day interventions

(00:27:00 ) How reductionistic models fail to capture what psychedelics actually do

(00:31:00 ) Anesthesiology + psychiatry + neuroscience → how Boris integrates it all

(00:36:40 ) Applied neuroscience: giving drugs, flipping brain states in real time

(00:43:00 ) Why mental health was always his focus & the bottlenecks of human communication

(01:00:00 ) Translational bridge: MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin across mice & humans

(01:12:00 ) What anesthesiology teaches psychiatry about states, context, & timing

(01:25:00 ) Team science vs. lone-genius myth → collaboration, controversy, courage

(01:36:00 ) What makes psychedelic medicine powerful: bending life trajectories, not instant cures

(01:45:00 ) How to measure outcomes when the drug is just the beginning

(01:55:00 ) Risks, hype, & how to ground the field in reality without losing hope

(02:10:00 ) Closing reflections: radical curiosity, gratitude, & staying human in the science

Connect with Dr. Boris Heifets!

• Heifets Lab Website
• Read Boris' publications here
• Email
• X/Twitter: @TheBorisLab
• LinkedIn

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