Resources
Access a curated list of podcasts, movies, books and clinical trials studies.
Burnout leads to reduced productivity and increased turnover. Together, we can stop it in its tracks. The number one way to help retain employees and keep them engaged is to adopt an overall strategy to support mental health in the workplace.
Psychedelic Hub
Podcasts
In this episode of The Oprah Podcast, Oprah and bestselling author Michael Pollan discuss the potential of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin (also known as magic mushrooms) and LSD as a benefit to help relieve symptoms of PTSD, OCD, anxiety, addiction, or depression. Michael’s 2018 book, "How to Change Your Mind", was a watershed moment in the rising national conversation about the use of psychedelics in guided therapy.
In this conversation, Paul F. Austin speaks with Dr. Dave Rabin, neuroscientist, board-certified psychiatrist, and co-founder of Apollo Neuroscience, about one of the most important questions in psychedelic work: why do some journeys become overwhelming, destabilizing, or difficult to integrate?
Rachael, a trauma therapist and today's storyteller, describes how her early childhood abuse was buried by the protective mechanism of dissociative amnesia. As Rachael wrote to Dr. H, “The only way I could continue to live, with no way out, with no one to tell, with no words even to describe what was happening to me, was to forget what was happening to me….when our minds forget, our bodies remember.”
In this episode, my guest is Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, distinguished professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He is one of leading researchers in the study of how psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD and DMT can change the human brain and in doing so, be used to successfully treat various mental health challenges such as major depression, anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and addiction.
Movies
Delve into the magical world of fungi, from mushrooms that clear oil spills to underground fungal networks that help trees communicate.
The documentary follows Adrianne, a suicidal woman in Vancouver battling severe depression, anxiety, and a long-term opioid addiction, who turns to underground healers using illegal psychedelics like magic mushrooms and iboga.
A young Indigenous woman is separated from her family by violence and tragedy as a child and later in life is found by Ayahuasca. On her path of healing, she discovers her essence and becomes a curandera for herself and others. This is the real-life story of what happens in the jungle and one's consciousness when one becomes whole.
Author Michael Pollan leads the way in this documentary series exploring the history and use of psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin and MDMA.
Leadership Hub
Podcasts
Produced independently, Hidden Brain helps curious people understand the world — and themselves. Using science and storytelling, Hidden Brain reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, the biases that shape our choices, and the triggers that direct the course of our relationships.
Nilay Patel interviews tech CEOs and unpacks the business decisions behind the products we use. This one is excellent for sharpening your own strategic thinking — you get to watch how other CEOs justify hard calls (org design, pricing, platform bets) in real time, which is exactly the kind of pattern-matching that makes you sharper in your own boardroom.
What does it take to succeed in an enterprise-level leadership role today?
This is the one I'd insist on for a senior leader specifically because it's not tech-only — it pulls from broader management science, org psychology, and leadership research, then translates it into practice. Given your interest in executive influence and stakeholder management, this is the closest match to the frameworks you've already been building out.
Books and Clinical Trials Studies
The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide by James Fasiman
Clinical Trials and Studies
Psilocybin for creativity: Following a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group design, we demonstrated that psilocybin induced a time-and construct-related differentiation of effects on creative thinking.
Read the paper> Mason NL, Kuypers KPC, Reckweg JT, Müller F, Tse DHY, Da Rios B, Toennes SW, Stiers P, Feilding A, Ramaekers JG. Spontaneous and deliberate creative cognition during and after psilocybin exposure. Transl Psychiatry. 2021 Apr 8
How psilocybin mushrooms ’rewire’ the brain: Here we used psilocybin, a classic psychedelic found in magic mushrooms, and a functional MRI (fMRI) protocol designed to capture the transition from normal waking consciousness to the psychedelic state.
Read the paper > Carhart-Harris RL, Erritzoe D, Williams T, et al. Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. PNAS. 2012;109(6):2138-2143. doi:10.1073/pnas.1119598109
Summary: A single dose of psilocybin, a psychedelic that acutely causes distortions of space-time perception and ego dissolution, produces rapid and persistent therapeutic effects in human clinical trials.
Read the paper > Siegel JS, Subramanian S, Perry D, et.al. Psilocybin Desynchronizes the Human Brain. Nature. 2024 Aug
Psychological effects of a high dose of psilocybin: When administered under supportive conditions, psilocybin occasioned experiences similar to spontaneously occurring mystical experiences.
Effects of Psilocybin on personality in healthy adults: This 2011 paper reports on the effects of psilocybin on five aspects of personality; neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness on healthy volunteers.
Read to the paper > MacLean KA, Johnson MW, Griffiths RR. Mystical experiences occasioned by the hallucinogen psilocybin lead to increases in the personality domain of openness. J Psychopharmacol. 2011 Nov;25