My Psychedelic Roots

Yamina Abassi is a lover of life, a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, and she makes sense of the how's and why's of life through relationship and connection. Her journey with psychedelics began as a young adult in recreational settings, and she quickly became fascinated with its potential to offer new ways of understanding herself, others, and the world around her. This curiosity and love for people, along with a near-death exp...

Judith is a New York-born-and-bred naturalized Canadian mother of two young adults. She is a technical writer and trainer, and like many folks curious about psychedelics, also a life-long learner. She came to the psychedelic community in 2018 as she was seeking relief from overwhelming grief, depression, and anxiety. As we hear in this episode, Judith took a measured approach to her entry into the psychedelic space, coming to psych...

Raymond Feng is a breakdancer, writer, appreciator of life, and a self-described life-long learner. He discovered his passion for psychonautics through psychedelic medicine and spirituality, and has brought that passion into his life in a variety of ways. Academically, he has finished two Bachelor degrees at University of Ottawa, one in Biomedical Sciences and the other in Psychology, and recently completed a Master’s in Mental Hea...

Manzar Zare is a Muslim woman, mother, legal professional and PhD student who is conducting research on psychedelics and the mental health of people of color, with a particular focus on support to Muslim women. This research naturally played a big role in her decision to have her own experience with psychedelics, which she recently experienced in a well supported retreat in Jamaica. This decision also came out of her experience of ...

Joe La Torre is a psychedelic enthusiast and researcher, currently serving as Lead Research Psychologist at the Center for Novel Therapeutics in Addiction Psychiatry (NTAP) at the University of Washington, where he co-leads a variety of research including a three-year Phase 2 psilocybin safety clinical trial funded by the state of Washington. In our conversation, Joe shares his path towards psychedelics, which includes questioning...

Laura Ritzie is a counsellor with over 20 years of experience supporting clients in both the public and private sectors. She is also a PhD student with a passion for researching psilocybin in ceremony and contributing to conversations about loss, grief and our relationship with death. She is curious about people's experiences of connection in relation to resilience, meaning making and flourishing. And she is a warm and thoughtful p...

Trigger Warning: discussions of suicide and suicidality

Kellen Saxberg is a self-proclaimed queer history nerd, psychedelic enthusiast, and student researcher on the intersection of queerness, psychedelics and healing. In our conversation together, Kellen and I talk about navigating conservativism and queerness in their youth, their experiences of losing a sense of self, experiencing awe and cultivating trust, and eventually moving ...

Tahlia Harrison is a therapist, researcher and bioethicist who comes from an ethnically, culturally, spiritually, and racially mixed background. Not surprisingly, she is someone who embraces complexity, and as our conversation reveals, much of her career and research interests in psychology and ethics stem from her own personal experiences navigating complex relationships and traumatic experiences. In our chat, we also get to know ...

Sheldomar Elliot has years of experience in food justice, community support and research roles, and is deeply committed to addressing food insecurity and advancing Black food sovereignty across the City of Toronto. As you will hear in this episode, Sheldomar is also passionate about exploring the intersections of psychedelics with access, community, and healing.

Our wide-reaching conversation touches on his experiences of magic and ...

Katherine Kimbell, (RN, BA) was introduced to the concept of psychedelics by the CBC Radio program "Ideas" in November 2015 at age 78. This was a profoundly life-changing experience that led to her eventual first psychedelic experience a few months later. Her story is wonderfully unique, while also echoing the pains that many people navigate in life—grappling with the loss of faith, confronting shame, and cultivating acceptance and...

In this inaugural episode of the podcast, we sit down with Victor Distefano Wiltenburg, a Brazilian PhD student studying in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa. He currently works with medicinal plants and entheogens, studying the ayahuasca neo-shamanic movement in Brazil and Canada. Victor has a unique story of his psychedelic roots, and his path has woven together science and spirituality in some surprising ways...