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Brave New World
David Nutt and Amanda Feilding: The Psychedelic Renaissance
Could psychedelics be used to help tackle mental health issues like depression and addiction? In this episode of Brave New World, Evgeny Lebedev speaks to Professor David Nutt, one the leading researchers in this controversial field. His former student, now professor, Robin Carhart-Harris, describes the impact of his study comparing psychedelic medicine with mainstream medicine. Evgeny also meets pioneers like Amanda Feilding who developed the first images of the brain on LSD, and the psychologist Bill Richards who explains his research into consciousness. He also speaks to Buzzfeed journalist Lara Parker who used ketamine assisted therapy to treat clinical depression. In this episode:
- How do psychedelics really affect the brain?
- Why David Nutt says they can “disrupt the thought loops” behind depression
- How effective is ketamine assisted therapy?
- Robin Carhart-Harris describes his work with ‘magic mushrooms’
- Why Amanda Feilding set up the Foundation to Further Consciousness
- Bill Richardson on why ‘mystical consciousness’ is becoming “a scientific term”
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4. Gary Brecka on What's Wrong with Modern Medicine and the Secrets to a Longer Life
45:57||Season 4, Ep. 4For Episode Four, Evgeny is joined by human biologist, longevity science monolith and founder of The Ultimate Human, Gary Brecka. Together, they explore why so many people feel stuck at a “six out of ten,” what Gary believes to be the cause of fatigue, brain fog, poor sleep, soreness, low mood, and why poor exercise recovery is often driven by nutrient deficiencies.Gary shares his unconventional background as a mortality expert in life insurance, where he used massive datasets to predict lifespan with extreme accuracy. In the conversation, he challenges modern medicine’s tendency to label many chronic conditions as “familial” or “idiopathic” and details how to treat the most common gene mutation in the world, which is also Gary's bêtes noire: MHTF.We’d like to thank The Ultimate Human for providing the video clips featured in this episode. This episode was produced by Message Heard and The Standard.Producer: Florence de SchlichtingProduction Coordinator: James CoxProduction Manager: Kirsty McLeanVideo Editor: Nani WenaniThe Standard team: Joe BromleyWill Rogers-Coltman
3. Will Ahmed on Perfecting Your Sleep Routine and Analysis Paralysis
37:55||Season 4, Ep. 3In Episode Three of Brave New World, Evgeny is joined by Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of WHOOP. Together, they explore recovery, sleep, and the idea that “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Ahmed explains how overtraining as a Harvard athlete led him to build his own wearable, identifying a major gap in health diagnostics at the time: measuring recovery, not just performance.He explains what WHOOP tracks - sleep quality, strain, heart rate variability (HRV), recovery, and stress; dives into why seven hours in bed can still mean poor sleep; and why consistency of bedtime and wake time often matters more than raw hours.Evgeny and Ahmed get practical on health trends, address the criticism that wearables culture a state of analysis paralysis and how to use metrics as a tool, not a verdict.This episode was produced by Message Heard and The Standard.Producer: Florence de SchlichtingProduction Coordinator: James CoxProduction Manager: Kirsty McLeanVideo Editor: Nani WenaniThe Standard team:Joe BromleyWill Rogers-Coltman
2. ZOE's Dr Federica Amati and Professor Tim Spector Debunk the Biggest Food Myths
48:00||Season 4, Ep. 2In this episode, Evgeny sits down with Professor Tim Spector and Dr Federica Amati - two of the leading scientific voices behind personalised nutrition company ZOE - to rethink everything we’ve been told about food.From the myth of “good” and “bad” fats to calorie-counting obsessions, Tim and Federica uncover why so much of our nutritional advice is outdated, over-simplified - and in some cases, actively harmful. They unpack how ultra-processed foods and constant snacking damage our gut, why breakfast is not magically the most important meal of the day, and how time-restricted eating might be the key to optimising your daily health.At the core of their discussion is a simple idea: eat for your gut microbes. This episode was produced by Message Heard and The Standard.Producer: Florence de SchlichtingProduction Coordinator: James CoxProduction Manager: Kirsty McLeanVideo Editor: Nani WenaniThe Standard team: Joe BromleyWill Rogers-Coltman
1. Steven Bartlett on How to Supercharge Your Company and Why He's Scared of an AI Apocalypse
01:24:16||Season 4, Ep. 1Welcome to the first episode of Season 4 of Brave New World.This time, Evgeny is joined by Steven Bartlett to talk about mindset, ambition and the future. He shares how he manages “a million tabs” without burning out, why self-empathy boosts performance, and how a humiliating paddle match taught him a breakthrough lesson on failure.He opens up about growing up in poverty and shame, the influence of his mum, and why the biggest entrepreneurial lesson he learned was simply: have an idea, then do it.Steven unpacks the thinking behind his book Just F**ing Do It, the neuroscience of hard things, his obsession with 1% gains, and why his company has a “Head of Failure.”The conversation expands to happiness, arrival fallacy, AI, humanoid robots, the future of work, the creator economy, and why he’d homeschool his future kids to double down on uniquely human skills.This episode was produced by Message Heard and The London Standard.Producer: Florence de SchlichtingProduction Coordinator: James CoxProduction Manager: Kirsty McLeanVideo Editor: Nani WenaniThe Standard team:Joe BromleyWill Rogers-Coltman
6. Dr John Krystal: Why ketamine can solve a mental health epidemic
01:13:35||Season 3, Ep. 6In today’s episode, Evgeny Lebedev talks about the remarkable potential of ketamine with Dr John Krystal, Professor of neuroscience at the Yale School of Medicine. Their discussion delves into the world of neurology, what ketamine actually does to our brain and the importance of glutamate receptors in treating depression. Ketamine may have gotten bad press after Friends actor Matthew Perry died of an overdose while receiving treatment with the drug, but for Dr Krystal, it is a critically overlooked solution to the epidemic of mental illness.Also in this episode:Ketamine’s complicated history starting in the 1950sThe real reason depression leads to suicideWhy ketamine is effective at dealing with traumaThe detailed procedure of ketamine therapy The importance of ketamine’s “narrow window” dosageKetamine’s reputation and why it needs to change
5. Dr Peter Attia: Medicine 3.0
53:48||Season 3, Ep. 5In today’s episode, we are excited to be joined by Peter Attia: a longevity expert, physician, and bestselling author. Peter’s podcast, The Drive, is one of the most popular in the world. Through it, he’s brought cutting edge science to the masses, sharing tips and tricks, some of which are still experimental, on how to boost your chances of ageing well. Tune into Peter and Evgeny’s conversation on what the former calls “Medicine 3.0” — his blueprint for good health — and how happiness is essential to longevity, not just a bonus. “It doesn’t matter how healthy you are,” Peter says, “if the most important relationships in your life are not happy.” Topics covered include: The difference between health span and lifespanHow AI can revolutionise clinical trials and the development of new medicines How to regulate glucose levelsTips to reducing caloric intakeWhy cancer immunity is under-researchedHow to prevent heart diseaseDebunking the biggest myths around nutrition
4. Dr. Aubrey de Grey: Why we don’t “have” to age
45:25||Season 3, Ep. 4Evgeny Lebedev joins Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a visionary in biomedical gerontology and co-founder of the SENS Research Foundation.Known for his radical approach to ageing, Dr. de Grey discusses why some need to awaken from a "pro-ageing trance".What’s Aubrey’s biological age?In this episode:Why we don’t “have” to ageReversing cellular agingThe ethical questions surrounding life extensionThe societal shifts we might expect if ageing becomes a treatable conditionThe science behind extending the human healthspanPlus more.
3. Dame Helen Mirren: “Religion is a passport to violence and greed"
40:15||Season 3, Ep. 3On today’s show Evgeny Lebedev is in conversation with the Oscar-winning actor, Dame Helen Mirren.They discuss everything from the evolution of fashion to the contemporary media landscape.“It’s so sad that Kurt Cobain died when he did, because he never got to see GPS”Also in this episode:The evolution of technology and why Helen is grateful to have been around in a world without itHow young people rediscover previously forgotten tech and bring it back to lifeHelen reflects on spirituality, the power of belief and how it shapes our lives, but why she doesn't believe in God.Russian heritage and the complexities of her identityHow Helen stays youthful, both in body and mind
2. NuCalm’s Jim Poole on anxiety: Why the brain ‘knows how to heal’
43:45||Season 3, Ep. 2Evgeny Lebedev is joined by Jim Poole, chairman, president and chief executive of neuroscience company Solace Life Sciences.The company owns NuCalm, a technology designed to reduce stress and improve sleep without recourse to drugs.You may have even spotted the Duchess of Sussex wearing one of their stress relief patches.In this episode, Evgeny and Jim explore the evolution of the human brain, anxiety and how to deregulate the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped part of the brain that plays a central role, which Jim says ‘feeds on fear’. In this episode:The current state of brain understandingBrain psychology and its evolutionThe autonomic nervous system and how it shapes everything from stress to relaxationHo to control anxious thoughtsHow to downregulate the amygdala, the part of the brain that triggers intense fear responsesDifferent frequencies in the brain and how they influence mental statesWhy “the Western world may be leading the cause” of anxiety