July 31, 2024—The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) today announced Altered States, a new podcast exploring what science can tell us about psychedelics and what psychedelics can tell us about ourselves. The podcast is brought to listeners in partnership with Pulitzer and Peabody-winning public media organization PRX, one of the world’s top podcast publishers.
Altered States—made possible thanks to the generous support of the Start Something That Matters Foundation—will launch with new weekly episodes from Wednesday, August 7. Episodes will be free on-demand across all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Pocket Casts, and Overcast. Hosted by accomplished podcast host and science journalist Arielle Duhaime-Ross––who previously hosted VICE News Reports––the podcast will explore and interrogate both the promises and pitfalls of today’s psychedelic era.
“Covering psychedelics, at this moment, is captivating because it means reporting on cutting-edge medicine and science – two things I love – but also a whole slew of other deeply consequential issues,” says Duhaime-Ross. “You’ve got environmental issues, VC funding shenanigans, health claims, profound cultural shifts, life-changing experiences, and, in some cases, the tension that often surfaces when a bunch of white people start selling substances and performing rituals that have long histories within Indigenous communities.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently designated MDMA, LSD, and psilocybin as ‘breakthrough therapies’ for treating conditions including PTSD and anxiety disorders. There are hundreds of clinical studies underway. Psychedelics are now at the center of a global conversation about mental health, religious mysticism, and even how we experience life and death. In Altered States, host Arielle Duhaime-Ross explores stories and debates about who should have access to these substances, who should profit from them, how they should be used, regulated, and experienced, and what they might offer both individuals and society.
The show delves into Oregon’s groundbreaking psilocybin legalization, features insights from author Michael Pollan on psychedelics’ history in America, and examines the Native American Church’s efforts to preserve peyote amid decriminalization pushes. It also investigates lesser-known aspects of psychedelic use, including rare visual disorders and their application in treating veterans’ traumatic brain injuries. From retreats to emerging businesses, Altered States offers a comprehensive look at the complex landscape of psychedelic substances and their potential impact on society and healthcare.
The UC Berkeley Psychedelic Survey (July 2023) revealed that 48% of U.S. voters have recently heard about psychedelics, with 61% supporting regulated therapeutic access. However, public perception and opinion about psychedelics’ potential impact on society remains complex. Altered States aims to shed light on this complexity, offering listeners in-depth, nuanced, and inquisitive reporting on the fast-moving world of psychedelics.
“As public awareness and interest in psychedelics research continues to grow, so does the need for accessible, accurate, and reliable information,” says BCSP Faculty Director Michael Silver. “The BCSP’s ‘Altered States’ podcast is a crucial addition to our public education efforts, offering in-depth, rigorous reporting on scientific, societal, and personal aspects of psychedelics. Through impactful storytelling and analysis, this podcast, along with our Center’s other initiatives like ‘The Microdose’ newsletter and our journalism fellowships, will help foster an informed public discourse on the benefits and challenges of psychedelics and their implications for society.”
Altered States is the latest addition to the BCSP’s journalism programs, which includes reporting on psychedelics in the twice-weekly newsletter The Microdose, the Ferriss-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowships, and the Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Psychedelic Documentary Fellowships.
Meet the Altered States Team
Arielle Duhaime-Ross
Host
Arielle Duhaime-Ross is a science journalist, podcast host, and TV host based in Portland, Oregon. Their work has appeared on Vox, The Verge, Quartz, Scientific American, and on VICE News Reports, the outlet’s flagship news podcast, which they hosted for three years.
Duhaime-Ross was also the first climate change correspondent in American nightly TV news. They spent three years covering climate stories from around the world, for HBO’s VICE News Tonight. At VICE News, Duhaime-Ross later hosted a TV show called Queer Sports, as well as an award-winning podcast named A Show About Animals, which tackled the controversy surrounding ape language research in the 1970s and Koko, the gorilla.
Malia Wollan
Executive Producer
Malia Wollan is editor in chief of journalism projects at BCSP and director of the UC Berkeley-11th Hour Food and Farming Journalism Fellowship at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. She is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine. Her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Public Radio, New York Magazine, Fast Company,The Associated Press,PBS’s Frontline/World, and elsewhere.
Jocelyn Gonzalez
Executive Producer
Jocelyn Gonzales is executive producer of PRX Productions. Previously, she was executive producer of Studio 360, the Peabody Award-winning radio show and podcast. She produced the Popcast and Book Review podcasts at The New York Times for 10 years, and worked on podcasts for American Public Media, Hello Sunshine, and others. She has contributed reporting and production to outlets such as Radiolab and Marketplace. She’s produced audiobooks at Simon & Schuster Audio, and mixed independent films and animated shorts. Gonzales is a long-time faculty member of the film and TV department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is a senior producer and engineer at Feet In Two Worlds, an award-winning non-profit journalism program focused on reporting in immigrant communities.
Adizah Eghan
Senior Editor
An audio producer and editor with over ten years of experience in podcasting, public radio, and digital media, Adizah Eghan was most recently the executive producer of the podcast VICE News Reports. Prior to VICE, she worked at The New York Times where she produced The Daily and 1619. Her work has also aired and been featured on Snap Judgment, Reveal, National Public Radio, KQED, and elsewhere.
Jennie Cataldo
Senior Producer
Jennie Cataldo is an award-winning radio and podcast producer living in San Francisco. She has been producing audio stories and programs since 2011, including commercial and public radio programs, audio documentaries, short form audio series, specials and podcasts. Jennie has worked with clients such as the United States Library of Congress, NPR’s 1A, UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as NOVA, Google, Patagonia and The Peabody Awards through her work with PRX. Her work has been recognized yearly at the New York Festivals International Radio Awards since 2015, where she won the Grand Award in 2022 and also serves as a Radio Awards Advisory Board member. She loves music, collects vinyl records, and drives a pastel yellow convertible because life is short.
Cassady Rosenblum
Associate Producer
Cassady Rosenblum is a journalist based in Taos, New Mexico. Last year, she was a Fellow at The New York Times, where she primarily edited guest essays for Opinion. In 2022, she was a Ferris-UC Berkeley Journalism Fellow, and wrote about Mormons finding a new faith in magic mushrooms. When she’s not producing Altered States, you can find her writing about psychedelics and spirituality for Rolling Stone or working on her new magazine, Thunder Perfect Mind.
Edwin Ochoa
Project Manager
Edwin Ochoa is the director of partner operations at PRX. He has worked as project manager on productions such as Monumental, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, The Joy of Why, and Smithsonian Magazine’s There’s More to That. In addition to project management, Edwin works across the PRX portfolio of podcast and broadcast shows.