Therapy with psychedelic drugs has shown remarkable promise in treating depression, PTSD and the terminally ill. But scientists are still unsure how it works – why going on a single psychedelic journey could help to rewire a person’s brain. Dr. Anthony Back is an oncologist who found his way to this research through his work in palliative care. As part of his training, he took his own psychedelic journey and wrote about it in a medical journal. We talk about what captivates him about this therapy, what his own experience was like and how it’s made him think differently about the human mind and body.

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Anthony L. Back MD

Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Shane Mehling.

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Our immune systems have evolved to overcome all kinds of flus, plagues and poxes, but the process of adaptation is slow. Harmit Malik is a Professor and Associate Director of the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutch. He is part of a team that is working on a way to put evolution into overdrive to fight future diseases. The novel approach uses the remains of dead viruses that have built up in our bodies over the millennia to help quickly create millions of genetic variants in order to find the right combination that can target the next big virus.

More resources:

• Harmik Malik
• Malik Lab

Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Shane Mehling.

We can only make Pocket Science because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Pocket Science in your feed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Moons get no respect. People think of them as dead and cold, often overshadowed (literally) by the superstar planets they orbit around. But planetary scientist Baptiste Journaux would disagree. He’s fascinated by moons and the growing research that has shown that moons are far more active than we used to think. In fact, they contain heat and ice and essential components needed for life. Pocket Science host Gabriel Spitzer talks with Journaux about the latest discoveries of frozen planets and the upcoming NASA mission to explore Titan, the moon orbiting Saturn.

GUEST:

Baptiste Journaux is an astrobiologist, mineral physicist, planetary scientist … and rock collector. He’s an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington.

Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Shane Mehling.

We can only make Pocket Science because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Pocket Science in your feed.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.