8 Ibogaine Podcasts

Hubbard reports Texas will invest $100 million to fund the Texas Ibogaine Initiative, aiming to run a unified FDA drug-development trial and accelerate ibogaine toward approval for addiction and trauma-related conditions.

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry and attorney W. Bryan Hubbard discuss ibogaine, a powerful psychedelic plant medicine, as a breakthrough treatment for veterans’ PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and addiction, especially to opioids. Perry recounts his 17‑year journey from staunch drug opponent to outspoken plant-medicine advocate after witnessing government failures in caring for wounded veterans like Marcus and Morgan Luttrell. Hubbard details the Kentucky Ibogaine Initiative, the Stanford Nature Medicine study showing dramatic neuroregenerative effects in veterans, and how political resistance derailed Kentucky’s plan, which they are now trying to resurrect in Texas. Throughout, they frame ibogaine as both a medical and spiritual tool capable of restoring brain function, ending addiction, and reconnecting people to a sense of divine purpose—if government barriers can be dismantled.

In this episode, retired Tier 1 Navy SEAL DJ Shipley details how extreme structure, physical training, and deliberate transitions between roles keep his mental health stable after years of combat, loss, and severe injury. He walks through his precise morning and evening routines, explaining how “stacking micro wins” and strict control of his environment prevent spirals of stress, rumination, and distraction.

Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke explains how a single dopamine-based reward system underlies both substance and behavioral addictions, from opioids and alcohol to work, sex, gambling, gaming, and social media. She introduces the pleasure–pain “balance” model, where repeated high-dopamine experiences drive the brain into a chronic dopamine-deficit (pain) state that feels like depression and fuels compulsive use. Recovery, she argues, depends on abstaining long enough to let this system reset, re-engaging in low-potency, real-world rewards, and rebuilding honesty and community. The conversation also explores boredom, passion, social media, truth-telling, and why people in long-term recovery often become powerful models for living a meaningful, balanced life.

Andrew Huberman interviews psychiatrist and neurostimulation expert Dr. Nolan Williams about cutting‑edge treatments for depression and trauma, focusing on transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and psychedelic‑assisted therapies. Williams explains how specific prefrontal and cingulate circuits govern mood, heart rate, and our sense of control over internal states, and how targeted stimulation can rapidly reverse severe, even suicidal, depression. They review emerging evidence for ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA, ibogaine, ayahuasca, and cannabis, including mechanisms, safety, and how these compare to traditional SSRIs and psychotherapy. The conversation also covers sleep, circadian tools, and Williams’ SAINT/SNT protocol, a high‑dose, accelerated TMS regimen now in clinical trials that can remit treatment‑resistant depression in days.

Former Navy SEAL ‘Punky’ and physician Dr. Martin Polanco discuss using psychedelics—primarily ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT—to treat PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI), addiction, and suicidality in special operations veterans. Punky recounts decades of cumulative trauma, emotional suppression, heavy medication use, and eventual suicidal crisis that led him to Dr. Polanco’s program, The Mission Within. They explain how psychedelics, in a carefully prepared and supported setting, can surface buried trauma, reduce brain inflammation, promote neurogenesis, and catalyze deep psychological and spiritual shifts. Both emphasize that the medicines are catalysts, not cures; sustained healing depends on integration work, lifestyle changes, and community support.

Chris Williamson interviews former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor Shawn Ryan about his journey from special operations to intelligence work, personal security, and now podcasting and fatherhood.

Lex Fridman and Andrew Huberman explore how careers and creative pursuits evolve, focusing on knowing when to pivot from personal achievement to mentoring the next generation. They unpack recent scientific controversies around cannabis, nicotine, peptides, and weight‑loss drugs, and how online discourse can distort good‑faith science communication. The conversation ranges through practices for focus and creativity, Jungian ideas of the shadow and unconscious, psychedelics and time perception, and Huberman’s aspirations for family, lifestyle, and where to live. Underneath it all is a recurring theme: choosing people, practices, and platforms that align with deep values rather than external validation.