Business Lunch III: The Psychedelic Arms Race ft. Shelby Hartman

It's a beautiful day in Topanga Canon. The breeze is blowing, the birds are chirping, and as we wait for some extravagantly priced breakfast burritos we're joined for Business Lunch by psychedelic media icon Shelby Hartman. After some of the hottest months in psychedelic capitalism to date, there is much to discuss, and with such special company, no location would be more idyllic than the breathtaking Inn of the Seventh Ray. Despite Kai’s ill timed and quite frankly unprofessional digestional distress (gross) we make the most of our afternoon as we reflect on our president making quips about trying Ibogaine in the Oval Office, the implications of the largest pharma company in the world purchasing ATAI Beckley, and the consequences of drinking unfiltered water from a stream in a fire ravaged canyon.

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Links Promised in the Episode

Order The Doubleblind Guide to Psychedelics here.

Follow Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines here.

Follow the Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative here.

Follow and donate to the Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund here.

This episode features music by East Forest and John Hopkins as well as Poranguí

Sources

Executive Office of the President (Executive Order 14401), “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness” [2026]. https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-07907.pdf

Transcend Therapeutics (Press Release), “Otsuka Pharmaceutical to Acquire Transcend Therapeutics” [2026]. https://transcendtherapeutics.com/otsuka-pharmaceutical-to-acquire-transcend-therapeutics/

Steve Paulson for Wisconsin Public Radio, “Psilocybin, the ‘God Molecule,’ and the Quest to Revolutionize Mental Health Care” [2022]. https://www.wpr.org/health/mental-health/psilocybin-god-molecule-and-quest-revolutionize-mental-health-care

Porta Sophia, “Third-Party Pre-Issuance Submission and Claims Chart, U.S. Patent Application No. 17/604,610 (Treatment of Depression and Other Various Disorders with Psilocybin)” [2022]. https://www.portasophia.org/files/claims-charts/17604610_3PS_Claims_Chart-Receipt.pdf

Robert B. Kargbo et al. in ACS Omega, “Direct Phosphorylation of Psilocin Enables Optimized cGMP Kilogram-Scale Manufacture of Psilocybin” [2020]. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c02387

Eyk Henning and Madison Muller for Bloomberg, “Lilly Said to Near Deal for Psychedelic Drugmaker AtaiBeckley” [2026]. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-15/lilly-said-to-near-deal-for-psychedelic-drugmaker-ataibeckley

Shelby Hartman and Madison Margolin, “The DoubleBlind Guide to Psychedelics: A Road Map to Tripping, Microdosing, and Beyond” [2026]. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/shelby-hartman/the-doubleblind-guide-to-psychedelics/9781648291791

Compass Pathways, “Change the Tune in TRD” campaign site: https://www.changethetuneintrd.com/

Maryia Zhdanava et al. in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, “The Prevalence and National Burden of Treatment-Resistant Depression and Major Depressive Disorder in the United States” [2021]. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33989464/

National Institute of Mental Health, “Generalized Anxiety Disorder” statistics page: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/generalized-anxiety-disorder

Steve Levine, MD for HCPLive, “COMP360 Safety Data in Phase 3 TRD Trials, With Steve Levine, MD” [2026]. https://www.hcplive.com/view/comp360-safety-data-phase-3-trd-trials-steve-levine-md

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