#116 Meet The World’s Greatest Psychedelic Receptor Scientist

Bryan L. Roth is a drug receptor scientist who solved the crystal
structure of LSD inside a serotonin receptor and took $26.9
million from DARPA to build a non-hallucinogenic psychedelic — a
compound that hits the same receptor as psilocybin, produces
antidepressant effects in mice, and doesn't cause a trip.


Expect to learn how his mother's schizophrenia launched a 40-year
career in pharmacology, why Salvia divinorum has zero serotonin
activity and works entirely through the kappa opioid receptor,
why serotonin and opioid receptors converge in the claustrum, why
DARPA funded non-hallucinogenic alternatives for soldiers, how
his lab screens a trillion compounds that don't physically exist,
why only 100 of 26,000 protein targets have ever been drugged,
and much more…





Timestamps:


00:00 Bryan L. Roth — The Man Who Builds Non-Hallucinogenic
Psychedelics


02:41 Falling Into Receptor Science by Accident


04:58 When Only 5 People on Earth Studied Psychedelic Receptors


06:07 Why "Psychedelic" Was Banned From Research Grants


07:28 The 2016 Papers That Changed Everything


08:26 The Scientist Friend Who Got "Cured" by Psilocybin


10:41 The Vietnam Vet With a Gun in His Mouth — Ibogaine's Power


12:50 What Is Ibogaine and Why Can It Kill You?


18:06 Why the Kappa Opioid System Breaks Reality


19:07 The Hidden History of Psychotomimetic Opioids


22:16 Why Opioid Researchers Deny Kappa Causes Hallucinations


23:18 The Claustrum: Where Serotonin and Opioid Receptors Meet


24:14 Multiple Entry Points Into Reality-Altering Brain Systems


28:35 Why Psychedelic Experiences Feel So Meaningful


29:58 DMT: "More Real Than Reality" — And Nobody Knows Why


31:28 Salvia: Becoming Plaid on a Wall


33:48 Trump's $50M Psychedelic Order Won't Buy One Clinical Trial


35:33 No Other Psychedelic Touches the Kappa Receptor


38:10 The Real Reason He Built a Non-Hallucinogenic Psychedelic


41:33 DARPA: More Psychiatric Casualties Than Physical in the
Military


44:48 Biased Agonism: Stripping the Trip From the Therapy


47:19 How GPCRs Work and Why Drug Design Is Still Trial and Error


49:50 People Who Will Never Touch a Psychedelic But Do Cocaine
Weekly


52:27 "I Don't Discuss That" — Whether He's Taken Psychedelics


52:47 Screening a Trillion Drugs That Don't Exist


55:02 The Real Bottleneck: 26,000 Targets, Only 100 Drugged...





Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com ️
Subscribe to our main channel -
https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Spotify -
https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=Ka2rAQv7TyqiC9wvGwERpA
Follow on Apple Podcasts -
https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249Download
my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE:
https://thegiantsshoulder.com/