Giants Shoulder

A Biology & Consciousness podcast chronically the bio-singularity. Three times per week I speak with leading scientists at the bleeding edge of AI synthetic biology, consciousness & inner experience, genetics, psychedelics and drug science. Giants Shoulder is intended to be accessible & entertaining for all ages. No idea is too strange, tackled with genuine curiosity and technical rigour. Come follow the journey as I have my brain melted and ontology warped on a regular basis. Evan has a Neuroscience degree from Trinity College Dublin and is founder of Giants Shoulder.

Giants Shoulder is a science podcast hosted by Evan McGloughlin, with 152 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Evan McGloughlin hosts Giants Shoulder, a science show with 152 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Giants Shoulder

  #148 - No. 1 Ibogaine Scientist: “Trump’s Decision On Ibogaine Changes EVERYTHING!”

  Aug 20, 20261h 2m

  JOIN THE GIANT’S SHOULDER FAMILYBecome a YouTube Member for exclusive episodes, early access + ad-free viewing https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder/joinDeborah Mash is a neuropharmacologist who holds the first FDA licence ever granted to give ibogaine to a human being, built one of America's largest brain banks, and discovered noribogaine — the metabolite now entering its first US clinical trial. She has spent over thirty years on a drug that appears to interrupt addiction after a single dose. This April a US president named it specifically. This is the scientist who was right three decades early.Expect to learn what Trump's executive order actually changes for ibogaine, why Sasha Shulgin put ibogaine in a box of its own, how noribogaine blocks nicotine, alcohol, cocaine and opioid use in animal models, why ibogaine holds the brain's neuroplasticity window open for four weeks when ketamine manages days, why some patients get the full therapeutic benefit with no psychedelic experience at all, why the reported ibogaine deaths are almost impossible to interpret, why more than 80% of her patients said they never wanted to repeat it, and much more...SPONSORSGet Jenni Your Intelligent Research Assistant (GIANT20 for 20% off) - http://jenni.ai/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=inf&utm_campaign=thegiantsshoulderJoin the Outskill AI Mastery Sprint (Free This Weekend) - https://links.outskill.com/GIASHOULAUG2GS EPISODES MENTIONEDDavid Nutt - Meet the Neuroscientist Fired For Exposing the Truth! Dr David Nutt: https://youtu.be/BLk6a5Vb2O0David Nutt - Neuroscientist Ranks Every Drug By How Hard They Are to Quit! Tier List: https://youtu.be/G-OZ_UBGvvoGUEST LINKSUniversity of Miami Faculty Profile: http://neurology.med.miami.edu/about-us/faculty-list/deborah-c-mash-ph-dX: https://x.com/drdeborahmashGoogle Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4383E7wAAAAJ&hl=enDemeRx: https://www.demerx.com/team/deborah-c-mash-phd/2018 Frontiers in Pharmacology paper (St. Kitts cohort): https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2018.00529/fullWant a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/aboutFOLLOW EVANhttps://x.com/evan_mcglTIMESTAMPS0:00:00 Trailer0:02:00 Why Ibogaine Is Suddenly Everywhere0:02:22 Trump's Executive Order and What It Actually Does0:05:55 The Drug That Breaks the Cycle of Addiction0:08:07 Why One Drug Treats Addiction, Depression and Trauma0:11:30 Noribogaine: The Metabolite Nobody Talks About0:14:20 The Real Risks Nobody Reports Properly0:16:36 How Ibogaine Became a Vast Underground Experiment0:17:44 Veterans, Brain Trauma and the Testimonials0:22:55 The Master Molecule: Why Ibogaine Stands Alone0:23:30 Sasha Shulgin Draws Four Boxes0:26:48 Is a Psychedelic Just a Hard Reboot?0:28:11 Four Weeks of Neuroplasticity, Longer Than Anything Else0:28:44 Fast, Slow and Ultra-Rapid Metabolisers0:31:39 The First Patient in St. Kitts, Decades Later0:34:35 Do You Need the Trip to Reach the Destination?0:35:05 One Molecule, Every Addiction0:37:39 Miami Vice and the Bodies at the Morgue0:41:18 The Man Who Slept Through His Own Trip0:44:11 Why America Will Lead on Ibogaine0:47:51 Dual Dosing: The Second Stage of the Rocket0:54:52 Why More Than 80% Never Want to Repeat It0:57:33 What Would Ibogaine Do to a Healthy Brain?0:58:18 Why She's Never Taken Ibogaine0:59:39 Psychedelics, Longevity and Ageing Brains......Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com

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  Giants Shoulder

  #147 - No. 1 Mitochondria Psychobiologist: "Mitochondria Create Consciousness and Near-Death Experiences"

  Aug 17, 20261h 4m

  Get Jenni Your Intelligent Research Assistant (GIANT20 for 20% off) - http://jenni.ai/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=inf&utm_campaign=thegiantsshoulder Join the Outskill AI Mastery Sprint (Free This Weekend): https://links.outskill.com/GIASHOULAUG2 Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about Martin Picard is a mitochondrial psychobiologist at Columbia University who just won the inaugural $1.5 million Baszucki Prize for a new theory of life. His radical claim: consciousness doesn't just run on energy, it might actually be made of it, generated inside your mitochondria rather than your brain. Expect to learn why calling mitochondria "the powerhouse of the cell" does them a disservice, how mitochondria might generate consciousness rather than just power the brain that has it, why some of history's most rigorous physicists ended up believing consciousness is more fundamental than matter, how psychedelics might work by reshaping the way energy is patterned through your body, why grey hair can reverse itself within weeks of a stressful period lifting, how a simple blood test might one day predict whether you're about to have a good or bad trip, why "no drug actually heals you" and what does instead, and much more. Timestamps: 0:00:00 Trailer 0:02:00 What Actually Keeps You Alive (Not What You Think) 0:04:40 Why There's No Experience Without Energy Flow 0:07:11 Are You Conscious Because of Matter, or Despite It? 0:10:13 Why History's Greatest Physicists Became Idealists 0:17:17 The Doctor Who Watched Patients Come Back From Death 0:22:09 Don Hoffman and the Day the Beach Disappeared 0:24:12 What Actually Triggers a Near-Death Experience 0:24:51 You Are an Eddy in a River of Consciousness 0:31:59 Bernardo Kastrup's Idealism, Tested Live 0:33:34 Could We Scan Your Energy and Predict Your Mind? 0:39:37 Stop Calling Mitochondria "The Powerhouse" 0:40:03 Your Cells Are Basically Tiny GPUs 0:41:04 How Psychedelics Might Rewrite Your Energy Pattern 0:49:10 The Study Testing Whether Psilocybin Changes Your Mitochondria 0:52:06 "It's Not the Drug That Heals You"0:52:38 A Blood Test That Predicts Your Best (and Worst) Trip 0:57:27 The Psychedelic Paradox: Less Brain, More Experience 0:58:57 Aldous Huxley's "Reducing Valve" Theory of the Brain 1:02:03 "The Brain Is Overrated" ... Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com GS Episodes Mentioned: Robin Carhart-Harris - No. 1 Psychedelic Scientist: The Entropic Brain Hypothesis, Consciousness & DMT Entities: https://youtu.be/t-GkE4YtLRk Guest Links: Columbia Faculty Profile: https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/profile/martin-picard-phd Personal Website: https://www.martinpicard.energy/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/MitoPsychoBio Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IG2t_uMAAAAJ&hl=en Mitochondrial Psychobiology Lab: https://www.picardlab.org

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  Giants Shoulder

  #146 - Meet The Greatest Bioelectricity Scientist You've Never Heard Of

  Aug 13, 20261h 16m

  Try Mind Lab Pro, The Universal Nootropic For A Sharper Brain: https://www.mindlabpro.com/?a_aid=67fd1cb8d9ad3&a_bid=6d45f5c3 Join The Outskill Claude Mastery Sprint (2 Days, Free): https://links.outskill.com/GIASHOULAUG2 Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about Min Zhao is the UC Davis professor whose lab discovered the first genes ever found in electrical signalling — proof that every cell in your body runs on a current, not just your brain. He can reverse the polarity of a field and watch a living cell physically turn around and walk the other way. Expect to learn why every wound in your body generates its own measurable electric current, how a single postdoc's "failed" experiment revealed a force that overrides genetics, how reversing an electric field can make a cell physically turn around mid-migration, how a damaged potato generates the same electrical signal that guides wound healing in humans, why Min stops short of fully agreeing with Michael Levin on whether cells count as agents, and where the fight between bioelectricity and genetics currently stands. Timestamps 0:00:00 Trailer 0:02:20 What Everyone Gets Wrong About Wound Healing 0:07:20 Your Skin Is Secretly Electric (And So Is Everything Alive) 0:11:09 The 200-Year-Old Discovery Hiding in Every Wound 0:15:19 The Postdoc Result That Changed the Whole Lab 0:19:19 How Do Cells Know Where to Grow? (Five Fingers, Not Six) 0:21:19 The Potato Experiment That Reveals How Infections Start 0:25:24 Reverse the Field, Watch a Cell Turn Around 0:38:10 The Bioelectricity Nobody Taught in Biology Class 0:44:17 Is Bioelectricity More Fundamental Than Genes? 0:45:33 "No Electricity, No Life" 0:49:14 When Electric Fields Override Genetics Entirely 1:03:40 Michael Levin's Xenobots, Debated 1:12:22 Do Cells Have Agency? The Fuzziest Question in Biology 1:15:16 To Be Continued... (Members Get the Rest) ... Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com GS Episodes Mentioned Michael Levin — Michael Levin: Bioelectricity, Morphogenesis, Platonic Spaces & Xenobots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBZRVKUwyM Philip Ball — Philip Ball: "Biology Is Infinitely Weirder Than We Thought": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SseGx0R0fY Denis Noble — Denis Noble: Evolution Has Purpose, Cell Consciousness & Why The Last 70 Years of Genetics Is Wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqw-DaWVK24 Michael Levin & Earl Miller — Michael Levin & Earl Miller: Platonic Space of Minds, Bioelectricity, Cell Intelligence & Neurobots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mU5nN5nlLA Guest Links UC Davis Faculty Profile: https://health.ucdavis.edu/dermatology/faculty/zhao.html Zhao Lab (UC Davis Dermatology): https://health.ucdavis.edu/dermatology/research/lab/zhao.html Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=G7-zWBcAAAAJ&hl=en Neuroengineering at UC Davis: https://neuroengineering.ucdavis.edu/people/min-zhao-md-phd UC Davis Profiles (Publications): https://profiles.ucdavis.edu/min.zhao

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  Giants Shoulder

  #145 - Meet The Psychedelic Neuroscientist Saving People With Ibogaine

  Aug 10, 20261h 32m

  Get One Month Free of Consensus (The Best Ai Science Tool): https://get.consensus.app/we00d2cmjpqe Upgrade Your Shaving Experience With Henson (100 FREE BLADES): https://hensonshaving.com/thegiantsshoulder Want a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/about Kirsten Cherian is the Stanford neuropsychologist who gave Special Forces veterans with traumatic brain injuries a single dose of ibogaine — a psychedelic root used in African shamanic ritual for millennia — and watched their injury scores collapse from severe to normal in a month. It's a weak agonist for nearly every receptor in the body, yet it somehow delivers a tailor-made result to each person — a form of pharmacology science has never seen before. Expect to learn why veteran suicide outpaces combat deaths, how one dose collapsed PTSD, depression, and anxiety at once, why users describe their brains being "defragged," a researcher's 12-hour "conversation" with the ibogaine molecule itself, the bizarre phenomenon of "DMT blocking" by hostile entities, why ibogaine has no single receptor target — "matrix pharmacology," how brain age dropped by over a year in a single month, and why the results contradict science's leading theory of consciousness. Timestamps 0:00:00 Trailer 0:02:11 How This Ibogaine Study For Veterans Began 0:04:06 Veteran Suicide Now Outpaces Combat Deaths 0:07:31 The 30-Veteran Study With Staggering Effect Sizes 0:12:22 Ibogaine Isn't A Trip, It's A Waking Dream 0:13:14 Vivid Trip Imagery: Slideshows And "Defragged" Brains 0:15:02 Reconciling Trauma By Talking To The Dead 0:20:01 What A Bad Ibogaine Trip Actually Looks Like 0:24:50 Purging "Black Demons" In A Room Full Of Strangers 0:27:23 The Scientist Who Talked To The Ibogaine Molecule 0:33:36 Why Elite Special Forces Veterans Still Broke 0:34:30 DMT Blocking: When Entities Refuse To Let You In 0:41:22 The Psilocybin Researcher Who Believes In Telepathy 0:43:00 Why Ibogaine Has No Single Target In The Brain 0:46:25 The 1920s Thought Experiment That Proves We're Too Skeptical 0:49:38 Ibogaine As A Full-System Diagnostic, Not A Drug 1:03:36 Measurable Brain Change From An African Tree Fruit 1:05:19 Brain Age Dropped Over A Year After One Dose 1:17:21 The Finding That Contradicts The Leading Theory Of Consciousness 1:20:28 If Ibogaine Research Got A Blank Billion-Dollar Check 1:23:21 Could Ibogaine Help Parkinson's And ALS Patients? ... Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.com GS Episodes Mentioned Dalibor Sames — Meet The Greatest Ibogaine Psychedelic Scientist You've Never Heard Of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9whp_wtCoc Andrew Gallimore — No.1 DMT Neurobiologist: Alien Worlds, DMT Entity Encounters, Attractor States and Consciousness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USgWrxEFWDA David Luke — Meet the Professor of Paranormal Consciousness - DMT Entities, Telepathy Tapes & OBE's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLKD1gt1X5o Matthew Johnson — Consciousness Expert Explains The 5 Levels Of The Psilocybin Experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHyy3aW09sk Robin Carhart-Harris — No. 1 Psychedelic Scientist: The Entropic Brain Hypothesis, Consciousness & DMT Entities: https://youtu.be/t-GkE4YtLRk Guest LinksStanford Profile: https://profiles.stanford.edu/kirsten-cherian Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab: https://bsl.stanford.edu/ MISTIC Study (Nature Medicine, 2024): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38182784/ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kirsten-Cherian VETS — Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions: https://vetsolutions.org/

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  Episode #144

  #144 - Consciousness Expert Ranks Every Drug By Intensity Of Subjective Experience

  Aug 6, 20262h 7mS2

  Download the most scientifically rigorous nutrition app MacroFactor! Use code GIANTS for a 2 week FREE trial: https://app.macrofactor.com/mfgiantsTry Mind Lab Pro, The Universal Nootropic For A Sharper Brain: https://www.mindlabpro.com/?a_aid=67fd1cb8d9ad3&a_bid=6d45f5c3Andrés Gómez Emilsson is a consciousness mathematician at the Qualia Research Institute, and he's back for round two of ranking altered states of consciousness by sheer intensity. He and Evan spend two hours ranking every substance and practice they can think of — arguing that ibogaine may be the most ethically urgent drug on Earth, that a hardcore meditation retreat can rival 5-MeO-DMT, and that an obscure nootropic produces psychedelic visuals through a mechanism nobody understands.Expect to learn why ibogaine seems to "scan" your whole nervous system instead of hitting one receptor, how advanced jhana meditation can go toe-to-toe with 5-MeO-DMT in depth, why ordinary DMT produces far more alien entity encounters than its "stronger" cousin, the topology behind why feeling like God and feeling like there's no self are almost the same state, why cannabis's real danger isn't addiction but a specific schizophrenia risk in young men, how combining LSD and ketamine produces "freewheeling hallucinations" you can consciously direct, why mescaline might be the best nootropic for doing actual math yet never caught on, and where MDMA, salvia, and a little-known nootropic called coluracetam land on the scale, and much more…Timestamps0:02:53 Ibogaine0:17:28 5-MeO-DMT0:36:05 Meditation0:46:33 DMT0:58:41 Cannabis1:05:15 Psilocybin1:11:41 Ayahuasca1:18:42 Coluracetam1:21:09 MDMA1:29:26 Salvia1:44:21 Ketamine1:54:37 Mescaline1:58:48 LSD...... Email for sponsorship enquiries: evan@thegiantsshoulder.comWant a full breakdown of your own conscious inner experience? Join the Giant's Shoulder community: https://www.skool.com/the-giants-shoulder-6526/aboutGS Episodes MentionedDavid Nutt — Neuroscientist Ranks Every Drug By How Hard They Are to Quit! Tier List Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEgbv6IHYaYMichael Levin & Earl Miller — Platonic Space of Minds, Bioelectricity, Cell Intelligence & Neurobots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mU5nN5nlLAGuest LinksQualia Research Institute: https://qri.orgQualia Computing (blog): https://qualiacomputing.comSubstack: https://andrsgmezemilsson.substack.comX (Twitter): https://x.com/algekalipso

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