Pharma Corruption, Dangers of Antidepressants, And More
Peter Simons covers news on mental health app Cerebral and pharma companies Biogen and Cassava; how social media influencers are the new pharma marketers; studies that found antidepressants don't improve quality of life and are harmful to the fetus when pregnant women take them; benzo withdrawal; and more!
The Failings of āMental Healthā: How a Seemingly Benign Concept Might be Dangerous
MIAās Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Bruce Cohen about dismissive psychiatrists, pervasive psychiatry, and the field's ties to neoliberal capitalism.
New Tools to Support New Moms: An Interview with Jennifer Barkin, PhD
A maternal mental health expert shares how perinatal stress and the climate crisis are affecting womenās everyday lives.
Bringing Integrative Community Therapy to Pittsburgh: An Interview with Alice and Kenneth Thompson
Father and daughter Ken and Alice Thompson run the Visible Hands Collaborative, bringing Integrative Community Therapy to the US.
Psychology: Flawed as a Science and as Evidence-Based Medicine
Peter Simons covers a paper arguing that āpsychology is fundamentally incompatible with hypothesis-driven theoretical science,ā another paper finding that evidence-based medicine is more corporate gimmick than reliable science, a study that found psychiatrists deliver the worst-quality healthcare of any medical specialty, and more!
Trans Lifeline: Naming Trans-Specific Harm in Mental Health
Interim Hotline Manager Jahmil Roberts and Advocacy Director Yana Calou from the Trans Lifeline work towards connecting trans people to the community support and resources they need to survive and thrive - free of prisons and police
Psych Concepts Creep Into Our Everyday Experiences: An Interview with Nicholas Haslam
MIAās Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Nicholas Haslam about how psychiatric terms get diluted and creep into everyday language, altering our experiences.
False Positives in Brain Imaging, Unpublished and Missing Trials, and Conflicts of Interest
In our Science News podcast, Peter Simons reports on false positives in brain imaging, unpublished and missing trials, conflicts of interest and more.
The Impact the DSM Has Had On All of Us: An interview with Sarah...
"You're not going to sell many drugs by saying your problem is your life experiences. It's far more effective to say your problem is in the brain. It's an imbalance, we can correct that imbalance, just take our product."
Trusting People as Experts of Themselves: Sera Davidow on the Wildflower Peer Support Line
Sera Davidow is a filmmaker, activist, advocate, author, and mother of two very busy kids. As a survivor of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse...
The Social Unconscious and Character Formation in Neoliberal Culture: An Interview with Lynne Layton
MIAās Javier Rizo interviews Lynne Layton about social psychoanalysis and how normative unconscious processes can help illuminate how oppressive systems get internalized and reproduced.
How Effective Are Therapy and Medication, and What Do They Treat?
In our science news podcast, Peter Simons covers a study that found both therapy and medication to have very limited effectiveness.
The Medicalization of Women’s Suffering: An Interview with Dana Becker
MIAās Ayurdhi Dhar interviews Dana Becker about how therapeutic culture fails to adequately address womenās suffering.
Lithium, Antidepressants, EsketamineāAll No Better Than Placebo?
Peter Simons covers a clinical trial that found lithium ineffective at preventing suicide attempts, an essay by Allen Frances on the overdiagnosis of depression and overprescription of antidepressants, a review of the ineffectiveness and dangers of antidepressants, and an analysis that revealed that esketamine failed five of its six clinical trials.
Break Down. Wake Up. podcast ā 012 – Listening to her Whole Self…Even the...
How coming to terms with her own relationship doubt and a part of herself she did not want to see brought an executive coach deep compassion for herself and others.
Michael Hengartner ā Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription
We talk with Dr. Michael Hengartner about his new book which addresses the overprescribing of antidepressant drugs and critically examines the scientific evidence on their efficacy and safety.
Johann Hari: Stolen Focus – Why You Canāt Pay Attention
Johann Hari joins us to talk about his latest book Stolen Focus: Why You Canāt Pay Attention, in which he examines the reasons behind our inability to focus and seeks to understand how this crisis affects our wellbeing and society.
Understanding the Youth Mental Health Crisis: An Interview with Elia Abi-Jaoude
The child psychiatrist talks about the importance of seeing the big picture and why parents shouldn't "be afraid if their kid is in distress."
Critical Psychology for a Better Society: An Interview with Sebastienne Grant
Micah Ingle interviews Sebastienne Grant about her work developing a critical psychology program to reimagine and restructure social systems.
For Life: Opera on Psychiatry and Its Drugs
An interview with composer Dawn Sonntag and librettist Kermit Cole about their new opera about the harms that can come from psychiatric drugs.
Break Down. Wake Up. podcast ā 011 – Discovering Safety and Wisdom Within the...
In this episode, we explore how the tendency to attach our personal value to our businesses or professions can push us to overwork ourselves, the body's incredible creative ways to bring itself back into a state of balance and safety, and how trauma works itself both through the body and through our relationships.
Break Down. Wake Up. podcast ā 010 – SOLO EPISODE! Sharing Insights from the...
I recap the major themes that arise inĀ the guest interviews and share my perspective on how these themes can help us solve personal, professional, and broader collective challenges.
Unscientific Diagnoses Medicalize Normal Human Experiences
In this 30-minute podcast, Peter Simons reports on the latest scientific articles in psychiatry.
The Crisis in Psychiatry and The Slow Way Back: Interview with Vincenzo Di Nicola
Ayurdhi Dhar interviews psychiatrist and philosopher Vincenzo Di Nicola about his call for "slow psychiatry" and a renewed social psychiatry.
How Should Psychedelic Medicine Handle “Flashbacks”?
Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD) is one of the after-effects neglected amid the rapid march of the psychedelic renaissance. But is the impulse to pathologise these perceptual changes helpful?
