#34: MDMA and social change

Jonathan Widder | Posted on September 28, 2023 |

Can psychedelics like MDMA drive positive social change? Journalist Rachel Nuwer wrote a book on “MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World”, and in one chapter she describes how taking the drug in a scientific study seems to have helped a former white nationalist leader change his extremist beliefs. In this episode, Rachel explains how this could be possible, how MDMA could have similar effects on others and where the limits are.

Hosts: Ed Crasnick, Jonathan Widder. Editing: Leon Wolf

Photo: Gil Gonzalez

The Squirrel News Podcast

The Squirrel News Podcast

A German Journalist and a Jewish Comic discuss the latest and greatest solution based news stories from around the world. A podcast about the amazing, wildly creative things people are doing to solve our biggest social problems today – from goats helping to fight wildfires to prisons without wardens and guns.

Hosts: Ed Crasnick, Jonathan Widder

Tags: solutions, society, sustainability, social innovation, solutions journalism, constructive journalism.

Can psychedelics like MDMA drive positive social change? Journalist Rachel Nuwer wrote a book on “MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World”, and in one chapter she describes how taking the drug in a scientific study seems to have helped a former white nationalist leader change his extremist beliefs. In this episode, Rachel explains how this could be possible, how MDMA could have similar effects on others and where the limits are.

Hosted by Ed Crasnick and Jonathan Widder; edited by Leon Wolf

Photo: Gil Gonzalez

Stories discussed

How a dose of MDMA transformed a white supremacist, BBC

Rachel Nuwer, I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023

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#34: MDMA and social change

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How a dose of MDMA transformed a white supremacist, BBC

Rachel Nuwer, I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023

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