Luminous: A Podcast about the Science, Philosophy and Culture of Psychedelics
Are you ready for the psychedelic revolution? Researchers are developing novel treatments for depression, PTSD and addiction, while biotech companies are racing to patent new psychedelic drugs. But for all the headlines, many questions still swirl around this psychedelic renaissance. Why do hallucinogens have such a remarkable capacity to transform lives? Is healing driven by the mind-bending experience itself — or by molecules rewiring the brain? Psychedelics also raise profound questions about the nature of consciousness and mystical experience. Are these simply hallucinations, or do they reveal something profound about the mind — or even about reality itself?
“Luminous” explores these questions through in-depth, intimate conversations with leading scientists, philosophers, historians and healers. Some episodes examine groundbreaking research. What happens to an octopus on MDMA? Why do psychedelics ease our fear of death? Other episodes venture into the trippier reaches of psychedelic culture and history. One week we might uncover the hidden history of ancient sacred ceremonies. Another week we’ll meet a psychonaut pushing his mind to the outer limits — or rediscover Timothy Leary’s “acid queen.”
Originally, these interviews aired on “To The Best Of Our Knowledge,” the Peabody Award-winning Wisconsin Public Radio show that Steve co-founded with Anne Strainchamps. They eventually grew into the spinoff podcast “Luminous.”
Today, “Luminous” has a new home at Wonder Cabinet Productions, produced in partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for Psychedelic Research and Education with support from Usona Institute, a nonprofit medical research organization. This partnership reflects Madison’s emergence as one of the world’s most innovative psychedelic centers and marks a new chapter for “Luminous” as we continue to explore the science, philosophy and lived experience of psychedelics.
Credits
© University of Wisconsin–Madisons Center for Psychedelic Research and Education ️ 2026 · more info
Artwork and data is from the podcast’s open RSS feed; we link directly to audio · Read our DMCA procedure
This podcast may use dynamic content insertion
Stats: Statistics are produced by PRX and Podtrac to help Luminous: A Podcast about the Science, Philosophy and Culture of Psychedelics to understand how many downloads it is getting, or how many people are listening. Your device’s IP address and user agent is used to help calculate this figure. PRX and Podtrac are IAB v2 certified. Here is more detail about podcast statistics.
Dynamic content insertion: PRX may use limited data that they know about you - the device you’re using, the approximate location you’re in, or other data that can be derived from this, like the current weather forecast for your area - to change parts of the audio. Luminous: A Podcast about the Science, Philosophy and Culture of Psychedelics may do this for advertising or for other forms of content, like news stories.
Luminous: A Podcast about the Science, Philosophy and Culture of Psychedelics is able to use the above tools since its podcast host or measurement company offers this service. It doesn’t mean that this individual podcast uses them, or has access to this functionality. We use open data.
Listen and follow
Apple PodcastsInformation for podcasters
- Podcast GUID:
e78a5dba-89b0-5276-bb05-80f8ca3ff198 - This podcast appears to be missing from Truefans, iVoox, Luminary, and iHeartRadio. We list all the podcast directories to be in.
- Validate this podcast’s RSS feed with Livewire, Truefans or CastFeedValidator