#83 - Psychedelic Treatment Cured My Alcohol Addiction - Jon Kostakopoulos
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
Release Date: 06/28/2021
#92 - Jane Technologies Founder Soc Rosenfeld on the Future of Cannabis Retail Tech
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
What is the future of legal cannabis from a retail / e-commerce perspective? Today's guest, Socrates Rosenfeld, Co-Founder and CEO of Jane Technologies explains. Jane is an e-commerce solution for the Cannabis space that supports nearly 3,000 dispensaries and handles more than 20% of the legal Cannabis transactions in the U.S. each year.
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#91 - Modern Health Co-Founder and CEO Alyson Watson
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
Alyson Watson is CEO and co-founder of Modern Health, a mental health unicorn! Modern Health is a global mental health benefits solution for employers that covers the spectrum of mental wellbeing needs from tech enabled solutions to professional support solutions on one platform.
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#90 - Spring Health CEO April Koh - On Building a Mental Health Unicorn
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
April Koh is the youngest female founder to ever take a startup from just an idea to unicorn status. We are so excited that she’s accomplished this in the mental health space, and we are excited for you to meet her and learn more about her Company, Spring Health! For those who may not be familiar, Spring Health is a provider of mental health benefits to employers for their employees, and their employees’ families.
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#89 - The Future of Precision Psychiatry with Dr. Amit Etkin of Alto Neuroscience
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
Dr. Amit Etkin is pioneering a revolution in the way mental health medications are designed, developed, prescribed, and brought to market. Precision psychiatry is the future of mental health treatment and Dr. Etkin is leading the way with his drug development platform, Alto Neuroscience. In this episode, Dr. Etkin explains why psychiatric drugs have failed, what he is doing about it and why it will work.
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#88 - _able Partners Founding Partner Amanda Eilian - A Pioneer in Mental Health Investing
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
Amanda Eilian, Founding Partner of _able Partners joins us to talk all things mental health startup investing. _able Partners is an early-stage VC firm supporting visionary founders in the positive living space. Their investments focus on companies that improve the daily lives of people, making them healthier, happier, and making their lives more meaningful. Some specific investment areas include mental health, addiction, women’s health, sexual wellness, & coaching among others.
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#87 - Brain Computer Interfaces - A Primer with John Donoghue
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
Today’s guest is John Donoghue. He is well known for his groundbreaking work developing Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) to restore movement for people with paralysis, known as ‘BrainGate’. BrainGate was the original BCI system created by a company called Cyberkinetics, of which John was a co-founder.
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#86 - Elyse Cohen - VP Social Impact at Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
Today’s guest is Elyse Cohen, VP of Social Impact and Inclusion at Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Elyse is an expert on purpose driven brands, social impact, and has been hand selected by Selena Gomez to lead the impact efforts at Rare Beauty. Previously Elyse worked at the White House for First Lady Michelle Obama as Deputy Director of the Let’s Move effort. She has worked on social impact and policy initiatives at the Public Health Institute and in a variety of other social impact roles.
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#85 - Measuring Mental Health with Ksana Health Co-Founder Nick Allen
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
You can’t fix what you don’t measure. Measurement and testing of our mental health lags the same capabilities in physical health care. Dr. Nick Allen, our guest today, is building a mental health measurement solution for clinical use. Today we talk to him about the challenges, and opportunity for his startup, Ksana Health.
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#84 - Veterans Mental Health with Dr. Anthony Hassan, CEO of Cohen Veterans Network
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
Dr. Anthony Hassan, President and CEO of the Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) joins us today. CVN is a network of 25 non-profit mental health clinics providing care to veterans and their families. The facilities are located in or around historically dense veteran and active duty military communities.
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#83 - Psychedelic Treatment Cured My Alcohol Addiction - Jon Kostakopoulos
Stigma Podcast - Mental Health
Jon Kostakopoulos was the first study participant in the NYU Psilocybin clinical trial. After years of struggling with alcoholism and after trying other options including in-patient programs, out-patient programs, AA, and pharmaceutical treatments, nothing was working for him. Finally, at age 25, Jon joined the clinical trial and underwent three different Psilocybin treatment sessions and has not craved alcohol since his first treatment session.
info_outlineToday’s guest is Jon Kostakopoulos who was the first study participant in the NYU Psilocybin clinical trial. After years of struggling with alcoholism and after trying other options including in-patient programs, out-patient programs, AA, and pharmaceutical treatments, nothing was working for him. Finally, at age 25, Jon joined the clinical trial and underwent three different Psilocybin treatment sessions and has not craved alcohol since his first treatment session.
Jon has been interviewed on 60 minutes by Anderson Cooper regarding his Psilocybin treatments and since then has launched the Apollo Pact which is a non-profit funding medical research for mental health.
You can connect with Jon here: Email, Apollo Pact Website
What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship
HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:
- Jon shares about his struggles with alcoholism, early signs that showed his irregular relationship with alcohol, and how addiction impacted his life.
- We discuss the time put into his recovery and all the different options he attempted to get sober from ages 16-25.
- Jon shares how he learned of the clinical trial at NYU, the screening process, time leading up to the beginning of the trial and what the user experience was like for him.
- Jon goes into depth about the process of the clinical trial, what therapy was like before and after each Psilocybin experience, and what the aftermath was like during his year in the trial.
- We discuss the effectiveness of psilocybin in treating mental health issues and how it works by getting to the root of the problem with a wide variety of mental and behavioral health disorders.
- Jon shares about the work he is doing in the mental health space with Apollo Pact and how to get involved with this program.
- We talk about reasons why we think the government is not providing more support to these solutions when the efficacy is high, what needs to happen to finally get that support, and the unseen benefits for the government.
- We discuss the potential timeline for psilocybin to be more of a mainstream treatment with Oregon leading the way.
Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email
Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)