A message to readers of The Microdose, from Michael Pollan & the BCSP

A note from the publisher of The Microdose

Hi there,

This is a special message from this newsletter’s publisher, the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). We’d like to thank you for being a reader of The Microdose’s independent journalism in what’s been a pivotal and a turbulent year for psychedelics.

In 2023, The Microdose reported and broke news on the latest scientific studies; the roll-out of the U.S.’s first state-legal psychedelic services program; patent wars amongst psychedelic and biotech ventures; the world-first authorization of MDMA for medical use in Australia, and the troubling case of the off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who attempted to bring down a flight some days after ingesting “magic mushrooms.”

Amidst all this complexity, we believe that independent, accurate and nuanced reporting from The Microdose is crucial in helping people make sense of psychedelics. Our readers stretch across 163 countries and 50 U.S. states, and we’re proud that The Microdose has always been free for everyone to read. 

We intend for it to stay that way. That’s why, as publishers of The Microdose, the BCSP is asking for your support this holiday season. Our mission to explore psychedelics in a balanced way, including via the rigorous journalism you read in The Microdose, takes time and money. We’re independent of government and corporate interests, so gifts of every size make a difference. 

If you value our work, and are in a position to support it, please consider making a donation.

Over the last twelve months, The Microdose:

• interviewed one of the very first people to receive state-legal psilocybin in Oregon, a retired homebuilder from Arizona named Jim Carroccio who had struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder since finding his father dead when he was 14. "Prior to this, I had no experience with psychedelics," he told us.

• questioned an alleged LSD dealer turned psychedelic business consultant. 

• spoke with people shaping the future of psychedelics, including MAPS founder Rick Doblin, New Approach’s deputy policy director Jared Moffat, and U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer. 

• traveled to Denver to file daily dispatches from Psychedelic Science 2023, billed as the largest-ever psychedelics conference. 

• hired Indigenous affairs reporter Joseph Lee who has been doing a series of interviews covering Indigenous issues and perspectives including this interview on psychedelics and intergenerational trauma with Susan Beaulieu, Healing Justice Director at the NDN Collective. 

• stepped back to ask big questions of entrepreneurs, scientific researchers, historians, and leaders in our weekly 5 Questions feature. 

• interviewed psychopharmacologist Kelan Thomas about what we know — and don’t know — about potential interactions between psychedelics and antidepressants.  

• asked a drug historian about the history of “mind medicines” like Prozac and the parallels between those drugs and psychedelics. 

• … and much more.

And there are a lot more questions going into 2024. 

Will the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve MDMA treatment for PTSD? Will voters approve new state ballot initiatives to increase access to psychedelic substances? Which mysteries of the mind will psychedelic researchers unravel next? How will the public and policy-makers react to psychedelic risks and potential harms? What will become of the ever-expanding crop of psychedelic start-up companies? 

We hope you’ll join our intrepid reporter Jane C. Hu, expert editor Malia Wollan, and a growing list of contributing writers for the journey ahead. And, if you like what you see, please make a gift to the BCSP - and share The Microdose with a friend.

With warm wishes for the holidays.

Subscribe for more interviews and our weekly news roundup. (P.S. It’s free!)