Drugs Over Dinner

Dr. Pam Kryskow is a clinical instructor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Specializing in alleviating the complex modality of pain, she successfully synthesizes her training in family, rural, emergency, pain, counselling and functional medicine. Her wealth of experience in conventional medicine augmented by her deep knowledge on the safe use of MDMA, psilocybin and other psychedelics, places her at the forefront of this new, rapidly emerging paradigm. Her specialized interest and research in the applicability of microdosing has proven formulative in this growing practice.

Gabor Maté M.D. is a physician and best-selling author whose books have been published in twenty languages on five continents. He is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

His interests include child development, the mind-body unity in health and illness, and the treatment of addictions. A speaker in great demand, he frequently addresses professional and lay audiences internationally. His most recent book, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, won the Hubert Evans Prize for literary nonfiction. Addiction, he shows, is not an inherited disease or a moral failure but a reversible neurobiological, psychological and spiritual outcome of trauma and emotional loss. Its treatment requires a combination of science, insight and compassion.

Paul Stamets, speaker, author, mycologist, medical researcher and entrepreneur, is considered an intellectual and industry leader in fungi: habitat, medicinal use, and production. He lectures extensively to deepen the understanding and respect for the organisms that literally exist under every footstep taken on this path of life. His presentations cover a range of mushroom species and research showing how mushrooms can help the health of people and planet. His central premise is that habitats have immune systems, just like people, and mushrooms are cellular bridges between the two. Our close evolutionary relationship to fungi can be the basis for novel pairings in the microbiome that lead to greater sustainability and immune enhancement.

Paul’s philosophy is that “MycoDiversity is BioSecurity.” He sees the ancient Old Growth forests of the Pacific Northwest as a resource of incalculable value, especially in terms of its fungal genome. A dedicated hiker and explorer, his passion is to preserve and protect as many ancestral strains of mushrooms as possible from these pristine woodlands. His research is considered breakthrough by thought leaders for creating a paradigm shift for helping ecosystems worldwide.

Paul is the author of six books (including Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, and Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World), he has discovered and named numerous new species of psilocybin mushrooms, and is the founder and owner of Fungi Perfecti, LLC, makers of the Host Defense Mushrooms (www.hostdefense.com) supplement line.

Sutton King, MPH, Afro-Indigenous of the Menominee and Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, is a graduate of NYU School of Global Public Health. She is a nationally recognized Indigenous rights activist, published researcher and social entrepreneur dedicated to developing and scaling innovative solutions to improve Indigenous health equity across sectors. Her focus centers access benefit sharing and culturally appropriate methodologies within technology, healthcare and business.

In 2020, Sutton was named a New York visionary and nominated as a David Prize finalist. She is a MIT Indigenous Solve fellow and a 3x NYU Fellow participating in the NYU ignite alpha and beta fellowships. In 2021, she was named an NYU Female Founder and “one of the 100 most influential people in psychedelics” by Psychedelic Invest and PsychedStudio. In 2022, Business Insider recognized her as one of the 16 most influential women shaping Psychedelics.

Sutton is the co-founder and President of Urban Indigenous Collective, an Indigenous lead public health NGO advocating for and providing access to culturally appropriate healthcare for Urban Natives in the tri-state area. She is the Co-Founder of ShockTalk, a culturally tailored telemental health platform that facilitates culturally appropriate patient-provider relationships for Indigenous communities. She currently serves as the Indigenous Program Officer for Riverstyx Foundation, working with a team that facilitates a relationship between the Psychedelic Space and Indigenous traditional cultures that centers Indigenous sovereignty. She advises organizations ranging from startup companies to philanthropies on stakeholder models and access benefit and sharing through social impact investment and giving.

Michael D. Fratkin, MD has been working for nearly two decades to bridge psychedelic science with the field of palliative medicine.Before pivoting to devote his clinical efforts to ensuring access and quality in psychedelic assisted psychotherapy for people with serious illness and profound mental su ering, Dr. Fratkin has pioneered the use of telemedicine technology and healthy organizations to extend capacity and access to disregarded populations. He is the current Chair of the “Safe Use of Psychedelic Assisted Therapy”(SUPAT) Forum of the American Academy of Hospice and PalliativeMedicine and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice andPalliative Medicine (FAAHPM). In addition, he is a Palliative CareSpecialist at the Center for New Growth, a community based integrated mental health practice providing ketamine assisted psychotherapy for individuals and groups in Humboldt County,California. Dr. Fratkin envisions equity and access to safe, valuable, and culturally attuned experiential healing experiences facilitated by psychedelic medicines for people grappling with severe mental illness and the challenges of facing mortality.

Adriana Kertzer is the founder and principal at Plant Medicine Law Group, a psychedelics and cannabis law firm. She is a NY-based Texan-Brazilian lawyer and is on the board of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation and a member of the Psychedelic Bar Association and New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Drugs and the Law. Plant Medicine Law Group is a psychedelics and cannabis law firm active in New York, California, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and Oregon with the mission of expanding equitable access to plant medicine by helping companies and clinicians succeed in a complex, emerging market.

Marcina Hale is an LMFT with degrees in both Media and Psychotherapy. As a visionary therapist who is also trained in Psychedelic Therapy at CIIS, Marcina uses her deeply rooted beliefs in our ability to create a better world with transcultural ideas of how to meet the current challenges we are facing.  Her passion for inspiring others and being inspired by others is at the core of her work.

She worked with the film Planetary, is a Producer of Disturbing the Peace, and an Executive Producer of Fantastic Fungi.  She is a speaker and workshop facilitator and developed the Reconsider workshop where she challenges and inspires others to live their lives more consciously. Her  Tedx talk “Who Wants Out?” encapsulates the vision of her work.

Dr. Katherine Lawson is an Integrative Mental Health Specialist, a certified Embodied Imagination ® practitioner, a consultant, therapist, an international speaker, founder and CEO of Awake in the Dream School an online psychedelic educational platform. She has spent nearly two decades examining the intersections between healing, dreaming, mysticism, and psychedelics. As a BIPOC woman who was raised in chaos, a cancer survivor, and the parent of a son who she nearly lost to addiction, she teaches and utilizes holistic therapies for PTSD and other types of unprocessed wounds, as well as sharing stories of healing. She is fascinated by the interactions between the brain, mind, body and personality, as well as the powerful ways in which societal and spiritual factors affect health and happiness. She has recently published Dreamwork for Growth and Healing: A Guided Dream Journal, and has developed a training for practitioners who want to offer psychedelic integration.

Ifetayo Harvey is the founder and board president at the People of Color Psychedelic Collective. Ifetayo’s experience of growing up with her father in prison brought her to drug policy reform work at the Drug Policy Alliance. In 2013, Ifetayo was the opening plenary speaker at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Denver, Colorado. Ifetayo briefly worked at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in 2015 where she was inspired by Kai Wingo’s Women and Entheogens Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Ifetayo worked at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) for five years because of her passion for ending the war on drugs. While at DPA, Ifetayo penned the piece Why the Psychedelic Community Is So White in 2016 and began organizing other folks of color and allies in psychedelic circles. Ifetayo comes from a family of seven children raised by her mother in Charleston, South Carolina. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College in history and African studies.

Stephen Apkon is an award-winning filmmaker, and social entrepreneur. He is the Founder and former Executive Director of the Jacob Burns Film Center, a non-profit film and education center located in Pleasantville, NY. Stephen is the Director and Producer of Disturbing the Peace.

He is also an Executive Producer of Fantastic Fungi and Planetary, and Producer of I’m Carolyn Parker, and Enlistment Days, and Co Producer of Presenting Princess Shaw. He is the author of The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux – foreword by Martin Scorsese.

Stephen lives in the Hudson Valley with his partner Marcina, their dog Osa, and the flora, fauna and fungi they share this corner of the planet with.

Dr. Byock is a leading palliative care physician, author, and public advocate for improving care for people at all ages and stages of life. Dr. Byock is active professor emeritus of medicine and community and family medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He is a past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and served as director for Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, a national grant program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is the author of Dying Well (1997), The Four Things That Matter Most (2004), and The Best Care Possible (March 2012).

Payton is the Co-founder, Chair & Chief Executive Officer of Numinus, a company that empowers people to heal and be well through the development and delivery of innovative mental health care and access to safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies. He has a deep understanding of the psychedelic industry from its infancy, driven by life-saving personal experiences with multiple therapy modalities. Additionally, Payton has deep business leadership experience, particularly in the finance sector, and is a recognized innovator and visionary in mental health care. At Numinus, he guides teams leading strategy, innovation, research and clinic network expansion, and supports the marketing and capital markets functions.

He is responsible for raising more than $70 million for Numinus in the past year, and is quoted widely in media such as CTV, Forbes and the New York Times. In addition, he brings more than 15 years working in finance, investment and retail banking with some of Canada’s leading independent investment firms, including Jordan Capital Markets, Canaccord Financial and Mackie Research Capital. In these and other roles, he has raised more than $100 million for a variety of small cap companies.

Dr Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist and the founder of ACER Integration. Her contributions to the field of psychedelic therapy are numerous and include the development of the the ACE model ‘Accept, Connect, Embody’, which has been used in clinical trials of both psilocybin and DMT, as well as the Watts Connectedness Scale, which is a psychometric tool for measuring outcomes of psychedelic therapy. Dr Watts is the former clinical lead on the Psilocybin for Depression trial at Imperial College London, the clinical track lead on the Synthesis Institute’s psychedelic practitioner training, and sits on the clinical advisory board of the Usona Institute.

Rae joined atai Life Sciences in 2021 as the VP of atai Impact. Previously, Rae was the first Head of Global Citizenship at Airbnb, where she was responsible for activating all of the company’s assets for social good and launched their Diversity and Inclusion work.   Before joining Airbnb, she was the Vice President of the Bay Area office of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), working with individuals, families, and corporations on their giving, corporate social responsibility, and impact investing programs.  Rae holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Master’s in Business degrees from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley through the Berkeley/Columbia Executive MBA program.   Rae was a founding Board Member of the Burning Man Project.

Juan Pablo Cappello, a co- founder of NUE Life Health, The LAB Miami, Miami Angels, PAG Law PLLC, was recently named one of the “Most Influential Hispanics” in by Poder magazine in the areas of science and technology and was selected as a “Top 50 Entrepreneur” by Business Leader magazine.As an attorney Juan Pablo Cappello was named Lawyer of the Year in derivative and futures law from the Miami area by Best Lawyer. He was also named the Leading Lawyer of the Year in the Corporate/M&A – Latin America category at the Law Awards. Also the editorial staff of Latinvex selected Juan Pablo as one of the top 100 leading attorneys that are involved in the growing legal business in Latin America.

Philippe Lucas PhD is a cannabis and psychedelic researcher and President of SABI Mind, a clinic group providing access to psychedelic-assisted therapy in the treatment of mental health, pain and substance use disorder. Philippe was founder and Executive Director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, one of Canada’s first medical cannabis dispensaries, a founding Board member of the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies Canada, and co-founder of the Victoria Association of Psychedelic Studies. More recently he worked as VP, Global Patient Research & Access at Tilray, where he oversaw a comprehensive international clinical and observational cannabis research program, and he is also acting-CEO of Compassionate Analytics, which produces on-site analytical tools for the cannabis industry. He has received a number of accolades for his patient research and advocacy, including the Americans for Safe Access Researcher of the Year Award 2021, the Cannabis Council of Canada Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

President: Psychedelic Medicine Association • Host: Psychedelic Medicine Podcast • Medical Director, Nue Life Health. Board-certified Family Medicine and Sports Medicine physician and attorney, formerly working at the Veterans Administration, now on a mission to educate healthcare professionals about psychedelic medicine to help make these therapies safely accessible to all who can benefit from them.

Dr. Reid Robison is a board-certified psychiatrist and Chief Clinical Officer at Numinus, and oversees the clinical services, including teaching and training in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, for the company’s clinics across the US and Canada.  He has led over 200 clinical trials in neuropsychiatry, and previously served as coordinating investigator for the MAPS-sponsored MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study of eating disorders. He is currently principal investigator for a number of psychedelic medicine studies with psilocybin, LSD and DMT. As an early adopter and researcher of ketamine in psychiatry, Dr. Robison got his first grant to study ketamine in 2011, and around that time also led a pivotal IV ketamine study for treatment-resistant depression by Janssen. To date, Dr. Robison has guided thousands of ketamine therapy journeys and Spravato dosing sessions, and has worked in ayahuasca retreat settings abroad. Dr. Robison is also an adjunct professor at both the University of Utah and Brigham Young University and board chair of the Psychedelic Institute, focused on education and research.

Celia is a Professor of Psychopharmacology at the University  of Exeter in the United Kingdom.

Prof. Morgan completed her undergraduate degree and Ph.D at University College London (UCL) and completed a scholarship programme at Yale University. After competing her Ph.D Prof. Morgan worked at University of Melbourne as a visiting research fellow, returning to UCL for a fellowship and then Lectureship. She joined University of Exeter as a Senior  Lecturer in 2013 and was given a Chair in Psychopharmacology in 2015.

Prof. Morgan also holds an Honorary Readership at University  College London. Prof. Morgan is academic lead for both Exeter  Translational Addiction Partnership (ETAP) and Ketamine for Reduction of Alcoholic Relapse (KARE).

Madison is a co-founder of both the Jewish Psychedelic Summit and DoubleBlind Magazine. She is a journalist based between New York and Los Angeles, and has written about cannabis, psychedelics, and religion for Rolling Stone, VICE, Playboy, Tablet, High Times, and other outlets. She hosts a podcast about psychedelics and spirituality called Set & Setting on the Be Here Now Network, and is author of a forthcoming book about the intersection of the Jewish and psychedelic experiences. You can read more about her work here.

Hunt is an Episcopal priest and the founding Executive Director of Ligare: A Christian Psychedelic Society, a non-profit network of Christian leaders in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Ligare’s mission is to educate Christian leaders and those they serve about the intersection of contemplative and open-hearted Christianity and the Psychedelic Renaissance. A participant in a psilocybin study in early 2016, he had two life-changing mystical experiences under the care of a research team. His encounters with psilocybin opened him to the healing and consciousness-raising power of sacred plants and fungi and changed the landscape of his work. Hunt believes the healing power of psychedelics should be in the toolkits of all who are healers of bodies, minds, and souls and can’t wait to provide access to legal, safe, and guided experiences in a Christian setting. In April 2021 Hunt took an extended break from full-time parish ministry to expand his priesthood out into the emerging psychedelic landscape. He has previously served Episcopal Church congregations in Austin, Atlanta, Seattle, and most recently Savannah, Georgia.

Global Impact Officer at M.A.P.S.

Natalie received her B.A. in history from Yale College, and her master’s of social work (M.S.W.) from Columbia University. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA. Natalie is particularly inspired by psychedelics’ potential role in healing intergenerational trauma and conflict, and for inspiring innovative community-driven solutions. Natalie founded the Policy & Advocacy department at MAPS, and served as its director for 5 years. She also initiated and helped develop MAPS’ Health Equity program. Before joining MAPS in 2014, Natalie worked as a Policy Fellow at the Drug Policy Alliance, where she helped legalize medical cannabis in her home state of New York, and worked to end New York’s race-based marijuana arrests.

Dream Mullick, creator and founder of Entheowheel & of The Ceremony of Living and Dying, is an East Indian and Jewish American woman, living in Big Sur, California.As a sacred plant & psychedelic medicine advocate, mentor, death coach and meditation guide, writer, producer, and dreamer, her body of work centers the evolution of consciousness and our collective return to Love.Dream continues to curate in-person workshops and virtual learning journeys that combine the world-views of ceremony and science with sacred plant medicines and psychedelics, including the exploration of death as a pathway to liberation. In her practices, she explores the profound transformative power of death, grief, joy, and love.Her latest creation, Entheowheel, launched in collaboration with the Esalen Institute, focuses on the ceremony, science, and somatics of sacred plants and psychedelics.

Amanda Reiman, PhD is a social ethnobotanist. She is the Founder of Personal Plants, a platform designed to deepen the relationship between people and flora, Co-Founder of Sacred Garden, a Web3 project focused on entheogenic plant conservation, and the VP of Public Policy Research for New Frontier Data, a cannabis focused data analytics firm.

Dr. Reiman earned her PhD in Social Welfare from the University of California and conducted one of the first research studies on medical cannabis patients and the use of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs. An internationally recognized cannabis expert and public health researcher. Dr. Reiman has presented her research all over the world. She has written for/been quoted in The Huffington Post, New York Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone and Playboy as well as numerous peer reviewed academic journals and several textbooks.

Sarah Abedi is an emergency medicine physician and psychedelic clinical research scientist.

She is a part of the founding team at the Psychedelic Research and Education Center at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA). She is also part of the FDA monitored phase two clinical trial assessing psilocybin’s effectiveness in treating depression at Pacific Brain Health’s Treatment & Research In Psychedelics Program (TRIP).

She is certified as a Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) MDMA-Assisted Therapist. She has completed training at the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She is also involved in state and local psychedelic legislation policy in California, Colorado, and Oregon. She is the co-founder of the integrative mental health institute Onea.

Melissa Lavasani is Founder and Executive Director of Washington, DC-based Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, the first and only member association focusing on advocating for psychedelics at the Federal, State, and local levels of government. Prior to founding Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, Melissa was the proposer of Washington DC’s successful 2020 ballot measure Initiative 81, the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act. Inspired by her own experience of using psychedelics to heal her severe postpartum depression, Melissa led the Decriminalize Nature DC campaign to the largest ballot initiative victory in the history of our nation’s capital. Through Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, Melissa advocates for policies that support research and access to psychedelics at the federal and state level. Melissa is also a Founding Board Member of the Psychedelics and Healing Initiative at the Global Wellness Institute.

Michael is the Founder of Deathoverdinner.org, Drugsoverdinner.org and EOL.community . He currently serves as a Board Advisor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts; and in the recent past as a Partner at RoundGlass and Senior Advisor to Summit Series, Theo Chocolate, CreativeLive, Architecture For Humanity, and Mosaic Voices Foundation. His second book “Let’s Talk About Death” was published by Hachette in the U.S., U.K., and Australia in October of 2018 and Russia, China, Indonesia, Poland and Romania in the fall of 2019.

In 1997 Hebb co-founded City Repair and Communitecture with architect Mark Lakeman, winning the AIA People’s Choice Award for the Intersection Repair Project. In 1999 Michael and Naomi Pomeroy co-founded Family Supper in Portland, a supper club that is credited with starting the pop-up restaurant movement. In the years following they opened the restaurants clarklewis and Gotham Bldg Tavern, garnering international acclaim.

After leaving Portland, Hebb built Convivium, a creative agency that specialized in the ability to shift culture through the use of thoughtful food and discourse based gatherings. Convivium’s client list includes: The Obama Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TEDMED, The World Economic Forum, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Clinton Global Initiative, X Prize Foundation, The Nature Conservancy.

Michael is the founding Creative Director of The City Arts Festival, the founder of Night School @ The Sorrento Hotel, the founder of www.seder.today and the founding Creative Director at the Cloud Room. He served as a Teaching Fellow at the Graduate School of Communication at University of Washington. His writings have appeared in USA TODAY, GQ, Food and Wine and numerous other publications. Michael can often be found speaking at universities and conferences, here is his TEDMED talk.

Ethan Lipsitz is living beyond brain cancer as an artist and Love Extremist.  In 2015 he created the Love Extremist Project; a multi-media platform that advocates actionable love for ourselves, our relationships, our institutions and our planet. Learn more at www.extremist.love

Zion Estrada [she/her] is an LA-based Black Latina creative producer, social impact consultant, and artist-researcher whose work commits to supporting/defending Black, Brown, and Indigenous safety and creative autonomy. Zion is the Creative Director of Black Discourse and the former Director of Programs at BLD PWR. She is skilled in program strategy & development, creative content production/design, story crafting, film production, cultural consultancy, diaspora-centered curriculum development & community organizing. She integrates social justice consciousness, philosophy, art, and film while promoting collaboration between artists, organizations, and activists with the goal of materializing content that judiciously questions the status quo.

Erica Berger is an award-winning journalist, artist, media executive, and impact investor. Currently managing a third generation family business focused on historic restoration and operation of iconic properties in Chicago, she’s also launched a family office in the last few years, centered on climate change mitigation and agricultural renewal.  Erica has had a 20 year yoga practice and is a yoga and meditation teacher in the Kundalini and Katonah lineage. She is proud to admit that her relationship with drugs and especially psychedelics has kept her true to her dharma, and is grateful for the medicine, teachers, and hopeful for the future…

Aside from being recognized as one of the addiction field’s youngest and most prolific agents of change, Jamison Monroe Jr. is also the founder and CEO of arguably the most recognizable name in adolescent treatment – Newport Academy. Considered the gold standard for treatment of adolescent mental health, substance abuse and comprehensive family reconstruction, Monroe’s Newport Academy has gone from a single facility in Southern California to one of the most respected treatment brands in the country. With inpatient adolescent treatment facilities open in multiple locations, Jamison Monroe Jr. launched The Newport Academy Day School in 2010, which is a nationally recognized and state-of-the-art education model designed specifically for teens committed to remaining abstinent from self-destructive behaviors, who want to break free from the overwhelming pressures of a typical high school environment, while acquiring the tools necessary to flourish in a structured academic setting. Monroe’s Newport Academy brand is one of the many ways he is making a significant impact on the terrifying and skyrocketing adolescent mental health and addiction crisis in the U.S.

Thoroughly passionate about all aspects of recovery, Jamison has immersed himself in a multitude of projects that focus on the battle against substance abuse and his commitment to eliminating the stigma associated with mental health diagnosis. Currently enjoying praise for a truly game changing documentary about the prescription drug abuse epidemic in Orange County and beyond called Behind The Orange Curtain, Monroe, is a regular national news contributor on the topic of adolescent mental health and an award-winning global advocate for effective healthcare provisions for adolescent addiction treatment. As a result, Jamison has emerged as an international youth advocate and recently testified in front of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the subject of teen prescription drug abuse. Monroe’s global impact has been recognized by a host of international dignitaries and his tireless efforts have earned him several accolades including the illustrious Mona Mansell Award, which was presented to Jamison in 2014 by the Freedom Institute for his indelible mark on the addiction community and his passion for positive change, and the Mental Health Association of Orange County’s Community Service Award, which is given to individuals who have made a positive contribution to the mental health community.Monroe currently resides in New York City where he can focus on the East Coast Newport Academy locations and serves on the board of directors for several non-profits and some of the world’s most progressive creative thinking projects such as the Inspiration Foundation, Global Adolescent Project, The EIC’s Prism Awards, and is a Recovery Month planning partner for SAMHSA worldwide. A regular contributor to CNN, HLN, and The Huffington Post, Jamison Monroe Jr. continues to raise the bar wherever his passion and commitment take him.

I am on this planet to share practices that wake us up from suffering. I suffered so much, for so many years, and now I experience space around that pain and freedom from a lot of the suffering. Meditation consistently teaches me that the ways we distract ourselves from pain inevitably ripen into deeper pain. The practices I study and teach create awareness, and awareness is freedom. The teacher who blew my heart open taught to love people, serve people, remember God and tell the truth.”

Angel has been teaching meditation and yoga all over the globe for more than a decade, and served as co-founder of Yoga In Common and Yoga in the Forest in coastal South Carolina. She leads workshops, retreats, heart-intensive teacher trainings and works one-on-one with clients to rewire patterns that have kept them on the hamster wheel of suffering.

From inside the walls of schools to living outside with them in wilderness therapy, Angel has engaged extensively with at-risk youth. She also creates and travels the country to facilitate guided meditations on dying and meditations specifically for the addiction healing process.

In 2011, she founded a project called The Yoga Bus, and traveled the country with her two dogs, living in a tiny RV that she helped build from the ground up. The project’s focus was yoga-based workshops for healing traumas of populations who would likely never go to a studio. She furthered this work in South Africa though TRIAD Trust, an organization centered around HIV education and prevention, in a region believed to have a 40% infection rate.

Angel is Co-founder of Drugs Over Dinner, Director of Content for Let’s Have Dinner and Talk About Death, and Co-Founder of Night School at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle. Recent death and addiction meditations have been held at Summit Series, Newport Academy, and The Conscious Dying Summit.

Dr. Molly Maloof is passionate about extending healthspan and maximizing human performance through her medical practice, personal brand, entrepreneurial and educational endeavors. Molly Maloof is on the frontier of personalized medicine, digital health technologies, biofeedback assisted lifestyle interventions, and scientifically-based wellness products and services

Dr. Molly provides health optimization and personalized medicine to high achieving entrepreneurs, investors, and technology executives in San Francisco, as well as, award winning Hollywood actors and musicians in Los Angeles. Since 2012, she has worked as an advisor or consultant to more than 45 companies in the digital health, consumer health, and biotechnology industries needing help with clinical strategy, product development, clinical research and scientific marketing.

She is a lecturer within the Wellness Department of the Medical School at Stanford University where she created a course entitled, “Live Better Longer: Extending Healthspan to Lengthen Lifespan.” She is writing a book on biohacking for women with Harper Wave Books and working on launching an online course with Woven Science.

She has been interviewed by the Financial Times, Popular Mechanics, Quartz, British Airways High Life, CNBC, GQ, Marie Claire, National Geographic, New York Magazine, Reuters, Venturebeat, Virgin Australia Voyeur Magazine, and many other media outlets. She has spoken at the United Nations, Wired Health, DLD, WPP Stream, Founders Forum, Consumer Health Summit, Summit Series, Singularity University, Facebook, Mind Body Green Revitalize, PaleoFx, Facebook, Dreamforce, IDEO, Culinary Institutes of America, and many other high profile conferences.

She recently founded a stealth psychedelic pharmaceutical company, Adamo Bioscience, in May 2021 and her supplement company Adaptive was acquired in August 2021. She was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Psychedelics by Psychedelic Invest. Dr. Molly is a passionate evangelist, empowering advocate, and visionary futurist.

Eric is the managing director of Thiel Capital in San Francisco. He is also a research fellow at the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University. Weinstein speaks and publishes on a variety of topics including, gauge theory, immigration, the market for elite labor, management of financial risk and the incentivizing of risk taking in science.

For over two decades, Michael Ventura has worked as a leader, facilitator, and educator. Concepts and tools from his first book, Applied Empathy: The New Language of Leadership (Simon & Schuster, 2018), have been embraced by influential, respected organizations from the ACLU, Google, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Nike to The United Nations and the Obama Administration. The practice he’s developed focuses on helping leaders and their teams to engage with empathy as a means to deepen connection and catalyze change.His work is widely regarded for its ability to guide others toward feeling, thinking, and acting with greater curiosity, and a willingness to better understand one’s inner and outer worlds. His practice draws from philosophical and ancestral wisdom while also incorporating thought-provoking psychological and personal development techniques that offer real, adoptable skills and behaviors.Michael shares his work by advising a variety of public and private organizations, as well as teaching at institutions such as Princeton University, The University of Pennsylvania, The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. His work has been featured in media outlets such as Business Insider, Fast Company, Forbes, PBS News Hour, and countless others. As a speaker and facilitator, Michael has shared his work with audiences at conferences including Adobe’s 99U, SxSW, The TED Conference, and events the world over.Michael’s methods have been heralded as a touchstone in a new era of leadership development. Whether working individually, with teams, or societally, he is a committed steward to the positive, transformative power of empathy.

Publishing visionary and dreamer. Founder and publisher of Nowtilus Publishing (2002) and Argonowta Digital (2022). Cofounder of Plaza Digital (2001), Cofounder and CEO of the Ecuality ecommerce venture (1999), General Manager at ANAYA MULTIMEDIA and ANAYA INTERACTIVA (1984, 1988). Experience in trade publishing, media licensing, electronic publishing, consumer software, online marketing & ecommerce. Ham Radio operator, explorer & adventurer. Enthusiast of the biochemistry of psychedelics. Guided by science and rationality… and love!

Sunny operates wherever executives, thinkers, artists, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, educators, philanthropists connect and collide around the globe. Her genius is developing networks of extraordinary people and connecting their ideas in surprising ways toward concrete outcomes.

As an author, serial entrepreneur, mentor and advisor, her client roster has included some of the world’s most prominent companies and organizations, from GE, TED and Credit Suisse to MTV, the National Academy of Sciences, Techstars and Kickstarter, of which she is a founding board member.

Dina Burkitbayeva is a co-founder and partner of PsyMed Ventures, venture fund investing in psychedelic therapeutics, neurotechnology, precision psychiatry and other “future of mental health” companies. Dina is also the co-founder of Freedom Biosciences, clinical stage biotech platform company developing next generation ketamine & psychedelic therapeutics.

Biotech and life sciences investor with significant transactional, VC, IP and operational experience. Voted among the top 16 most influential women in psychedelics by Business Insider

• Board advisor to the International Therapeutic Psilocybin Rescheduling Initiative

• 5 years as GC at a PE-backed major retail group

• 5 years at Slaughter and May, focusing on M&A, IPOs and corporate finance

• Graduate from Oxford University, and NYU School of Law

Chris is the Managing Partner of Bicycle Day Ventures. BDV invests next-generation bio-tech businesses focused on psychedelic compounds.

Recently Chris Co-Founded Mootral. A biotech company using natural supplements to reduce methane emissions in cows and developing products to end the use of antibiotics in the production of protein.

In 2006, Chris combined his passion for creative and technology and co- founded Frank the Plumber, a leading concert design and production company creating digital and live experiences for such artists as, The Strokes, Lady Antebellum, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Katy Perry and Madonna and brands like Ford, Apple and AOL.

11 years ago Chris founded Gobbler software music software company. They are the market leader in selling subscriptions for audio plugins.

Jeff is the Co-Founder of Summit, a cutting-edge organization best known for hosting global ideas festivals and events, and is the co-owner, principal designer, and developer of Summit Powder Mountain and Powder Mountain ski resort in Eden, Utah.

Jeff currently serves on the Leadership Council at Conservation International, and on the boards of Beyond Conflict and Street Soccer USA.

Jeff is Co-Director of the Summit Action Fund, a venture investment fund making investments in startups that drive innovation and positive market disruption. He is a Founding Partner of the Drawdown Fund, and Senior Advisor to TPG Rise and TPG Growth.

Jeff serves as a Senior Advisor to many for profit, and non-profit organizations, including Inspire Energy, Calm, Scopely, Seed Biosciences, Learn Capital, GivePower Foundation, Arabella Advisors, a leading philanthropy and impact investing consultancy, and Laurel Strategies, a global business advisory and strategy firm.

Jeff is on the Leadership Circle of the Conservation Lands Foundation, the Advisory Board of Whistleblower Aid and Save the Waves Foundation, and a Senior Advisor to One Community Films.

Jeff was a founding board member of the Summit Institute, the Summit Fellowship, and founding board member of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition.

Jeff is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and the recipient of the Tribeca Disruptive Innovator Award.

He is also the co-author of Make No Small Plans, coming out 2022 from the Crown Publishing Group.

Scott is the Associate Director of the Master of Communication in Communication Leadership program at the UW. Scott seeks to create a rich infrastructure that supports innovation and collaboration through participatory media and community engagement. Scott serves on the Advisory Board of the Head Start Center for Inclusion and on Board of the South African NGO Saving our Schools and Community (SOSAC). Scott is an award winning author, filmmaker and the Executive Producer the Four Peaks TV program – a monthly series that features interviews with leading media and technology visionaries.

David Llama is the Creative Director at El Animal, a media production company rooted in multi-sensory storytelling.

David’s creative approach to story comes from his years working as a film and advertising editor in Mexico and the U.S. Growing up between two different cultures – from Mexico City to Seattle – gave him the skills to synthesize and elevate the most compelling moments in any situation, be it a full format documentary film or a 30 second animation. At El Animal, David weaves stories layered by his inspiration from music, nature, texture, and everyday people. The goal is to always craft stories that communicate our human connection.

El Animal works with big brands, including Microsoft, T-Mobile, Pandora, HTC, and RedBull. In addition, El Animal is proud to collaborate with changemakers including TriFilms, Powerful Voices, and Forterra.

Civilization is the design firm that provided the branding, art direction, design, and development for this site. Civilization believes in design as a means of social change, and are passionate about communicating the greater social, cultural, and environmental value of their projects. The collective intelligence of their team comes from dedication and experience in the fields of design, technology, and the arts.