Radical Health Radio

Psychedelics can expand your consciousness in a way most people can’t imagine.

My guest is Dr. Chloe West, a PhD neuroscientist who's been researching psychedelics for nearly a decade and is now writing a book on psychedelics and religious trauma.

Dr. Chloe explains what happens in the brain during a trip, from increased entropy to disorganized activity in the default mode network. Her framing of the brain as clay, where plasticity softens it, and the trip itself guides how it gets reshaped, is one of the clearest explanations I've heard.

We get into the REBUS model and one finding that stopped me: the research doesn't actually show that psychedelics reliably turn atheists into believers, even though people will swear otherwise. Beliefs about the self, however, are another story.

Her personal story is where this conversation deepens. Chloe grew up in evangelical Christianity in the South, walked away from it in graduate school, and is now researching how psychedelics might offer something the deconstruction space has been missing: a tool for reconstruction.

She describes someone close to her who spent years praying out of fear, and after psychedelics only wanted to pray out of gratitude. That single shift, from fear to gratitude, is what many therapeutic outcomes seem to rest on.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:41] Psychedelics as the fastest method for rewiring rigid beliefs

[7:57] Defining consciousness, and whether psychedelics can really expand it

[17:30] Predictive processing turns your brain into a protection machine working against you

[23:08] Why integration matters and how set and setting predict a bad trip

[27:33] Eli Lilly's $3.8 billion DMT bet and why both political sides embrace psychedelics

[37:49] Growing up evangelical and using psychedelics to heal religious trauma

[50:21] Microdosing versus heroic doses, and the new psychedelics that skip the trip

[57:32] Finding your default state of consciousness through silent retreats and breathwork

[1:05:56] Which psychedelic calls to Chloe most, and the mystery of ayahuasca's plant intelligence

Resources Mentioned:

Sky Breath Meditation | Website

Art of Living Retreat Center | Website

For weekly essays on psychedelics, consciousness, and belief, join Dr. Chloe West’s Substack here, or follow her on social media to stay connected.

Find more from Dr. Chloe:

Dr. Chloe West | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | X | TikTok | YouTube | Substack

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

The self-help industry convinced you that you can heal yourself… is it true though?

Jessica Ella is the founder of Aaruka® Therapy and a survivor of severe childhood sexual abuse, CPTSD, and repressed memory that didn't surface until she was 30. Her perspective matters because she built the method she needed after Google, Reddit, and a decade of therapy gave her dead ends.

Repression, she explains, is one of the most powerful survival mechanisms the brain has, and there's a reason her memories only returned once her life became safe enough to hold them.

The conversation gets into why plant medicine, breathwork, and standard talk therapy often uncover trauma without actually completing it, and what has to happen at the subconscious, somatic, and energetic level for a memory to stop replaying.

Anyone stuck in the same patterns despite years of work will find something here worth sitting with.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[18:56] How the brain hyper-fixates on sound to block long-term memory access

[28:00] The Stockholm syndrome of remembering your father was your abuser

[34:20] Inside the Aruka method: the four pillars and why we start with the biggest trauma first

[43:24] The shrink ray gun technique and why speaking out loud beats silent processing

[52:51] Why plant medicine and breathwork uncover trauma but can't complete it

[1:11:52] The difference between people who get buried by trauma and those who alchemize it

[1:29:37] Why spirituality can't fix a brain that's been rewired by trauma

Resources Mentioned:

The Aaruka® Healing Exchange | ⁠Practice Portal

⁠For anyone who can't afford therapy right now, the Aaruka® Healing Exchange offers free sessions with a current student. ⁠Submit a request⁠ to get started.

Find more from Jessica:

Jessica Ella | ⁠Website⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠

Aaruka® Therapy | ⁠Instagram⁠

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | ⁠Instagram⁠

Radical Health Radio | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠

Heart and Soil Supplements | ⁠Website⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠

Nick Komodina built a $500k/month business with zero ads, and he almost didn't live long enough to see it.

Nick is a conscious leadership and business mentor, author of Surrender, and one of the most direct voices I've come across on what breaks people once they get what they thought they wanted. The story starts in an Eight Mile trailer park and lands in a backyard with a gun to his head. Between those two points is a version of success most of the online coaching world refuses to talk about.

Comfort is expensive. Faith is not certainty. Self-sabotage is a goal in disguise. Nick unpacks all three with the kind of specificity that makes you uncomfortable in the best way. We also have a real conversation about content, being the guide instead of the hero, and why a massive spike in followers didn't move his engagement numbers at all.

If you've been sitting on a calling and dressing it up as a strategy, this episode names the game you're actually playing.

You’ll learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[3:09] Growing up in a trailer park, and the moment stealing $100 became an identity

[7:37] Some people see through the matrix while others stay NPCs forever

[12:14] Childhood trauma buries the gift God placed inside you

[17:35] The biggest content mistake: positioning yourself as the guide, not the hero

[24:31] How desperate people con themselves using scammy coaches as a tool

[30:18] The night a voice stopped him from pulling the trigger

[35:46] The four pillars of success and why training your weakest muscle matters most

[47:44] Coming off TRT and healing gut infections forced him to pull back from business

[58:46] Adlerian psychology and why you actually don't want to break past 10K months

[1:06:49] Letting the right people opt out is the real content strategy

Follow Nick on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ for more content on conscious leadership, authentic brand building, and turning big visions into reality.

Find more from Nick:

Nick Komodina | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Surrender by Nick Komodina | ⁠⁠Book⁠⁠

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

Radical Health Radio | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Heart and Soil Supplements | ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Cru Mahoney hasn't missed a run in over 2,900 days, and he says discipline has nothing to do with it.

Cru spends the rest of his time coaching people back into a relationship with themselves, and today he joins me, your host Ste Lane, for a second time to talk about what changes when the pursuit stops being fueled by fear and starts being fueled by trust.

A year ago, he was just entering a new relationship. Now he's a year in, deeper into jujitsu, and rethinking what "consistency" even means once the fear runs out.

Our entire conversation turns on one paradox: the people capable of everything feel most incapable, and the people doing nothing feel like the man. From there, it opens into relationships, loneliness, sprinting as the real fountain of youth, and why he'd rather be positively delusional than accurately pessimistic.

If you've ever suspected you're chasing the wrong thing, this episode is for you.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:58] Solving every problem just creates a new one to chase

[9:02] Becoming a scientist of your own emotions in a relationship

[16:47] The loneliness of trying to be like nobody else

[25:36] School felt like emotional jail, jujitsu became the antidote

[34:17] A 67-year-old client's magic sponge story that revealed the whole system

[42:42] Life isn't on a budget, so stop apologising for wanting more

[55:22] Free will maxing: the delusion of becoming someone new overnight

[58:46] Positively delusional vs positively pessimistic, and why God wants you to win

[1:07:12] Orthorexia, sourdough, and flexibility on a higher frequency

[1:23:11] Explosive athletes might be the real fountain of youth

Resources mentioned:

Apex Athlete Official | Website

Find more from Cru:

Cru Mahoney | Instagram | YouTube

The Cru Mahoney Podcast | YouTube

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Jason Grubb is a 6x CrossFit Games Masters champion, coach, and founder of a training program built to help serious athletes over 40 train, recover, and compete. In this episode, Jason breaks down why aging doesn't have to mean decline, how he's gotten stronger at 50 than he was at 30, and why the right approach to training, recovery, and nutrition can make your best years the ones still ahead of you.

00:40 Entering peak training for CrossFit Games
02:40 Training alone for years in an RV
05:50 Young training partners push him daily
06:50 Fixing his biggest weakness: heavy lifts
10:00 71-year-old's ring muscle up story
11:20 The "reptilian brain" behind competition PRs
12:20 Epic 305lb clean and jerk battle
18:40 It's NEVER Too Late
25:30 How he discovered CrossFit at 38
32:00 Marriage, sacrifice, and staying aligned
36:40 Why winning feels like relief, not joy
42:40 Identity, fear of failure, and legacy
48:30 Using AI to scout his competitors
50:40 Challenge is the Fountain of Youth
55:40 Visualizing life one month after Games