Understand - The Trip

UNDERSTAND - THE TRIP (320kbs-m4a/345mb/2hrs28min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 30th July to 15th August 2025

THE TRIP - 0. INTRODUCING THE TRIP (320kbs-m4a/7.4mb/3min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 30th July 2025

During the early weeks of the pandemic, Tim Hayward spent 14 days in a coma. He remembers this time vividly – his days and nights filled with strange, incandescent visions and hallucinations. That experience is something he would never choose to revisit but, around the world, large numbers of people are deliberately seeking out powerfully altered states.

In this ten-part series, Tim sets out to better understand a group of substances that induce altered states: psychedelics.

There's been a surge of interest in their therapeutic potential for various mental health conditions - as well as a range of other clinical possibilities. As research around the world ramps up after years of taboo and prohibition he tries to get to grips with - or at least get a clearer sense of - how science, culture, politics and business might all interact in this changing psychedelic landscape, and what it all might mean.

He also explores what might be happening in the brain during a trip and whether, by studying psychedelics, we might uncover more about consciousness, imagination and even the mysteries of reality itself.

Presenter: Tim Hayward
Producer: Richard Ward
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Written by Tim Hayward and Richard Ward
Sound Design and Mixing: Richard Ward
Researcher: Grace Revill
Commissioning Editor: Daniel Clarke
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4

THE TRIP - 1. ALTERED STATES (320kbs-m4a/34mb/14min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 4th August 2025

In this first episode Tim discovers where psychedelics come from, gets terrified about ergot poisoning, and hears from a scientist at the forefront of clinical research looking at psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for treatment resistant depression.

Contributors:
Lucie Berkovitch, psychiatrist and neuroscientist, GHU Paris Psychiatrie et Neurosciences
Erika Dyck, historian of psychedelics, University of Saskatchewan
Mike Jay, author and cultural historian
David Luke, psychologist and psychedelic researcher, University of Greenwich

THE TRIP - 2. WHEN THE DRUGS TAKE HOLD (320kbs-m4a/34mb/15min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 5th August 2025

In this second episode Tim stares at a rose, encounters an inflatable head, and tries to get to grips with the anatomy of a trip.

Contributors:
Eugenia Bone, journalist and author of “How to Have a Good Trip”
Steven A. Jones, filmmaker
Katrin Preller, neuropsychologist and neuroimaging researcher, University of Zurich

THE TRIP - 3. STRANGER THINGS (320kbs-m4a/34mb/15min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 6th August 2025

In this third episode Tim hears tales of pixies, hyper-intelligent alien entities and explores a highly unusual molecule found in the glands of a toad.

Contributors:
Lisa Luan, neuroscientist and psychologist, Imperial College London
David Luke, psychologist and psychedelic researcher, University of Greenwich
Chris Timmermann, neuroscientist and psychologist, University College London

THE TRIP - 4. LOOKING FOR A CURE (320kbs-m4a/33mb/14min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 7th August 2025

In this episode, Tim Hayward hears the story of a paramedic who decided to travel abroad in a search for a cure.

Contributors:
John, paramedic practitioner
Katrin Preller, neuropsychologist and neuroimaging researcher, University of Zurich

THE TRIP - 5. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (320kbs-m4a/34mb/14min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 8th August 2025

In this episode, Tim travels back in time to a Victorian pharmacy, drinks a lot of coffee, uncovers some pioneering psychedelic research in 1950s Canada - and discovers a nurse who was there.

Contributors:
Erika Dyck, historian of psychedelics, University of Saskatchewan
Mike Jay, author and cultural historian
Kay Parley, former nurse Saskatchewan Hospital, Weyburn, Canada
Andrew Penn, psychiatric nurse practitioner and psychedelics researcher, University of California San Francisco School of Nursing

THE TRIP - 6. CRITICAL PERIODS (320kbs-m4a/34mb/15min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 11th August 2025

This episode features Dr Gül Dölen who is exploring a possible connection between psychedelic trips and how and when humans learn new things. The implications of her research are potentially ground-breaking.

Contributors:
Eugenia Bone, journalist and author of How to Have a Good Trip
Gül Dölen, neuroscientist, University of California, Berkeley

THE TRIP - 7. FASCINATION AND TABOO (320kbs-m4a/33mb/14min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 12th August 2025

This episode looks into the history of psychedelic research. From the “dawn” of psychedelic science in 1799 through to prohibition in the second half of the last century, Tim explores shifting cultural and scientific approaches to substances that induce altered states. There had been a willingness to openly explore the trip experience and to see what might be discovered by doing so. Why did all that become taboo?

Contributors:
Erika Dyck, historian of psychedelics, University of Saskatchewan
Mike Jay, author and cultural historian
Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, philosopher of mind and metaphysics, University of Exeter

THE TRIP - 8. A TIPPING POINT? (320kbs-m4a/35mb/15min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 13th August 2025

In this episode, Tim explores the many barriers to researching the potential therapeutic value and other potential applications of psychedelics. He assesses how other countries are weighing up and reacting to the current evidence, and asks if a tipping point may be looming in the UK.

Contributors:
David Luke, psychiatrist and psychedelic researcher, University of Greenwich
Lauren MacDonald, psychiatrist and psilocybin group facilitator
Jo Neill, professor of psychopharmacology, University of Manchester and Chair of Trustees, Drug Science

THE TRIP - 9. SACRED PLANTS FOR SALE (320kbs-m4a/34mb/15min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 14th August 2025

In this episode, we hear from members of the psychedelic community who fear the consequences of plants and fungi that are sacred to some indigenous communities being exploited for commercial gain. This would not be the first time, they say - just look at what happened with tobacco.

Contributors:
Osiris García Cerqueda, historian and sociologist, Program Coordinator, Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative (IRI)
Ariel Clark, lawyer and founding member of the Psychedelic Bar Association
Mike Jay, author and cultural historian

Audio footage from Psychedelic Science 2023 and 2025 used with permission from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

THE TRIP - 10. UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS (320kbs-m4a/34mb/15min)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 15th August 2025

In this final episode, Tim explores how much there is still to understand about the therapeutic possibilities of psychedelics and, furthermore, what other insights research might lead us towards. Will curious minds be given the space to roam free?

Contributors:
Lucie Berkovitch, psychiatrist and neuroscientist, GHU Paris Psychiatrie et Neurosciences
Osiris García Cerqueda, historian and sociologist, Program Coordinator, Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative (IRI)
Gül Dölen, neuroscientist, University of California, Berkeley
David Luke, psychologist and psychedelic researcher, University of Greenwich
Andrew Penn, psychiatric nurse practitioner and psychedelics researcher, University of California San Francisco School of Nursing
Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, philosopher of mind and metaphysics, University of Exeter