The Third Wave

Dr. Nisha Khanna blends Western medicine with the ancient practice of Ayurveda to create holistic health—emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual. Her focus is on getting to the root cause of disease and correcting imbalance, not just covering up the symptoms. In this episode, Nisha and Paul discuss recognizing your higher self, disconnection as disease, and the role of psychedelics in whole-being health.

After several years in high-pressure technology jobs he didn’t enjoy, Nik Vassev had his first psychedelic experience and realized he had full power to transform his life. Less than 18 months later, he had expanded his psychedelic use and created Mindleap, the world’s first tele-health platform for therapeutic integration. In this episode, Nik and Paul discuss changing your life through psychedelics, the drive to help others, and the full meaning of “integration”.

After years spent running an Amsterdam nightclub, Natasja Pelgrom had refined the art of “sex and drugs and rock and roll”. At 33, however, she had an epiphany—and spent the next several years releasing her co-dependencies, healing childhood trauma, and rediscovering how to welcome sacredness back into her life. Today, Natasja is a sacred medicine woman, mystic, devotional creative, and visionary who leads spiritual alchemy journeys, providing a compassionate space for healing and remembering. In this episode, Natasja and Third Wave founder Paul Austin delve deep into the importance of healing ourselves, the power of 5-MeO-DMT, and the role of integration.

Timothy Ko came to the psychedelic space as a result of his deeply personal connections with depression, anxiety, and addiction. As the CEO of Entheon Biomedical, an organization working on a legal IV DMT protocol, Timothy is dedicated to providing an effective and scalable therapy that will serve as a vital resource for those afflicted with a substance-use disorder, and who are wanting to reclaim their lives. In this episode, Timothy and Paul discuss their personal experiences with psychedelics, the benefits of DMT in overcoming addiction, and the life-affirming power of a new perspective.

While a PhD researcher at Imperial College London, Mendel Kaelen investigated the brain mechanisms of classic psychedelic drugs and their effects on music-perception and music-evoked emotion. After a year off spent integrating his ayahuasca experiences in the Amazon, Mendel completed his Master’s Degree before founding Wavepaths, an algorithmic music system that unifies immersive arts, psychotherapies, and intelligent technologies into new models of care. In this episode, Mendel and Paul explore the beauty of randomness, the healing potential of psychedelics, our debt to primal sound, and the power of music to make meaning.

With a decades-long commitment to psychedelic advocacy and research, a firsthand knowledge of the life-changing benefits of plant medicine, and his role as CEO of Psygen Labs, Danny Motyka brings a unique perspective to the future of psychedelics. In this episode, he and Paul discuss the differences between the cannabis and psychedelic industries, the role of plant medicines as preventative treatments, and what psychedelic therapy might look like in the near future.

Bett Williams is a contemporary psychedelics pioneer, author, and podcast host. In this episode, she talks with Paul Austin about her introduction to mushrooms, her decades-long break from them, her re-entry into the world of psychedelics, and her experience with solo, ritualized journeys.

After facilitating the expansion of Esalen Institute, the Denali Education Center, Chena Hot Springs, the Center for Ecological Living and Learning, and more, Ian-Michael Hébert founded Holos, dedicated to a world where humanity honors the interdependence of all life and actively stewards the health of individuals, society, and our planet’s ecosystems. In this episode, Ian-Michael talks with Paul about intentional living, honoring the earth, healing through plant medicine, and giving back to the communities that nurture us.

At the age of 30, with a successful career and a highly active lifestyle, Boomer Anderson was diagnosed with cardiovascular disease. This unpleasant surprise led him on a journey to self-optimization covering everything from sleep to diet to meditation to psychedelics and more, all grounded in data. In this episode, Boomer and Paul discuss their ongoing personal journeys, how to succeed at habit change, and what it means to become superhuman.

Erick Godsey is on the forefront of self-optimization through physical health, reframing our stories, responsible psychedelic use, mastery, and flow. In this episode, he talks with Paul about the psychedelic experience that almost broke his brain, how he defines “mastery”, the lies we’ve been told about psychiatric drugs, and how to truly recover from depression and anxiety.

Dr. Casey Paleos is among the earliest researchers in the third wave of psychedelic study, both in ketamine and other psychedelics. In this episode, he and Paul discuss the use of ketamine in telemedicine, early psilocybin and ketamine trials, effective ketamine protocols, and re-forming the grooves in our brains.

In this episode, Paul Austin, founder of Third Wave, and former UFC fighter Kyle Kingsbury discuss the role of psychedelics in parenting, polyamory, interconnectedness, masculinity, caring for the earth, and accepting paradox.

In this episode, Paul Austin, founder of Third Wave, and integrative psychiatrist Dr. Will Van Derveer discuss the mind/body connection, the role of ketamine as a catalyst for long-term whole-body health, and the importance of personal responsibility in sustaining positive transformation.

In this episode, Paul F. Austin, founder of Third Wave, and Marcela Ot'alora, researcher and MDMA therapist, discuss some unexpected similarities in the insights gained through isolation and psychedelic experiences.

In this episode, Paul F. Austin, founder of Third Wave, and Trevor Millar, Executive Director of the Canadian Psychedelic Association, discuss the recent petition to the Canadian government to decriminalize all psychedelics, how to blend the competing philosophies of the personal and the collective, and the drive to share the transformational benefits of psychedelics with others.

In this podcast, Paul F. Austin, founder of Third Wave, and Jesse Gould, founder and President of Heroic Hearts Project, discuss the role of ayahuasca in treating veterans’ mental health. As an army ranger deployed three times to Afghanistan, Gould overcame his own PTSD through ayahuasca therapy, and is now dedicated to helping other veterans do the same.

In this podcast, Paul F. Austin, founder of Third Wave and Tucker Max, bestselling author and entrepreneur, discuss the role of psychedelics in processing trauma, empowering individual choice, and guiding personal evolution. You’ll hear about the specific ways that psychedelics help you confront and process trauma, the importance of creating productive relationships with therapeutic substances, and the power of the stories we tell ourselves.

In this podcast, Paul F. Austin, founder of Third Wave, speaks with husband-and-wife team Tom and Sheri Eckert—seasoned psychotherapists, founders of the Oregon Psilocybin Society, and architects of the Psilocybin Service Initiative of Oregon (Yes on 109), a statewide ballot initiative campaign to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy. Here you’ll find an inside glimpse into their vision to make psilocybin therapy available not just for people with particular mental health diagnoses, but for the general public as well (with some exceptions).

Leadership coach Dr. Jennie Rivlin explains how the Third Wave Microdosing Experience helped her move from fear to flow, overcome depression, and find healing in community.

In this podcast, Paul F. Austin, founder of Third Wave and Joe Tafur, M.D., integrative family physician, curandero, speaker, and author of The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine, chat about the ways in which science and spirituality are intersecting to help heal humanity—a breakthrough he’s exploring through the Modern Spirit Epigenetic Project, an initiative that has seen him join forces with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and the University of Southern California (USC) to explore the biological basis of psychedelic medicine and investigate how healing from trauma can alter the way our genes are expressed.