Brave New World

For this episode of Brave New World, Evgeny is joined by psychologist, author, and researcher Dr Jim Fadiman, a central figure in the modern understanding of psychedelics, who also goes by the “father of microdosing”.

Drawing on decades of research and thousands of user reports, the conversation traces the history of psychedelics - from early scientific study in the 1950s and 60s, through prohibition, to today’s renewed interest in clinical and psychiatric settings. Jim discusses why most formal research has focused on high doses, how observational reports have shaped microdosing research, where evidence is strongest and still emerging.

Evgeny and Jim look ahead to the future of psychedelics in medicine, the balance between scientific caution and public interest, and what a first step might look like for someone curious but sceptical.

This episode was produced by Message Heard and The Standard.

Producer: Florence de Schlichting
Production Coordinator: James Cox
Production Manager: Kirsty McLean
Video Editor: Nani Wenani

The Standard team:

Joe Bromley
Will Rogers-Coltman

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did you ever think you’d live to see woolly mammoths return? For Episode Five of Brave New World, Evgeny is joined by Ben Lamm, CEO and co-founder of the most forward thinking de-extinction company on the planet, Colossal Biosciences.

Since Ben co-founded the Austin based biotech start-up with legendary geneticist George Church in 2021, Colossal has consistently made headlines with their Jurassic Park-esque breakthroughs. In this conversation, Ben goes into the science behind “bringing back” an extinct species, how sci-fi and speculative fiction has inspired Colossal’s work, and the incredible implications de-extinction could have for conservation and the planet.

This episode was produced by Message Heard and The Standard.

Producer: Florence de Schlichting
Production Coordinator: James Cox
Production Manager: Kirsty McLean
Video Editor: Nani Wenani

The Standard team:

Joe Bromley
Will Rogers-Coltman
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For Episode Four, Evgeny is joined by human biologist, longevity science monolith and founder of The Ultimate Human, Gary Brecka. Together, they explore why so many people feel stuck at a “six out of ten,” what Gary believes to be the cause of fatigue, brain fog, poor sleep, soreness, low mood, and why poor exercise recovery is often driven by nutrient deficiencies.

Gary shares his unconventional background as a mortality expert in life insurance, where he used massive datasets to predict lifespan with extreme accuracy. In the conversation, he challenges modern medicine’s tendency to label many chronic conditions as “familial” or “idiopathic” and details how to treat the most common gene mutation in the world, which is also Gary's bêtes noire: MHTF.

We’d like to thank The Ultimate Human for providing the video clips featured in this episode.

This episode was produced by Message Heard and The Standard.

Producer: Florence de Schlichting
Production Coordinator: James Cox
Production Manager: Kirsty McLean
Video Editor: Nani Wenani

The Standard team:
Joe Bromley
Will Rogers-Coltman

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode Three of Brave New World, Evgeny is joined by Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of WHOOP. Together, they explore recovery, sleep, and the idea that “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Ahmed explains how overtraining as a Harvard athlete led him to build his own wearable, identifying a major gap in health diagnostics at the time: measuring recovery, not just performance.

He explains what WHOOP tracks - sleep quality, strain, heart rate variability (HRV), recovery, and stress; dives into why seven hours in bed can still mean poor sleep; and why consistency of bedtime and wake time often matters more than raw hours.

Evgeny and Ahmed get practical on health trends, address the criticism that wearables culture a state of analysis paralysis and how to use metrics as a tool, not a verdict.

This episode was produced by Message Heard and The Standard.

Producer: Florence de Schlichting
Production Coordinator: James Cox
Production Manager: Kirsty McLean
Video Editor: Nani Wenani

The Standard team:

Joe Bromley
Will Rogers-Coltman
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Evgeny sits down with Professor Tim Spector and Dr Federica Amati - two of the leading scientific voices behind personalised nutrition company ZOE - to rethink everything we’ve been told about food.

From the myth of “good” and “bad” fats to calorie-counting obsessions, Tim and Federica uncover why so much of our nutritional advice is outdated, over-simplified - and in some cases, actively harmful. They unpack how ultra-processed foods and constant snacking damage our gut, why breakfast is not magically the most important meal of the day, and how time-restricted eating might be the key to optimising your daily health.

At the core of their discussion is a simple idea: eat for your gut microbes.

This episode was produced by Message Heard and The Standard.

Producer: Florence de Schlichting
Production Coordinator: James Cox
Production Manager: Kirsty McLean
Video Editor: Nani Wenani

The Standard team:
Joe Bromley
Will Rogers-Coltman
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.