The Neuro Experience

"Everyone gets cancer five times a day — your body already knows how to take care of it."

Sam Bertram is the co-founder and CEO of OnePointOne, the vertical-farming company behind the Willo brand. With his brother John (CTO), Sam is building fully automated indoor farms — powered by AutoStore robotics, AI, and precision LED light — that grow nutrient-dense produce in about 15 days, with no soil and no sunlight. But the vision goes far beyond salad: using plants as living factories to manufacture pharmaceutical-grade molecules (like monoclonal antibodies) at a fraction of today's cost, and eventually "closing the loop" on human nutrition — food grown to your own blood work.

*Reduce your risk of Alzheimer's with my science-backed protocol for women 30+: *
https://go.neuroathletics.com.au/yout...

Subscribe to The Neuro Experience for evidence-based conversations at the intersection of brain science, longevity, and performance.

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TOPICS DISCUSSED

00:00 – Cold open: bold claims & who is Sam Bertram
00:51 – Why vertical farms collapse (Bowery) & how OnePointOne survived
05:49 – The number that started it all: 1.1 billion malnourished
07:30 – Why micronutrient deficiency is the real killer
08:21 – What OnePointOne actually is: "a box that grows plants"
10:03 – Training plants with light & water to boost nutrients
11:00 – Closing the loop: food matched to your body's data
12:28 – The plan for 1,000 farms & the AutoStore partnership
15:46 – Plant biology 101: growing with no soil, no sun
18:11 – The robots — and why humans are still essential
21:27 – Pesticides, washing produce & disease clusters
23:53 – Beet greens for cancer patients & the Whole Foods deal
24:42 – A 13-person company run on AI
25:15 – The 15-day crop & cracking the cost code
27:11 – Biology vs. software: what really makes it work
28:01 – Humanoid robots, ~5 years away
30:27 – Why raise $80M and not $500M
33:56 – What they do to a plant that nature never would
36:28 – Expanding crops: strawberries, cannabis, mushrooms
38:05 – Growing food & materials in space (Elon, text back)
39:38 – Personalized food grown from your blood test
40:24 – Food as medicine & the truth about Western medicine
41:11 – Sam's mystery illness: 8 years without exercise
44:23 – Plants as medicine — who "fed and dosed" the world?
49:32 – Manufacturing pharmaceutical molecules inside plants
50:18 – Replicating $30–40k drugs cheaply (Rituximab, Lecanemab)
54:21 – Why the Middle East may beat the US, RFK Jr & MAHA
55:11 – Genetics, cancer & the healthy 80–90%
57:35 – Taste: beating junk food at its own game
58:27 – Why good food got so expensive (money printing)
59:14 – A world without hunger — how far away?
1:00:24 – Tasting the farm: microgreens, bok choy, mizuna & kale
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Use code LOUISA for a free full-size mascara with your purchase (and mention The Neuro Experience podcast when they ask where you heard about them)

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I’m Louisa Nicola - clinical neurophysiologist - Alzheimer’s prevention specialist - founder of Neuro Athletics.

My mission is to translate cutting-edge neuroscience into actionable strategies for cognitive longevity, peak performance, and brain disease prevention.
If you're committed to optimizing your brain- reducing Alzheimer’s risk - and staying mentally sharp for life, you’re in the right place.

Stay sharp. Stay informed. Join thousands who subscribe to the Neuro Athletics Newsletter → https://bit.ly/3ewI5P0
Instagram: / louisanicola_
Twitter : / louisanicola_
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fifty years ago the U.S. government classified it alongside heroin: no accepted medical use, high potential for abuse, illegal in most of the world. The peer-reviewed data now coming out of Johns Hopkins, Imperial College, and Nature tells a different story, one that has some of the most credentialled neuroscientists alive rethinking how the brain heals. In this episode, Louisa breaks down exactly what psilocybin does to your neurons, why it works where antidepressants stall for decades, and where the research is heading right now.

She walks through the default mode network, the self-referential system that turns rigid and hyperactive in depression, and the 2024 Nature study that described psilocybin's effect on it as "massive" disruption. You'll hear how a single dose drove a measurable jump in dendritic spine density within 24 hours, why psilocin binds the TRKB receptor 300 times more strongly than any conventional antidepressant, and how Robin Carhart-Harris's head-to-head trial against escitalopram produced more than double the remission rate.

Then she turns to addiction, where psilocybin-assisted therapy reached an 80% smoking abstinence rate at six months in the Johns Hopkins pilot, more than double the best medication available today. She covers the risks the drug-war narrative leaves out, the hard contraindications around psychosis and cardiac history, the April 2026 executive order that accelerated federal review, and why the quality of the subjective experience, measured on the Mystical Experience Questionnaire, may matter to the outcome as much as the molecule itself. You'll also hear about the desynchronization event and what fills the space when the network goes offline, BDNF and how it stacks up against high-intensity exercise, the alcohol and opioid data, HPPD, Australia's 2023 reclassification, Oregon and Colorado's state access frameworks, and why set and setting may be active ingredients in how the treatment works.

Fifty years ago the U.S. government classified it alongside heroin: no accepted medical use, high potential for abuse, illegal in most of the world. The peer-reviewed data now coming out of Johns Hopkins, Imperial College, and Nature tells a different story, one that has some of the most credentialled neuroscientists alive rethinking how the brain heals. In this episode, Louisa breaks down exactly what psilocybin does to your neurons, why it works where antidepressants stall for decades, and where the research is heading right now.

She walks through the default mode network, the self-referential system that turns rigid and hyperactive in depression, and the 2024 Nature study that described psilocybin's effect on it as "massive" disruption. You'll hear how a single dose drove a measurable jump in dendritic spine density within 24 hours, why psilocin binds the TRKB receptor 300 times more strongly than any conventional antidepressant, and how Robin Carhart-Harris's head-to-head trial against escitalopram produced more than double the remission rate.

Then she turns to addiction, where psilocybin-assisted therapy reached an 80% smoking abstinence rate at six months in the Johns Hopkins pilot, more than double the best medication available today. She covers the risks the drug-war narrative leaves out, the hard contraindications around psychosis and cardiac history, the April 2026 executive order that accelerated federal review, and why the quality of the subjective experience, measured on the Mystical Experience Questionnaire, may matter to the outcome as much as the molecule itself. You'll also hear about the desynchronization event and what fills the space when the network goes offline, BDNF and how it stacks up against high-intensity exercise, the alcohol and opioid data, HPPD, Australia's 2023 reclassification, Oregon and Colorado's state access frameworks, and why set and setting may be active ingredients in how the treatment works.

*Reduce your risk of Alzheimer's with my science-backed protocol for women 30+: *
https://go.neuroathletics.com.au/youtube-sales-page

Subscribe to The Neuro Experience for evidence-based conversations at the intersection of brain science, longevity, and performance.

_____

*TOPICS DISCUSSED*
00:00 Intro: A Schedule I Drug That's Making Neuroscientists Rethink the Brain
00:39 The Default Mode Network and Your Sense of Self
02:49 How Depression Locks the Brain Into a Rigid Loop
03:23 Where SSRIs Stop Short of the Problem
04:44 The Brain Imaging Data: "Massive" DMN Disruption and Reorganization
06:58 Confirming It in Drug-Naive Brains
08:04 The Rewiring: How Psilocybin Changes Neural Architecture
08:35 Dendritic Spines and Synaptic Density
09:39 How Chronic Stress Shrinks Your Neural Connections
10:16 One Dose, More Connections in 24 Hours (Neuron 2021)
11:02 BDNF, TRKB, and a Signal 300x Stronger Than Antidepressants
13:21 Psilocybin vs the Gold-Standard SSRI
14:37 Double the Remission Rate: The Numbers That Matter
15:53 Side Effects, Durability, and Treatment-Resistant Depression
16:39 The Addiction Breaker: 80% Smoking Abstinence at Six Months
17:36 Alcohol, Opioids, and the Shared Architecture of Addiction
19:10 The Dark Side: Real Risks and Hard Contraindications
22:35 The Policy Earthquake: Executive Orders and FDA Breakthrough Status
24:37 Why It Actually Works: Set, Setting, and the Mystical Experience
26:57 Bringing It All Together

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*Thank you to our sponsors*

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He carried two copies of ApoE4, the highest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, went through medical school knowing exactly what his LDL of 700 meant, decided the experts were wrong, and then published the case report to prove it. In this episode, Louisa sits down with Dr. Nick Norwitz, PhD researcher and metabolic scientist, for one of the most scientifically dense conversations on brain health, cholesterol biology, and Alzheimer's prevention ever recorded on this show.
They cover why the phospholipid form of DHA reaches the brain more effectively than standard fish oil, how ApoE4 carriers burn through omega-3s differently and what to do about it, the lithium orotate data that sold out supplement shelves worldwide, and why GSK-3 beta, the enzyme that phosphorylates tau, may be the most under appreciated target in Alzheimer's research today.
Then Dr. Nick Norwitz lays out the case that challenges the "LDL is always the enemy" consensus: why metabolically healthy individuals may not benefit from aggressive lipid-lowering therapy, what his viral coronary CT angiogram showed after seven years of 700+ cholesterol, why the EZPAVE trial headlines don't hold up under scrutiny, and what GLP-1s are doing inside the brain completely independent of weight loss. You'll also hear about the sardine diet experiment, the omega-3 thermogenesis connection, ketones as misfolded protein clearance agents, creatine for depression, retatrutide and PCSK9, BPC-157 risks, and what Dr. Nick Norwitz believes is coming in Alzheimer's gene therapy within the next decade.
*Reduce your risk of Alzheimer's with my science-backed protocol for women 30+:*https://go.neuroathletics.com.au/youtube-sales-page
Subscribe to The Neuro Experience for evidence-based conversations at the intersection of brain science, longevity, and performance.
_____
*TOPICS DISCUSSED*(00:00:00) Intro: The ApoE4 Paradox and the Case Report That Broke the Internet
(00:00:57) Why Standard Omega-3 Supplements Fail and What to Take Instead
(00:05:13) DHA and the Phospholipid Carrier: How It Crosses the Blood-Brain Barrier
(00:10:19) ApoE4 Explained: Risk, Genetics, and Why Nick Is Optimistic
(00:17:38) Why ApoE4 Carriers Burn Through DHA Faster and Need More
(00:20:31) Women, Omega-3s, Menopause, and Brain Insulin Resistance
(00:21:41) Statins, Sex Differences, and the DHA-Blood Sugar Connection
(00:26:01) Statins and Dementia: What the Data Actually Say
(00:32:24) Tau, GSK-3 Beta, Lithium Orotate, and Targeting Alzheimer's Pathology
(00:42:19) The Glymphatic System, 40Hz Devices, and Sleep as Brain Clearance
(00:45:21) Gene Editing, Prime Editing, and the Future of ApoE4 Therapy
(00:49:33) Nick's Case Report: 700 LDL, Zero Plaque, and Seven Years of Data
(00:55:10) The EZPAVE Trial: Why the Headlines Don't Hold Up
(01:00:33) KetoneIQ: Ketones for Brain Energy and Focus
(01:01:29) Cheers Health: Supporting Liver Function and Cognitive Recovery
(01:03:54) If Not LDL, What Causes Heart Disease in Metabolically Healthy People?
(01:12:05) The Oreo Experiment and the Sardine Diet: Self-Experiments in Metabolism
(01:19:10) Ketones, Women's Brains, and Clearing Misfolded Proteins
(01:21:08) The Full Brain Health Protocol: Omega-3s, Creatine, NAD, Lithium, and More
(01:24:01) GLP-1s for the Brain: Independent of Weight, Targeting Amyloid and Tau
(01:25:28) Peptides: BPC-157 Risks, Retatrutide, MOTS-c, and What's Worth Watching
(01:29:02) Why Nick Is Controversial And Why He Doesn't Mind
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*Thank you to our sponsors*Fenix Health Science: fenixhealthscience.com Use code NEUROEXPPulsetto: https://pulsetto.tech/pages/NEURO or use Code NEURO for some off your orderFunction Health: https://www.functionhealth.com/louisanicolaBASED Bodyworks: https://basedbodyworks.com/ and use code NEURO for 20% offKetoneIQ: https://ketone.com/NEURO for 30% OFFCheers Health: https://CheersHealth.com/NEURO or use code NEURO for 20% off
_______
I’m Louisa Nicola - clinical neurophysiologist - Alzheimer’s prevention specialist - founder of Neuro Athletics.
My mission is to translate cutting-edge neuroscience into actionable strategies for cognitive longevity, peak performance, and brain disease prevention.If you're committed to optimizing your brain- reducing Alzheimer’s risk - and staying mentally sharp for life, you’re in the right place.
Stay sharp. Stay informed. Join thousands who subscribe to the Neuro Athletics Newsletter → https://bit.ly/3ewI5P0Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisanicola_/Twitter : https://twitter.com/louisanicola_
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He carried two copies of ApoE4, the highest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, went through medical school knowing exactly what his LDL of 700 meant, decided the experts were wrong, and then published the case report to prove it. In this episode, Louisa sits down with Dr. Nick Norwitz, PhD researcher and metabolic scientist, for one of the most scientifically dense conversations on brain health, cholesterol biology, and Alzheimer's prevention ever recorded on this show. They cover why the phospholipid form of DHA reaches the brain more effectively than standard fish oil, how ApoE4 carriers burn through omega-3s differently and what to do about it, the lithium orotate data that sold out supplement shelves worldwide, and why GSK-3 beta, the enzyme that phosphorylates tau, may be the most under appreciated target in Alzheimer's research today.

Then Nick lays out the case that challenges the "LDL is always the enemy" consensus: why metabolically healthy individuals may not benefit from aggressive lipid-lowering therapy, what his viral coronary CT angiogram showed after seven years of 700+ cholesterol, why the EZPAVE trial headlines don't hold up under scrutiny, and what GLP-1s are doing inside the brain completely independent of weight loss. You'll also hear about the sardine diet experiment, the omega-3 thermogenesis connection, ketones as misfolded protein clearance agents, creatine for depression, retatrutide and PCSK9, BPC-157 risks, and what Nick believes is coming in Alzheimer's gene therapy within the next decade.

Reduce your risk of Alzheimer's with my science-backed protocol for women 30+:https://go.neuroathletics.com.au/youtube-sales-page

Subscribe to The Neuro Experience for evidence-based conversations at the intersection of brain science, longevity, and performance.

_____

TOPICS DISCUSSED
00:00 Intro: The ApoE4 Paradox and the Case Report That Broke the Internet
00:57 Why Standard Omega-3 Supplements Fail and What to Take Instead
05:13 DHA and the Phospholipid Carrier: How It Crosses the Blood-Brain Barrier
10:19 ApoE4 Explained: Risk, Genetics, and Why Nick Is Optimistic
17:38 Why ApoE4 Carriers Burn Through DHA Faster and Need More
20:31 Women, Omega-3s, Menopause, and Brain Insulin Resistance
21:41 Statins, Sex Differences, and the DHA-Blood Sugar Connection
26:01 Statins and Dementia: What the Data Actually Say
32:24 Tau, GSK-3 Beta, Lithium Orotate, and Targeting Alzheimer's Pathology
42:19 The Glymphatic System, 40Hz Devices, and Sleep as Brain Clearance
45:21 Gene Editing, Prime Editing, and the Future of ApoE4 Therapy
49:33 Nick's Case Report: 700 LDL, Zero Plaque, and Seven Years of Data
55:10 The EZPAVE Trial: Why the Headlines Don't Hold Up
01:00:33 KetoneIQ: Ketones for Brain Energy and Focus
01:01:29 Cheers Health: Supporting Liver Function and Cognitive Recovery
01:03:54 If Not LDL, What Causes Heart Disease in Metabolically Healthy People?
01:12:05 The Oreo Experiment and the Sardine Diet: Self-Experiments in Metabolism
01:19:10 Ketones, Women's Brains, and Clearing Misfolded Proteins
01:21:08 The Full Brain Health Protocol: Omega-3s, Creatine, NAD, Lithium, and More
01:24:01 GLP-1s for the Brain: Independent of Weight, Targeting Amyloid and Tau
01:25:28 Peptides: BPC-157 Risks, Retatrutide, MOTS-c, and What's Worth Watching
01:29:02 Why Nick Is Controversial And Why He Doesn't Mind

_______

Thank you to our sponsors

Fenix Health Science: fenixhealthscience.com Use code NEUROEXP
Pulsetto: https://pulsetto.tech/pages/NEURO or use Code NEURO for some off your order
Function Health: https://www.functionhealth.com/louisanicola
BASED Bodyworks: https://basedbodyworks.com/ and use code NEURO for 20% off
KetoneIQ: https://ketone.com/NEURO for 30% OFF
Cheers Health: https://CheersHealth.com/NEURO or use code NEURO for 20% off

_______

I’m Louisa Nicola - clinical neurophysiologist - Alzheimer’s prevention specialist - founder of Neuro Athletics.

My mission is to translate cutting-edge neuroscience into actionable strategies for cognitive longevity, peak performance, and brain disease prevention.
If you're committed to optimizing your brain- reducing Alzheimer’s risk - and staying mentally sharp for life, you’re in the right place.

Stay sharp. Stay informed. Join thousands who subscribe to the Neuro Athletics Newsletter → https://bit.ly/3ewI5P0
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisanicola_/
Twitter : https://twitter.com/louisanicola_
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every AI breakthrough you've heard of, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, traces back to a single 1943 paper, and its co-author was a homeless teenage runaway who never finished high school. Walter Pitts taught himself Greek, Latin, and the foundations of modern logic in a Detroit public library, corrected Bertrand Russell's math by letter at age 12, and was taken in by a 45 year old scientist who treated him like a son. He helped found the architecture behind every neural network in existence at 19, and then a single lie destroyed every relationship he had, sending him into a 17 year drinking spiral that ended in a Cambridge boarding house in 1969.
In this solo episode, I tell the full story of how Pitts' partnership with neurophysiologist Warren McCulloch produced the unbroken ancestor of the perceptron, backpropagation, and the transformer architecture behind today's large language models, and what happened when a fabricated accusation cut him off from every mentor he had. I lay out the specific conditions, free public libraries, mentors willing to take prodigies seriously, intellectual communities small enough to recognize raw talent, that made a mind like his possible, why those conditions have been dismantled, and what I call the cognitive class war: the widening gap between the small number of people capable of directing artificial intelligence and everyone else whose future it will shape.
*Reduce your risk of Alzheimer's with my science-backed protocol for women 30+:*https://go.neuroathletics.com.au/youtube-sales-page
Subscribe to The Neuro Experience for evidence-based conversations at the intersection of brain science, longevity, and performance.
_____
*TOPICS DISCUSSED*(00:00:00) Intro: The 1943 Paper Behind Every AI Model Today
(00:02:53) Walter Pitts Childhood in Depression-Era Detroit
(00:03:17) Hiding From Bullies, He Finds Principia Mathematica
(00:03:40) A 12-Year-Old Writes to Correct Bertrand Russell
(00:06:35) Walter Pitts Meets Warren McCulloch in 1942
(00:08:32) Inside the 1943 Paper That Founded Neural Networks
(00:11:17) From the Perceptron to ChatGPT and Claude
(00:13:43) Norbert Wiener, MIT, and the Macy Conferences
(00:15:05) The 1952 Lie That Destroyed Walter Pitts
(00:19:11) Pitts Dies Alone in a Boarding House, 1969
(00:21:46) Five Conditions That Made a Genius Possible
(00:24:16) Why Those Conditions No Longer Exist Today
(00:33:53) The Cognitive Class War and Who Will Govern AI
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*Thank you to our sponsors*Cure Hydration: https://www.curehydration.com/ Use code NEURO for 20% offJones Road Beauty: https://www.jonesroadbeauty.com Use code NEURO for a free gift with your orderMomentum: https://momentumshake.com/neuro Get a free Welcome Kit + Travel Collection ($70 value)IQ Bar: https://www.eatiqbar.com/ Text NEURO to 64000 for 20% off plus free shipping
_______
I’m Louisa Nicola - clinical neurophysiologist - Alzheimer’s prevention specialist - founder of Neuro Athletics.
My mission is to translate cutting-edge neuroscience into actionable strategies for cognitive longevity, peak performance, and brain disease prevention.If you're committed to optimizing your brain- reducing Alzheimer’s risk - and staying mentally sharp for life, you’re in the right place.
Stay sharp. Stay informed. Join thousands who subscribe to the Neuro Athletics Newsletter → https://bit.ly/3ewI5P0Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisanicola_/Twitter : https://twitter.com/louisanicola_
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices