# Encore Episode: How Psychedelics Affect the Brain with Manesh Girn, PhD Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/psychedelic-medicine-podcast-with-dr-lynn-marie-morski-835820/encore-episode-how-psychedelics-affect-the-brain-with-manesh-girn-phd Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/psychedelic-medicine-podcast-with-dr-lynn-marie-morski-835820/encore-episode-how-psychedelics-affect-the-brain-with-manesh-girn-phd.md Podcast: [Psychedelic Medicine Podcast with Dr. Lynn Marie Morski](https://stenobird.com/podcast/psychedelic-medicine-podcast-with-dr-lynn-marie-morski-835820) Published: 2026-01-22T10:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://plantmedicinepodcast.libsyn.com/encore-episode-how-psychedelics-affect-the-brain-with-manesh-girn-phd Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/plantmedicinepodcast/Manesh_Girn_final_Encore.mp3?dest-id=1464755 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/psychedelic-medicine-podcast-with-dr-lynn-marie-morski-835820/episodes/encore-episode-how-psychedelics-affect-the-brain-with-manesh-girn-phd Duration seconds: 2282 ## Resource In this encore episode of the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast, psychedelic science researcher and educator Dr. Manesh Girn discusses his studies investigating psychedelic brain action. Manesh earned PhD in neuroscience at McGill University and is an author on over a dozen peer-reviewed articles on psychedelics and related topics. He is also chief research officer at EntheoTech Bioscience and runs the YouTube channel the Psychedelic Scientist. In this conversation, Manesh discusses his recent article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences titled "A complex systems perspective on psychedelic brain action." He explains the complexity science approach used in the article, which emphasizes the brain is a holistic, interconnected system, rather than individual component networks that can be isolated. From this standpoint, Manesh critiques some simplistic explanations of the neural mechanisms of psychedelics which focus exclusively on interactions with the default mode network isolated from other brain systems. He also explains how individual some of the neural effects of psychedelics are, citing different findings from different studies and observed variations between brain scans of different people. By better understanding these individual differences, and placing these different responses into a complexity science framework, Manesh believes that more individually-tailored psychedelic therapies are possible once the systems involved are more comprehensively understood. Manesh closes this discussion by explaining the difference between genuine complexity and sheer chaos. Complexity, he explains, is a delicate balance of novelty and order, which is why psychedelic experiences can be both destabilizing and productive of novel insights and personal transformation. In this episode: The re… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/psychedelic-medicine-podcast-with-dr-lynn-marie-morski-835820/episodes/encore-episode-how-psychedelics-affect-the-brain-with-manesh-girn-phd/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/psychedelic-medicine-podcast-with-dr-lynn-marie-morski-835820/encore-episode-how-psychedelics-affect-the-brain-with-manesh-girn-phd.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.