{"podcast":{"title":"Design Talk (dot IE)","slug":"design-talk-dot-ie-3492246","podcast_index_feed_id":3492246,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5fda353b5f9eb72404a5200f","website_url":"https://www.designtalk.ie","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5fda353b5f9eb72404a5200f/1716494071783-5efb7c8afb7496a164b240c4616376f1.jpeg","author":"Allen Higgins","episode_count":198,"summary":"Design Talk. A podcast for learning about the business of technology design and management. Listen to stories, panels, interviews and discussions about technology and design in-the-wild: the good, the beautiful, and the useful. Whether you've got one big idea, you think of yourself as an organisation designer, product designer, creator, or entrepreneur. Each episode offers a take on how people design, strategise, organise, and develop technology. We want to dig into the essence of design, discover the backstory to technologies, and unpack the design attitude. We started this podcast for you, because you are interested in tinkering, in making, and how ideas become 'things', and because we are all, in some way, involved in designing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-01T06:20:42.650489+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/design-talk-dot-ie-3492246"},"episode":{"title":"0269 - Johno (Robert Johnston) on Psilocybin, Heidegger and being-toward-death","slug":"0269-johno-robert-johnston-on-psilocybin-heidegger-and-being-toward-death","published_at":"2026-02-12T10:44:42+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/design-talk-dot-ie-3492246/0269-johno-robert-johnston-on-psilocybin-heidegger-and-being-toward-death","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/design-talk-dot-ie-3492246","url":"https://www.designtalk.ie","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5fda353b5f9eb72404a5200f/e/698daf1afe55e6c6c39ad13f/media.mp3","summary":"Psilocybin, Heidegger and being-toward-death Between 2020 and 2023 psychologist Marg Ross and psychiatrist Justin Dwyer, together with collaborators, ran the largest Australian randomised control of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of extreme death anxiety in terminally ill patients using psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) (Ross et al, 2025).  Over the past 15 months I have contributed to the analysis and reporting of qualitative interview data collected by these researchers before and after treatment. The therapy has been shown to be remarkably effective with 21 out of 28 patients who completed the full trial reporting sustained relief. Whereas before the treatment the patients had found themselves 'stuck' in an oppressive lingering present, after treatment they are able to 'step back into' a life that is in some ways fuller even than before the diagnosis (Dwyer et al, 2026).  In this reading group/seminar I will briefly present Heidegger's account in Division II of Being and Time of being-toward-death and its role in prompting a more authentic human existence and richer lived temporality. I will point out its striking similarity to the change phenomenon we observed in the qualitative analysis. I invite discussion of this observation, its implications, and suggestions. Note I will devote little time to describing the clinical trial so reading the accompanying paper (Dwyer et al, 2026) is advised. Johno Robert B. Johnston is a professor (emeritus) at University College Dublin, and a person in his own right. Dwyer, J., Johnston, R. B., O'Callaghan, C., and Ross, M. 2026. \"Stepping Back into Life: How Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy Transforms the Way of Life of the Terminally Ill,\" General Hospital Psychiatry (98), pp.…","meta_description":"Psilocybin, Heidegger and being-toward-death Between 2020 and 2023 psychologist Marg Ross and psychiatrist Justin Dwyer, together with collaborators, ran…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5094,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/design-talk-dot-ie-3492246/episodes/0269-johno-robert-johnston-on-psilocybin-heidegger-and-being-toward-death/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/design-talk-dot-ie-3492246/0269-johno-robert-johnston-on-psilocybin-heidegger-and-being-toward-death.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}