{"podcast":{"title":"Psychedelics Today","slug":"psychedelics-today-777076","podcast_index_feed_id":777076,"rss_url":"https://psychedelicstoday.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://psychedelicstoday.com","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/d/9/9/6/d996c7aa4655e02327a2322813b393ee/PSY_009__010_Podcast_Art.png","author":"Psychedelics Today, LLC","episode_count":775,"summary":"Psychedelics Today is the planetary leader in psychedelic education, media, and advocacy. Covering up-to-the-minute developments and diving deep into crucial topics bridging the scientific, academic, philosophical, societal, and cultural, Psychedelics Today is leading the discussion in this rapidly evolving ecosystem.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T08:18:33.206833+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/psychedelics-today-777076"},"episode":{"title":"PT 653 - Dr. Michael Alpert and Peter Alberding - ALS, Existential Distress, and Ketamine Therapy","slug":"pt-653-dr-michael-alpert-and-peter-alberding-als-existential-distress-and-ketamine-therapy","published_at":"2026-04-16T19:38:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/psychedelics-today-777076/pt-653-dr-michael-alpert-and-peter-alberding-als-existential-distress-and-ketamine-therapy","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/psychedelics-today-777076","url":"https://psychedelicstoday.libsyn.com/pt-652-dr-michael-alpert-and-peter-alberding-als-existential-distress-and-ketamine-therapy","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/psychedelicstoday/PT_653_-_michael_albert.mp3?dest-id=381511","summary":"ALS and ketamine therapy are at the center of this conversation with psychiatrist Dr. Michael Alpert and Peter Alberding , who was diagnosed with ALS in late 2023. Alpert is a Boston-area psychiatrist with experience in MDMA-assisted therapy research for PTSD and a private practice that includes ketamine-assisted psychotherapy . Alberding shares what it has been like to face a fatal neurodegenerative illness while working with ketamine in a structured clinical setting. Alberding explains that he was not looking for a casual psychedelic experience. He wanted help facing fear, grief, loss of function, and the reality of death. Over time, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy became a tool for processing those changes more directly than talk therapy alone had allowed.","meta_description":"ALS and ketamine therapy are at the center of this conversation with psychiatrist Dr. Michael Alpert and Peter Alberding , who was diagnosed with ALS in l…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4767,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/psychedelics-today-777076/episodes/pt-653-dr-michael-alpert-and-peter-alberding-als-existential-distress-and-ketamine-therapy/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/psychedelics-today-777076/pt-653-dr-michael-alpert-and-peter-alberding-als-existential-distress-and-ketamine-therapy.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}