Veterans Are Suffering Because of Government Red Tape
Filmmaker Jon Shenk and former Navy SEAL Marcus Capone discuss how psychedelics are helping veterans recover from war trauma.
The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries who are making the world a more libertarian—or at least a more interesting—place by challenging worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.
Today's guests are Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jon Shenk and former Navy SEAL Marcus Capone. Shenk is co-director, with Bonni Cohen, of the new Netflix documentary In Waves and War, which follows three former Navy SEALs as they use psychedelic-assisted therapy to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries related to their service.
Capone is one of the three main figures in the film. He first used the ultra-powerful substances ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT in 2017 and is the co-founder with his wife Amber of VETS, a nonprofit that helps veterans access psychedelic therapies. He's also CEO of TARA Mind, a company seeking to expand the use of psychedelic-assisted mental health therapies for all Americans. He is featured in the 2023 Reason documentary Welcome to the Psychedelic Renaissance.
They talk with Gillespie about why so many veterans and everyday Americans could benefit from psychedelic therapy and discuss the challenges of depicting both the grim realities of war and the otherworldly experiences of tripping on ibogaine, which some call the "Mount Everest of psychedelics." They also discuss why the Trump administration and an unlikely bipartisan group of legislators may well help usher in an era of legalized psychedelics.
0:00—Introduction
1:40—The reality of war
10:34—Documenting war for film
21:05—The psychological toll of the Afghanistan War
31:23—Health care for veterans and ibogaine treatment
36:14—Amber Capone and the importance of veteran spouses
40:15—The psychedelic experience of ibogaine
44:16—Stanford University study on ibogaine
51:49—Visualizing the psychedelic experience
55:37—Legislative progress for psychedelic-assisted therapy
1:05:52—The work of VETS and TARA Mind
- Producer: Paul Alexander
- Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser
