Justin Smith-Ruiu didn’t come to psychedelics as an advocate or enthusiast—quite the opposite. “I wouldn’t say that at this point in my life I’m into psychedelics except as a topic of research,” he says. What drew him in wasn’t the cultural lore around them but the deep philosophical questions they raise about how humans perceive and understand reality. For a philosopher who specializes in epistemology—the study of knowledge—psychedelics offer something irresistible: a natura
Michael Moss never set out to be an investigative journalist. “I was a really obnoxious kid who was always asking why,” he laughs. But a high school English teacher in San Francisco changed everything when she sent her students out to report a story. Moss handed in his first article, and the next day she told him, “You know, Michael, I think you have a knack for this. And by the way, there are people who will actually pay you to wander around the world learning things and wri
Andrew Shtulman’s fascination with how people form—and cling to—intuitive beliefs began early. “I was interested in why people believe weird things,” he says, recalling a moment from high school biology that stuck with him. “There were certain students who requested to leave the classroom whenever evolution was brought up because they came from very religious families. I just found that fascinating—that they were uninterested in even hearing what evolution was about.” What b
