Behind the Scenes of the “Psychedelic Renaissance” at SXSW 2025 – Psychedelic Alpha

On Monday, I was joined by three colleagues on-stage at SXSW in Austin for a discussion, Behind the Scenes of the “Psychedelic Renaissance”. For those of you that couldn’t make it, here’s a recap of the topics we discussed.

The panelists were:

• Jane Hu, journalist and writer of UC Berkeley’s The Microdose.
• Shayla Love, journalist at The Atlantic.
• Graham Pechenik, founder of Calyx Law (and Editor-at-Large here at Psychedelic Alpha).
• Josh Hardman, Founder and Editor of Psychedelic Alpha.

Conscious that we were presenting on the final day of the psychedelics track, we decided to shake things up a little by placing questions for one another in a hat and drawing some of them on-stage… seeing what came up, if you will.

Shayla Love drew the first question, asking Graham Pechenik whether his views about the ethics of patenting psychedelics have changed over time, and how he reconciles those views with the demands of his clients.

Pechenik acknowledged that he “probably had a bit of a reputation of being critical about patents”, due to being a frequent source in Love’s VICE stories that delved into some of the ethical questions around (psychedelic) patents.

“Because of that,” Pechenik told the audience, “I had a lot of clients come to me who themselves were sharing some of the same criticisms.” He described an “undercurrent of questioning about what the patents would mean to others”, and ‘concern about what others might think about their work’—suggesting both intrinsic and extrinsic concerns around the use of certain IP strategies among his clients.

Because psychedelics companies were starting to attract criticism for their patenting strategies, Pechenik says a lot of the clients that came to him were weighing competing demands. On the commercial side, they were wondering how they could engage with the patent system “to satisfy investors, to raise money, and to gain the kind of protection that one would want from patents”. But they were also mindful “to do so in a way that isn’t harmful to the broader ecosystem.” These types of sensitivities were most prominent in those who had been part of the psychedelic community prior to launching their commercial ventures, he suggested.

This level of values-alignment has allowed him to think more thoughtfully about patent strategies with his clients than he might have been able to if he were working out of a big law firm, which might default to pursuing the most aggressive strategy for its clients.

Jane Hu asked Pechenik if this had changed over time.

The space has evolved, Pechenik explained, with an early focus on natural or ‘known’ psychedelics and their employment within a psychotherapeutic paradigm giving way to the discovery and development of novel psychedelics and even non-hallucinogenic psychedelic-inspired drugs used in more of a traditional pharma paradigm. A lot of the controversy around psychedelic patents, Pechenik says, came from efforts to protect that earlier work, filing patents on known psychedelics and making claims around the therapy delivery setting.

Next, Pechenik asked me (Josh Hardman) whether I identify as a journalist or reporter, and how I would describe my role in the space.

I certainly don’t self-identify as a journalist, I told the audience, conscious I was appearing on stage with two actual journalists! “Right now there are so many people self-identifying as journalists,” I said, “and I think there is a certain je nais se quois about true journalism, but also key tenets like objectivity, writing for a broad readership, and so on.”

I contrasted that with what I do at Psychedelic Alpha, which is sometimes opinionated and is written for our field, as opposed to a broad audience. “I’m often focused on writing stories that might be more critical, like about patents and policy, because I’m addressing a community of peers”, I said. When I write or speak more publicly, I added, I focus less on these niche issues.

“I definitely identify more as an analyst. In some ways I’m maybe a bit of a Lady Whistledown—some gossip and drama in the industry—and in other ways maybe a bit of a town crier”, I added.

The hat produced a group question next, with Hu asking the panel: Is the psychedelic community in a bubble?

“Absolutely”, Hu began, with little hesitation. “When I meet people out in the world who are not familiar with the space I get a lot of really basic questions,” she said, “like, ‘Where can I buy shrooms?’, ‘Isn’t that legal?’, ‘I heard that was legal in Oregon?’” People have a lot of basic questions, she said, pointing out that some people have not even heard of MDMA, let alone 5-MeO-DMT and ibogaine.

It’s worth remembering, Hu suggested, that a lot of knowledge shared within the space doesn’t apply to the broader public.

I added that the ‘hype bubble’ side of things, where self-reinforcing views and beliefs that aren’t necessarily shared by other parts of society become very loud, is an important lens.

“We have been through this incredible hype bubble and curve, which probably peaked in 2021 with billions of dollars flowing into psychedelics companies”, I said, “but now some researchers, especially those in the broader psychiatry field, are in the trough of dissilusionment, looking at psychedelics critically, especially on the methodology side.” The general public, meanwhile, still seems to be on the way up the hype curve, I added, referencing Oprah’s recent segment. We should be mindful of who is joining, and leaving, our bubble, I said.

Talking more about the hype curve vs. the hype bubble, I often wonder where Indigenous people are represented on that famous Gartner graph: They’ve been using plant medicines and psychedelics for a long time, where are they on this hype curve?

Pechenik asked what portion of the audience considers themself “either within the space or pretty familiar with what goes on in the space”, to which almost all of the audience raised their hands. “It sounds like we’re within the bubble here”, he laughed.

Love pointed out that the motivations that people come to the psychedelics field with are very different. “For people within the psychedelic community they’re usually there because they had a psychedelic experience that was one of the most meaningful of their lives”, she said, comparing it with “people learning about psychedelics from the news, from Oprah”. That latter group might just be “interested in another, maybe more effective, antidepressant”, she added: “They’re not plugged in to some of the other aspects, whether it’s spiritual, religious, ceremonial…some people just wanna go to their doctor and get a good treatment for PTSD and they heard this might help them.”

“There’s a lot of baggage that comes along with psychedelics that, when I engage with mental health service users, they are not actually aware of at all and they don’t really understand what they’re signing up for, potentially.”

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