Name: Psychedelics & Innovation: Talk and Q&A with Dr Sam Gandy (BRISTOL)
Start: 2025-11-24T19:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-11-24T21:00:00+00:00
Location: The Steam Crane

Psychedelics & Innovation: Talk and Q&A with Dr Sam Gandy (BRISTOL)

TICKETS: https://dandelion.events/e/n8usv
Innovation is defined as “the creating and use of new ideas or methods.”
Psychedelics can shift modes of thought and produce a variety of effects that may hold important implications for addressing global challenges. They have played a powerful role in fueling creativity within the sciences, sparking both inspiration and insight.
In the decades ahead, humanity is likely to face immense challenges. Our capacity for innovation and problem-solving will be crucial in ensuring we can rise to meet them. Could psychedelics help provide the solutions?
In this talk and discussion, ecologist and independent researcher Sam Gandy will explore:
How can psychedelic experiences and related altered states shift our thinking and mental state in ways that may support some aspects of creativity and problem-solving?
Notable examples of how psychedelics have contributed to scientific breakthroughs or insight
Why expanding the capacity to think flexibly, shift our perspectives, and generate new ideas is of vital importance to the future of humanity
How might psychedelics be best used if seeking to use them as tools for innovation?
About Sam Gandy
Sam is lifelong nature lover a PhD ecologist, independent researcher, science communicator and fungi cultivator. He works with the Beckley Foundation as a scientific researcher, also working as an independent researcher, collaborating with a range of different academics on a variety of research projects, while having a primary interest in the capacity of psychedelics to influence human relationships with the natural world. Sam also works as a science writer for a number of media outlets including outlets including EcoHustler, DoubleBlind and the Chemical Collective. He enjoys leading occasional fungi cultivation workshops, with the aim of making the thoroughly rewarding, life-enriching and sometimes exasperating hobby of growing fungi accessible to beginner growers.