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Ernesto Londoño, a veteran journalist with the New York Times, was suicidally depressed, living in Brazil, and curious. He had heard from a psychiatrist at a party about the remarkable and barely studied benefits of ayahuasca, a psychedelic herbal brew that has been popular among tribes in South America for a long time. Being a reporter, he wanted to learn more. Being an incredibly depressed person, he wanted to try it. His experience led to a dramatic change in his mental health and an interest in studying psychedelic treatments in many locations and an interest in studying the organizations and individuals who administer them. He writes about all of it in his new book, Trippy:The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics.

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