257 - Carl Hart: The Neuroscience of Drugs and Their Role in the Good Life

Carl Hart is Mamie Phipps Clark Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, where he researches the behavioral and neuropharmacological effects of psychoactive drugs in humans. In this wide-ranging conversation, Robinson and Carl discuss drugs from many different angles, touching on the neuroscience of addiction, the opioid crisis, drugs’ connections to poverty, the roles they can play in a creative life, and more. Carl’s most recent book is Drug Use for Grown-Ups (2021, Penguin).

Drug Use for Grown-Ups: a.co/d/efgXuJK

OUTLINE
00:00:49 Introduction
00:03:14 What Is a Drug?
00:14:58 DARE and Drug Education
00:26:07 Rodrigo Duterte and the Drug War in the Philippines
00:39:25 Studying Drugs in the Lab
00:49:07 Does Addiction Change the Brain?
00:58:12 On the Opioid Crisis
01:10:42 How Should We Solve the Opioid Crisis?
01:14:01 What Is the Connection Between Drugs and Poverty?
01:18:21 How Do Drugs Affect the Brain?
01:28:27 How Can Drugs Improve Your Creativity?
01:36:04 Should Science Inform Drug Policy?

Robinson’s Website: robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where is also a student in the Law School.