How do oncologists witness death after death without burning out? And what happens when the medical system trains oncologists to see death as ‘failure’ rather than a natural outcome?

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jason Konner, founder of Psychedelic Oncology and medical oncologist who practiced at Memorial Sloan Kettering for over two decades before leaving to pursue psychedelic medicine full-time. Jason discusses the concept of wounded healers and how oncologists often carry accumulated grief with nowhere to process it. He shares discovering ayahuasca after years of unrecognized burnout, which revealed a third way of being present with patients without depleting himself. We explore why psychedelic literacy among healthcare providers matters for patient care and Jason's vision for psychedelic oncology as a subspecialty addressing the existential, emotional, and spiritual dimensions that conventional cancer care systematically ignores.

How do you customize psychedelic retreats for people whose medical experiences were traumatic and whose bodies tried to kill them?

In this episode, we speak with Anne Hamilton, founder of Survivorship Collective—the first nonprofit offering legal psilocybin retreats designed specifically for cancer survivors. Anne walks us through the four-step process: medical screening for drug interactions, deliberate cohort matching for emotional safety, multi-week preparation that bonds participants, and five-day Oregon retreats with ongoing integration afterward.

Visit www.healingcancerjourneys.org and follow us at 'healingcancerjourneys'.

Andhow do we build the infrastructure for safe, legal, affordable accessto psychedelic medicines for people living with cancer?

Inthis episode, we speak with Dr. Linda Carlson, professor ofpsychosocial oncology and co-principal investigator of the CanadianNetwork for Psychedelic-Assisted Cancer Therapy (CAN-PACT), Canada's$5 million initiative building research infrastructure forpsychedelic-assisted cancer therapy. Linda explores what hersystematic review of research actually shows: promising signals butalso knowledge gaps. We discuss why healthcare providers seepotential but identify concerns about psychedelic medicines, and why"demoralization syndrome" may better capture cancer'spsychological impact than depression or anxiety.

Lindadescribes CAN-PACT's approach: building networks with patients asfull partners, identifying top research priorities through consensus,and training therapists in public cancer centers for equitableaccess.