District216 featured in “Conscious capitalism and frontier research at Psychedelic Science 2025”
The Psychedelic Science conference (PS25), organized by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), returned to Denver from June 16 to 20, drawing an estimated 8,000 people from all walks of life and around the world to celebrate groundbreaking psychedelic research, culture, and community.
The most important psychedelic gathering of our times convened a ‘who’s who’ of esteemed clinical researchers, venture capitalists, Indigenous representatives, combat veterans, politicians, and more (including your resident satirist and emcee—me) to engage in a spirited exchange of science, advocacy, and ‘conscious capitalism’ at the vanguard of the psychedelic world.
The event was dubbed “The Integration”, appealing to the more sober climate surrounding this year’s event in lieu of the previous iterations’ unbridled enthusiasm and overzealousness. At Psychedelic Science 2023, 13,000 people came out alongside the world’s leading media outlets and major celebrities on the pretense that MDMA was virtually guaranteed to be legalized as the world’s first-ever FDA-approved psychedelic medicine in the coming months. Ultimately, the bid for FDA-approved MDMA was rejected in 2024, and this year’s event reflected more humility than hubris.
While the conference was large enough to merit a repeat occupation of the mammoth Colorado Convention Center and yield promotion in Forbes and CBS, among other outlets, there was a noticeably reduced turnout and much less overall pomp and circumstance than the event’s previous iteration two years ago in the Mile High City. But what the conference lacked in hoopla and overzealousness, it more than made up for in community spirit and rare novel molecules floating around the recently decriminalized safe harbor of Denver.
Denver decriminalized five powerful natural psychoactive substances in 2022, creating a backdrop of social acceptance and legal protection for the psychedelic community.
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District216 produced the breakout event of the week with the Psychedelic Playhouse, a ‘conference within a conference’ that drew over 1,500 people across two days and nights, and ended with a packed dance floor bopping to beats laid down by DJ Kat Walsh. I pulled double duty on night two of the Psychedelic Playhouse, emceeing two stages simultaneously while finessing new material accrued throughout the first two days of the conference.
