The Morning: CEOs embrace psychedelic drugs

Plus, Syria, South Korea and Kentucky.

View in browser|nytimes.com December 12, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague Emma Goldberg writes about psychedelic drugs in corporate America. We're also covering Syria, South Korea and Kentucky. —David Leonhardt Magic mushrooms. Todd Korol for The New York Times C.E.O.s are tripping By Emma Goldberg I cover business culture. Psychedelic drugs have come a long way. They once belonged to the counterculture ("tune in, drop out"). Now they are finding a home in the C-suite. LSD, magic mushrooms and some other psychedelic drugs have been federally prohibited since the early 1970s. But people are taking them widely: Researchers at the RAND Corporation estimated that eight million adults in the U.S. used psilocybin (the main psychedelic substance in magic mushrooms) in 2023. Today, a growing number of business leaders are using psychedelics, according to executives, coaches and researchers I interviewed. We don't have data on how often they trip, but many executives believe that the drugs can infuse their work with some coveted missing ingredient — calm, vulnerability, imagination. They sometimes take psychedelics on fancy retreats, where they lie blindfolded on mattresses while therapists guide them. I spoke to several of these executives for a story The Times published today. Corporate leaders are often stressed out, fed up, creatively blocked or emotionally worn. For many in that group, two changes have made psychedelics more appealing. In today's newsletter, I'll explain. The creativity push Corporate culture has been loosening for decades. Sterile, gray cubicle farms turned into bustling open floor plans. Technology companies added game rooms and ball pits to make their offices zany and colorful — places where workers could anchor not just their professional but also their social lives. Business leaders exhorted employees to exhibit imaginative thinking. (Sam Franklin, a historian, says this came out of a Cold War-era effort to distinguish freewheeling American companies from their rigid Soviet counterparts.) There's a reason that people see psychedelic drugs as a way to boost creativity. The drugs increase the amount of information moving around in the brain, according to Robin Carhart-Harris, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco. While the brain usually tries to compress information, psychedelics create chaos and disorganization. That's enticing to people looking for out-of-the-box ideas. Murray Rodgers guides executives through their trips. Todd Korol for The New York Times Guides who lead psychedelic retreats also say that the drugs evoke deep waves of emotion. Some executives I interviewed revisited childhood memories during their mushroom trips. Some of them wept. And one briefly thought he had died. That kind of emotional openness and disclosure is now routine in the corporate world. Best-selling management guides like Brené Brown's "Dare to Lead" focus on emotional intelligence. One C.E.O. went viral on LinkedIn for a selfie that showed him crying after he laid off two employees. Executives tell employees to "bring your whole self to work," a slogan spread in a popular TED Talk and self-help book. The wellness boom Business leaders have also become more candid about wellness at work. Many have deemed mental health not just an appropriate office conversation, but a necessary one. The pandemic sent anxiety skyrocketing and prompted business leaders to make sure their employees felt comfortable discussing stress. Firms spend tens of thousands on therapy apps, meditation classes and stress management workshops. Some offer quarterly or annual mental health days. As business leaders encourage employees to talk forthrightly about mental health, some are becoming more open about their own struggles — and the unorthodox tools they're using. Elon Musk posted on X last year about his use of ketamine, a drug that can have hallucinogenic effects: "I have a prescription for when my brain chemistry sometimes goes super negative." Most scientists agree, though, that more research is needed on the possible side effects of psychedelics. There is risk when taking any unregulated drug, especially unsupervised. A big shift Big names in business (Apple's Steve Jobs, OpenAI's Sam Altman) have credited a psychedelic trip with creative insights. Now business leaders tell their colleagues that psychedelics are the reason they've become more calm and empathetic in the office. Take Mark Williamson, the former chief operating officer of MasterClass, who began using psychedelics with a therapist in 2020 when his company was growing quickly. The experiences prompted him to mentor more young colleagues after one of them appeared in a vision during a drug trip. A former Airbnb executive, Chip Conley, said he had seen friends in the business world use psychedelics to manage their egos and to find a deeper professional purpose — but he worries about corporate figures getting carried away. "There's a cultural cachet in some communities that suggests that if you're into psychedelics, you're cool and open-minded," Conley said. Still, researchers are eager to learn whether psychedelics can have a measurable effect on business performance. Leaders get "stuck" in conventional approaches to decision making, said Rachelle Sampson, a business professor who is running a study at the University of Maryland. Perhaps, she wonders, psilocybin can break them of it. Read my story here. I'll be answering questions from readers in the comments today. THE LATEST NEWS Clemency President Biden granted clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans, the most pardons ever issued by a U.S. president in one day. 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Stephen Colbert joked that he was surprised by the brevity of Luigi Mangione's manifesto. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Make mushroom and leek pasta in one pot. Buy a gift for people who are always cold. Grate your cheese with better tools. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was boycotted. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. 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