Could psychedelics cure a panic disorder? Matt Gutman went looking for an honest answer, and he brought a reporter’s notebook with him. This one crossed our desk and we couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Matt is an award-winning journalist who has served as a chief correspondent at both CBS News and ABC News, reporting from war zones and disaster sites for more than two decades. In 2023 he published No Time to Panic, an investigation into the recurring panic attacks he’d been carrying in secret — including the ones that hit him on live television.
When Tami asks which of the substances mattered most, Matt draws a line before he answers: this was not recreation. Every session happened legally, on a couch or a mat, with psychiatrists, psychologists, or trained guides beside him. Then he describes what happened in the Sacred Valley — and what he can still reach for years later, in meditation, with nothing in his system at all.
In this episode:
- Why Matt’s “mode of transportation” to altered states was a couch, not a convertible
- What 35 minutes of screaming on a mat in Peru let out of his lungs — and why his fellow retreat members cheered when it was over
- The ketamine image of falling and being caught that he now returns to on purpose
- Why the intense breakthrough turned out to be the easy part, and maintenance is the real work
If you’ve ever wondered what these experiences actually feel like from the inside — not the headline version — Matt is an unusually careful narrator of his own nervous system.
Taken from the full Insights at the Edge conversation with Matt Gutman. Find the complete interview here: “Conquering a Lifetime of Panic Attacks.”
