The Trip Lab
The Trip Lab
Dr. Mary Ella Wood
The Trip Lab is a podcast on integrative medicine and psychedelics hosted by board-certified physician Dr. Mary Ella Wood. Through conversations on psychedelics, neuroscience, and whole-person care, the show examines emerging evidence alongside deeper questions of meaning, healing, and human experience. Life is a trip. Let’s explore it.
#31 – Detox in a Toxic World, Part 2: Reducing Exposures at Home and the Home as a Health Ecosystem
In Part 2 of Detox in a Toxic World, we move from understanding the problem to actually doing something about it. This episode is all about reducing exposures to toxins, starting in the place where many of us have the most control: the home. We explore the idea of the home as a health ecosystem and walk through practical ways to lower your total toxic burden without falling into fear, perfectionism, or overwhelm. We cover simple low-cost first steps, food storage and cooking tools, pantry and...
Jun 1
29 min
#30 – Detox in a Toxic World, Part 1: Understanding Environmental Toxins and Their Impact on Health
Today we’re kicking off a new series, Detox in a Toxic World, with a deep dive into environmental toxins and their impact on health. In this episode, we break down what environmental toxins actually are, how they affect the body, and why this topic is both real and often wildly misunderstood. We walk through the major categories of toxins in modern life, including microplastics, pesticides, mycotoxins, heavy metals, food additives, and synthetic dyes, and explain the key mechanisms through wh...
May 25
33 min
#29 – The Integrative Roots of Longevity Medicine
Longevity medicine is one of the most exciting frontiers in modern healthcare. With new technology, more advanced biomarker testing, deeper aging research, and emerging interventions that aim to help us better understand and potentially shape the biology of aging, the field is opening up an entirely new level of conversation about healthspan, vitality, and the future of medicine. Today, we dive deeper into the roots of longevity medicine and why, in many ways, those roots have long existed wi...
May 11
39 min
#28 – Women’s Health Beyond Hormones: The Missing Model
Women’s health is often approached through a hormonal lens, but hormones are only one part of the story. In this episode, we explore a broader framework for women’s health that includes the neuro-endocrine system, inflammation, metabolism, the gut, autoimmunity, and the mind-body connection. We talk about PMDD, perimenopause, PCOS, endometriosis, IBS, autoimmune disease and why so many conditions that affect women are better understood through a more expansive, systems-based model. We also to...
Apr 27
37 min
#27 – Psychedelics Without the Psychedelics. What These Ancient Teachers Are Telling Us
The modern psychedelic renaissance is teaching us something important, not just about psychedelic substances, but about how healing actually happens. Beyond the molecules, psychedelic science is revealing the conditions under which the human nervous system becomes capable of change. This episode explores the idea that psychedelics have long functioned as teachers, not only through ingestion, but by showing us how context, meaning, and state shape healing. By looking across history, neuroscien...
Apr 13
30 min
#26 – What Psychedelics Ask of Those Who Lead
Psychedelic medicine is moving fast. Faster than regulation. Faster than standardization. And in many ways, faster than the data itself. In this episode, we explore what psychedelics are teaching us about practicing medicine under uncertainty. From the rapid rise of training programs and self-identified experts, to the tension between lived experience, emerging science, and clinical responsibility, this conversation looks beyond hype or skepticism. Drawing on psychedelic research, integrative...
Mar 30
27 min
#25 – We Oversimplified Psychedelics. The Brain Is Doing Something More Interesting (DMN Modulation, Network Dynamics, and the Brain–Body Connection)
Our understanding of how psychedelics work has evolved in meaningful ways over the past several years. While earlier neuroscience frameworks helped move the field forward, newer research has added important nuance and depth to how we interpret brain imaging, network behavior, and subjective experience. In this episode of The Trip Lab, I offer a refresh on psychedelic neuroscience, focusing on key updates from the past four years and how they change the story we tell about what’s happening in ...
Mar 16
24 min
#24 – Microdosing Psychedelics: Evidence Updates, the Placebo Response, and the Neuroscience Behind Why It May (or May Not) Work
Microdosing has gone mainstream and is often described as a tool for creativity, mood, productivity, and emotional healing. But what does the science actually say? In this episode of The Trip Lab, I take an evidence-based look at microdosing psychedelics. We explore what microdosing is, how it differs from full-dose psychedelic therapy, and the proposed neurobiological mechanisms that have been suggested in the literature. I review what current clinical trials and placebo-controlled studies a...
Mar 2
23 min
#23 – Functional Medicine Testing: When it’s helpful, limitations, and the truth about test validation
Functional medicine testing is everywhere. It is often marketed as “test, don’t guess,” and just as often dismissed as invalidated or unscientific. So what is the truth? In this episode of The Trip Lab, we take a deep dive into what functional medicine testing actually is, how it differs from traditional laboratory testing, and what clinicians really mean when they say these tests are not “validated.” We explore why some advanced tests can be genuinely helpful when used thoughtfully, where th...
Feb 16
23 min
#22 – Is Modern Medicine Still Evidence-Based? Reclaiming Evidence, Restoring Clinical Wisdom
Is modern medicine still evidence-based, or have we quietly mistaken rigor for certainty? Evidence-based medicine is essential. It’s why we save lives, advance care, and trust modern healthcare. But as medicine has become more specialized and disease more complex, something subtle has happened. Rigor has increasingly turned into reductionism, and evidence is often applied in ways that don’t fully match the realities of clinical practice or patients’ lived experiences. In this episode of The T...
Feb 2
35 min
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