We sit down with Federico Menapace, former Deputy Director and COO of MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), to explore how psychedelic-assisted therapies are rewriting the mental health playbook. We unpack why traditional approaches often fail millions, how Fede went from building physical bridges in Italy to pioneering mental wellness pathways. Fede shares honest insights on his own healing journey through anxiety, why being an outsider became his superpower, and how treating root causes—not just symptoms—can compress years of therapy into single sessions.

• why psychedelics were mischaracterized by the Controlled Substances Act
• how MDMA decreases amygdala activity to help process trauma without triggering
• treating root causes of illness versus managing symptoms indefinitely
• conducting phase three clinical trials for PTSD treatment with MDMA
• the multidisciplinary approach: combining science, policy reform, and communication
• why indigenous wisdom and modern neuroscience are finally converging
• navigating FDA approval while pursuing state-level and religious access routes
• using functional MRI to understand how psychedelics work in the brain
• the immigrant advantage: seeing solutions that industry insiders miss
• transforming personal healing into a mission to help millions

Everything we've been told about trauma recovery is fundamentally incomplete. Fede takes us from his childhood in the Italian Alps through his engineering degree building actual bridges, to earning his MBA at Stanford and diving into tech, before his own profound anxiety journey redirected his entire mission. He explains how psychedelic therapy allowed him to do years of therapeutic work in single sessions by accessing parts of his inner world that remained closed even during traditional psychotherapy.

We dig into the science: how MDMA paired with therapy allows people to access deep trauma in a less triggered state, why functional MRI studies at Johns Hopkins, NYU, and Imperial College London are unlocking mechanisms of action, and how ancient indigenous practices are being validated by modern neuroscience. Fede breaks down the multidisciplinary nature of MAPS—not just clinical trials, but also drug policy reform, communication strategies, and building partnerships across government, academia, and nonprofits to unlock research that was stifled for decades.

The immigrant journey runs throughout. Fede discusses how his non-medical background and Italian roots allowed him to see mental health solutions that industry insiders often miss, why being an outsider became a superpower rather than a limitation, and the responsibility that comes with privilege and access.

Fede addresses the urgency of the mental health crisis: too many people are locked in states of suffering with no way out, traditional approaches manage symptoms without addressing root causes, and inequality in access to effective treatment persists. He explains why psychedelics represent a fundamentally different intervention—one that allows people to process internally and evolve out of locked states, rather than simply medicating symptoms indefinitely.

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Federico Menapace: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fedemenapace/

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Manan Mehta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mananm/