May 26, 2026 · 2 hr 1 min · 12 segments
In this episode I sit down with Dr. Manoj Doss, an expert on the impact of psychoactive drugs on memory, to discuss the unfolding scandal regarding Amy Griffin's book The Tell, as well Jeffrey…
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Hamilton MorrisHostYeah, no, and I mean, I think there was a couple people that reached out to me.
Um, I think there's an article on Bustle or something like that.
And I mean, to be honest, I kind of thought that, you know, from the original New York Times article that, like, y- you know my stance on this, is that it seems highly implausible without drugs to recover memories, you know? That, um, people don't d- tend to, like, forget their trauma.
That's the problem with PTSD, right? Is that they can't forget it, whereas most people kind of, you know, can let things go.
They go fight in a war or whatever.
Most people don't come back with PTSD, and then they're able to kinda let go of some of these events, but then some people do.
Uh, some people don't, you know, don't forget, and then they, you know, they kind of stick to it.
And there's avoidance, but they're not forgetting it.
There's not, like, a recovery of it.
So then, you know, you throw drugs in there, and at least with every drug I've tested on an objective memory test where we look at how people can, like, retrieve a memory that they previously formed, it just looks like people, you know, come up with...
Th- they say they saw things they never did, you know? And so in this case, you know, I was kinda thinking, "Well, maybe, you know, she really does believe it," right? Like, that was kind of where I was going with it, but it's highly unlikely she actually, like, recovered a memory.
But, you know, do I...
I believe that she believes it, or I believed she believed it.
I just didn't believe necessarily that it happened.
But now this new story, I mean, it's currently, you know, an accusation, right? It doesn't necessarily mean that that happened, but it does sound a little, uh, sketchy, yeah.
I mean, but part of me was just like, "Why would she need to, you know, create this story and, like, boost her brand?" You know? Like, I kinda thought The New York Times article, the first one, was a little bit like that was kind of, like, what they were alluding to, was like, "Oh, she's just trying to boost her brand," you know? And then, um, but I was kinda thinking, I was like, "She probably actually believes this, that this happened to her, you know, on MDMA." And maybe it's still possible, right? That, um, you know, it's easily possible, like, there's this whole thing, like, source confusions in memory, where something can happen, and then you can confuse the source of where it happened.
Like, did it happen in your imagination, or did it actually happen to you, you know? And people will confuse their imagination with what happened, and perhaps that's more, um, likely with something like MDMA.
And, you know, she heard the story from her classmate, and thenKind of got confused with what happened there.
She might actually believe it still, but it does sound a little...
Yeah, I mean, I don't wanna make any statements and get sued, so [laughs]
Well, there, there was a sort of, I would say, borderline conspiratorial dimension to the original New York Times report, which was, this isn't just somebody who recovered a potentially false memory under the influence of MDMA.
Mm-hmm
... who then went on a massive publicity tour extolling the virtues of this therapy.
Yeah, no, and I mean, I think there was a couple people that reached out to me.
Um, I think there's an article on Bustle or something like that.
And I mean, to be honest, I kind of thought that, you know, from the original New York Times article that, like, y- you know my stance on this, is that it seems highly implausible without drugs to recover memories, you know? That, um, people don't d- tend to, like, forget their trauma.
That's the problem with PTSD, right? Is that they can't forget it, whereas most people kind of, you know, can let things go.
They go fight in a war or whatever.
Most people don't come back with PTSD, and then they're able to kinda let go of some of these events, but then some people do.
Uh, some people don't, you know, don't forget, and then they, you know, they kind of stick to it.
And there's avoidance, but they're not forgetting it.
There's not, like, a recovery of it.
So then, you know, you throw drugs in there, and at least with every drug I've tested on an objective memory test where we look at how people can, like, retrieve a memory that they previously formed, it just looks like people, you know, come up with...
Th- they say they saw things they never did, you know? And so in this case, you know, I was kinda thinking, "Well, maybe, you know, she really does believe it," right? Like, that was kind of where I was going with it, but it's highly unlikely she actually, like, recovered a memory.
But, you know, do I...
I believe that she believes it, or I believed she believed it.
I just didn't believe necessarily that it happened.
But now this new story, I mean, it's currently, you know, an accusation, right? It doesn't necessarily mean that that happened, but it does sound a little, uh, sketchy, yeah.
I mean, but part of me was just like, "Why would she need to, you know, create this story and, like, boost her brand?" You know? Like, I kinda thought The New York Times article, the first one, was a little bit like that was kind of, like, what they were alluding to, was like, "Oh, she's just trying to boost her brand," you know? And then, um, but I was kinda thinking, I was like, "She probably actually believes this, that this happened to her, you know, on MDMA." And maybe it's still possible, right? That, um, you know, it's easily possible, like, there's this whole thing, like, source confusions in memory, where something can happen, and then you can confuse the source of where it happened.
Like, did it happen in your imagination, or did it actually happen to you, you know? And people will confuse their imagination with what happened, and perhaps that's more, um, likely with something like MDMA.
And, you know, she heard the story from her classmate, and thenKind of got confused with what happened there.
She might actually believe it still, but it does sound a little...
Yeah, I mean, I don't wanna make any statements and get sued, so [laughs]
Well, there, there was a sort of, I would say, borderline conspiratorial dimension to the original New York Times report, which was, this isn't just somebody who recovered a potentially false memory under the influence of MDMA.
Mm-hmm
... who then went on a massive publicity tour extolling the virtues of this therapy.
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