De-Weirding Psychedelics, SXSW

Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) festival was founded in 1987, just a year after Rick Doblin formed the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). It started as a music festival, with 700 registrants on its first day. Today, the event—which includes a film festival, conference, and more—attracts over 300,000 people each year, according to the City of Austin.

In the early 2000s, tech startups like Twitter and Foursquare gained prominence through appearing at the conference, and by 2016 the line-up boasted speakers including President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. This all represented something of a cultural shift for the City and the event, according to Douglas Rushkoff who discussed the history of both at this year’s instalment. SXSW has gone from a celebration of the ‘weird’ to a reflection of mainstream tech and media culture, he argues.

It’s hard not to draw parallels between the de-weirding of Austin and SXSW and that of the psychedelics field, which has undergone enormous cultural changes of late. In the case of SXSW, the organisers appear to be straddling a delicate balance, invoking Austin’s ‘weirdness’ (critics like Rushkoff have described this as ‘weird-washing’) while appealing to corporate sponsors and recognising the reality that Austin is more MAGA than ever.

As we wrote in February, MAPS’ own awkward cultural moment has drawn criticism from some of its supporters, especially its founder’s embrace of Elon Musk associate Antonio Gracias as an investor in Lykos Therapeutics.

It’s also interesting to note that psychedelics have only become a mainstay of SXSW’s conference track in recent years, during the event’s more corporate, less weird incarnation.

Indeed, the first dedicated psychedelics track appeared in 2023, with programming spread across several rooms at the Austin Convention Centre. By 2025, however, the track has been shifted to the JW Marriott a couple of blocks away, with little inclusion in the conference’s Featured sessions.

Despite the less central location, psychedelics still boasted a full track of talks and panels, from women’s health and psychedelics through to “aromatic pathways to psychedelic healing”.

During Rick Doblin’s talk, the MAPS founder briefly discussed the entrance of new investors to Lykos Therapeutics. MAPS will lose its status as the single largest shareholder, he said, as well as its majority position on the board. But Doblin hopes “there will be a new focus on public benefit.”

He also made public his full support for Gracias’ role in that power shift, adding that “it was just announced the other day in Psychedelic Alpha…that a fellow named Chris Hohn, a British philanthropist, is partnering with Antonio [to lead the round].”