#113 - Meet The Neuroscientist Decoding Your Bodies Cannabis System
From The Giants Shoulder by Evan McGloughlin
April 22, 2026 · 1h 4m · Season 2 · Episode 110
About this episode
Dr. Matt Hill discusses the complexities of the endocannabinoid system and its effects on the brain and body in relation to cannabis use.
Dr. Matt Hill is one of the world’s leading cannabis neuroscientists, former president of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, and a researcher with over 21,000 citations studying how the endocannabinoid system regulates the brain and body.Cannabis affects different people in completely opposite ways — calming one person while causing crippling anxiety in another — and Hill explains why the biology makes this inevitable, why both sides of the cannabis debate are getting it wrong, and why legalisation in Canada accidentally destroyed the very research that could have answered our biggest questions.Expect to learn why CB1 is the most widely distributed receptor in the brain yet almost nobody has heard of it, how endocannabinoids work backwards across the synapse unlike any other signalling system, why low-dose THC calms the amygdala but high-dose THC causes paranoia and anxiety, why women get higher than men on the same dose of cannabis due to a liver enzyme difference, why only a third of people genuinely benefit from medical cannabis while a third get nothing, how cannabis triggers schizophrenia in genetically vulnerable people without actually causing the disease, why…
People in this episode
Host: Evan McGloughlin
Guest: Dr. Matt Hill
Topics covered
- cannabis
- neuroscience
- endocannabinoid system
- mental health
- legalization
- research
Keywords
- cannabis
- neuroscience
- endocannabinoid system
- CB1 receptor
- THC
- medical cannabis
- schizophrenia
- legalization
- research
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: International Cannabinoid Research Society
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