For decades, psychological treatment has meant playing pharmaceutical roulette — cycling through low-effect medications and hoping one finally sticks. But what if relief didn’t have to take months or years? At Stanford, Dr. Nolan Williams and his team are revolutionizing psychiatry with SAINT, a personalized neuromodulation therapy boasting remission rates nearing 90% in just five days. Jones explores how precision brain stimulation is reshaping our understanding of depression — and may soon make trial-and-error prescribing a thing of the past.

Once dismissed as superstition, traditional medicine is making a powerful comeback — this time, at the center of wellness culture. From turmeric lattes to gua sha facials, ancient remedies are no longer confined to family kitchens; they're lighting up Instagram feeds and luxury spa menus alike. But as these age-old practices become wellness buzzwords, questions of cultural respect and authenticity simmer beneath the surface. In a world eager for balance and natural healing, the rise of traditional medicine is more than a trend — it’s a reckoning with the roots of how we heal.

What if the magic of psychedelics isn’t in the trip, but in what happens beneath the surface of consciousness? At Stanford, Dr. Boris Heifets and his team are challenging the idea that mystical experiences are essential to healing—by testing psychedelics on anesthetized patients to isolate their biochemical effects. In his article, Jones interviews these scientists as they push past FDA roadblocks and into the murky realm of non-ordinary states, unlocking new methods of mental health treatment.

In this piece, Bhalla starts off a series of writing letters to UT’s future healthcare professionals. Read her piece to gain some insight into the reality of working in healthcare, a frequently emotionally draining field.

Kylie Ziemke is 2025’s 3rd-place winner of the Catalyst Creative Contest. She is a senior double majoring in Neuroscience and Psychology. She has always enjoyed using writing to bridge the intersection between science and humanity; in other words, the world as it is, and the world as we experience it. She wrote “The Sun and All its Warmth” to explore how our personal experiences and emotions warp how we perceive the passage of time. It is a story of grief so all-consuming it stops time itself, but it is also a story of perspective and of the light at the end of the tunnel.