Mycopreneur

Fungi Solutions Website: https://www.fungisolutions.com.auMycommunity Applied Mycology Lab -  https://myco.org.au/ This organization is a fantastic hub for community cultivators and great place for beginners to learn the ropes. They also conduct fantastic environmental conservation and citizen science projects. The Circle Awards - https://thecircleawards.com/anz/2021Link to vote in the People's Choice Award - https://bit.ly/3oiDbbuIn this episode we connect with Amanda Morglund, co-founder of Fungi Solutions. Fungi Solutions is a mycocycling and mycomaterials outfit based out of Melbourne, Australia.Amanda has an extensive background in biomaterials design and prototyping, including in the fashion industry where she pioneered a process called "Mycotailoring", which leverages the adaptive capabilities of fungi to create new mycelium-composite fabrics out of discarded textiles.This same principle of environmental remediation and transformation is the guiding ethos of Fungi Solutions - With fungi, landfill refuse and discarded resources can be broken down and rebuilt into circular packaging solutions and other useful products while capturing Carbon Dioxide, instead of emitting it.Today Amanda is going to walk us through some of the exciting research and development that is in full swing at the Fungi Solutions HQ, including their collaboration with an Australian charity to mycoremediate the environmental damage caused by the more than 7 billion cigarette butts that are discarded annually across the Australian continent.We’re also going to hear about the mycelium-composite modular acoustic treatment blocks that Fungi Solutions is outfitting recording studios and media production facilities with, as well as their goal to create clean social spaces with bio design.These are just a few of the impressive range of Fungi Solutions that we’re going to dive into on the 15th episode of Mycopreneur Podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laboratory chemist and fungi fanatic David Poplin joins us on the pod today to talk about the High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Process, the science of solvents and fungi extracts, mushroom genetics, and the bigger picture of citizen science and community service through the lens of mushroom cultivation and distribution. We also explore the intersection of music and psychedelic mushrooms, speaking about our personal experiences and adventures in the world of music production and performance on small doses of psilocybin mushrooms.David is of the most genuine, humble and intelligent humans you’re going to come across in this crazy world. He also happens to be a classically trained laboratory scientist with a diligent understanding of all aspects of mushroom and cannabis cultivation. He embodied everything a mycopreneur can be; community and service minded, resourceful, and always working towards answering his the mushrooms call for him to "be a better person". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode we’re honored to host the scintillating yet unassuming Doug Bierend, mycophile and independent journalist extraordinaire. Doug has written with a special interest in science, technology, visual and interactive media, food, sustainability and general subversiveness, for platforms like Wired, Vice, Outside Magazine, and many more.Doug has also recently been minted a first time author via his sensational debut book titled "In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and The Untapped Potential of Mushrooms"In the book, which should be required reading for all mycopreneurs, Doug profiles how the emerging mycological vanguard is exploring, innovating and advocating for fungi’s capacity to remediate contaminated landscapes and waterways, provide food and medicine, and demonstrate how humans might live in equitable and sustainable accord with nature, and with one another.This is a book that for me, like any great work, inspires more questions than it answers - the extraordinary amount of fungi-related innovation, research, development, and corporatization currently happening poses challenging and nuanced, open-ended questions regarding the ethics of patenting and profiting from mushroom technology and indigenous intellectual property.Is there a sweet spot between anarchomycology, which is a term Doug will shortly unpack for us, and the filthy money tech bro fungi capitalist practices demonstrated in the recent patent grabs and billion dollar IPO’s we’ve seen in the space?Who is represented at the table and in the corporate board rooms when the fungi pie is being divided into market shares?Who decides what effective mycoremediation practices look like, and is the urge to solve climate related problems with fungi innovation really just white savior complex and Neo-colonialism masked in eco-altruism?And perhaps most importantly, how do we know that the virtuosic guitar playing showcased on Doug’s Instagram is actually Doug playing, and not some kind of black magic deep fake technology?"Mycotopia is already all around us" - Doug Bierend Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joshua English of okom wrks labs is a regenerative materials researcher and designer who has developed the strongest mycelium composite on the planet. What does this mean, exactly?Well, it means harnessing the self-replicating wonders of mycelium in order to create 1:1 replacements for materials that have historically led to deforestation.It means building houses, furniture, boat hulls and even spaceship hulls out of mushroom mycelium instead of the increasingly rare tropical hardwoods, toxic industrial wares, etc. that are currently employed.Joshua has pioneered a patent-pending mycelium based biocomposite called 'zerø-frm' with structural, load bearing properties…a monumental leap forward in the field, to say the least.zerø-frm uses low-tech means of creating load-bearing, structural components from 3 simple ingredients: mycelium, hemp hurd, and organic cotton.I ask Joshua if it is a pie in the sky fantasy to imagine a future where the world is quite literally made out of mycelium - you paddle your mycelium-composite canoe down the canal, disembark and walk up your mycelium dock into your cozy little okom-wrks zerø-frm structural insulated panel derived cabin, and lay down on your mycelium bed to dream of sweet little birds singing in joyful harmony!Spoiler alert - No, it’s not a fantasy world we’re talking about here, it’s the future of regenerative design.As Joshua himself states, “Science fiction always drives science." The potential impact of this kind of revolutionary and truly regenerative building material cannot be overstated.In this episode we touch upon Joshua's adventures in the world of mycelium-based biocomposite design, the future of regenerative building materials, the need for regional and circular economies, and other key players in the world of mycelium-design including Ecovative and MycoWorks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Darren Springer is an expert on Pan African and African Diaspora legacies and traditions, especially when it comes to their initiatory and ceremonial rites.Darren travels the globe providing insight into the legacy of mushroom use and other entheogenic technologies in Sub-Saharan and Kemetic Africa, Kemet being the native name of Ancient Egypt.This collective tradition of ritualized psychedelic use and advanced technology in ancient Pan African society is fundamental to the human race yet largely overlooked by conventional scholars and historians for reasons Darren will elaborate on in this episode - Ancient African entheogenic traditions are the well from which Abrahamic religion has drawn it’s own mythology and sacramental practices - the mysteries of Isis in ancient Kemet are the basis for the Eulysinian mysteries of the Greco-roman world, in which a Eucharist is consumed to facilitate communion with the divine - Sound familiar? We’re also going to touch base about the equity gap in psychedelics and how mushrooms and psychedelic experiences can serve as a lens through which to examine the wounds of colonization and to marshal a collective response to historical injustices and the extraction-oriented , violence-plagued state of the modern world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Heferle and his wife Addie run Fresh From The Farm Fungi LLC out of their home and have mastered the art of cultivating dozens of different rare and exotic fungi including Cordyceps Militaris, Lions Mane, Bears Head, Chestnut, Pioppini, Shiitake, and over a dozen more varieties - Gary breaks down cutting innovations in the mushroom cultivation industry, including his current experiments cultivating wild mushrooms that have thus far largely eluded the grasp of commercial cultivation. We also dive into nascent opportunities for the hemp industry and the mushroom industry to link up and double down on closing the environmental loop together.Gary was a full-fledged member of the corporatocracy working in a lab environment for a number of years before fully dedicating himself to the mycopreneurial venture that is Fresh From The Farm Fungi, so we’re also going to pick his brain about the how and the why and the when of fully committing oneself to being a mycopreneur. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zach Kiser is a mushroom cultivator and educator who is the founder of Mushroom Cult.Mushroom Cult is a Denver, Colorado based Mushroom Cultivation and Education outfit which has been connecting people with "First Principles" of mushroom cultivation for several years as an established business. Zach conducts online and in-person cultivation seminars and is passionate about bridging the gap between home cultivation knowledge and people with non-laboratory or scientific backgrounds.In this episode, we touch on the origins of Mushroom Cult, innovation in home mushroom cultivation technology, the importance of cataloguing the genetics of wild mushrooms, the equity gap in mushroom cultivation and education, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alan Rockefeller is one of the foremost champions of Citizen Science in the world of mycology. Since 2001, he's been relentlessly photographing, researching, cataloguing, and discovering rare mushrooms around the world. He is a prolific contributor to iNaturalist and to Mushroom Observer, with over 20,000 observations and 4300 species identified to his credit.He has contributed to numerous peer reviewed mycology-related papers in scientific journals, named and described dozens of bioluminous mushroom species and a couple of psilocybes, and continues to operate at the vanguard of the mushroom revolution. We cover his forays in Mexico, molecular mycology and the importance of genetic sequencing of wild mushrooms, the shift towards increased academic and industrial focus on the world of mycology, bioluminescent mushrooms, and more.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josephine Nakakande is the Executive Director of Environmental Conservation and Agricultural Enhancement Uganda (Eco-Agric Uganda). Josephine teaches critically vulnerable and abjectly impoverished Ugandan women how to cultivate oyster mushrooms as a source of abundant and healthy protein, and also provides them with entrepreneurship training so that they can sell their harvests at market.In her own words, the women that Josephine works with "have absolutely nothing". Many of them live in regions that are historically subject to droughts and corrupt government bureaucracy that leave many residents of the rural villages with a livelihood of less than $1 U.S. per day. After receiving free mushroom cultivation training and entrepreneurship guidance from Josephine and Eco-Agric Uganda, these women are able to earn $4-6 U.S. per day and also achieve food security.Eco-Agric Uganda has trained over 600 women mycopreneurs to date, and over 400 of these women actively run mushroom cultivation operations.The trials and tribulations of Josephine and her community are in a historical blind spot to many in the developed world -- generations of Ugandans and Sub-Saharan Africans have been born into an extremely inequitable and challenging world, and the power of mushroom cultivation and education is a truly disruptive technology for thousands of people in the region already -- and hopefully many, many more to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jasper Degenaars is here to educate the world about mushrooms and normalize the use of Psychedelic Medicine. He is the director of the world-renowned Fungi Academy in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, and a passionate mycophile who believes that the power systems of the world can be redistributed among people and communities through appropriate leveraging of mycelial networks.Jasper and I had a chance to sit down together in person at the beautiful Fungi Academy campus in Tzununa, Guatemala -- a tiny village on the shores of Lake Atitlan, where Fungi Academy hosts in-person cultivation workshops and also broadcasts their online courses to a global audience.Over the course of our hour-long conversation, we touch on the bold new science of Mycofiltration, Jasper's personal macrodosing regiment, the draconian drug laws of the United States and the potential of mycology education outreach programs in the U.S. Penal System, the importance of home cultivation of mushroom food and medicine as a preventative measure against abusive and hierarchical systems of power, circular economies, and some of the abundant market opportunities that currently exist for Mycopreneurs.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.