Mycopreneur

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.

Simon Yugler is a depth psychotherapist and psychedelic integration coach from Portland, Oregon. In this episode we talk about how to navigate the emerging psychedelic therapy space, strategies for integrating a profound psychedelic experience, and the unscrupulous psychedelic medicine providers who peddle Neo-colonialism as new age wellness.We also wrestle with the ramifications of the liberalization of psychedelic medicine into the global capitalist market, observing the 'psychedelic gold rush' whereby profit-oriented companies are attempting to trademark client behaviors like lying down and smoking cannabis in a psilocybin therapy, as well as using soft furniture and holding hands. This episode will be of particular interest to anyone intent on moving into the psychedelic therapy space or pivoting their existing practice into a psychedelic integration program.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eric Mueller is a professional mushroom cultivator who runs Mueller's Mushrooms. Eric is a purveyor of specialty mushrooms and has mastered the science of cultivating the neurocognition enhancing Lions Mane mushroom, as well as immunity boosters like Turkey Tail and Reishi. Mueller Mushrooms started in true bootstrap mycopreneur fashion -- while still in high school, Eric cloned a wild oyster mushroom from a creek near his house in eastern San Diego and began selling fresh, locally endemic mushrooms to restaurants in his community. Mueller Mushrooms has grown to include a range of mushroom beef jerky made from dehydrated oyster mushrooms, as well as two stage extraction process tinctures made from Lions Mane, Reishi, and Turkey Tail. Eric also is hands on in the San Diego community, partnering with local high school science departments to teach mushroom science in public schools. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Veterans Walk and Talk is a private membership group that provides free psilocybin micro dose capsules and plant medicine therapy protocols to all military veterans. As Founder and Director Colin Wells states "Our wars have been going on for so long that no one even talks about them anymore"Yet the most dangerous theater for our military veterans is not in Kabul or Abu Gharib, but rather right here in the United States. Since 2001, over 120,000 U.S. Military Veterans have committed suicide -- a number that eclipses the amount of personnel that have been Killed In Action in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.Psilocybin therapy has shown tremendous potential to treat debilitating conditions such as PTSD and addiction, and Colin is on a mission to "empower veterans to take control of their healing journeys" and to connect our veterans to a safe and accepting private group that uses psychedelics, cannabis, exercise, and community to heal and restore people to wholeness.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alan Lilienthal is a creative genius who takes decisive action with his unique skillset -- he is the frontman for bilingual international hip hop supergroup Tulengua as well as the host of the KPBS podcast Port of Entry. Alan and I cover a lot of ground in this podcast, with topics ranging from how psilocybin can help fuel the creative process, to our mutual empathy for migrant populations, to the new psychedelic Judaism, to brain science, to Drake and Radiohead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michelle Janikian has built a thriving freelance business writing about psilocybin and other mind expanding substances. She is the author of the book "Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion" and writes about drug policy, culture, and harm reduction for such publications as Playboy, Rolling Stone, Double Blind, and Teen Vogue.In this episode, we visit a sprawling ecological park in the mountains of Mexico and sit among wildflowers, towering trees, and a pack of local dogs as we discuss her work, the role of psilocybin in dismantling the patriarchy, access and equity in relation to psilocybin therapy, legality, and personal experiences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.