A Primer On Mushrooms (Paul Stamets + Joe Rogan)

Paul Stamets is a mushroom expert who was, in Joe Rogan’s words, “one of the most requested guests” on the JRE podcast. In this memo learn about the paradoxes of mushrooms, the mysterious fungal intelligence, and more.

Setting the stage: Mushrooms are fungi. Fungi are neither plants nor animals, but share features of both. 30% of all soil mass is fungal; and half of the estimated 10 million species on Earth are fungal species.

The many sides of mushrooms: Unlike plants, mushrooms only pop up above ground for fleeting periods. Their ephemeral nature made them mysterious to our ancestors. Mushrooms are also diverse - they can feed us, some of them can heal us, still others can kill us.

Earth’s “first natural internet”: Underground, mushrooms are networked organisms. They have billions of mycelial tips that can extend for miles. If a single tip encounters a new food source/new toxin, it can encode new enzymes & this information is then genetically incorporated.

Mushrooms around the cosmos? We may find fungal organisms in our cosmic explorations. Why? Their unique network-like design makes them adaptive & hence resilient to disasters. Fungi are built for longevity - they’ve been on Earth for at least 1 billion years more than animals.

Intelligent but how? Fungi can feed on oats. So scientists created a Tokyo model with oat flakes, and added fungi to it. The fungi rearranged itself to resemble the Tokyo rail system - except more efficient. How did fungi - with no central nervous system - figure out this design?

Stutter gone: Paul Stamets’ speech stutter was gone after he tripped on Psilocybin, a hallucinogenic found in magic mushrooms. A drug trip did something 6 years of speech therapy couldn’t. He believes this happened

because of psilocybin’s neuro-generative properties.

Fungi & war: Half of WW1 casualties were from minor injuries and following bacterial infections. In WW2, the allies mass produced penicillin - derived from a fungus - and used it as an antibiotic. Their casualties decreased -

the axis powers, meanwhile, didn’t have penicillin.

New brain networks: In a study where people were injected with psilocybin, fMRIs showed their brain became remarkably more networked. Previously unconnected areas started interacting. This shows mushrooms can produce new ways of thinking, which can trigger new ways of life.

Bottom line: Fungi in general, and mushrooms in specific, have shaped us in the past, and will continue to shape us in the future. A rigorous yet reverent approach to them can unlock new treatments, new states of consciousness, and new ways to live.