Mycopreneur

Jeff Chilton is a pioneer in the international medicinal mushroom industry. His career as a commercial cultivator is in it's 6th decade, and he's devoted and inspired as ever to continue his life's work with the fungi.

In this episode we discuss Jeff's initial discoveries of the magical world of fungi, which included a year and a half stint living in Oaxaca, Mexico, during the early 70's while searching for his "Don Juan".

We trace Jeff's journey from his high school days smoking weed in 1964 (before it was a cultural phenomenon), through his university days studying Anthropology and Mycology on and on to his first commercial cultivation position in the Pacific Northwest in 1973, on through his arrival in China in 1989 and the subsequent founding of international wholesale medicinal mushroom powerhouse NAMMEX, up through the status quo of his mycopreneurial interests and pursuits -

I also share my story of staying with Maria Sabina's surviving family for 3 days back in 2010, including my participation in a traditional Mazatec 'Velada' mushroom ritual with her son - a story I have not previously share on the podcast.

Please rate and review the podcast and thanks for joining us!

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Today's pod is a different format than previous episodes - 

After 5 weeks of fungi-centric travel and adventure across 3 countries and over 12 cities, I'm going to be bringing everyone up to speed on some of the highlights of my epic journey.

This includes a recap of the Meet Delic conference in Las Vegas, fungi foraging expeditions in the Cocora Valley and Andean Rainforest of Colombia, a medicinal mushroom party and cultivation seminar with a group of young mycopreneurs in Mexico City, and... an official announcement regarding the upcoming in-person Mycopreneur Incubator in celebration of the Mycopreneur Podcast's first birthday.

The Incubator will take place from January 26 to February 1 in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, and features a number of mycopreneurs-in-residence, fungi-themed parties and gastronomy events, chocolate making workshops, and an expedition into the Lacandon Jungle to recollect rare fungi alongside a local Chiapanecan mycologist and his team.

As an added bonus, the last bit of the podcast offers a sneak peek into a very new, very unedited book that I've been devoting time and energy to writing.

Thanks for indulging me in this experiment, and look forward to more interviews with Mycopreneurs coming shortly. 

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Today on the pod we've got world-renowned fungi photographer and filmmaker Stephen Axford.

Stephen first caught the attention of The BBC after one of his early time lapses of bioluminescent fungi shot in his native Australia made it's way to one of the production companies editors.

The BBC went on to prominently feature Stephen's fungi time-lapse photography in Planet Earth ll, as well asseverate other David Attenborough projects.

Since then, Stephen's extraordinary fungi imagery has been featured in numerous high profile works for cinema and television, including Fantastic Fungi.

Stephen and his filmmaking partner Catherine Marciniak went on to create a stunning and woefully underrated film called "Planet Fungi" that details their fungi research expedition into remote Northeastern India.

In this episode, we talk about how Stephen got into shooting fungi time lapses, where his favorite places in the world to photograph fungi are, what his camera set-up and best practices are for macroscopic and bioluminescent fungi photography, and what he's working on next.

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Rohhaan Gawde is the Founder and CEO of The Mushroom Company Mumbai.

While many of his friends and peers were assuming the career path of engineers, Rohhaan elected to devote his life to the study and commercial production of fungi.

After 10 years of research and development working with fungi genetics and optimization processes, then 5 years on a commercial farm, Rohhaan started The Mushroom Company Mumbai.

In this episode, we talk about the his trials and triumphs as a mycopreneur in India, the day to day realities of running a commercial mushroom farm in a massive country that is not necessarily Mycophilic, the culinary overlap of different types of exotic fungi with classic Indian dishes, and opportunities for growth and expansion as a mycopreneur in India - as well as numerous other topics intersecting socioeconomics, ecology, and entrepreneurism.

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Nacarra The Mushroom Goddess is a mycopreneur, activist, and educator base in Houston, Texas.

Today we learn about Nacarra's road into the mycoverse, her efforts to bring mushroom education into the curriculum of the Houston school district, her experience at the Oakland Psychedelic Conference, and the mushroom soap & skin care line she is bringing to the world.

Today's episode dives into the universality of "The Mushroom Mentality" that mycopreneurs adopt, which extends to vastly different areas of our personal and professional lives - and which drives the development of new ideas, products, and services that add tangible and extraordinary value to our communities.

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In this episode we welcome Rob Roscow, Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at Mydecine Innovations Group.

Mydecine has government, military, and academic research contracts across numerous countries and is heavily invested in development of a novel molecule pipeline that includes treatments intended for smoking cessation and treatment of PTSD.

I had a chance to meet Rob and the Mydecine team in-person at the 2021 Telluride Mushroom Festival, which was sponsored by Mydecine.

This episode dives into the Mydecine drug development pipeline and the entourage effect of mushrooms through a biopharmaceutical lens.

It's an arena of study which I am largely unfamiliar with, but which is becoming increasingly important in lobbying for the mainstream acceptance and regulatory scrutiny of psychedelic medicines as legitimate and effective therapeutic tools.

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Today on the pod we've got Toronto-based serial mycopreneur Peter Reitano, founder of Gwella.

In this episode, we dive into the origin story of Mojo Microdose, Gwella's flagship product that is claimed to be "the world's first legal mushroom microdose" -

We hear about Peter's initiation into the wild and wonderful world of mushrooms, unpack some of the controversial baggage surrounding the burgeoning legal psychedelics industry, and discuss best practices for getting a mushroom product out of the drawing room and into the lives of people around the world.

Thanks for tuning in and please remember to leave a review if you enjoyed the episode!

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Today on the pod we’re honored to have our first repeat guest 

Who’s microdose company is actively contributing to a macro shift in the cultural landscape of our world

And I have first hand knowledge of the tremendous value and efficiency packed into these little capsules

Everybody near and far, please welcome Adam Bramlage of Flow State Micro back to the Mycopreneur Podcast

When Adam and I first connected a couple of months ago, I expressed interest in adopting a microdosing protocol seeing as how I’ve never consistently committed to one throughout 15 years of psychedelic research 

And he generously offered to send me a 30 day supply of Flow State Micro stack of functional mushrooms which I decided to add my own dose of magic to 

And over the course of the 30 days and in the 30 days or so since then - I’ve come to find extraordinary value in the combination of microdosing functional and medicinal mushrooms in tandem with a vigorous workout routine - 

I box 3 times a week and noticed visceral and substantial improvements in my ability to focus and to double down on my self-care routine in the gym thanks to the flow state microcode stack - I’m doing 4 days on and 3 days off taking two of the flow state micro capsules with a .25 psilocybin mushroom addition I added myself thanks to the providence of nature 

There are numerous other benefits I’ve noticed as well, which we’ll get into on the pod today -

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Today on the pod we’ve got an extraordinary mycophile, filmmaker and storyteller who’s going to be regaling us with tales of hunting wild Cordyceps Sinensis in the Annapurna region of Nepal - where he had the good fortune of participating in a foraging expedition alongside local Nepali mushroom hunters who rely on these highly valued medicinal fungi to sustain the livelihoods of their entire family.

Everybody please give a warm welcome to Hamilton Pevec!

Today Hamilton’s going to walk us through the behind the scenes realities of the life of Suklal, his brother-in-law and the protagonist of the film.

We’re going to learn about the ecological and the socioeconomic context of the annual cordyceps hunt in the Annapurna region of Nepal, as well as the much larger trade in neighboring Bhutan and Tibet.

We’re going to talk about supply chains and how a $6 specimen for Suklal could end up selling for 10 times that amount in Shanghai.

And we’ll talk about the similarities and differences between wild cordyceps sinensis and the more commonly available cordyceps militaris that an increasing number of folks are cultivating Stateside.

All that and a whole lot more, coming at your right now- so let’s get this show on the road!

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Today on the pod we’ve got an esteemed Mexican mycologist & researcher, a mycomaterials designer and entrepreneur who is turning heads around the world and winning prestigious design competitions with his fungal biomaterial fabrications - all while publishing peer-reviewed academic papers and holding it down in academia - oh, he has a podcast about mushrooms, too, en Español, called "Entre Hongos"

Gente del mundo micológico dar gracias, bienvenidos al Mycopreneur Podcast -

Dr. Efren Robledo

Today we’re going to be talking bout Dr. Robledo’s foray into the world of mycomaterials, which he and his team of mycopreneurs at the Universidad autonoma de Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico, have been extensively researching, prototyping and reiterating with to create some seriously impressive reishi leather that is quickly garnering the attention of the international design community 

Their mycopreneurial venture is called Mycelium with an I and you can find some of their current offerings at www.somosmicelium.com

We’re also going to talk about the mycopreneurial landscape of Mexico, as increasing number of younger folks re-embrace the abundant ancestral wisdom and knowledge of fungi that is endemic to this beautiful land

We talk about opportunities to build mycelium bridges across the world, both figuratively and literally, and

We talk about Efren’s vision for his own mycopreneurial hustle and what the ultimate goal of mycopreneurism is for him

All that and a whole lot more

Gracias para juntar nosotros ahorita aquí en el Mycopreneur Podcast, y vámonos a viajar ahorita al Mundo Mycelio

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