Mycopreneur

Benjamin Daniel is the Founder of Pacific Substrates, based in Oakland, California. Pac Subs is one of the premiere substrate and growth media suppliers for mushroom cultivators, and they are rapidly scaling towards becoming the biggest provider in North America thanks to their established distribution channels and the entrepreneurial acumen present in their leadership team. In this episode we chart Ben's path from his relatively sheltered upbringing in Utah up through his current position running a high volume mycopreneurial venture that recently sponsored both the Psilocybin Cup and Meet Delic.Ben walks us through the philosophy, strategy, and execution of guiding principles behind the magic dirt - and also tells us what's in it and why it matters. I had a chance to meet Ben and the Pacific Substrates team at this year's Meet Delic conference, where the Pac Subs squad was rolling deep with around 12 people in attendance - Pacific Substrates even provided yours truly with VIP Access to the Las Vegas event. It's awesome to witness the rise of this young company in real time, and we look forward to more quality hang time with them. Pleas rate and review the episode if you're stoked on it -

Sophie Strand is an intersectional eco-storyteller based in the Hudson Valley, New York.Today on the pod, we dive into the fungal experiences that helped shape her worldview and that continue to color her craft.Sophie walks us through her upbringing among the vibrant ecosystems of upstate New York, where mycorrhizal fungi and bird song helped frame her thinking about humanity's place in the living, breathing world of nature. We talk about her forthcoming debut novel "The Flowering Wand: Rewilding The Sacred Masculine" due in Fall 2022 from Inner Traditions, as well as other burgeoning projects she's investing her time and talent in. We also dive into her relationship with psilocybin mushrooms and the epiphany about the nature of time that her first mushroom experience helped incubate in her. Please rate and review the podcast if you enjoy this episode!

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!

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, fungiforaging 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.

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.

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.