S2E8: PREVIEW: Ask Me Anything with Paul Stamets

We're sharing a special preview of an exclusive Backstage Pass Ask Me Anything with mycologist and author, Paul Stamets. Paul answers your most fascinating questions: from why different mushroom species affect our mood and anxiety, to how mycelial networks shape ecosystems, to whether psilocybin could enhance perception, creativity, or even telepathy. He also opens up about his own life practices, the experience that changed his relationship to fear, and how fungi may be guiding us toward a deeper understanding of the unseen world. To hear the full episode, and access all upcoming AMAs with Ky and our Season Two guests, subscribe to The Telepathy Tapes Backstage Pass. You’ll get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and access to our private Discord community. Visit www.thetelepathytapes.com http://www.thetelepathytapes.com to sign up. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:28Ky Dickens?

  Hey, Backstage Pass listeners. Thank you so much for all of your support and enthusiasm for season two so far. We are thrilled to be joined today by our lovely friend Paul Stamets, mycologist and expert on the mycorrhizal network and psilocybin mushrooms, who you met in episode six and seven. He's so excited to answer your questions today. And we're so grateful to Paul for his time, his generosity, and his curiosity about the unseen world that connects us all. Here's Paul.

• 0:53Speaker 02

  Hi, folks. I'm Paul Stamets and don't ask me anything. We've curated some questions here, but full disclosure, I'm a mycologist. I'm not a medical doctor. This is really important. I do not make medical recommendations. I own a company. We have the most popular immune supporting mushroom supplement product line called Host Defense, hostdefense.com or fungi.com. I registered that name myself for $25 in 1992, early on internet, you might say. So, yeah, there's a, I have written eight books. I have about 45 peer reviewed articles that have been published in the scientific literature. So this subject has a lot of depth to it.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  And when people ask simple questions, we have to sort of dissect these questions. So we have truthful and accurate responses. So, and here's a really important one. It's like one of the most important ones I've seen. I've read so many good things about lion's mane, mushrooms for anxiety, for example. But there's a subset of people for which anxiety worsened after starting lion's mane supplements. Is there a way to know in advance? Wow, that is a fantastic question. Because not all supplements are made the same. And this is so important. There's a frankly, a false narrative of when fruit body only extracts are beneficial to you. That's not true. It's the mycelium.

• 2:20Speaker 02

  I just posted an article, a scientific article, where we compared Chinese fruit body extracts to Host Defense mycelium.

• 2:29Speaker 02

  And we found something really concerning is the, in my opinion, in my scientific opinion, based on the evidence that we have, the Chinese hot water fruit bodies, which is the mushroom extract versus the mycelium, which is the mycelial internet, you know, that gives rise to the mushroom, the fruit body extracts cause a cascade of inflammation. So when you're sick, you get sicker. When you are stressed, you get more stressed. If you have a cold or a virus, predictably because of this cascade of the cytokine storm that can be caused by fruit body extracts, you get sicker. This is not known to 99% of the people out there.

• 3:10Speaker 02

  It's the mycelium that buffers the immune system. So it's not overexpressed. As a matter of public safety now, I've been quiet on this issue for so long. I've taken so many spears from competitors and so many people on TikTok, they create a little mail order business, they buy supplements, they, they just want to exploit the popularity of mushrooms. Unfortunately, they're way out of their depth. And this is a real concern we all should have. All mushroom supplements are not the same. Make sure frankly, ours are grown in the United States, certified organic, CGMP compliant, inspected frequently for quality.

• 3:50Speaker 02

  We know what we're doing. Do you know what other people are doing? No, it's opaque. You're, it's not transparent. And people buying on the spot market, they try to maximize profits by buying the cheapest product. The cheapest product is not the best for you. Think about that. If you have a cold or if you're stressed, and who's not stressed these days, myself included, I would never give a fruit body extract without the mycelium being part of it. The mycelium is the immune system of the mushroom. It exists for years. Mushrooms come up and rot in a few days, but the fruit body hot water extract partitions many of the fatty acids and lipid soluble compounds. Lipids, as most of you know, oils

• 4:34Speaker 02

  are not soluble in water. So we do a hot water extract, you you miss this huge component of these mushrooms. Moreover, the mycelium expresses many more genes and creates many more compounds than the mushroom fruit bodies. That's the end of the life cycle. The mycelium is navigating through the ecosystem surrounded by all sorts of potential adversaries and is successful, ultimately, sometimes years later, producing a mushroom that rots in four days. That's may why be the answer to your question, why some people have increased anxiety. Increased anxiety and depression can be a consequence of inflammation.

• 5:13Speaker 02

  So, please, folks, take mycelium-based products, read the science on this. The science is solid. And unfortunately, so many people have been misled. There's no other way of characterizing this, except they've been misled. That's it. Okay. Hello, my question for Paul is if he had the ability like Nina, what would be the first three questions he would ask mushrooms and which mushrooms would he ask first? That's a really good question. First question I would ask mushrooms.

• 5:49Ky Dickens?

  To hear the rest of the AMA and to get Ask Me Anything episodes through the rest of the season from me and other special guests from season two, subscribe to our Backstage Pass. You can find it on our website, thetelepathytapes.com.