Recap/Discussion: JRE #2134 Paul Stamets
Paul Stamets is a brilliant and long-practicing mycologist who is a huge proponent of medicinal uses for fungi.
It’s been 4 years since Paul last appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience and it’s immediately noticeable how busy he’s been. The episode opens with Joe and Paul discussing Agarikon mushrooms and the early implications of the benefits that they can offer vaccines. Paul shares preliminary data that suggests these mushrooms can help ease the typical adverse effects experienced after a vaccine injection. At 14:29 Stamets cites a story that covers bird flu, for the first time ever, crossing over to large mammals — in this case, cows. As he describes, we’re in a “period of viral storms.
At 39:46, Paul explores the likelihood of the vast benefits of fungi that remain undiscovered. He also shares a few mildly amusing stories of his personal experiences with Muscaria and Pantherina. His stories also highlight the phenomenon of repetitive motion syndrome that users sometimes experience where they get caught in a loop of action.
Paul is also the founder and CEO of Fungi Perfecti LLC, which grows and sells culinary and medicinal mushrooms and related products. At 57:10, Paul recalls how far they’ve come since the days he was crying himself to sleep over financial woes and bouncing checks in order to keep the business afloat. We hear so many stories like this on the show and they never get old. When someone believes in themselves and their vision so much that they sacrifice everything it’s truly inspiring.
Paul then remembers that he’d like to thank Rogan and the audience of the JRE for their participation in his initiative to demonstrate the benefits of microdosing (1:11:33). The initiative is run through an app, microdose.me and yielded remarkable results in their initial 30-day trial. Microdosing adults reported strong health motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression, in relation to their non-microdosing counterparts. The study can be found here.
Stamets touts the data as an objective and noteworthy demonstration of improvement in psychomotor performance. He also alludes to the implications this has in human capability that extends well beyond a psychomotor context. Now, Paul would like to call upon the JRE audience once more to involve themselves in a 3-month study that attempts to not only replicate the results but also do so on a larger and more prolonged scale.
Stamets also proclaimed that he anticipates the legalization of psilocybin mushrooms — citing the disinterest of law enforcement in upholding their criminality (1:32:03). He anticipates this legalization within 5 years. What wasn’t discussed is the work that MAPS (The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) has been doing for decades, working towards the legalization of most psychedelics. This is a curious omission, considering Rogan has had founder, Rick Doblin, on the show before.
At 1:53:06, Joe and Paul go on to discuss the profound impacts of psychedelic experiences on people. Paul recounts being approached and thanked by prominent religious figures who cited Paul’s work and advocation as a helping hand in improving their relationship with their religious faith. This story seamlessly segues into a discussion about the likely influence mushrooms had on ancient Egyptian civilizations.
Toward the end of the episode, we discover that before Frank Herbert’s death, he had a personal relationship with Stamets (2:03:33). Herbert acknowledged that Paul was the first person to point out Dune’s ties and influence from mushrooms. At the time, the author wanted to keep this fact secret from his children. This prompts Joe and Paul to lament over the current misplaced stigma associated with mushrooms, acknowledging the difficulty that academics and scholars have undergone to try and overcome the misconceptions.
A solid and concise installment of the world’s number 1 show, the JRE.
