PREVIEW: Ask Me Anything with Paul Stamets

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Speaker 1 We hope this brings a little bit more joy and connection into your holidays. Hey, Backsage Pass listeners, thank you so much for all of your support and enthusiasm for season two so far.

Speaker 1 We are thrilled to be joined today by our lovely friend Paul Stamitz, mycologist and expert on the mycorrhizal network and psilocybin mushrooms, who you met in episodes six and seven.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 Hi, folks. I'm Paul Stamitz, and I'm going to ask me anything.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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,

Speaker 2 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

Speaker 2 this subject has a lot of depth to it. And when people ask simple questions, we have to sort of dissect these questions so we have truthful and accurate responses.

Speaker 2 So, and here's a really important one. It's kind of one of the most important ones I've seen.

Speaker 2 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 and fruit body only extracts are beneficial to you that's not true it's the mycelium i just posted an article a scientific article where we compared chinese fruit body extracts to host defense mycelium.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 If you have a cold or a virus, predictably because of this cascade of the cytokine storm that can be caused by fruit party extracts, you get sicker. This is not known to 99% of the people out there.

Speaker 2 It's the mycelium that buffers the immune system so it's not overexpressed. It's a matter.
of public safety now. I've been quiet on this issue for so long.

Speaker 2 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 just want to exploit the popularity of mushrooms.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Make sure, frankly, ours are grown in the United States, certified organic, CGMP compliant, inspected frequently for quality. We know what we're doing.
Do you know what other people are doing?

Speaker 2 No, it's opaque.

Speaker 2 It's not transparent. And people buying on the stock market, they try to maximize profits by buying the cheapest product.
The cheapest product is not the best for you. Think about that.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 The mycelium is the immune system of the mushroom. It exists for years.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Lipids, as most of you know, oils are not soluble in water. So we do a hot water extract, you miss this huge component of these mushrooms.
Moreover, the mycelium expresses many more genes.

Speaker 2 and creates many more compounds than the mushroom fruit bodies. They're at the end of the life cycle.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 That may be the answer to your question, why some people have increased anxiety. Increased anxiety and depression can be a consequence of inflammation.

Speaker 2 So please, folks, take mycelium-based products, read the science on this. The science is solid.
And unfortunately, so many people have been misled.

Speaker 2 There's no other way of characterizing this except they've been misled. That's it.

Speaker 2 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?

Speaker 2 That's a really good question.

Speaker 2 First

Speaker 2 question I would ask mushrooms.

Speaker 1 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.

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