Episode Transcript: #1035 - Paul Stamets

probably one of the most requested people from the internet that I've ever had. So feel good about

that. I'm honored. And you're the first guy ever to wear a mushroom hat. Okay. That's really a hat

made out of mushrooms? Yeah, it's made from this amadou mushroom. It's called Fomey's from

Ontario. It grows on birch trees throughout the world. But this is an example of why I think

shamanistically, plants, mushrooms become significant. There's a plurality of benefits. So

this mushroom is a fire starter mushroom. It allowed for the portability of fire. There's no

doubt that we came from Africa. We migrated north. We discovered something new called winter. Oops.

This allowed for the portability of fire. You can hollow this mushroom out, put embers of fire

inside and carry fire for days. If you're a clan could not rekindle fire in Europe in the winter

time, you would die. So when you this hat is actually made by some ladies in Transylvania.

Can I feel that? Yeah. And it's a hard wood conch. Oh, wow. But when you soak it in lye water,

you know, ashes and water, it delaminates into this fabric. Whoa, let me feel that. It's very soft.

It's also called German felt. Wow. It's extremely flammable. So it revolutionized warfare because

during the Napoleonic times, this is the the punk that ignited gunpowder. Really? Even the Chinese

invented, you know, the Chinese invented gunpowder, the Europeans invented the rifle. So this allowed

flint spark guns to ignite the gunpowder. This feels amazing. It is. How big a piece can you get?

That's a great question. Depending on the size of the conch on Beats trees are much bigger than

birch. Beats trees just naturally get larger. So larger the conch, the more fabric you can tear.

But this mushroom is made of mycelium. And basically, that fabric is a cellular fabric called mycelium.