Paul Stamets has faced years of academic rejection of his expertise on mushrooms from academics who are sure only PhDs are qualified to write and speak on the subject. With only a Bachelor’s degree, Stamets is nevertheless widely seen as the world’s leading expert on the mycological universe.
As that leading expert, he’s attracted negative attention from Big Pharma, even being warned by pharmaceutical executives to “watch his back.” There are vast profits at stake as various mushrooms prove to be effective, low-cost solutions to problems Big Pharma has considered their territory.
Early on, Stamets was fascinated with mushrooms; he attributes his recovery from childhood stuttering to an ingestion of psilocybin. As an adult, he’s found the healthful benefits of all kinds of mushrooms, discovering and naming a variety of species, conducting endless research, and lecturing all over the country.
After consultation with Stamets, the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Institute for Tuberculosis found a particular mushroom to be effective against a form of tuberculosis that’s resistant to other drug treatments. Other studies showed that same mushroom is also effective against flu viruses and smallpox.
Stamets put his knowledge to work when he founded Fungi Perfecti®, a company that has a goal of persuading people that mushrooms can help them develop healthy immune responses to a variety of ills. He also started Host Defense® Mushrooms™, which makes mushroom-based supplements.
Stamets also launched Mycelial Earth, a community-based initiative that protects bees by providing them with a “fungal mycelium-based liquid solution,” saying about that—“By far, my greatest recent discovery is that I think I have found a way to save bees from Colony Collapse Disorder.”
In addition to finding a way to save bees, he’s found ways to kill carpenter ants and termites, a solution that greatly challenges the pesticide industry.
All his enterprises have strained his financial resources as well funded corporations eye it all hostilely, “I’m up against big bad pharma, and they will try to steal from us. I have no illusions about this.”
Recently he joined NASA scientists to investigate the possible uses of mushrooms in space. And then there’s his app—Quantified Citizen—that people can download to contribute to scientific research, with or without advanced degrees.
Mushrooms are Paul Stamets’ life, he’s finding so many benefits in them. “Our continued mission is to explore, study, preserve, and spread knowledge about the use of fungi for helping bees, trees, people, and [the] planet.”