Some connections are just meant to happen. Johnny met Omar at the Telluride Mushroom Festival and knew immediately this was a conversation worth recording. Omar Dasco-Uribe is an Ojai-based community builder, educator, entrepreneur, and lifelong student of the relationship between people, nature, and fungi. A chef for 14 years, a microdosing coach, and the founder of OHMS Collective, Omar has spent years exploring the intersections of food, mycology, personal growth, wellness, and community. His work is rooted in one simple belief: meaningful change begins with relationship to ourselves, to each other, and to the living world around us.

In 2026, Omar founded and is producing the Ojai Mushroom Summit, bringing together scientists, cultivators, farmers, chefs, artists, educators, healers, and the fungi curious for an eight-day event built around learning, connection, and cross-pollination. At the heart of everything he does is a desire to create spaces where people can learn something, meet someone, get a little weird, and leave feeling more connected than when they arrived.

This episode covers everything: food, grief, psychedelics, discipline, community activism, and what it actually takes to build something meaningful from the ground up.

They open by tracing Omar’s path from growing up in Ohio with a close-knit neighborhood feel, to culinary school in Santa Barbara, to discovering Lion’s Mane forty feet up in a tree and hauling it down with a hundred-foot rope and a lot of determination. His culinary background gave him a deep appreciation for the versatility of mushrooms and eventually led him straight into the medicinal side of things when his girlfriend was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and Lion’s Mane showed real promise in supporting myelin regeneration.

Omar opens up about losing his father to stage four esophageal cancer at fifteen and how that loss set him adrift for years, until a group of friends invited him to take mushrooms on the day the world was supposed to end in 2012. What followed were hours of realizations stacked on realizations, a profound shift in how he understood life, death, and his place in it. He and Johnny go deep on how grief and loss can actually open a person more fully to what mushrooms have to offer, and why the medicine seems to come in hardest when you need it most.

The conversation moves into microdosing and both Omar and Johnny share how finding a devoted daily practice changed everything. Omar talks about building his microdosing routine into his life as a chef, first experimenting in a high-pressure hotel kitchen and discovering a kind of clarity and flow he hadn’t felt before. He also co-authored a book called The Trip Tracker with therapist Gwen Pelofini of Rooted Ethos, a straightforward intention-setting and somatic journaling guide designed to help people actually get something out of their microdosing practice instead of just taking something and wondering why nothing’s happening.

Johnny shares how his Micro Discipline program approaches this from the same angle: preparing the vessel before the medicine, building the habits and the vessel first so that when the window opens, you’re actually ready to walk through it. They both land on the same idea: the mushrooms aren’t the power, they’re showing you your power.

They talk about the current state of the mushroom supplement market, why so many products have nothing real in them, and why education is the most important tool for helping everyday people navigate that noise. They also discuss the legal landscape in California, how decriminalization is slowly spreading from Santa Cruz outward, and what’s happening in Illinois with the new psychedelic-assisted therapy bill for veterans and the formation of the Illinois psilocybin committee board. Johnny shares that he and Devin have partnered with Decrim Nature to launch the Chicago chapter and begin working with city council on bringing real change to the state.

They close with a full breakdown of the Ojai Mushroom Summit, how it grew from a two-day symposium to an eight-day event, what to expect if you show up, and the honest lessons Omar learned about event production, sponsor outreach, and the importance of prepping like a chef.

About Omar Dasco-Uribe:

Omar Dasco-Uribe is an Ojai-based community builder, educator, and founder of OHMS Collective. A chef for 14 years and a microdosing coach, he co-authored The Trip Tracker with therapist Gwen Pelofini and produces the Ojai Mushroom Summit. His work lives at the intersection of food, fungi, wellness, and community activation.

Connect with Omar:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ojai.mushroom.summit/

Website: ohmscollective.com

Tickets for the Ojai Mushroom Summit: https://events.humanitix.com/ojai-mushroom-summit

Mentioned in this episode:

The Trip Tracker by Omar Dasco-Uribe and Gwen Pelofini, available at ohmscollective.com.

Forgotten.life is live now with Lion’s Mane tinctures, Cordyceps, Reishi, gummies, and elixirs.

Microdosing coach Shannon Pereira was locked in her parents' basement during COVID, in a house where a family member was struggling with meth addiction, when a friend asked if she wanted to join a psilocybin microdosing study. That first dose in a bathtub cracked her open. This week on The Mush Room, John James Staniszewski and Shannon go deep on perspective shifts, the drug war, why every coach needs a coach, and the Changa DMT journey where she felt the whole mushroom life cycle from spore to sporulation.

IN THIS EPISODE WE COVER:

🍄 A live microdose: philosopher's stone sclerotia vs. a Golden Teacher blend with L-theanine, saffron and rose

🍄 How psychedelics quiet the default mode network, and the "6 or 9" lesson on perspective

🍄 Why mycology was pushed out of the mainstream, and what the drug war got wrong about psilocybin

🍄 What a microdosing coach gives you that books and forums can't: accountability, reps and pattern-spotting

🍄 Yoga, Soma and the ancient roots of psychedelic practice

🍄 Women and psychedelic research: cycles, dosing and why tracking matters

🍄 "Don't give your power away, even to us": the warning that came from the mushrooms

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Mushrooms don't teach you something new. They help you remember what you forgot. The small shifts count: not snapping at the cop, being more patient with your kids, that compounds into a different person. And the power was always yours. The medicine is a more efficient path back to it, not a replacement for doing the work.

ABOUT SHANNON PEREIRA:

Shannon is a mushroom consciousness speaker, writer and microdosing coach behind Powered by Mushrooms Coaching. A certified yoga teacher (Hatha, Yin, Tantra, Kundalini), Ho'oponopono, EFT, meditation and breathwork practitioner, she left a burnout corporate career in Australia to study in ashrams across India and Asia. She's a contributing author in a bestselling anthology and is writing the Powered by Mushrooms Microdosing Coaches Guidebook.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro

01:14 The live microdose

03:10 Meet Shannon Pereira

05:35 Corporate burnout to ashram

07:31 COVID basement, first microdose

10:39 How perspective shifts work

14:38 Mycelium, the grand communicator

16:33 Why fungi were ignored

19:01 Ergothioneine, Reishi and TCM

21:10 Flesh of the gods

23:33 The drug war lie

25:33 Why hire a microdosing coach

30:35 Yoga, Soma and psychedelics

34:25 Pain, growth and embodiment

39:14 Microdosing and endurance

43:03 McKenna and free thinking

46:06 Becoming a mushroom on Changa

49:48 The butterfly and the struggle

54:06 Women in psychedelic research

55:55 Journaling and tracking progress

59:03 Don't give your power away

1:02:27 Mushrooms as ancient intelligence

1:06:12 The unseen world around us

1:07:37 Becoming un-f***-withable

1:08:07 Where to find Shannon

📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan

Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance by Dr. James Fadiman & Jordan Gruber

Mindful Meds

Lee Carroll, medicinal mushroom expert

Dante Liberato's 500-mile run

Terence McKenna

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

🔗 CONNECT WITH SHANNON

Instagram & Facebook: @poweredbymushroomscoaching

Book a call: https://calendly.com/powered-by-mushrooms-coaching-with-shannon/30min

🔗 CONNECT WITH JOHN & THE MUSH ROOM

https://mrfungitarian.store/

New episodes every Week Subscribe and turn on notifications.

This episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Psilocybin and DMT are controlled substances in many places. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your health routine or medications.

#microdosing #psilocybin #mushrooms

TAGS:

microdosing, psilocybin, microdosing coach, magic mushrooms, psychedelics, changa, DMT, mycology, functional mushrooms, reishi, lion's mane, mushroom podcast, The Mush Room, Mr Fungitarian, Shannon Puriya, Powered by Mushrooms, plant medicine, consciousness, ayahuasca, psychedelic integration

What's actually in your mushroom product? The answer might surprise you, and it's exactly why this conversation matters.

In this episode, Johnny sits down with Chris Pauli, founder of Tryptomics, a psychedelic and cannabis testing laboratory based in Colorado. With deep roots in cannabis pharmacognosy and a vision for personalized natural medicine, Chris is one of the most knowledgeable people working at the intersection of science, fungi, and human health. This is one of the most science-forward episodes of The Mush Room yet, pulling back the curtain on an industry growing faster than regulation can keep up with.

They break down the biggest misconceptions in mushroom testing on both the consumer and manufacturer side, what "active ingredients" really means in a natural product, and how compound classes like triterpenoids, hericinones, and tryptamines each play a distinct role in what you feel and how you heal.

The conversation gets into the entourage effect in mushrooms and why chasing maximum potency may actually be working against the outcome most people want. Healing centers in Colorado are already finding that patients do better on lower-potency whole mushrooms than concentrated high-potency doses, and the science points directly to all the compounds we haven't studied yet.

Johnny and Chris dig into the pharmaceutical race around psilocybin, why the molecule can't be patented, what pro-drugs like 4-ACO-DMT actually are, and the recent report of a 77% success rate treating depression without psychotropic effects. They also cover what Eli Lilly's acquisition of a 5-MeO-DMT nasal spray means for the future of delivery mechanisms.

One of the most important segments covers what Tryptomics found testing smoke shop mushroom chocolates: synthetic tryptamines, prescription drugs, and in most cases, zero actual mushrooms. Chris walks through the Diamond Shrooms recall, how the Amanita ban came about, and how the synthetic tryptamine market is running the same playbook as K2 and Spice.

They cover the state-by-state legalization picture, comparing Oregon and Colorado, and why Illinois passing psilocybin and MDMA access for veterans is a signal that five to ten more states could follow within the year. From there the conversation opens into the chemistry of DMT and ayahuasca, and something more philosophical: is DMT a place you travel to, or a place already inside you?

They close with what's coming from Tryptomics, including an expanded Lion's Mane panel and a long-term vision for personalized mushroom medicine that preserves genetic diversity and builds on what the cannabis industry got wrong.

About Chris Pauli:

Chris Pauli is the founder of Tryptomics, a psychedelic and cannabis testing laboratory in Colorado focused on identifying the full spectrum of bioactive compounds in natural products and pushing mushroom science forward.

Connect with Tryptomics:

Find Tryptomics on Instagram for lab results, compound education, and the latest in mushroom science.

https://forgotten.life/ is live now with mushroom supplements, gummies, and tinctures.

01:06 Introduction to the episode and guest expertise

02:04 Current misconceptions in mushroom testing

03:54 The cost and value of quality mushroom products

05:50 The role of testing in standardizing products

07:40 Active ingredients in medicinal mushrooms

09:44 The science of active compounds and their effects

11:24 Personalized medicine and mushroom strains

13:22 Testing and standardization challenges in natural products

15:27 Pharmaceutical approaches to psychedelics

17:04 Legal developments and legislation updates

19:13 The future of mushroom research and industry

Johnny sits down with Dennis Walker, founder of the Mycopreneur podcast, for an unplanned but perfect conversation that covers his first mushroom trip, why harm reduction and psychonaut culture kept him safe from the start, and how every kind of person, from NFL players to Navy SEALs to business executives, is finding their way to mushrooms.

They get into the synthetic psilocybin debate, which states are likely to legalize next, why microdosing and macrodosing probably need different regulation, and how Dennis built the Mycopreneur Incubator into a real community. They also cover CPZ mushroom, the truth about Amanita muscaria, disaster relief applications, and why prepping and integration matter more than the dose itself. This one is packed with real world experience and zero corporate polish.

Every kind of person is finding their way to mushrooms right now, from NFL players to Navy SEALs to business executives. Sharing real stories from people in those worlds is doing more to normalize this than any clinical paper.

Mushrooms work for well people too. You do not need a diagnosis or a crisis to benefit. A lot of the conversation focuses on healing trauma, but there is a whole use case for people who are already doing fine and want more clarity.

Microdosing and macrodosing are different enough that they probably need different regulatory models. Treating a point-three gram dose the same as a supervised four gram session does not reflect how people actually use mushrooms.

The psychedelic investment bubble already inflated and deflated once. The businesses that last are not chasing billion dollar valuations, they are building sustainable, personally meaningful work around community access.

Integration and prepping matter more than the dose itself. The insight from a mushroom experience only sticks if you do the work before and after the actual trip.

Dennis Walker

Founder, Mycopreneur podcast and newsletter

Host of the Mycopreneur Incubator

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mycopreneurofficial/

Website: https://www.mycopreneur.com/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mycopreneur

Johnny sits down with Dr. Alex Paziopolous of the Pazio Institute for a deep dive into the real differences between ketamine and mushroom journeys, why intention and integration matter more than the molecule, and how his background studying ecology and tamarind monkeys led him into medical maintenance engineering. They cover mushroom rotation protocols, the five fibers your microbiome craves, how to spot a fake supplement, why the psychedelic renaissance is really a second chance, and the concept of radical willingness that filters who gets into his clinic. This one moves fast and covers a lot of ground.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

0:01:08 Ketamine vs. mushrooms

0:05:19 Intention over molecule

0:11:03 Alex's background

0:13:09 Rotating mushrooms

0:16:24 Lifestyle first

0:22:14 Three mushroom categories

0:25:04 Five daily fibers

0:28:30 Spotting real supplements

0:35:47 Medical maintenance engineering

0:41:00 Radical willingness

0:50:32 The research that got shut down

0:59:02 Insight and resilience

1:03:10 Where to find him

Ketamine pulls you out of your body and lets you look at difficult things from a distance. A mushroom journey puts you deep into your body and your emotions, which takes more work to move through. Alex sees them as complementary tools rather than competing ones.

Intention and integration matter more than which molecule you take. Without a plan going in and real behavior change coming out, the experience does not translate into lasting change.

Rotating medicinal mushrooms every few months keeps the body responsive to their compounds instead of adapting to a stimulus that stops working.

A healthy lifestyle is the multiplier. Supplements and mushrooms show up much more clearly in a body that is already taking care of itself.

Radical willingness is the filter Alex uses at his clinic. People who commit to the full process, not just a pill, get the results.

Check out the Pazio Institute wesbite: https://www.thepazioinstitute.com/

Find him on Instagram:   / thepazioinstitute  

And Facebook:   / thepazioinstitute  

#MushroomMedicine #Fungitarian #TheMushRoom

🍄 Is psychedelic prohibition finally coming to an end?

In this episode of The Mushroom Podcast, Mr. Fungitarian sits down with Joe Robinson, founder of PsiloSafe and a 20-year veteran of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, to discuss the future of psilocybin, psychedelic legalization, safe access, and why the movement needs transparency now more than ever.

Joe shares his journey from Big Pharma and healthcare technology into the world of earth-based medicines and explains why he created PsiloSafe — a nonprofit dedicated to establishing testing standards, labeling transparency, and safety frameworks for psychedelic products and producers.

Together they explore the biggest questions facing the psychedelic movement today:

🍄 Should psilocybin be regulated or simply decriminalized?

🍄 Can state access programs and underground communities coexist?

🍄 What role should synthetic psilocybin play in therapy?

🍄 How do we keep consumers safe in an unregulated market?

🍄 What can psychedelics learn from the mistakes of the cannabis industry?

🍄 Is community healing more effective than clinical models?

This episode dives deep into the intersection of policy, healing, consumer safety, and the future of psychedelic medicine.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction to The Mushroom Podcast

01:27 State Access Programs and Their Importance

05:03 The Role of Synthetics in Psilocybin Therapy

08:37 Decriminalization and Its Impact on Access

10:19 Understanding the Experience: Bad Trips vs Tough Experiences

12:17 Education and Awareness in Psychedelic Use

15:00 The Cannabis and Psychedelics Movement

18:27 The Birth of PsiloSafe and Its Mission

23:45 Empowering Patient Communities

25:24 Consumer Awareness and Product Safety

27:42 The Tipping Point for Psychedelic Acceptance

31:16 Celebrational Use of Psychedelics

36:11 Micro Discipline: Preparing for Psychedelic Experiences

42:20 Future of PsiloSafe and Safe Access

About Joe Robinson:

Joe Robinson is the founder of PsiloSafe, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public health and safety through education, transparency, product testing standards, and harm reduction practices in emerging psychedelic markets. Prior to founding PsiloSafe, Joe spent more than two decades working in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and medical technology before transitioning into advocacy for earth-based medicines and psychedelic safety initiatives.

Connect with Joe & PsiloSafe:

🌐 PsiloSafe Website: https://www.wearepsilosafe.org

Connect With @mrfungitarian: https://mrfungitarian.store

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe for more conversations on mushrooms, microdosing, psychedelic science, mycology, consciousness, and the future of healing.

What does it really look like to rebuild your life after rock bottom? In this episode, Johnny sits down with Johnny Chase, founder of Dry Culture, for one of the most raw and honest conversations about sobriety, identity, and discipline you'll hear anywhere. These two have history, and it shows. No filters, no fluff, just two people who've lived it.

Johnny Chase opens up about what it felt like to be two or three days deep into a bender and still sitting at the same bar in the same clothes, the moment he realized alcohol (not weed) was the real gateway drug, and why rehab taught him how to stop drinking but left him completely unprepared for what came next. He talks about the loneliness of early sobriety, "people pruning" over 100 contacts from his phone, and how one mile on a treadmill in rehab became the foundation for a completely new identity.

From losing 50 pounds and running two marathons to preparing to run 339 miles across the state of Iowa as part of an 8-man relay, Johnny's story is a masterclass in what happens when you replace one addiction with a better one and build your life around it. He and Johnny J also go deep on the intersection of sobriety and psilocybin, why the running community is becoming more open to mushrooms, and how flow state might be the missing piece for endurance athletes.

Johnny Chase is launching his 30 Day Reset workbook program, a physical guided journal built around four pillars: movement, discipline, identity, and environment. It was designed to do what rehab doesn't: give you something to replace the habit with.

What we get into:

• The moment Johnny Chase knew alcohol was destroying his life
• How cocaine entered the picture and why money made it worse
• "People pruning" and why it was the most important thing he did in early sobriety
• Running as identity and how one mile changed everything
• Losing 50 pounds just by stopping drinking
• What rehab actually does (and doesn't) prepare you for
• The 30 Day Reset: the four pillars and how the program works
• Running across Iowa on his birthday
• The sober community's evolving relationship with mushrooms and microdosing
• Psilocybin, flow state, and the mental game of endurance running
• Why "recovering out loud" is the most powerful thing you can do

About Johnny Chase:

Johnny Chase is the founder of Dry Culture, a sobriety lifestyle brand and community built for people who are past rock bottom and still in the rebuild. More than two and a half years sober, he's lost over 50 pounds and completed multiple marathons, with running becoming a cornerstone of his recovery and identity. His flagship product, The 30 Day Reset, is a 30-day physical workbook built around four pillars (movement, discipline, identity, and environment) designed to replace the habit of drinking with something better.

Connect with Johnny Chase:

Instagram: @dry_culture

Website: Dry Culture

Find the 30 Day Reset and all program info via his website above.

Eight years ago, Johnny Staniszewski was a personal trainer and nutrition coach who got caught in the medical system, handed a prescription, and ended up in a two-and-a-half-year opiate addiction. One night, alone with a handful of mushrooms that had been sitting in his closet, everything changed. He woke up the next morning sober. He has not looked back since.

In this first episode, Johnny sits down with friend and producer Jeff Fell to lay the foundation for what The Mush Room is, why it exists, and where it is going. They cover Johnny's origin story from personal trainer to mycologist to Mr. Fungitarian, what it took to spend six years building farms, feeding kids in schools, and growing millions of pounds of substrate before the world was even ready to hear the word psilocybin.

They also get into the research that is finally catching up, including an 80-year-old Alzheimer's patient who regained her speech 19 hours after a five-gram dose, and a study showing a 70% reduction in suicidal ideation after just one week of psilocybin use.

Johnny breaks down what is coming to the show: HPLC chemists, anti-aging doctors, sober athletes, everyday people whose lives were quietly rebuilt by fungi. He also shares the vision behind the Skool community and Micro Discipline program launching soon, and why 10 million Fungitarians is not a marketing goal. It is the number required to make real, collective change.

This is episode one. Welcome to the table.

Follow Johnny on all socials, find the Forgotten supplements and ways to work with him here: https://mrfungitarian.store