Episode 12 - Plastic Eating Mushrooms and The Comedy Commune
Transcript (transcribed programmatically - for all spelling/grammatical errors, blame the robots)
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Welcome back to the MUstaSH ROOM.
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I'm your host, David Ben.
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An on this episode.
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We talked with a good friend of mine, Scotty.
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He's a stand up comedian and anesthetist
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Just an just a really fun, interesting smart dude. He runs a program called the Comedy Commune or a show I should say comedy commune out of Brooklyn, NY and just a fun guy to talk to him. We also get a visit from wifey jillan. She educates us on a new mushroom, not new, I should say, but a mushroom that was recently discovered that eats.
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Plastic Awesome and her voice is just so tiny.
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Think so enjoy. We are sponsored by MUstaSH Brands MUstaSHbrands.com. We're on social media and online at MUstaSH ROOM MUstaSH as always spelled MUSTASH again, I'm David Ben like Uncle Ben, but without the racism and enjoy this episode.
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Here you go.
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I'm partly responsible for that child.
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Scott had the party that lit the fuse to my fire with my wife and I will never forget that man.
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I am forever indebted to you.
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Yeah there, those parties I threw in that place that was, uh, all.
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Brothel that they converted to condos in downtown Tampa called the Arlington.
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Of course you were living in a repurpose brothel.
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Of course, that's my boy.
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It was a Reaper.
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You met your wife in a repurposed brothel.
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I I literally have worked just enough to support this dream, and I work just enough hours so my wife just think I'm.
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A total loser like.
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It's a good thing.
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Help yeah.
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Yeah, I mean as a math well, people like how much do you work?
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I'm like divorce, just enough to avoid before salads.
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One notch up from divorce.
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I work just enough hours for a not to get divorced, yeah?
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Good good for those of you listening.
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That's the secret to a happy marriage.
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Just hover right above divorce.
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All the time.
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I mean I have one toe in the pool.
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You know that.
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My wife's great. My wife is like literally like the only person I probably could have married 'cause I'm super high maintenance. You know, like I'm just like all over the place doing 1000 things.
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And that's why we love you, man.
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That's why we love you, man.
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The comedy commune you used to.
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Have in your apartment right there was somebody's apartment.
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Oh did it was the bat it it was probably one of the best underground shows.
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In New York's history, I would say.
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It is so it's going to be.
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It's going to go live again.
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You can look at the Instagram at comedy commune on Instagram and go back in archive pictures.
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Yeah.
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But I'm just start putting clips up.
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This is what's really funny is that we're talking about.
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For cyber I had this Halloween comedy commune in some dude brought a bunch of mushroom chocolates.
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Beautiful.
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So like half of the crowd was on mushrooms so I had to like yell at people for overlapping through punch lines and like Tim Drilling went in and he didn't even do any material.
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He just destroyed the audience for 15 minutes making fun of their costumes.
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Ah.
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It was probably one of the best you know.
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Work of arts of Stand up comedy.
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I've seen a little bit in my life.
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That's awesome.
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I.
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I mean I was dying.
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He just was ******** on people.
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15 minutes and they loved it.
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And then I guess Dan Server closed that show out.
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It was a mobile show and I paint really psychedelically art pieces like I paint with fluorescent and non fluorescent and make like really trippy paintings so I always wherever the company commune was.
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I painted all these signs and I had.
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I would sometimes bring my artwork down.
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I would frame the comic out so the crowd would be the comic would be the center of attention and.
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It just always had such a good vibe.
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I get you every show I give out about two or three cases of beer before the show started.
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So that get that gets him going I have.
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You such you're such a philanthropist, I love it.
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Have you is the is?
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The best, yeah?
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I mean, I had catered food free beer and then people started treating it like Burning Man so like people would come and bring well it depends on whose apartment it was in but people would bring whatever they were going to bring to share with the crowd.
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The problem.
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The crowd would get crazy, you know.
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And they were also well trained.
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Like if people were heckling.
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I would just add them you know, and I drag him out of the crowd and be like dude, you can't stand in the back and it kept being rally.
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They would just be out.
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I mean I pulled it out in the middle of the show.
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I don't give a **** you know and people just stop doing that.
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So then years of them, knowing that I'd bounce them out they the crowd would turn off their phones like.
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I never had a phone ringing during the show and people stopped tackling even when they would get hammered, yeah?
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Good Shepherd, well I hope.
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That hope you can bring that back in full force.
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Man I I'm really.
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They will do to it.
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I I will the one thing I should have done in historically is have a host and just do a set.
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'cause I can't tell you how many times I just ate * **** trying to produce a show and host it.
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You know, I worked the pandemic in Queens that the peak I I worked at our critical care in this hospital in Queens area.
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OK.
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For the people listening, you're anaesthetist, right?
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Yeah, I'm a CNA certified registered nurse and it's my side gig.
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Gotcha.
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I'm trying to become a comedian and producer and yadda yadda yadda writer in New York got really crazy and we.
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Weird everything, just shut down all of a sudden it was really kind of ominous.
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The city was like a ghost town.
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What what?
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What month was this when this all went down?
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This is at the end of March 1st week in April.
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OK, the pandemic was in full bore at that point.
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Keep.
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444
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Factor New York, NY was Ground Zero. Ironically, for you know the freezer trucks and.
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Oh good.
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I work for a company that was had a contract at.
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A hospital in Queens.
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So I've always kept my credentials at a hospital in Tampa and this company had a contract.
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In Queens and my recruiter called me and was like listen.
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They are desperate.
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They say it's a total train wreck.
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The money was insane.
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Sure.
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You know per day what they were paying for people to go into these units and I have.
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Just ahead, OK?
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Yeah I have a lot of critical care experience and I was like perfectly suited to.
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Deal with it because a message is intimate people.
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And we're critical care providers so.
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So you have somebody like.
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It's probably one of the best.
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Recruits a hospital could have is an anesthesiologist nurse anesthetist because.
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At the time they thought it Oh well, you know you need people that know how to manage Airways and manage ventilators and deal with critically old people.
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Sure.
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'cause that's what we do in anesthesia a lot.
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You know, specially if you do cardiac, which I do and write in or transplant, which I do.
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And I just went in.
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And I have two at the time I had.
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A bit.
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I think there was 18 months or.
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Yeah wow.
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He was he wasn't even true yet, so Louis was like 20 month, 20 month old.
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And my wife was pregnant due in June, so I basically had to quarantine away from them to take this contract.
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I stayed in a hotel and you know, it's a big sacrifice, like not seeing your kid or being with your pregnant wife to go help and believe me, it's way beyond money to go in there and go into a place like that.
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**** good for you man that's yeah.
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But
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I I mean, the best way to describe it was you know, and it's such a cliche, but it was like a war zone where it was kind of like all hands on deck.
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Yeah.
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You know every single person in this facility was trying to do something to help the effort, you know, to the people that were actually physically touching the people that were coming in.
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Did you file at all mccobin?
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I did before I took this assignment.
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I believed I thought I had it in early March I was deathly ill.
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Full body eggs lost.
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The sense of smell like I could still taste stuff.
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My wife warranty me in the back of our apartment.
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Thankfully we have a big *** apartment, you know, so I couldn't.
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Now big in New York could be what? 800 square feet? So? But in your in your world it's bigger than that, I'm sure.
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Warm high places.
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Well my wait no. My apartment is actually one of those apartments that are just like no he didn't. It's like one of those friends apartments. I have 1400 square foot apartment.
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Good for you, man in New York, that's that's pretty impressive.
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Well I got in there I got in early.
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I got in one of these old warehouses in Brooklyn and so my wife put me in the back.
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Cool.
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We have this little back TV room that has plants and.
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Definite.
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And I just was like I was like, more food, Gatorade, you know, vitamin C, vitamin D.
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Just barking requests from the bedroom.
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Yeah, pretty much.
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And she was doing my first of all.
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My wife is a ******* St 'cause she she was.
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You know about ready to pop with his two year old enough in the fourth in a floor, four floor walk up, you know.
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Yeah, that's bad timing, man.
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With no laundry no dishwasher like she deserves like a fight.
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Yeah.
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You know, like the mom, iron cross or whatever it is the.
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So your heart man, let's talk about your heart.
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You had heart surgery.
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You kind of skipped over that.
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What what happened?
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Well, no.
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I was saying I was giving you to shut up.
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Oh OK.
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Oh, I forgot I.
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You're probably right.
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Forgot your long winded jokes.
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The yeah.
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Yeah I do.
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We're not even close to the punchline yet I keep going.
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I do.
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No, I'm just saying that basically I was jogging on River Walk in August and I was trying to get in shape.
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You know, I just had another baby.
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I was kind of dad bod dressed and I like I got dizzy and I collapsed on River walk.
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And I didn't lose consciousness, but I felt like I was.
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I couldn't breathe and I thought I was having a bronchial asthma attack and then it calmed down and it went away.
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And then I didn't go to the ER and I noticed it back in.
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You know what?
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We're in New York.
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I was getting more winded walking up our stairs to go to our apartment, but like I didn't think anything of it.
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Yeah.
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And then the first time I really tried to have activity.
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I like almost lost consciousness and then I made an appointment with the cardiologist and went in an my mitral valve.
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The valve between your left ventricle and your left atrium was.
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Blown out wow.
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So blood was backing up in my lungs.
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It's called pulmonary edema.
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So then I went and found the goat.
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Via the greatest surgeon of all time.
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Yeah, pretty much yeah, I went to the director of Cleveland Clinic.
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OK.
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I love that.
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Marc Gillinov like he's the director of Mitral valve Services in Cleveland Clinic.
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And because you know the industry.
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I mean, I'm sure that was, you know you.
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Knew exactly what you were.
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Yeah, he's like that Amber Ham and like his two partners are like 3 Tom Bradys.
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Like that's all they do all day long, you know 400 KC?
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So what was the?
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So like what was the full like surgery and recovery time?
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For that?
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I mean that that doesn't sound trivial at all.
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So we live in we.
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At the time we have an apartment in Brooklyn and I have a rental house in Tampa and we were staying in Tampa at the time.
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Thank you.
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We my wife is a nurse so she got an air BNB in Cleveland.
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It was up in Cleveland, OH.
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OK.
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Where you're from.
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I am wearing a Brown sweater right now, so yeah, kudos.
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I know I saw it.
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And we she books the place, and to my luck, because of the pandemic, these guys are usually booked a year out.
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You know, celebrities, Arab sheiks, like all these rich Europeans, all the Europeans and foreigners had canceled on them so they had spots.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, you're right.
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So the guy got.
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They have a huge hotel like they designate entire floors for the King of Saudi Arabia and whatnot when they come for their server.
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Yes yeah yeah yeah this guy Mark killing off is I watched all these videos.
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He does.
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He's minimally invasive robot surgeries, so it's like any one of these surgeons at Cleveland Clinic in their mitral valve program.
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I would have gone too, but this guy just happened to be the clinical surgical director of the mitral valve clinic.
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OK.
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Turn is he just walking around like doing the billionaire dance like the Conor McGregor dance?
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And so I was like, OK.
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Just ******
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There, he's actually a really nice man, and he's and he's kind of like, you know, he's everything you would want.
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Sergeant, he's like them.
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Makes you feel less petrified.
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Yeah, yeah, is is everything I wanted like you know just all business he came in you know gave me a copy, a copy of his book on a heart surgery and I was like sure already this you know.
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Wow humblebrag yeah.
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Wow, humblebrag.
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Yeah thanks man. Yeah, I know I'm like. Thanks bro. I don't give a **** just make sure I can run and not die at 45 you know.
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Yeah.
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So what was the total surgery time?
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He felt from the time I got the injury or I discovered the injury to I was on the table.
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It was like about a month.
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OK, so for that month he said it was at an agonizing month trying to get to the sun.
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And then right?
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Yeah.
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Agree.
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Yes, because I just was at risk.
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Yeah.
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You know, like I now I know my valves blown out so I was not doing any activity of sitting up in bed like I couldn't even lay flat like leading up to this jog like I thought it was gas reflux.
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But like I would wake up like having an asthma attack and it turns out like blood was backing up into my lugs just from laying flat.
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I would say about two months before I actually started feeling good.
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OK, were you hospitalised like for the full two months or were you back?
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So I got. I was kind of actually a freak. I got out of the hospital in 2 1/2.
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Days from open heart surgery.
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Then we stayed in Cleveland for another week and Cleveland Heights 14 weeks out I started running.
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Oh yeah, segment.
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Now where do you get the mushroom?
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Shared I got the numbers when you saw me you saw the mushroom sure mushroom sure bang mushroom soup but you can't stop with the mushroom shirt now.
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I think when you saw me some.
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Mushroom shirt mushroom Sheriff.
00:13:42
00:13:42
Shirt Sheriff.
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Let me show you some.
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Look at that Gerard, did you go?
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On inside was special mushroom.
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Yes.
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Jill, thanks so much for being here today.
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Yeah, thanks again for having me.
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Bird is here.
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Hopefully silent will see see how that pans out.
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We'll see.
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We shall see.
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Anyways, we have an awesome mushroom today on the podcast I'm.
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I'm excited because it's not a medicinal or a.
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The culinary mushroom not a psychedelic mushroom, but one that rather benefits the environment.
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So it's not necessarily widely known, and it's really hard to pronounce.
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So without further ado, we're going to talk about the show.
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Yeah.
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All right, let's well, let's hear the computer.
00:14:28
I don't know why it's so funny, and I think I like.
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I'm gonna say it, you know they're just laughing at me like I can't do it or something.
00:14:32
OK, go for it.
00:14:35
Well, I can't either and that's why I'm laughing.
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So pestalotiopsis microspora.
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That's really good.
00:14:41
Let me try.
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Pestalotiopsis microspora
00:14:43
Pestalotiopsis
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That sounds good.
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Yeah, robot.
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It's hard.
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There's so many syllables.
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Why are there so many syllables?
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Instead, break it down.
00:14:54
Pestalotiopsis microspora yeah, I feel that's like when my mom made me learn how to spell anti disestablishmentarianism in the third grade.
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There you go.
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I mean, but you learned it.
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I did and I still know how to spell it.
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Can you do?
00:15:06
We won't get into that.
00:15:08
So this mushroom again hard to pronounce unless you're a robot.
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What is this?
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What is this mushroom do?
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So this is a rare fungus.
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It was recently discovered a few years ago in the Amazonian rainforest of Ecuador, but what is really unique and really?
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Hello.
00:15:23
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Just revolutionary is that this mushroom can digest plastic and more specifically it can consume polyurethane.
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In which is one of the largest contributors of plastic?
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So all the big plastic landfills and floating barges and stuff, all that stuff is just riddled with Poly earthing.
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I mean I, I don't know the exact numbers, but it's definitely a significant you know contributor to the plastic ways and plastic pollution that we're going through.
00:16:00
I mean, I definitely think that with the plastic pollution in the oceans and the environment, I mean.
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You know the fish are eating out.
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We're eating the fish, so humans are there for consuming.
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You know levels of plastic.
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It's going to be in all teams effort, you know.
00:16:16
That's a good point.
00:16:16
I I didn't think about how it actually.
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You know we it makes its way into our bodies.
00:16:20
Oh yeah.
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You think about the fact that it's like a, you know pollutant for the ocean and you know all that other stuff.
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But we're actually consuming that with the fish that we eat and stuff from the ocean.
00:16:29
Yeah, I mean 'cause plastic it it, it just keeps breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces.
00:16:35
And you know pieces that you might not necessarily see with the naked eye, and this is what fish and all sea life you know creatures are ingesting, so they're riddled with plastic.
00:16:47
Dude, how much of the fish hey tarass I mean yeah yes they hate us because we're trying to catch and eat them.
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Oh my gosh.
00:16:52
But also because we're just.
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They're just eating plastic 'cause we're lazy as ****
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Plastic gas oil?
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I mean, you talk about it.
00:17:01
Oh
00:17:01
It's it's pretty sad, and it's it's hard to like really think about it, right?
00:17:01
Ah.
00:17:03
Ah.
00:17:06
Because you just, you get really depressed.
00:17:08
To be an oyster on the wall and listen to their conversation.
00:17:11
Yes.
00:17:11
00:17:13
So this is really cool.
00:17:14
So again, don't focus on the pronunciation, but rather the fact that this thing pestalotiopsis microspora know.
00:17:17
That's soluti Abscess.
00:17:20
See, you got it so something else really interesting about this mushroom is that it can thrive without oxygen, which suggests that has an enormous potential for feeding on the waste in landfills.
00:17:37
So when we talk about without oxygen, if you think of compostable materials, so food, waste, yard waste, you know things that naturally will breakdown overtime when those are sent to the landfill instead of you know, to a composting site they are trapped underneath other garbage.
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And so they create these pockets where?
00:18:00
You need oxygen to then breakdown that material waste and without the oxygen. Instead it emits methane, which is one of the largest greenhouse gases contributing to the CO2 emissions and thus destroying the planet. So if there's a way that we could.
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Fold and these mushrooms are folding the SP.
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Wars into our landfill waste.
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It could then help reduce, and you know, hopefully eliminate it.
00:18:29
That's crazy too and methane that's the same we were talking about earlier with the cows and all the farming and stuff.
00:18:34
Hmm.
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So the same kind of process that takes place inside of a cows **** **** is essentially happening inside of this compost and.
00:18:44
Landfill that's crazy.
00:18:46
I never thought of it that way.
00:18:46
Yeah, I just.
00:18:47
I mean, I recently just learned that in one of my cooking classes of the significant greenhouse gases that are missed by the lack of composting, 'cause we're new to composting and aren't tiny little compost thing is, it's tiny.
00:19:01
It is, and if you don't get rid of it right away, it starts to smell and become really juicy in a bad way.
00:19:05
Yeah, and you just.
00:19:08
You can't get the smell out, but The thing is it's small.
00:19:09
No.
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I mean it's smaller than a, you know a trash basket in the bathroom.
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And when you think about all the food, waste and justice.
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You know the things that you go through, not food that goes bad, but you know you cut up some strawberries and get rid of them.
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So you got a banana peel all of that.
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You know it's worth composting, you know, to avoid.
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Just like the next level of recycling if you will.
00:19:36
So you have a trash can.
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You have recycling.
00:19:39
And then you gotta get that compost can if you don't.
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Have it already.
00:19:42
Yeah, I mean we Luckily have a neighbor.
00:19:44
That's a huge evangelical composter like recruiting neighborhood participants to compost.
00:19:47
Yeah, I know she is.
00:19:50
She is and if she didn't, we probably wouldn't have learned as much as we have.
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You know, 'cause she's a big.
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She wants to.
00:19:58
You know, change the laws in Denver and have composting.
00:20:01
Be free 'cause you have to pay to compost.
00:20:03
Which is ridiculous.
00:20:04
Which is completely ridiculous.
00:20:06
And then you know trash is, you know, negligible.
00:20:09
If you if you pay towards a city or whatnot when everyone can just throw anything in trash and.
00:20:11
Yeah.
00:20:16
The green trash can that you see.
00:20:17
That is the compost trash can hold.
00:20:19
Don't hold your breath.
00:20:21
You don't open that lid, don't open that lid mistakenly.
00:20:24
I think it's sometimes purple.
00:20:26
Well, the.
00:20:26
One we use is great.
00:20:27
OK, yeah.
00:20:28
It's a little bit smaller, a little more compact, a little sleeker of a trash can.
00:20:31
Yeah, but hold your breath.
00:20:33
Don't inhale that.
00:20:34
Bring it through your mouth as you open that.
00:20:36
Now the cool thing about that you just mentioned when I think of composting I'm like, oh, we're just separating **** whatever so we don't pollute the recyclables with food or the trash with food.
00:20:42
So we don't.
00:20:42
00:20:47
Whatever, I don't think about it from a scientific standpoint that I'm creating methane gas by again, being a lazy ***** ** ****
00:20:53
You
00:20:53
You're creating methane.
00:20:54
It enriches soil.
00:20:56
I mean it's reusable when you talk about your substrates, and you know growing something out.
00:21:04
Of you know, a substrate if you will.
00:21:06
So yeah, I think we just don't know.
00:21:10
It's just not educated enough.
00:21:12
I agree now the when you were talking about how this works, how the mushrooms would overtake the compost or the plastic or whatever and ultimately produce a fruiting body, produce an actual edible mushroom.
00:21:27
I know oyster mushrooms behave kind of like the other unpronounceable mushroom, but they actually produce a really rich fruiting body.
00:21:35
Your that's your lingo.
00:21:36
That's my lingo.
00:21:37
OK, OK, so when I say fruiting body, I mean the actual mushroom.
00:21:40
Yeah, so I guess it would just be a huge like Mycelium clip colony.
00:21:45
Yeah it would just create.
00:21:46
Like a big brick of mycelium.
00:21:47
Yeah, and then I want to say too.
00:21:48
That's really cool.
00:21:50
What was in that movie that we watched it talked about.
00:21:55
The net, like obviously there's a network of mycelium underground, but even that movie had referenced something of decomposition.
00:22:04
Jen.
00:22:06
That was really unique.
00:22:08
Yeah, I mean if you look back historically at how the earth is changed, funky is always the reason that old things are now overtaken by the new things.
00:22:18
So you know as the environment as the earth changes the funky kind of comes in to clean up the old part of the environment so it always acts as like the.
00:22:25
Yeah.
00:22:27
The cleaner and allows you to start fresh with, you know, more greenery than whatever was dying there.
00:22:34
Yeah, I can't remember if it was like.
00:22:38
Like animal waste or just animal bodies or carcasses.
00:22:45
But yeah, it the way that it can be like decompose and then use that as nourishment.
00:22:51
Nourishment to you know, grow the next rendition.
00:22:55
It's just like an evolutionary cycle.
00:22:57
Exactly, and with the compost I mean you're just putting it back into that cycle.
00:23:02
Usually.
00:23:02
00:23:02
So as you eat you eat everything you can.
00:23:05
The things you can eat that are composable.
00:23:07
You use that to produce more food, more mushrooms, and you know in countries that have weird environmental conditions.
00:23:09
Yeah.
00:23:15
If you can find a way to harvest humidity, you know once.
00:23:18
Minutes one.
00:23:18
00:23:19
Once the mycelium hits the oxygen, it needs to have humidity, so as long as you can harvest humidity or some sort of moisture in the air, I mean, you could be a Third world country.
00:23:28
You could be anywhere and as long as you harvest these things responsibly, you'll have food.
00:23:32
Well, I'm wondering too.
00:23:34
There's probably mushrooms out there that don't need the humidity, right?
00:23:37
'cause there's there.
00:23:38
They all pivot in certain directions and they're they're so unique there's so many out there.
00:23:44
Yeah.
00:23:44
00:23:44
I mean fungus, just such a vast Kingdom.
00:23:47
I mean, it's so I'm sure there's some that are, you know, less needy as far as you know, water and humidity.
00:23:47
Yeah.
00:23:53
And now where is?
00:23:54
Where is that young activist environmental activist Greta Greta Thornburg?
00:23:59
Or where is she from?
00:23:59
Yeah, is she? What is sweden's? Let's see Grettis, there's a Hulu documentary that I refused to so.
00:24:02
Is he Sweden because?
00:24:07
Brother third board.
00:24:08
Why do you refuse I?
00:24:10
Like she's only like 12, so I'm sorry she's 18 so I just her life doesn't seem to be that like there's not a lot of big body of work there to pull from.
00:24:16
OK.
00:24:19
Oh my God, she's only 411 how cute? Well so she's Swedish. Yep, and Speaking of Sweden, IKEA.
00:24:27
Oh
00:24:28
Was yeah, coming out with the composable.
00:24:28
Innovation baby.
00:24:30
Oh, that's right let's.
00:24:34
Packaging made out of my psyllium.
00:24:35
Yes, let's pivot for a second.
00:24:37
That was really cool.
00:24:38
So IKEA.
00:24:39
Trying to be.
00:24:40
I wonder if Greta had a hand in this.
00:24:42
Let's not give her credit for something that I mean, maybe I appreciate your efforts at 18.
00:24:44
Hey.
00:24:48
I know I'm just thinking maybe Sweden's laws are much more strict than others and it's kind of why IKEA is adapting to this model. I mean, plus they have. They probably use those packaging of any country in our company in the world.
00:24:56
Good point.
00:25:00
Oh my gosh, I love every anybody that that buys or ghost at key.
00:25:05
I mean you have to appreciate their innovation.
00:25:07
I mean whether you, whether you hate putting their **** together like I do or you like it like Jill, you have to appreciate their innovation.
00:25:07
Yeah.
00:25:11
I love it.
00:25:14
So what they're doing is they're using composable mushroom based packaging for its products.
00:25:19
And you know I'm looking on the website here an they they look really sturdy and stable and well suited for that purpose.
00:25:27
And it looks like this started in 2019, so this has been going on. We don't know the percentage of packaging as far as how much is used, but the fact that they're starting with it, and I believe the material so it's made with my psyllium. It's made with your base layer. What do you call it?
00:25:49
I mean, that's that is the basis for your fruiting body, and that's what you're.
00:25:52
Are the fruiting body.
00:25:53
Fruiting bodies, the mushroom the mycelium would be the the basis.
00:25:54
OK.
00:25:56
The foundation for that.
00:25:58
OK, so the materials that go into the foundation, which can vary and then they were implanted with the mushroom spores, but then they heat it so that kills the spores from fruiting, so you can't water these and they're not going to grow in your backyard.
00:26:01
Correct?
00:26:17
But I'm wondering if the spores then.
00:26:20
Contribute it to breaking down instead of growing outward.
00:26:25
Well, you could actually harvest the mushroom.
00:26:27
So what it's saying here is it's using some sort of wood like you said as the substrate and then once they inoculate an the mycelium grows to full fruition.
00:26:38
Then they heat it, but once it goes to full fruition, if you wanted to, you could wait for the mushrooms to sprout before you eat it.
00:26:44
Well, they already heated it.
00:26:45
They hate it.
00:26:46
Before the mushrooms have a chance to grow OK.
00:26:48
Correct, so we're not.
00:26:50
Yeah, we're getting it.
00:26:51
So it whatever you're ordering it doesn't have mushrooms on it.
00:26:54
'cause they don't give a **** They're not mushroom farmers.
00:26:55
They're not looking for to grow mushrooms, they're just looking to supply, you know, biodegradable items.
00:27:01
All right, my head was in that why the **** would you waste precious mushrooms?
00:27:05
Hear all about the mushroom.
00:27:06
Alright, so they create this and mushrooms.
00:27:10
The mycelium as a material it's renowned for having really stable qualities like we talked about that.
00:27:18
Coughing that that guy was making out of my psyllium.
00:27:21
I think I told you I don't know if you were on that.
00:27:23
I said I don't know about that one, but I have seen where you can be buried in like pods made OK.
00:27:29
Yeah, same concept and then the earth kind of absorb you absorb the earth and it absorbs you and.
00:27:34
Yeah, and like you can grow a tree like I've seen like ones where they're like a little tree sprouts.
00:27:39
Now that is some cool **** If you can be reborn as a tree.
00:27:40
Yeah.
00:27:42
Yeah, I mean it's kind of cool until someone shops you.
00:27:45
Down at once.
00:27:45
But with you, I think that far ahead, yeah.
00:27:47
Maybe we're really slow.
00:27:49
Growing trees had plenty of time before.
00:27:50
Yeah.
00:27:51
That abrupt death at the hand of Paul Bunyan.
00:27:53
Well, what if you like this left town and like your tree is just like by itself and Denver Co.
00:27:59
Oh, that's so sad. I do want to talk about who's responsible for this. It's this ecovative design in 2010. I guess they came up with this mycelium based packaging technology that my materials called Micro Composite.
00:28:10
OK.
00:28:14
OK.
00:28:14
00:28:14
Fascinating though.
00:28:15
Yeah, it looks like what can.
00:28:16
It takes just about 30 days to decompose, but it can be reused in packaging if kept dry.
00:28:23
Yeah, just like all dried mushrooms, you keep them away from moisture.
00:28:27
Yeah.
00:28:27
Put some silica packets in there keeping dry.
00:28:30
Don't eat those silica packets now.
00:28:32
What happens?
00:28:33
Yeah, I think you're back.
00:28:34
Oh OK, yeah, it's like a Brody.
00:28:36
Chow down on a Hershey bar.
00:28:38
Yeah.
00:28:39
His silica is our Hershey ****
00:28:42
Me OK, it sounds too delicious.
00:28:45
Just don't eat the silic, it's it's not.
00:28:47
It says all over the packaging.
00:28:48
This is harmful during any.
00:28:51
So we have the unpronounceable mushroom, we go back and we'll hear the robot.
00:28:54
Stop no, no.
00:28:55
You say it ****
00:28:58
Pestalotiopsis that's it, Mike.
00:29:01
Chris Bora.
00:29:01
00:29:01
Bora.
00:29:02
I don't know why you've got that.
00:29:03
I'm sorry it sounds way better when.
00:29:06
Pestalotiopsis microspora the robot says it for me.
00:29:09
No it doesn't.
00:29:10
OK, so cool we learned.
00:29:12
We learned about that mushroom.
00:29:13
The oyster mushroom has similar qualities, which is awesome.
00:29:15
Once it consumes the plastic.
00:29:18
Once it clicked, consumes the hazardous material, the toxic waste, whatever the food and body is then actually edible, and and Joe sceptical. And hey, as you are the expert on nutrition and health, so I appreciate your skepticism. But it says right here, and this is fastcompany.com and they're talking about how.
00:29:25
Yeah, I've got red flags all over that.
00:29:38
Dot com.
00:29:40
It's ready to eat when there is no more visible plastic material inside.
00:29:45
At that point, it's overgrown with fluffy white mycelium, so I don't know.
00:29:51
OK, let's digest that when no more visible plastic, you know how microscopic plastic **** Yeah, in my whole thing was like if it digest plastic, that's way better for the environment than me having to eat it afterwards.
00:29:53
All right, let's dig into it.
00:30:07
All right?
00:30:07
So then just compost those mushrooms.
00:30:10
I don't, I don't know.
00:30:11
In an emergency scenario, and this was the debate we were having in.
00:30:15
What emergency do you need to eat?
00:30:16
Plastic eating mushrooms?
00:30:18
I don't know malnourishment, I mean.
00:30:20
Mushrooms have like 40 calories for powdered them lights.
00:30:24
But it's better than 0 calories for no pound to them.
00:30:26
Better than zero.
00:30:27
But again this needs more testing.
00:30:28
Disney.
00:30:28
00:30:29
OK, so to be continued.
00:30:31
We'll do our best to try to find more research to corroborate or disprove the theory that those mushroom eating.
00:30:39
I'm sorry.
00:30:39
Those plastic eating mushrooms can then be eaten without worry.
00:30:43
Yeah, you're the mushroom eater.
00:30:45
Well Joe, thanks so much for being here and thanks for Brody for not contributing and accepting their cute, silent way.
00:30:49
Yeah, he's six.
00:30:50
We know he's a baby, bye.
00:30:53
By I highly recommend being an old debt because it's like you've traveled. You and Jill have parted your *** ***** off. Like I never even thought I was going to have kids. And you know, I have. We have two boys now. I have a 9 month old and my little 2 1/2 year old and it's just like.
00:31:11
That's awesome.
00:31:11
00:31:13
I feel even though we're both comedians and you get pulled into social media, I feel more present than I think I ever would have when I was.
00:31:19
Sure.
00:31:22
Young life kind of tells you when it's time, right? I mean, you meet the right person right circumstances and you know I'm going to be 44 this year. How old were you when you had your first one?
00:31:32
I'm Louise too and I'm I'm 45 Louise 2 1/2 so I was 40. Yeah 43 people like. Yeah but now you're with these kids and we're free like my friend that had kids when he was young and I'm like you.
00:31:35
OK.
00:31:37
About the same.
00:31:45
But like I literally banged my way through Europe, like who cares?
00:31:49
You married your high school sweetheart bro like yeah.
00:31:52
With psilocybin, there's a lot of momentum to try to get it more embraced by the medical community.
00:31:58
So I kind of wanted to get your perspective on.
00:32:01
You know whether you think it's going to gain some legitimacy in medical use and just kind of maybe why it's.
00:32:07
Scrutinized and just your medical opinion.
00:32:11
Sure, so first of all, the studies are phenomenal with PTSD and mushrooms.
00:32:18
There is like definitive edit billions of with deep psychotherapy and mushrooms and psilocybin that people have had tremendous gains from recovering from PTSD.
00:32:33
But a soldier soldiers, people have come back from military.
00:32:39
Your military, right?
00:32:40
Yeah yeah.
00:32:41
PTSD and depression.
00:32:43
Those are two of the.
00:32:44
The big things that they're trying to tackle with psilocybin and MDMA.
00:32:48
But those those two conditions seem to be the ones that they've targeted the most.
00:32:53
But yes, I am a bigger.
00:32:54
Oh yeah, yeah, depression.
00:32:55
So did you take it for depression or did you?
00:32:58
Did you get PTSD from?
00:33:00
I was only in training so when I went through when I went into the army, I went from training course to training course to training course and then I was at Fort Bragg waiting to try out for special forces and then I tried out and I got hurt in week two out of three of Special forces assessment selection and injured my back.
00:33:21
And so.
00:33:22
I got a medical discharge and never really got a chance to do anything superheroic, but it was a fun experience and I gained some discipline out of high school 'cause I was kind of a ***** ** ****
00:33:32
There's a lot of.
00:33:33
A large swath of the medical community that have been studying the effects of psilocybin on a various things.
00:33:42
So there's a huge there's a lot of scientists from John Hopkins that have been studying psilocybin in patients that have Alzheimer's.
00:33:52
Oh
00:33:53
And also for treatment of people that have severe opioid addictions.
00:34:00
OK.
00:34:02
There's been, I mean, it's just unbelievable.
00:34:05
The amount of possibilities for this substance, you know.
00:34:13
Uh.
00:34:15
Now steps the one thing I wanted to ask you, my buddy, who's a psychologist at the VA and he mentioned that there was a concern with the length of the experience and how it overlaps between shifts like he works for the VA pretty pretty much nine to five.
00:34:15
There's.
00:34:34
And if there's an 8 hour.
00:34:36
Mystical experience from psylocybe.
00:34:38
That could overlap between shifts, and that causes some logistical issues, and so I was hoping that that's something that like Petty wouldn't stop them from embracing the use of psilocybin in psychotherapy.
00:34:50
But it's kind of interesting that that would be something that that would be brought to the forefront.
00:34:56
You know that.
00:34:57
That's pretty interesting.
00:34:59
I mean I.
00:35:00
I mean I I'm not familiar with the actual 'cause various institutions have their own.
00:35:04
Protocols, you know.
00:35:05
Oh
00:35:05
OK.
00:35:06
And I would imagine that the VA is really.
00:35:09
Bogged down with.
00:35:11
I've never worked at the VA, but I've had colleagues that have worked at the VA and it's just like.
00:35:17
You know it may be the very is one of those systems that just moves in slow motion.
00:35:22
Yeah, right?
00:35:23
You know, it's like the world's biggest union, like they're not in a hurry to do anything. Everything shuts down at three it's.
00:35:29
Right?
00:35:30
You know I I have to say it's kind of one of the easiest jobs you could have it.
00:35:34
You know an it's unfortunate.
00:35:36
There are some really good VA hospitals that have good reputations, but.
00:35:40
And there's probably a lot more than have terrible reputations.
00:35:43
My dad was in and out of a couple of VA hospitals.
00:35:46
Yeah.
00:35:46
00:35:47
I don't know if the VA would be a place.
00:35:50
I mean interesting, and after they probably have the most PTSD so.
00:35:55
Well, there's Maps. There's maps.org, which is Rick Doblin based out of Sarasota. He's been running Maps to really try to to leverage MDMA specifically to help veterans with PTSD. So I mean, there are other resources outside of the VA and federal resource.
00:36:12
But you know my, my main concern is like what's the biggest impediment like?
00:36:17
Is it the FDA?
00:36:19
Is it big pharma?
00:36:21
Is it just the lack of data?
00:36:22
I mean.
00:36:24
Well, I mean, I think for one, well I, I think for one in general our society is catching on to realize that Big Pharma has in corporate capitalism has.
00:36:37
Suppressed a lot of medical uses of marijuana and mushrooms, and it started off, you know, reefer madness and the guy.
00:36:42
Very true.
00:36:48
You know, not wanting to have him compete with wooden logging and paper products.
00:36:54
Yeah.
00:36:54
I forget the name of the guy, but like yeah, big Pharma and maybe ironically, all these companies are jumping right into marijuana.
00:37:04
Oh
00:37:05
You know, historically, J&J and Bristol Myers Squibb these companies were, you know, at the forefront of oppressing marijuana and now they're the fastest ones trying to patent every little combination they possibly can. Just a bunch of dirtbags. I mean, really, just yeah, yeah.
00:37:18
Really.
00:37:18
00:37:20
I didn't even realize that is it CBD or cannabis answer.
00:37:24
3D.
00:37:24
CBD cannabis cannabis and CBD combos.
00:37:27
Wow.
00:37:28
I mean they're trying to patent Tylenol with CBD.
00:37:31
Tylenol with THC.
00:37:33
You know their every drug that they make their their patenting all their combos of the stuff that they have.
00:37:39
Oh you get anti inflammatory effects from CBD with Tylenol it's like did such both state and.
00:37:42
Yeah.
00:37:43
Focus on the vaccine.
00:37:45
You know?
00:37:45
Get your head, get your hand out of our cookie jar and go focus on the vaccine.
00:37:48
Yeah, I mean, I'm one of those people that I believe in conscious capitalism.
00:37:52
You know, if you look at countries like China that have just like kind of.
00:37:56
Just use their, you know, paid their people slave wages and have a press everything they possibly could and not cared about their drinking water and not caring about their air quality.
00:38:09
You know they're they're the opposite of conscious capitalism and they have a massive push right now too.
00:38:09
That's not a good model.
00:38:13
A great
00:38:17
Have a consumer class you know in their country to not rely on us and that they could get their own people and their own spending machine going.
00:38:26
That whole mindset has oppressed.
00:38:27
Yeah.
00:38:32
You know the very idea of using magic mushrooms and marijuana for therapeutic.
00:38:40
Yeah.
00:38:40
You know that machine that capitalistic machine is what?
00:38:44
Held down all these things for all these years, you know.
00:38:46
So, so you being in Madison and you've been in Madison, your your entire professional career side from comedy.
00:38:52
I should say I guess like do you see a short term solution for this?
00:38:58
You see this being like a long drawn out battle for people like me?
00:39:02
You know that would love to see this legalized so that more people could pervasively get.
00:39:05
Help.
00:39:06
You know, I, I think that it's moving pretty quickly right now.
00:39:10
OK.
00:39:10
I mean, all these states are legalizing marijuana.
00:39:13
You know, even though I, I think some state in the South just legalized marijuana for for recreational use, New Jersey legalized it for recreational use.
00:39:25
Maine aren't there.
00:39:27
Therapists in Denver, or?
00:39:28
I mean, if it's illegal there, why wouldn't there be psychotherapist there?
00:39:32
Helping people with PTSD and depression.
00:39:34
Well, they are.
00:39:35
They're just not using psilocybin as a tool.
00:39:38
You just it's not.
00:39:39
It's not legal in that capacity, maybe under some sort of weird supervised study, but I'm not.
00:39:44
It's not as pervasive as it really should be, and not readily available for everybody.
00:39:49
That's interesting.
00:39:50
Yeah.
00:39:51
So Mabbs is big.
00:39:52
And NHPS Maps.
00:39:54
What does it stand for?
00:39:54
Yeah it stands for Multidisciplinary Association for psychedelic studies.
00:39:56
Yeah, I'll say it.
00:40:00
They're at the forefront of the MDMA PTSD movement, and veterans are their primary focus, so you know they're doing a lot of real good stuff.
00:40:08
But you know that's just one.
00:40:10
That's just one backer for the movement, you know.
00:40:13
Are they doing?
00:40:14
Psilocybin as well or just MDMA?
00:40:17
The.
00:40:17
Their main focus is on MDMA, but they are looking at other psychedelics as well, but I haven't seen them as put as much stuff.
00:40:24
Back in psilocybin, for the type of work that they're doing, from what I've heard, MDMA is a more benell benevolent drug, so it's a little bit less intimidating.
00:40:34
And you know, could take you into less dark places with the therapy so you know maybe a little bit better for PTSD because it treads a little bit more.
00:40:42
Yeah.
00:40:44
Slightly more euphoric mushrooms
00:40:46
Right right less of a potential pitfall like with psilocybin.
00:40:49
All right?
00:40:50
If it's if it goes wrong, it could go pretty wrong Scott.
00:40:52
OK, great.
00:40:53
Thank thank you my friend for being on the podcast and hopefully we can have you back on again man.
00:40:58
OK yeah, thanks for having me man.