WEBVTT - Weird Mushrooms! 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:15.720 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.439 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Christian Sager. Hey, 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:20.840 how many times, like when you're just walking around the 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.720 city we live in Atlanta, Like you're at a park 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:25.599 or you're just walking around, maybe with your son or 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:30.360 something like that, do you see just these utterly bizarre mushrooms? Oh? Yes, yeah, 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.120 I I This is something I love about living in Atlanta, 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:35.199 or at least the slice of Atlanta I live in, 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.519 because there's plenty of you know, plenty of vegetation around, 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.320 plenty of you know, park areas, and then after a 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:45.519 rain typically so when you see these these strange fungal 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:50.159 bodies burst up out of the ground and take on weird, 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:54.160 bizarre shapes. In fact, it's something that I've I've loved 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:56.960 doing with with my son who's four now, but for 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.160 for years now, when we're going to the park, park 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.280 and all, if we see some sort of a weird mushroom, 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.760 like go oh, let's look at this weird mushroom and uh, 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:06.080 and so he'll point him out. Now I go, oh, 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:07.840 there's a weird mushroom over here, let's go look at 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:09.120 it and you guys try to figure out what it 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.360 is that you take pictures and then back home you 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.759 try to like match it to a database or something 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:15.480 like that. Yeah, you know, you just do a do 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:19.120 a search for Hey, what kind of mushroom looks like 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:23.200 a weird fallust? And uh And in fact, that mushroom 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:25.480 which frequently pops up in our in our own yard 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:30.080 out of the mulch, is one that's called mu tennis 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:35.040 caninus or dogs stink horn, because it supposedly looks like 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.880 a dog fallust and it smells really awful. Oh yeah, 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.360 that's the worst image. I don't know what a dog 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:45.680 stink horn looks like. The media the dog lipstick. Yeah, 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:48.760 that's the worst. Well, yeah, because you know, I'm from 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:52.400 the Northeast originally, and man, the mushrooms down here are bonkers, 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.800 like like, uh so some of our Facebook followers might 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.960 remember this, but I posted to our Facebook page maybe 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.400 six months ago. Took my dog to the dog park 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.200 and it was right after a rain like you described, 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.200 maybe a day, and there was this totally bizarre thing 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:10.920 growing up out of the ground. Didn't even look like 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.880 a mushroom. It looked like the egg from Alien and 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.640 it looked like the egg had opened, um, and it 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.120 was red on the inside. And so I took a 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.120 picture of it, and I was like, well, who better 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.919 to answer what this thing is than our Facebook followers. 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.480 So I uploaded the picture and said, does anybody know 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.600 what this is? And they did. Somebody figured it out. 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:34.200 It's the Devil's finger fungus, that's what it's called. And 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.720 like not a month later, Nurdiced did like a like 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.320 a feature on their site on the Devil's finger fungus 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.519 and how it looks exactly like a xenomorphag. But I 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:47.640 was like, I don't this looks like some alien thing 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:49.520 that's in the dog park. I don't want my dog 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.359 around it. What what is this thing? You know? Um? 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:53.920 So I was a little worried at first, but it 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.120 turns out it's relatively harmless. Yeah. There's another one that 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.080 I can't remember what this one is called, but I 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.240 see it in our yards sometimes where it's it's as 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:05.520 if there is an underworld and occasionally they use cocking 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:09.280 to to fill to fill in holes between our world 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.400 and there, and it kind of puffs outing bubble. Yeah, 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:15.480 I know, exactly which one you're talking about. I've seen 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.239 that one before, like on the sidewalking your where I live. Now, 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.320 now tell me this. Uh, you're a dog owner, I'm not. Um. 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:28.480 In various neighborhood threads that I've seen about weird mushrooms, 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.040 I've seen some people react with wonder and off and 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:37.560 occasionally you know, uh uh nausea. But other people's, particularly 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.320 a few dog owners, are like, oh, I hate those mushrooms. 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:42.520 How can I get rid of them? Because there's this 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:44.680 fear and I don't know to what extent it's it's 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.680 founded or unfounded, but uh, they're afraid their dog is 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.520 going to eat the mushrooms, which of course can have 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:56.480 disastrous consequences. My wife worries about that constantly. Every day 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:58.840 when she gets home, she does a walk through the 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:01.840 yard and picks every single mushroom up that's growing in 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.280 the yard so that our dogs won't eat them. Um, 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.960 we have a lot of mushrooms actually, because we have 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.040 a really big We've been over to my place before. 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.520 My front yard has a really big old tree. Uh. 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.760 And our landlord is actually an arborist, and so he 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:18.880 told us, look, this tree is really old and a 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:20.760 couple of years, we're gonna have to take it down because, 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.520 like the roots are rotting. And the way you can 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.560 tell is because of the way that these bizarrely huge 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.039 mushrooms are growing up all around the tree, and so 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.600 they're fitting on the rot of the down there. Yeah, 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.160 because of course the fun guy and mushrooms are are 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.960 excellent decomposed or something. Yeah, totally that. I mean, that's 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.680 how they get by, right. Um, And uh so you know, 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:45.640 at first I was a little worried, and I said, well, hey, 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:47.560 you know, you're the arborist. Is this cool for my 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.320 dogs to be around? He said it was fine, But 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.159 my wife still worries. So yeah, she's she always cleans 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.440 up that stuff. And are you talking about like next 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:59.080 door dot com or like those uh you know those 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:03.120 like message boards. This is just like a Facebook, Yeah, 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.200 because there's a lot of that chatter on our neighborhood. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.760 Well even I live in a fairly close proximity to 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.239 one another, so maybe it's the same neighborhood board. But yeah, 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.279 there's concerned about those mushrooms. I haven't heard anything about 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.080 like watch out for this one. It's poisonous. But one 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.960 of the things that's fascinating about Atlanta is that there's 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:24.360 so many fungal spores flying around that you get these 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.400 really bizarre, kind of off the wall mushrooms that you 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:34.040 wouldn't normally see, you know, especially in a city area. So, um, 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.440 who knows. I mean, I don't know about you. But 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.680 for the mushrooms that we we're gonna talk about today, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.479 if you guys haven't guessed yet out there, listeners, we're 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.360 gonna talk about weird mushrooms today. Of course, we can't 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.920 cover all of them by any stretch of imagination, So 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.599 we just picked three either specific mushrooms or sort of 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.840 a general type of mushroom or a type of mushroom behavior, 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.360 and we're gonna sort of have a you know, the 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:05.320 potpourri uh episode. Yeah, the none of minor poisonous. Did 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.919 you choose any poisonous ones? Um? I always chose the 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.159 death cap, which is the most poisonous one. And um, 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.800 I mean, there's varying levels of things you shouldn't do 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:16.679 with the ones that I'm going to talk about today, 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:21.120 but the the toxicity doesn't really factor heavily into the 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.200 areas I discuss. One of them is definitely not poisonous 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.239 because it's a it's an edible mushroom, um. The others. 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.120 It's kind of it encompasses a number of different types. 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.360 But but this is the kind of thing where if 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.480 you guys like us talking about mushrooms, we can come 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.800 back and do more. We can do a one speak 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:43.280 various poisonous mushrooms, be good. Well, I have to say 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.080 this reminded me of an episode we almost did I 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.679 think almost a year ago, uh to this week, which 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.440 was our episode about Wolfspange, and it reminded me of 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.960 aconite poisoning. UM. Reading through these descriptions of all the mushrooms, 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.760 and really I had no idea how in depth of 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:06.560 field mycology is and how precise it is. And the 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.640 entries for these mushrooms were very, very detailed. I mean 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.400 so detailed that we could do an entire episode just 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:17.800 on one species. So for these entries we really had 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:20.000 to I think boil them down to their essence. Again, 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.800 no pun intended. We're not actually boiling the mushrooms down here, 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:27.760 but but yeah, they're they're fascinating um. And it's just 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:29.920 this thing that we we all kind of just live with. 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:32.920 And you know what, I mean like they're everywhere and 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.880 we'm at the grocery store and we eat them, but like, uh, 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:40.120 there there there's an endless variety of them, and they 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.960 all do these like very different things and have incredibly 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.040 complex compounds inside of them. And I feel like we're 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:51.120 only like as a as a scientific society, like on 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:55.280 the tip of understanding fungal growth. Yeah, I mean, there's 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:57.720 there is so much diversity out there. We keep discovering 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.520 new species to the point where I'm I can only 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.840 give like a rough estimate right now, but essentially we're 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:08.480 looking at a hundred thousand different fungi species, and of those, 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.960 we're looking at in the neighborhood of fourteen thousand mushrooms. 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.280 And again that is that's a number that's constantly changing. 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.240 I looked at numbers from a few years back and 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.400 they were significantly less than that. So it's a it's 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.480 an amazing world. And you know they are so because 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:25.800 they're so weird, they're so alien. It's no wonder that 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.320 you you can find conspiracy theorists who think they came 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.360 from space, especially when you see ones that look like 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.679 a xenomorph. Yeah, or I can I mean, going back 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.200 to our Wolf Spain episode, right, Like, imagine all of 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.040 the folklore that sprang up out of all the various 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.800 species of mushroom. Yeah, they're so different looking. If you 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.120 didn't you know, have a broader scientific understanding of them, 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.480 you wouldn't even classify them as being the same thing. Yeah, 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.640 like one of my one of my favorite monsters from 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.040 the Dungeon and Dragon universe or the Mikon It's which, 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:02.360 of course our mushroom people, the monster science episode on them. No, 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.680 we did a Monster Science on the Mushrooms of Matanga, 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:11.640 which was a Tohoe horror film about this these spores 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.040 that turned people into walking mushrooms. It's a it's actually 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.760 a really creepy movie, totally different vibe than most of 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.680 the Toho films. Well, so full disclosure, audience. The reason 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.760 why I propose that we do an episode on weird 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.120 weird mushrooms is I'm working on like a horror story 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.120 right now that the basis is about mushrooms and spores 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.120 and mycology, and so I was like, you know, I'd 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:34.600 like to know a little bit more about this, and 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:36.600 I think it would be a good topic for our listeners. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.120 So here we are Um. One of the things that 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:40.559 I just want to bring up before we dive into 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:45.280 the individual ones. The funky as an organism essentially has 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.960 a parasitic lifestyle, and that's something I think we we 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:50.560 forget about. We see our mushrooms in the grocery store 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.040 wrapped in plastic and we just go, oh, that's that's 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.959 a lot of people just think it's a vegetable, right, Um. 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:01.400 But they absorb soluble nutrients through sell membranes. That's how 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:06.520 they subsist and uh with together with bacteria, as you said, 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.360 they're responsible for the decay of organic matter. Now, some 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:15.199 estimate that of the biomass on the entire planet is 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.040 fun Guy, that's a lot. So I mean it's worth 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:24.560 go mycologists. It's it's worth uh studying further and us 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.240 knowing a lot more about these, especially when you get 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.960 into the health benefits that we'll talk about. Yeah, So, 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.480 without further ado, let's go ahead and kick things off. 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:36.960 I believe you have our first mushroom of the episode. Yeah, 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.760 and this is the one that is most well known 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:43.640 for its health benefits. It's called the Rashima mushroom. Oh, 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.160 and I want to jump in real quick and just 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:47.800 tell everybody that on the landing page for this episode, 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.360 I'm going to have a picture of each one that 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.880 we're discussing. So if you start wondering about it, just 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:54.600 go to stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Yeah, 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:56.280 and you'll be able to see what each one of 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.160 these looks like, especially because we were show some really 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.680 bizarre looking The raci isn't as well known for being 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.040 bizarre looking, although it is kind of weird looking. It's 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:09.160 mostly known for its life extending properties. In fact, they've 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.600 been used medicinally for at least two thousand years because 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.920 they have a reputation for promoting health and longevity. Rayci, 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.400 I believe, is the name for it in Japan. It's 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.319 also called the ling g mushroom in China. Now you 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.679 may recognize these, Uh. They're kind of a deep reddish brown. 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:30.720 They're shaped sort of like saucers. The upper surface of 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.520 them looks like it's lacquered when it gets wet. Um 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:35.800 And because they have this glossy look, some people call 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.160 them varnished conks. And I went, what's the conk? Well, 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.480 conk is a mushroom that has pores instead of gills. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.440 Um And again I've never heard of them referred to 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.959 as gills before, so that's a nice creepy metaphor there 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.240 as well. I have to say this one kind of 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:56.120 looks like they might be leathery human ears. Yeah. Well, 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.720 you know what's funny is um I don't know if 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:00.520 you've ever played this video game, but for but there's 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.880 a video game called battle Born, uh, and my wife 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:06.280 is addicted to it and I play it with her 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.160 a lot. Anyways, so there's this guy who's a living 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:14.559 mushroom person and he his head is like a mushroom 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.280 cap and his head looks like a racie mushroom and 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.319 he's the healer in the game. So he's the one who, 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:23.400 like he blasts the other characters with mushroom spores and 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.480 makes them feel better. And then he can take off 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:28.480 his mushroom cap and throw it down on the ground 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.560 and it acts as like a healing area buffer or 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.720 something like that. So I have to assume that the 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.040 people who made battle Born were inspired by the Racehie 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.160 mushroom when they came up with this character. Anyways, the 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.360 Racehi they grow up to be eight inches to or 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.080 around twenty centimeters in diameter. You usually find them in 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:52.800 temperate forests. These are moist areas sometimes in Asia, Europe, 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.400 South America in the US, and they typically attach themselves 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.560 to trees. So similar to what I was just talking 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.199 about with the tree in my front yard, they're probably 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:05.360 feeding off of the decay on these trees. Uh. So 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.280 here's the deal, why is it a weird mushroom? Well, 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.800 there's actually something to this life extending property thing. This 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:16.040 isn't just like a you know, folklore myth um. They 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.320 are prepared as teas or as infusions. You can also 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.520 get them as capsules or tinctures, and you can even 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.880 eat them in candy, chocolate bars, and coffee blends. I 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.600 was thinking to myself that a Racie coffee blend might 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:30.160 be good, But I don't know what a Rachie US 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.200 mushroom tastes like yet. Uh yeah, I guess it would 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.880 taste like a mushroom tea, which is is not generally 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.480 not that pleasant, and in my opinion, I don't know, 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:44.680 probably maybe yeah. Um. Now you see, so when I 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:46.880 went to do research on this one, you see a 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.120 lot of advertisements or articles pop up about them, and 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:56.360 kind of new age style publications about these life extending properties, right, um, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.960 and if we are talking about traditional medicine and supplement 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.120 here so exactly, they used to be pretty rare, but 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:09.400 there's new cultural cultivation advances that make them more widely available. Um. 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.600 But the reviews of science literature do indicate that most 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.280 of the medicinal claims for these mushrooms can be validated. 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.880 So let's just talk briefly about what's the science behind them. Well, 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.880 research has found that because of unique compounds in these mushrooms, 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.640 they can stimulate our brain neurons, search and destroy cancer cells, 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:33.560 and prevent the development of fat cells in obese individuals. 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:37.960 So that alone is like, that's a pretty broad summaryn wow. Um. 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.560 And they've done lots of studies on mice and humans. 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.040 But studies on mice have shown that these mushrooms may 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:49.640 also have therapeutic effects on asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer's, 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:54.400 Parkinson's diabetes, liver failure, and more. Now that it all 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.640 boils down to these three compounds that are in the 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.440 rati mushroom that give it its health be fits. And 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.880 this is this is what why I said earlier, like 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:07.560 these mushrooms are just incredibly complex in their organic matter. 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:13.120 So the three are polysaccharides. Now, these have anti aging 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.960 effects because they prevent abnormal blood vessel formation in our bodies. 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:22.360 They also boost immune system function. There's also triter penes 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.040 that protect the liver. Uh. They lower our blood pressure 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:29.640 and our cholesterol, and they prevent platelet clumping in the 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:32.560 blood that leads to heart attacks or strokes. They also 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:36.640 fight allergic responses that are triggered by histamines and indicate 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:41.480 anti cancer activity. Now, the last compound is called the 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:46.120 ganoderma lucidum peptide. We've got a lot of latin in 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:50.720 this episode because mycology really loves its latin. Now, that's 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:55.720 a protein that has strong antioxidant characteristics that are still 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.000 being studied. So there's a lot going on here with 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:02.480 this raci mushroom. Uh. There's other studies that indicate that 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.280 it can reduce the size and growth rate of tumors, 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:09.040 both in human and animal trials. UH, And in fact, 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.800 it's most dramatic in cases of colorectal cancer. However, I 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.600 do want to qualify that statement with there are other 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:19.080 studies that dispute the use of these mushrooms for treating cancer. 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:20.600 So it's it's kind of up in the air right 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.240 now and it requires more research. But some oncologists have 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:28.640 concerns that the mushrooms antioxidant properties may actually interfere with 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:34.000 chemotherapy drugs. So yes, it may have anti cancer properties, 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:39.360 but it may also interfere with other therapy for cancer. Um, 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.160 these mushrooms are like a mini first aid kit, Like 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.600 it seems like they're just this great thing that you 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.200 should take every day, you know, although there's and and 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:49.320 forth noting you were not in the pocket of big 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.960 fungutions no big right, she does not support the show. 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:54.800 I don't know. I haven't done an ad read yet 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.800 for this episode. Maybe it's there was a race dot 0:16:57.880 --> 0:16:59.680 com And I do have to admit that when I 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.840 was doing research for this, I saw a lot of 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.960 sites that were like, Hey, buy your raciot supplements here, 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.479 get um, get the tease, get the chocolate bars, whatever. 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.159 So there's totally a business that thrives around this. But 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.120 there is some science to it. Well, actually a lot 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.000 of science to it. So what do you have? Well, 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:21.120 my first one here is not not a specific mushroom, 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.000 though I will mention a couple of different specific ones 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:28.840 as we go. But discussing the topic of of bioluminescent mushrooms, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.560 Oh yeah, so um, I'm sure everyone's quite well acquainted 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:37.840 with the mushrooms elevated status in the iconography of stone 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:43.080 or black light post Um. I'm thinking of like every 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:47.280 you know metal fan, every sleep metal album poster has 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.800 like mushrooms at the bottom of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.280 they kind of engage in in that kind of iconography 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.159 for sure. It's too often see it's it's either the 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:58.680 caterpillar from the house in Wonderland a top of mushroom, 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.680 or I've seen like bong smoking wizards with mushrooms. I've 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:07.720 seen aliens, gray aliens into chikis with mushrooms. Um. And 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.320 of course they all glow when you have the black 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.440 light on it. But but there are of course actual 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.400 mushrooms out there, and actual uh beyond mushrooms, just fung 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.080 gui that are bioluminescent, uh, and we keep discovering more 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.680 of them. Uh. Now there are there are a rarity 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:27.040 within just the overall fungal population, with only about its 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:32.160 seventy plus species. Out of again the hundred thousand fungi species, 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:37.359 fourteen thousand odd mushroom species and they admit like twenty 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.040 four hours a day, but they're only gonna be able 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.879 to really observe them at night. Now. Some of the 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:46.280 more common species here include the jack o lantern mushroom 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.840 or um omphilatus, which will find in North America, as 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:54.400 well as the honey mushroom. And they've belonged to two 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.840 separate lineages here. There's another there's another one that made 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.720 the rounds a few years back called my Sinna chloroffice 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.199 and that's another glowing um mushroom, specifically a mushroom in 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.879 that case. So three quarters of the glowing mushrooms belong 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.359 to the Mycena genus uh and a group of mushrooms. 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:15.879 And this is a group of mushrooms that decomposed organic 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.920 matter to feed themselves, like like like a lot of 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.280 fun guys, we've discussed um. So I know you and 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:24.840 I share in common that we're both playing Fallout for. 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:27.399 Oh yeah, you've gotten to the point yet where you 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.160 find the glowing mushrooms. Yeah, they're popping up everywhere. Yeah, 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.080 and they're I mean, I guess like in the premise 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.560 of Fallout For it's probably because of radiation that yeah, 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:38.640 just like the glowing feral ghouls. Yeah, yeah, but no, yeah, 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:43.440 you find plenty of glowing fun guy, um without nuclear fallout, 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.960 right yeah. Um. They even use them in the game. 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:48.760 I think at one point as like there's like a 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:52.360 community that uses them as the lights in their underground community, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.360 like they have the mushrooms and like lanterns. Yeah, I think, um, 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:58.480 what is it the children of the Atom do? That's it? 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:02.040 And and I'm I'm actually running a Dungeons and Dragons 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:03.800 campaign right now. It takes place in the under dark. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:06.720 So there's a lot of five luminescent mushrooms and that 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.399 because you gotta you know, you might have everybody in 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:11.720 the party with dark vision, but otherwise you need to 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.240 have a little light for people to see some light visions. 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.680 You say, oh, well, there's some luminescent mushroom right here. Now, 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:22.080 what kind of glow are we talking about? Generally it's 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:28.080 a yellowish greenish light with wavelength of five nanometers. Not 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.119 all of the parts of the mushrooms necessarily glow, and 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:34.159 some species it's only the cap for the gills. In 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.320 others it's the stem, and some species the mushrooms don't 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:39.800 really glow. At all. But it's the fine thread like 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:44.679 filaments the mycelium from which the mushrooms developed that grows 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:49.080 brightly and specifically, we're talking about a lucifer in lucifories 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.600 mediated reaction here. Now, basically what we're talking about here, 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.399 these are light emitting compounds that you can find in 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:00.639 many creatures like fireflies. Of course they're named sort of 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:04.399 named after lucifer, which means a shining one or light bearer. 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.400 Makes sense because most people find them underground. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:11.159 with the devil. But but yeah, so this is this 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.440 is just a common bioluminescent property, and so that's what's 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:17.720 it hard here. It's nothing strange and alien and out 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:21.040 of keeping with other glowing creatures. Now, according to San 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:25.920 Francisco State University biology professor Dennis de Jardine, luminescent species 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.600 of fun Guy come for about sixteen different lineages, which 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.400 suggests that luminescence evolved at a single point and some 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.280 species later lost the ability to close. So, in other words, 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:41.480 a single early origin of fungal luminescets. Okay, so why 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.960 but what, like why would a mushroom evolve to glow 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:50.080 to begin with? Like what evolutionary advantage is there to that. Well, 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:54.480 that's that's interesting. There a number of mysteries still remain. Uh. 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:58.800 De Jardine believes that some fun guy probably glow in 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:03.439 order to attract nocturnal animals, and these animals then you 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.080 know it's dark, they're glowing, the animals come over to 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:08.119 see what the glowing is about, and then they end 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:12.639 up helping to disperse the spores um and therefore the species. 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:16.760 And this is especially adaptive and closed canopy forest because 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:19.800 there's you're not gonna have winds blown through their you know, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.639 crazy breezes to to to distribute the spores. Well, as 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:25.520 we've learned here on stuff to blow your mind. Like 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.520