11. Reggie Harris
Reggie Harris has a wide range of expertise and experiences, from political campaigning to founding the Oakland Hyphae, a website dedicated to understanding fungal medicine.
Harris is involved in psychedelic mushroom testing and established Hyphae Nootropics, a company that provides adaptogenic medicinal fungi like cordyceps and lion’s mane. He also hosts the Psilocybin Cup and The Oakland Psychedelic Conference.
Niche: Psychedelics and Medicinal Fungi and Potency Testing
Where to Learn:
12. Suzanne Simard
Suzanne Simard, a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and author of Finding the Mother Tree, is renowned for her research on trees communication and interaction through below-ground fungal networks.
This research has led to the discovery of hub trees, or Mother Trees, which are large, highly connected trees that significantly influence the flow of information and resources in a forest. Her current work focuses on how these intricate connections can help forests become more adaptable and recover from human-caused damage, such as climate change.
Niche: Ecology and fungi
Where to Learn:
13. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Widely renowned Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing is known for her research on the Japanese mushroom matsutake. Her Guggenheim Fellowship project, On the Circulation of Species: The Persistence of Diversity, is an “ethnography of matsutake,” that leads to a discussion of the “emergent, ‘contaminated’ diversity of the present.” This project led Tsing to establish the Matsutake Worlds Research Group which studies the worldwide ecological, scientific, and commercial connections involving matsutake mushrooms.
Her published works span over 40 articles in prestigious journals such as Cultural Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies Bulletin. Her book In the Realm of the Diamond Queen won the Henry J. Benda Prize and The American Ethnological Society honored her with the Senior Book Award for her second book, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection.
Niche: Anthropology, mushrooms, and fungi
Where to Learn:
14. Louie Schwarztberg
Louis Schwartzberg is a cinematographer, director, and producer best known for pioneering high-end time-lapse cinematography. He’s known for his work with mushrooms behind the lens as the filmmaker of the Netflix documentary Fantastic Fungi, which was nominated for the Best Science/Nature Documentary at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.
Fantastic Fungi is also the name of Schwartzberg’s website, which teaches and promotes the importance of fungi to the earth and humans.
Niche: Fungi evolution
Where to Learn:
15. Christopher Hobbs
With over 35 years of experience in herbal medicine, Christopher Hobbs is an impressive herbalist, acupuncturist, botanist, and mycologist. He is a founding member of the American Herbalists Guild and has been published numerous times, particularly on the uses of medicinal mushrooms and their potential to improve health and prevent disease.
Niche: Medicinal mushrooms and herbs
Where to Learn:
16. Tero Isokauppila
Growing up on a farm in Finland, Tero Isokauppila developed an affinity for growing mushrooms and appreciating unique ingredients. He eventually founded Four Sigmatic, a functional foods company with the mission of making nutritious food powered by medicinal mushrooms and adaptogens like ashwagandha and rhodiola.
Four Sigmatic sells coffee, protein, and cacao products supplemented with mushrooms, which are considered a “four sigmatic” food. When you graphically plot out nutrition values, each “sigma” (the Greek letter σ) indicates how far a food is from the average.
Four Sigmatic foods are four sigmas healthier than average food as shown in this graph:
Hear Tero discuss the most powerful mushrooms and adaptogens, his thoughts on microdosing, and the future of the psychedelic space.
Niche: Mushrooms for nutritional health
Where to Learn:
17. Tradd Cotter
With over two decades of mushroom expertise, Tradd Cotter is a renowned microbiologist and mycologist who specializes in organic mushroom farming and mycoremediation. Mycoremediation is the concept of “fungi-fueled environmental repair,” where fungi could remediate damage to the earth–from oil spills to contaminated runoff–and facilitate its regeneration.
Read more about how mushrooms can save the world here.
Tradd strives to uncover the most effective organic mushroom cultivation methods and to show how mushrooms can be integrated into everyday life.
Niche: Mushroom farming and mycoremediation
Where to Learn:
