The Kombucha Mushroom People

LAMS (lamushrooms.org)

Los Angeles tries. We're the center of the world, if not the entire solar system. So everything that is is biggest and best here, Hollywood adjacent. Beverly Hills builds houses, Brentwood estates, UCLA graduates students, USC football stars, and LAMS (Los Angeles Mycological Society) forages wild mushrooms more than any other place in America, except apparently for Telluride, Colorado's Mushroom Festival. If only we had more forests, marshland, and old-growth forests.

The famous Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria)

Instead, we're in a Mediterranean climate zone that looks in every way like a desert with sand dunes and precious little rain most of the time. Last weekend, LAMS held the annual Wild Mushroom Fair at LA's Arboretum. Maybe someday someone will film it, whereas six months ago, at the height of a warm summer high in the mountains, Telluride outdid the City of Angels by celebrating a class of magic mushrooms called psilocybe, which contain two "magical" (entheogenic) substances known as psilocybin and psilocin.

Inside the biggest (Magical) Mushroom Festival in North America | Telluride Mushroom Festival

We may have to go Down Under to get to this year's Mushroom Valley Festival 2025

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We are sentient beings who talk

(North Spore) Join Lou from North Spore as he explores the biggest, oldest, and most magical mushroom festival in North America. From foraging with Mycologist Alan Rockefeller in the picturesque San Juan Mountains, to a private lunch with Chef Graham Steinruck, to participating in the wildest and wackiest mushroom parade in the world, this video has something for everyone. Special thanks to Telluride Mushroom Festival (tellurideinstitute.org). Visit: northspore.com. Use this link to get 10% off tickets events.humanitix.com.

The Kombucha Mushroom

What inspired System of a Down? "Sugar"

The SCOBY produces the fizzy drink kombucha

Kombucha (the bubbly drink made of a symbiotic mix of probiotic bacteria and yeast) is not a mushroom, but it sure looks like one sitting atop a sugary drink of polyphenol-rich tea. The tea provides the protein to form of symbiotic community of beneficial organisms, and the sugar feeds them. The community is called the SCOBY (symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast). What does it want? More SUGAR! It will keep growing, leaving traces of "mother" (the rust found in unfiltered apple cider vinegar), creating new generations. Like a UFO, it drops discs of new SCOBYs.

• Surā (सुरा): Indigenous beer beverage prepared with sugars from cereals or jaggery (palm sugar) and other spices that are naturally fermented. It is beneficial for the emaciated and those suffering from obstruction in urine, piles, alleviates vata (wind imbalance) and useful in anemia. Āyurveda (आयुर्वेद) is the branch of ancient Indian science dealing with medicine, herbalism, taxology, anatomy, surgery, alchemy, and related topics. Traditional practice of Āyurveda in ancient India dates back to at least the first millennium BC and its literature is commonly written in Sanskrit (Sura, Shura, Surā, Sūra, Śūra, Sūrā)

Who would drink alcohol-free moonshine?

How it organizes itself and produces useful compounds like hyaluronic acid all while making a great tasting drink, technically a kind of "beer" or sura (brew) that tastes more like musky wine if fruit -- cherry, grape, pomegranate, and so on -- juices are added for their sugar content, phytonutrients, and resveratrol. Anyone who gets into it tends to become one of the "mushroom people," enthusiastically singing its praises and enjoying better gut health. Someone must've given Serj a sip at some time for him to sing the band's first hit: "The Kombucha mushroom people, sitting around all day / Who can believe you? Who can believe you? / Let your mother pray Sugar / Sugar..." More: Genius Lyrics

How the world appears through mushroom eyes

Picking wild mushrooms in Los Angeles

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 - Intro
• 02:10 - Foraging with Alan Rockefeller
• 12:35 - Exploring the Telluride Mushroom Fest!
• 14:35 - Magic Mushrooms: Potency Testing (Noah Novello) and Psychedelic Retreats (Irene Dubin)
• 16:26 - Medicinal mushrooms with Fruiting Bodies (Roger Holden) and PACT Outdoor mycoremediation products (Noah Schum)
• 18:12 - Cooking/lunch with forager and Chef Graham Steinruck
• 28:59 - Telluride Mushroom Festival Parade
• 31:47 - Outro

Don't drink kombucha, Kids, like SOAD once did

Full interview with Gabriela D'Elia: northspore.com/blogs. Full interview with Alan Rockefeller: northspore.com/blogs. Check out more fungi festivities here: northspore.com/pages/events.

• Kate Roelke (svparalus), Alan Rockefeller (instagram.com/alan_rockefeller), Mandie Quark (instagram.com/mandie_quark), Graham Steinruck (instagram.com/instantgraham), Noah Novello (Friday Ventures, fridayventures.net), Irene Dubin (Blue Portal, blueportalretreat.com), Gary Gilbert Roger Holden (Fruiting Bodies, fruitingbodies.co), Noah Schum (PACT Outdoors, pactoutdoors.com), Shroomski Magazine (shroomski.com)
• NOTE: North Spore does not condone the use/or distribution of illegal substances. This video is for educational purposes only.

Music from Epidemic Sound & Artlist Stock video from Artlist.

Slamming with System of a Down, circa 1997, Whisky A Go Go, Hollywood

System plays "Sugar" at Whisky (and Honey, Marmalade, Sweet Pee)

• System of a Down; North Spore, July 24, 2024; System of Down; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly