Shroom sanctuaries and fungal fortresses

Hi there 🍄 

This week’s highlights include a new study on the relationship between psychedelics and social learning, and a contemporary artist whose medium is reishi mycelium and fruiting bodies.

Shroom sanctuaries and fungal fortresses

Dreaming of a vacation before summer ends? Embrace fungi with open arms by checking out these mushroom-inspired Airbnbs. From California to Mexico to Thailand, writer Brandon Rich found quite a few shroomy homes for vacation. One is even the most visited Airbnb worldwide and was used in the platform’s original marketing campaign in 2009.

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Psychedelics and critical periods of social learning

Another day, another study on psychedelics! Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have conducted a study to understand how psychedelic drugs like LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA might influence brain development. The study found that these drugs can "reopen" critical periods in the brain, which are specific times when the brain is more sensitive to learning essential life skills. By giving various psychedelics to mice, the scientists discovered that these substances increased the animals' response to social rewards, a learning effect that lasted for different durations depending on the drug.

Keep reading.

Around the web

• Tripsitter’s roundup of the 10 most influential women in psychedelics is a poignant look at the crucial women in the movement from its earliest inceptions.

• Smallhold, one of my favorite growers of fresh mushrooms, is launching its fresh mushrooms at Whole Foods stores across the United States this week. Packs of their blue oyster mushrooms, lion’s mane mushrooms, and umami mushroom varieties will appear on shelves.

• Speaking of lion’s mane, I recommend this Vegan Scallops & Garlic Butter Sauce recipe.

Featured artist: Xiaojing Yan

Xiaojing Yan is a contemporary Chinese Canadian artist best known for her sculptural and public art. She cultivates lingzhi mushrooms into sculpture works through a delicate process that most growers recognize themselves. Creating the molds from mushroom spores and woodchips, the sculpture form is incubated and as the lingzhi mycelium grows, the shape develops. Once the shape is stable, the mold is removed. Fruiting bodies are usually evident on her work at this stage. Her striking pieces explore the line between the natural world and the human world, between art and science, and between the self and nature.

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