Becoming a Mycopreneur with Dennis Walker
Psychedelic capitalism has been on its hiatus in recent years, with hundreds if not thousands of companies open by the day to sell these products or to sell ‘holistic’ services. Despite the popularity of these compounds and our wish for them to become legalized, there was always a topic that sensitized me when it came to the speedrun of psychedelic capitalism.
What if we forget ancient traditions that provided us insights into these substances?
Even if it sounds like an alien idea to many, it’s not too far out to what has happened to the broad commercialization of psilocybin after the introduction of Psilocybe mushrooms from the shaman Maria Sabina to the Western Society by Robert Gordon Wasson.
But what could be the future of psychedelic capitalism and the so-called holistic gurus?
To find out, we’ve spoken with the satirist, journalist, and puppeteer that you may have heard about from his podcast Mycopreneur, featuring hundreds of guests from the fungal world and beyond or even from his mesmerizing TikToks satirizing psychedelic capitalism. You may have also read his articles featured in Rolling Stone, Forbes, WIRED, VICE, and High Times. We are talking about Dennis Walker!
Join us for a discussion about how psychedelics influenced his life, the origins of his podcast, his passion for fungi, psychedelic capitalism, and mush more!
What initially drew you to psychedelics, both personally and professionally?
My first psychedelic experience was with cannabis when I was a senior in high school in 2006. I had full blown geometric patterns and visuals, and was suspended in a state of total euphoria and relaxation with my eyes closed. Naturally this experience caused me to look into other ‘drugs’, and I started checking out books about drugs and ethnobotany at the library. I had been hearing about mushrooms and other ‘drugs’ from friends at school for a few years, and after doing due diligence over the course of a year or so, joined a small group on an odyssey fueled by a ‘half-eighth’ (~1.7 grams) of Golden Teacher mushrooms in the summer of 2006. The experience blew the lid off my imagination, and instead of ‘scrambling my brain’ or making me ‘lose my mind’, the mushrooms utterly inspired, uplifted, and at the same time somehow grounded me. Then I dedicated the next chapter of my life to figuring out why these mushrooms were so under wraps and unknown to mainstream society. This led me to numerous other molecules as well.
Was there ever a profound or surprising lesson psychedelics have taught you?
- Create answers, not expectations
- Lose the loser attitude
What made you start the Mycopreneur podcast? And what is your objective with the pod?
I started Mycopreneur Podcast as a pandemic project. I have a degree and professional background in media production and have been learning from mushrooms for almost 20 years at this point. I produced a ton of ‘mushroom media’ privately, but was employed as a public school teacher and a church youth group leader at one point so it was difficult to imagine going public with my story for a number of years. When the pandemic hit, the whole world turned upside down, and I figured it was a good excuse to ‘come out of the psychedelic closet’. The main objective is to showcase the broader potential of mushroom entrepreneurship to create value at the individual and collective levels.
For fungi lovers, if we pick your name apart, it alludes to the mycological world heavily present in the psychedelic world. Where did your love for fungi come from? And what do you think maybe the future of studying these species?
We’ve barely scratched the surface of what mushrooms can do. We’ve identified somewhere around 5% of fungi species on the planet – probably less. From materials, to housing construction, to environmental remediation, food, medicine, and even off planet applications, they are an advanced intelligence that we would be wise to partner with. Of course they’re also being studied as a sort of bioweapon, so there’s that element to consider too. We haven’t even discussed communicating with advanced intelligences through high dose mushroom communion yet.
You’ve carved out a unique role in the psychedelic space with satire. Why do you think humor works so well when addressing and educating about psychedelics?
Humor sticks with people. What even makes something funny? There’s a heavily sociocultural component to jokes and satire; for example, Russian jokes don’t typically land in English, and English jokes don’t land in Chile. Humor is very context dependent, and so is psychedelic use. Finding a way to ‘educate’ or at least to help people think critically about a scenario through humor can open the mind in ways that are very ‘psychedelic’.
Your work frequently highlights the intersection of capitalism and psychedelics. Do you think there’s a risk of the psychedelic movement losing its purpose of spiritual exploration and understanding ourselves and as sacred medicine in several cultures as it becomes commercialized only as healing tools?
I honestly don’t even really like that word ‘psychedelic’. It’s bizarre to me that people just throw it in front of a concept and expect to elevate whatever the project is. I’ve seen ‘psychedelic soccer’, met a ‘psychedelic sports agent’, etc – at this point lots of people are just throwing the word in front of another concept and expecting it to elevate whatever that is. ‘Psychedelic’ apparently covers lab made chemicals, ancient plants, amphetamine derivatives and dissociatives, and all manner of cultural contexts. I’m part of it too. I’m Co-founder of Global Psychedelic Week. It’s the label we have, and probably works better than trying to isolate a million different subcategories with different words for them. But at least we can have a sense of humor about it.
My life as a psychonaut has taught me to value experiences, relationships and liberty more than status or possessions. I think. I still love nice things. Duality bro.
Still in the Sacred Medicine term, psychedelics have deep roots in spirituality, indigenous traditions, and counterculture movements. With the emerging modern ‘Silicon Valley micro-dosing’ and the introduction of the Western Community of these compounds, such as non-indigenous-owned retreats, do you think, at some point, we might lose touch with ancient traditions? If so, how can we mitigate that from happening?
We’ve lost touch with a lot of ancient traditions. Do a high solo dose of mushrooms in the silent darkness and see for yourself. Not financial or medical advice. Also not for everyone. You might completely destabilize yourself and have to grapple with the consequences – they’re very powerful agents, act accordingly and earn respect through devotion, discipline and humility.
To those who have been in the psychedelic realm for a while, we started witnessing the emerging of buzzwords and trends in the psychedelic industry, for example, the words ‘holistic’ or ‘retreat’. Are there any specific words you find especially ripe for satire?
Guru is ripe for satire – anyone with a good PR strategy can be a psychedelic guru. There are lots of phrases that are great for satire – ‘Trust the process’ – what if the process is to brainwash you and strip you of your financial assets? This is not uncommon in cults. So many. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
We are currently witnessing a major movement pro-psychedelics. What do you think the psychedelic movement gets right about promoting these substances, and where do you think it needs to improve? And if you could change one thing about how the media represents psychedelics, what would it be?
The echo chamber of western academia and industry needing to be the dominant ideology in ‘psychedelics’ is kind of limiting in its scope. I think it’s a worthy project to ‘normalize’ psychedelics and integrate them into western ideologies and systems, but focusing on the medicalization and commercial aspects first puts the cart before the horse. There’s a full on drug war that needs to be reckoned with, and people don’t need permission to explore their own consciousness. Don’t even get me started on the way the media covers psychedelics. They drop ‘parachute journalists’ into the scene, or political operatives disguised as objective journalists. They chase clickbait, salacious stories to try to stay in business. If it weren’t so funny, it’d be sad. Start your own platform and serve your neighbors.
Many influencers and companies selling psychedelic products typically only speak about the potential positive effects of these compounds. Do you think this, eventually, may backlash psychedelics? Do you feel like there is an imbalance when it comes to educating about the positives and negatives of these substances?
This goes back to the intersection of psychedelics and capitalism. I’m a proponent of cognitive liberty and the free market. Exaggerating the risks is equally inadvisable to exaggerating the benefits. At the end of the day, trying to ‘idiot proof’ the world is dangerous for everyone else. Choose wisely, and this starts with your circle of friends, the media you consume, the way you spend your time…if you think a magic pill is going to ‘fix you’ or make your life better, you’re gonna spend your whole life chasing magic pills. They’re more like supplements – designed to amplify other areas of focus and interests you have.
Even with the Psychedelic Renaissance, there are still various skeptics and people influenced by programs such as D.A.R.E. What do you say to those who question the potential of these substances or are even afraid of them?
Sucks to be you.
Speaking of D.A.R.E, what are the most persistent myths about psychedelics that you think should’ve been dismantled by now?
A current one is the idea that measuring a mushroom dose by weight means anything at all – that’s making a bold assumption that all mushrooms are the same potency, which they’re absolutely not. For example, the TTBVI mushroom is something like 50 times as potent as other psilocybin containing mushrooms. Even the same strain and grow of mushrooms can have different potencies. The idea that you need a guide or that it’s somehow unsafe to do them solo or recreationally is also false. Sure, they can have adverse effects on some people. But much of those can be mitigated with the most basic amount of preparation and best practices. Have fun.
What role do you see independent media and personalities like ourselves playing in the psychedelic space that mainstream outlets might miss?
Taking on stories and angles that mainstream outlets don’t have the capacity to cover is one of the primary roles of independent media. Build influence in small pockets of community, which inevitably expand and create public awareness and education. And be weird.
Do you feel like psychedelics are changing the world? What kind of world do you envision if psychedelics were integrated into society in the most ideal way?
I think ‘idealism’ is the death of pragmatism. The ‘ideal’ way only exists as that: an idea. The world is always changing, psychedelics will probably have an influence on that but then again so will technology – is Virtual Reality or social media all that different from a ‘psychedelic’ substance? They all produce measurable changes in the brain and perception, and cause us to think and act differently. The crystal ball I have shows me that if I spend my time laughing and having fun with friends and creating things that I feel connected to and proud of, then the future takes care of itself.
Where do you see the psychedelic movement in 5 to 10 years? Will psychedelics be fully mainstream, or do you think there will still be resistance?
There’s always going to be some resistance. It’d be weird if everyone was on board with everything all of the time. I don’t want to live in ‘Utopia’. That sounds boring. We’d normalize it and get bored. In 10 years the world will be almost unrecognizable. Start cultivating your own happy place now.
Currently, is there any psychedelic research that interests you? Are there any topics would you like to see mentioned more or researched further in the future?
The psychedelic research that interests me most is happening right now with artists and entertainers who are clinking cocktails at parties and telling great stories. The Flaming Lips are my kind of psychedelic research. There’s probably a lot of other cool stuff happening too. I’ve visited some labs and there are lots of cool psychedelic researchers. It doesn’t need to be a ‘false binary’ of medicalization vs. decriminalization etc. But in my own life, psychedelic research happens at concerts and on bike rides and in artist collectives.
As the Mycopreneur, do you have any tips or words of wisdom to those who wish to enter the psychedelic realm or create a psychedelic product business?
Entrepreneurship is about creating value in your community. Find a way to solve people’s challenges, get specific about who you’re trying to help and why, and then go help them. There are so many buzzwords and growth hacks and gimmicks, and that’s part of the ecosystem. Same with psychedelics. You can’t control any of that, but you can find your people. Entrepreneurship and ‘mycopreneurship’ is about independence and liberty to me; there are mycopreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Bangladesh, Brazil, and everywhere in between – they’re all working to have more agency and autonomy in their lives and in their communities.
Lastly, where can people find your work and keep updated with you?
I’m all over the place, just type ‘Mycopreneur’ into a search engine and find me if you want to say what’s up.
(PS: Dennis recently launched his mushroom company containing:
1 gram of Cordyceps extracts containing 30% Polysaccharides, 1% Cordycepin, and 0.5% Adenosine
– 1 gram of Reishi extracts containing 10% Triterpenes and 20% Polysaccharides
– 1 gram of Lion’s Mane extracts containing 30% polysaccharides
– 1 gram of Chaga extracts containing 30% Polysaccharides and 3% Triterpenes.
The cacao is sourced from a cooperative founded to promote cacao as an alternative income source for local farmers in the area. This region has previously been known for its mining practices and mono-culture farming techniques, which have had devastating consequences on the environment and have left the locals in severe poverty. The cooperative has helped support the farmers with better wages and bring biodiversity back to the region.)
