0:03

Welcome the

0:29

Spirit's podcast, A Boozy Dive into Mythology,

0:32

Legends, and Folklore. Every week we pour

0:34

a drink and learn about a new

0:36

story from around the world. I'm Amanda.

0:38

And I'm Julia. And Amanda, we mentioned

0:40

in a recent episode with our guest

0:42

Mel Gilman, I was

0:45

talking about my pandemic hobby that

0:47

was foraging. Yes, you really got

0:49

the foraging and mushrooms as your

0:51

personality bug for a little while.

0:53

And I'm happy to see that

0:55

it's stuck around because I think

0:58

it's a wonderful hobby. Yeah. You

1:00

know, it's one of those things where I was

1:02

like, I was out there doing my thing. I'm

1:04

not like leading expeditions. My knowledge is very like

1:06

theoretical and not practical. I'm not out there really

1:08

like eating a lot of the stuff that I

1:11

find in general.

1:13

Just I think that can be, if you're

1:15

not very, very well trained, very dangerous. And

1:17

we'll talk a little bit about that probably

1:19

in this episode. But one of the specific

1:21

things that I really did enjoy

1:24

about mushroom foraging

1:26

and identification was there

1:28

are so many different types of

1:31

mushrooms and so many different looks

1:33

and feels and vibes of mushrooms.

1:35

And admittedly, Long Island, not

1:38

a super diverse mushroom kind of area.

1:40

It's not as diverse as like, say,

1:42

the Catskills are or the Pacific Northwest.

1:44

In case you don't know, mushrooms like

1:47

high altitude for the most part and

1:49

also like very moist weather. Not so

1:51

much a thing on Long Island. No,

1:53

we're pretty much at sea level. And

1:56

while it can be moist, the moisture

1:58

is filled with salt, which I I

2:00

hear is not great for all living

2:02

things. Yes, that is true. And there

2:04

are some that like kind of sandier

2:07

conditions. There are some that like saltier

2:09

conditions, as is the way of

2:11

like just, you know,

2:13

evolution and the way that plants evolved. Yes.

2:17

But I think mushrooms are really cool. I think they're

2:19

pretty neat. And that is

2:22

why, Amanda, I want to,

2:24

for this entire month, talk

2:26

about mushrooms. Whoa, mushroom month.

2:29

Love it. So we are going to

2:31

start mushroom month with a roundup of

2:34

mushroom folklore from around the

2:36

world. Hell yeah. And in

2:38

doing this research, it was really interesting

2:40

to me because as I mentioned to you, Amanda,

2:42

before the call, I was like, you know what?

2:45

I would have thought there were like mushroom

2:48

creatures in a lot of

2:50

folklore. I would have assumed if

2:53

you asked me, truly, is there a mushroom yokai?

2:55

I would have been like, yes, of course there's a

2:57

mushroom yokai. There's not a ton

2:59

of like mushroom creatures, especially like we

3:01

look at like modern day horror.

3:04

We look at modern day kind of

3:06

like pop culture and stuff like that.

3:08

There's a lot of like guy who

3:10

is also a mushroom. Yeah. And I

3:12

feel like superhero narratives as well with

3:15

their origins of supernatural abilities. I feel

3:17

like I've seen lots of like body

3:19

horror of a mushroom genre in

3:21

like superhero in horror, you know, tales

3:23

and in all kinds of video games.

3:26

Yes. And you know what? In doing the research

3:28

for this episode, you see

3:30

a lot of those, but you

3:32

don't see exactly like the origins

3:34

of those. So mushrooms and their

3:37

existence specifically in folklore and mythology

3:39

is kind of like fairly limited

3:42

in a way. But we're going to talk

3:44

more about like mushroom modern

3:46

monsters later on in this

3:48

month, maybe with a special guest who can say,

3:50

who can say, but in the meantime,

3:53

Amanda, I want to talk to you about

3:55

the nitty gritty of mushroom folklore and

3:57

kind of what they are associated with and what

3:59

creatures. that are associated with, even if

4:01

we don't have mushroom monsters. We do have

4:03

creatures that were associated with mushrooms. Love

4:06

it. When I think mushrooms,

4:08

I think fairy gardens, I think healing,

4:10

I think tea. And so

4:12

all of those things, especially like women's

4:14

work and folk remedies, are going

4:17

to be mushroom heavy. So I'm

4:19

excited to learn. Well, Amanda,

4:21

you talk about fairies right off the

4:23

bat. How about the fairy ring? Oh,

4:26

of course. And, hey, Julia, I

4:28

bet some mushrooms grow in rings naturally, don't

4:30

they? Well, okay. So here's the

4:32

thing. If you spend any time outside,

4:34

you probably have at least seen or

4:36

heard of a fairy ring. This is

4:39

a group of mushrooms that naturally forms

4:41

either a ring or an arc. Now,

4:44

this is seen as a kind

4:46

of supernatural occurrence in a lot of folklore. And

4:48

the assumption is kind of like, if you cross

4:50

the fairy ring, something will happen to you,

4:52

whether it's positive or negative, depends on the tradition.

4:55

There are various traditions because fairy

4:57

rings are a natural occurrence that

4:59

can happen pretty much anywhere that

5:02

mushrooms grow. Now, I'll get

5:04

into the folklore in a second, but

5:06

you're probably maybe asking, how

5:09

does this kind of perfect circle of mushrooms or

5:11

a perfect arc of mushrooms happen? Maybe

5:13

you're a big nerd like me and you already know about

5:15

this, but maybe you don't. Let's

5:17

just say for argument's sake, I don't, Julia.

5:20

Not for me, but for the listeners. What would you say?

5:23

Well, Amanda, why don't we head into a

5:25

little mycology corner? All

5:30

right, Amanda, here we are in mycology corner.

5:32

So what you need to know about

5:34

mushrooms is that mushrooms grow through a

5:36

sort of root system that is called

5:38

the mycelium. Yes, that's a word I

5:40

have heard associated with mushrooms, mycelium.

5:42

So basically, the mycelium absorbs nutrients

5:44

in the ground around the mushroom.

5:47

It breaks down different soils and

5:49

stuff as they feed. Now,

5:51

this mycelium grows outward from a

5:54

center point until the nutrients in

5:56

the center are all exhausted,

5:59

at which point. The center dies

6:01

which creates a rings and

6:03

then from the ring the

6:05

mushroom sports sprouts which creates

6:07

this circle of mushrooms surrounding

6:09

this. Middle point I see

6:11

if the nutrients are like

6:14

particularly evenly distributed. Then

6:16

the pattern of usage is gonna

6:18

be pretty even to yes exactly.

6:20

And this is really also very

6:22

interesting because when the mushroom circle

6:24

happens, when this fairy ring happens

6:27

basically the like middle part of

6:29

the circle will wither off and

6:31

die again because these nutrients have

6:33

been sucked up by the mycelium

6:35

and this really feeds into the

6:37

folklore that there is something like

6:39

otherworldly happening inside the ferry rates

6:42

because now you have like you

6:44

know, very verdant landscape. Rights. And

6:46

then you see this fairy rings and

6:48

an inside the fairy ring. It's like

6:50

withered or decade and dying. Yeah, I

6:52

know that that one hundred percent. Feel

6:54

like a portal to another worlds? And maybe

6:56

the videogame portal? Exactly exactly. It's

6:58

also worth noting that not all

7:01

species of mushrooms create fairy rings.

7:03

Things about sixty or so. Different

7:05

species that growth in this method, and

7:07

most notably at least when we're talking

7:10

about folklore, is the amanita miscarried Or

7:12

the fly a garrick. Which is

7:14

probably the most like identifiable.

7:17

Mushroom In the world? It's. The. Red one

7:19

with the white spots. Okay, great. just. Like

7:21

denied started his alley. Excellent, exactly and we're going

7:23

to talk a lot. About the fly garrick

7:25

later. but don't worry about it, But like

7:27

when you picture a mushroom from like Art

7:29

and Stuff it is probably that. One honestly,

7:31

juliet one of those things where I kind

7:33

of half. Assume. That it's fake and

7:36

just like a thing. We've all decided because

7:38

it is cartoon is it is like it

7:40

is like the Smurfs like I see a

7:42

picture. Of an actual mushroom that has like

7:44

a bright red cap and white brown spots.

7:46

I'm just like, oh that There must. Be. A

7:49

dry, oh man organ. talk about smurf later,

7:51

Don't worry. Oh hell yeah. The. Site

7:53

lists Get into the folklore: the fairy ring

7:55

as energy before the fairy ring can. occur

7:57

pretty much wherever mushrooms grow so the

8:00

folklore surrounding them is pretty global.

8:02

Europe has probably some of the

8:04

most well-known of these traditions. There

8:06

is a lot of variety from

8:08

culture to culture. And again, it is

8:10

probably the situation where this is a

8:13

Western bias where these just happen to

8:15

be the most documented as opposed to

8:17

like they just have the most, you know?

8:21

So there are several folklore traditions

8:23

that claim that fairy rings are

8:25

the result of fairies or fae

8:27

dancing. So the English, Celts, Scandinavians,

8:29

they all make a connection to

8:32

the idea of like dancing elves

8:34

or fairies as the phenomenon that creates

8:36

the fairy ring. Kind of rig around the

8:38

road these situations. Exactly, exactly. Or

8:40

like in some ways, the wild hunt

8:42

that we've talked about in the past,

8:44

this idea of like unseeable

8:47

creatures creating a sort of physical

8:49

imprint on the world. Totally. There

8:52

is a British folklorist named Thomas Kitely

8:54

who claimed that while entering a fairy

8:56

ring would allow a mortal to see

8:59

the elves that dance there, it would

9:01

put them under the elves' thrall, which

9:03

obviously made it an unsafe practice. That was

9:05

not worth the risk. Yeah, that makes a

9:07

lot of sense and explains why

9:09

my instinct is don't breach the fairy

9:11

ring. Manda,

9:14

according to almost all of these traditions,

9:16

your instinct is correct. Love it.

9:18

So the majority of these myths that

9:20

feature fairy rings further expand on the

9:23

fact that not only do fairies and

9:25

elves dance in circles, but so do

9:27

witches, which is something that was perpetuated

9:29

by Victorian folklorists who claimed that witches

9:32

would dance in the moonlight invisible to

9:34

mortals only for the circles to appear

9:36

the following morning. Yeah, that tracks

9:38

for Victorian fears about women and

9:40

witches like, oh, they'll

9:42

be naked and dancing and going

9:44

in, I don't know, supernatural shapes like

9:47

circles. My favorite part is

9:49

like, oh, they'll be naked, but they're like, but

9:51

they'll also be invisible. So I'm like, so

9:53

who cares? Who cares? I don't know. One

9:56

of my favorite local variations is

9:58

a Scottish story. which claimed

10:00

that the fairies would actually sit on

10:02

the mushrooms and use them as dinner

10:04

tables, which I think is adorable because

10:07

it's like a little fairy restaurant. That's

10:09

so cute. Isn't that so cute?

10:11

That's amazing. I mean, I'm

10:13

trying to think if I use like a stump or something,

10:15

I guess when camping, you know, you can like use a

10:17

stump as like a little table. But

10:19

God, that's so cute. Yeah, it's adorable.

10:22

It's adorable. There's also a more

10:24

modern variation from Wales, which

10:26

claimed that the fairy rings were

10:28

not the result of dancing at

10:30

all, but rather marked where an

10:32

underground fairy village could be found

10:34

and needed to be avoided as

10:36

to not upset them. That feels

10:38

very Welsh, just based on vibes

10:41

of like, you know what, that's where they're doing their

10:43

thing. And we are going to accommodate them and leave

10:45

them alone. Yes. And we

10:47

see that a lot with like, we talked about that

10:49

in the fae episode where it's like, if you know

10:51

that the fae hang out there, don't disturb

10:53

it. Like you have those stories out

10:55

of like Iceland and stuff like that

10:58

being like, yeah, we had to build

11:00

a highway around this big hill because

11:02

that's a fairy hill and we don't

11:04

fuck with that. When in doubt, that's the

11:06

safe option, in my opinion. Exactly. Exactly. There

11:09

are people, as you'll see in

11:11

a little bit of bandeau, who do not follow that safe

11:13

option. Listen, if they didn't

11:15

make bad choices, it would be harder for us to

11:17

make content, but still I'm like, oh no. So

11:20

as you can kind of tell from the

11:22

variety of these traditions, fairy rings were not

11:25

exactly something to be trifled with. And

11:27

it was best to avoid them entirely rather than

11:29

cross them. So these were supposed to

11:31

be like these sacred spaces. And if

11:33

not sacred, they were at least the

11:35

domain of fairies. So to cross them

11:38

was to kind of violate the property

11:40

of the fairies. And as we

11:42

know from studying folklore all of

11:44

these years, Amanda, violating hospitality in

11:46

mythology is never a good thing.

11:49

No, that's like rule number one that you

11:51

don't wanna break. And I imagine that each

11:53

of you out there are foraging, even if

11:55

you're finding food to Eat or food

11:57

to sell, at a certain point, it makes

11:59

sense not to. his off your supernatural neighbors.

12:02

Correct Correct because like to be

12:04

an interloper in a fairy circles

12:06

would lead to curses, misfortune, general

12:08

bad vibes Sienna make sense to.

12:10

There is an Irish Tell member

12:12

which tells of a farmer who

12:14

despite the warnings of his neighbors,

12:16

decides that he's gonna build his

12:18

barn. and in doing so, Disturb

12:20

a fairy ring so is gonna be one.

12:23

Of his and be one guy. How else would we know.

12:25

You know, if not for the one person

12:27

who fucked up, I gotta know what happened

12:29

to him or it. Said he awakens

12:31

the following night after starting to

12:33

build the his barn and disturbing

12:36

the fairy. Rings Pay is lost. All

12:38

his sense as ah, Can't see,

12:40

can hear, can't smell. We can't touch

12:42

him. With the last with i'm

12:44

forgetting tastes tastes he can taste that

12:47

if a his socks Wow he has

12:49

that great city. Is required someone to

12:51

come in. And basically break the curse

12:54

on him. Which he then has

12:56

this. Dream where he's like I've got

12:58

a destroy The barnes of goes out

13:00

and destroys the Bard's and he's no

13:02

longer afflicted with any like curse or

13:04

bad vibes or anything like that. And

13:07

credible and Mci what an Irish tell

13:09

that I'm not qualified to get into

13:11

but I searched her can speculate about

13:13

I'm I'm tearing down. Your own over

13:15

reach in order not to stand out. yes

13:18

that feels rate of his race and feels

13:20

like when we talked about like leper com

13:22

sawyer and zeppelin. That's kind

13:24

of the that I get it. If you want

13:26

to not be damaged by see why would you

13:28

get all that gold. In

13:31

to be fair, this Irish farmer

13:33

kind of got off easily because

13:35

there are worth more mythological consequences

13:38

mentioned for. Entering a fairy ring as

13:40

well I mentioned before that one can be

13:42

enthralled by. The dancing have seen

13:44

like elves within a fairy ring,

13:46

but some stories will tell you

13:49

that if you enter once you

13:51

become invisible to mortals outside and

13:53

become trapped there. That is a

13:55

terrible say. What? Is active mornings

13:58

or if you were to come up. The

14:00

say while with in a fairy

14:02

rings they might enchant. You to

14:04

dance to the point of exhaustion. Madness

14:07

or even death for and

14:09

it was supposedly more dangerous

14:12

on certain days, so for

14:14

example, in England, Wales, Scotland,

14:16

and Ireland, Halloween and May.

14:18

Eve were quoted to be the most

14:21

dangerous times for mortals when it comes

14:23

to fairy rings That. Make sense to

14:25

me. It's also spring and fall. I'm

14:27

sure the like growing and dying back

14:29

is really going off at that time.

14:31

Smith ton of sense to me at

14:34

now amended. Know not all

14:36

is lost if you do become trapped

14:38

within a fairy ring because there are

14:40

ways of getting you out. but they

14:42

do require outside assistance. But.

14:45

They're invisible to do exactly hard to do

14:47

the to have to assume maybe someone can

14:49

hear you or something beyond it if you're.

14:51

Not like in thrall to. Stamps.

14:53

Or thing or whatever. Just but

14:55

if you were trapped in a

14:57

fairy ring in Wales that a

14:59

said that marge room and time

15:01

spread around a fairy circles could

15:03

this orients them freeing? The Mortal

15:05

Crack and allowing him to escape.

15:08

Also, touching a bit of iron was said to

15:10

free the mind of a mortal who was under

15:12

the thrall of the say there you go, Iron

15:14

is gonna come through and break all kinds of

15:17

curses. Yes, I guess if you're

15:19

like worried that your friend might be caught

15:21

in a ferry circle, he can't see them,

15:23

He can hear them describe like. An iron

15:25

bar does kind of wave it in front of the

15:27

ferries. I could be like a good in their.

15:29

Yeah, everything okay. Hurry a little iron tolkien

15:31

or coin in your pocket. He though the

15:33

very calm and iron calling i am just

15:36

kind of like chocolate in the middle of

15:38

the circle as these that helps. Dozens.

15:40

Of this however is you are. If

15:42

there's nothing mare you're gonna out of

15:44

a coins. After you throw it in there

15:46

cause you gotta at least wait for the fairy ring to

15:48

die off. Yeah, now you can't take it back again to

15:51

go back. There is a great. Scottish

15:53

poem that talks about what happens if

15:55

you attempt to destroy or cross a

15:57

fairy ring. I'm not an attempt to

15:59

read. In like a Scottish accent or

16:01

bay. It's written in an accent, but

16:04

I will attempt my best to just

16:06

read it straight for hims. It. See.

16:10

What Kills The series? Green.

16:13

Ny. Luck again shall have

16:15

and he would spill the

16:17

fairies ring be tied him

16:19

want and way. For. Weird

16:21

list days and weary nights

16:23

are his till his dying

16:26

day. but see what goes

16:28

by The fairy. Ring made

16:30

Duel nor Pine Sol See

16:32

and see what queens the

16:35

Fairy Ring. An easy

16:37

death. Saudis. Okay,

16:40

So if you want to you know

16:42

shuffle off the mortal coil and of

16:44

really nice way take care of the

16:47

rings. yeah I mean real quick death

16:49

apparently. Oh I thought it was saying

16:51

like don't sell it and don't cross

16:53

it but do. Take care of it like

16:55

clean it. Or do you think

16:57

it means like clear away and then years

16:59

ago die immediately? I'm. Not

17:02

entirely sure. It's everything like don't tell

17:04

it, don't really touch it, don't like,

17:06

you know, get yourself involved with that

17:08

Scottish listeners. Way. And let us

17:10

know. So. Been focusing

17:12

a lot about the fairy. Ring lore of

17:14

like England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland because those

17:17

are probably the most well documented here in

17:19

the west. Like I mentioned. But there

17:21

are a couple other areas that have

17:23

fairy ring lore at Germans believed that

17:26

fairy rings were caused by which is

17:28

dancing on while per guess night. Cool.

17:31

In Austria, fairy rings were caused

17:33

by the fiery tales of dragons,

17:35

and it was said that once

17:37

a dragon created a circle. Only

17:40

mushrooms. We grow there for seven years.

17:42

Okay all right I'm I'm liking that of like

17:44

in the Dragon of like in the number seven

17:47

that makes it as as and I'm sure also

17:49

because the mycelia. Is drawing and seventy nutrients. Don't

17:51

like a tree or grasses or them alive pop

17:53

up in the middle of that like it's clearly

17:55

the soil been depleted. Yeah, You often will

17:57

get fairy rings. Around die.

18:00

trees as well and those are very longer

18:03

living than say like a meadow

18:05

fairy ring because there are a lot

18:07

more nutrients to get out of a decaying tree.

18:10

Oh totally. The French believed that

18:12

fairy rings were guarded by giant

18:15

toads who would curse those who passed through

18:17

the circle. Okay. I love that. I

18:20

mean big toad stools. They're little

18:22

stools for toads, I presume. In

18:25

the Philippines fairy rings are

18:27

associated with the duende who

18:29

are the sort of like nature spirits

18:31

that resemble small old men. Now

18:34

the Dutch believed that the circle of

18:37

the fairy ring was left where the

18:39

devil would churn his milk at night

18:41

and Amanda I was like why the

18:43

fuck is the devil churning milk? Apparently

18:47

it has something to do with misogyny and

18:49

how women typically did the hard work

18:51

of milking cows and then churning butter and

18:53

the only possible way that she could

18:55

have done this and made money off of

18:58

it was by working with the devil

19:00

in exchange for her milk fortune. That

19:02

is such a journey and I

19:04

was immediately going to say like have

19:06

you ever churned butter? It's fucking hard.

19:08

It takes forever and like

19:11

absolute shout out to everyone churning

19:13

the butter out there but damn I didn't

19:15

know that like women profiting

19:17

under capitalism have to be a result

19:20

of the devil's interference but apparently

19:22

apparently I have a

19:24

wild article that I got that from

19:27

that I will link to our patrons in

19:29

the show notes because it's truly I was

19:31

like what is happening here? I like

19:33

I distilled that down from

19:35

like eight paragraphs about

19:37

like women and butter and the

19:40

like culture around it thank

19:42

you so much you know I was going to ask

19:44

Julia what's the devil doing to turn some butter? Don't

19:46

worry, don't worry I got you because I asked that

19:48

same question I was like I need to have an

19:50

answer for that. So

19:53

that is what I have on fairy rings but

19:55

there are other mushroom folklore stories out there that

19:57

I am excited to tell you that. Why

20:00

don't we do that as soon as we get back from

20:02

our refill? Let's do it. Hello

20:06

everybody, it's me, Amanda. Welcome

20:09

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21:01

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week I would like to recommend

21:18

asking for what you want. Again,

21:20

we sometimes recommend actual

21:23

physical things here in the middle, but this week

21:25

I have had two instances of asking for a

21:27

thing I wanted and people said yes and I

21:29

was surprised and it made my life a lot

21:31

better. One was watching Eric

21:33

say to our landlord at the office, hey, it

21:35

looks like you're losing a lot of tenants. Can you can you

21:37

like lower rent? And the guy was like, sure. So

21:40

that was great. So you know, you can like negotiate

21:42

rent and they won't always say yes, but you can

21:44

say it. And second, I

21:46

ironically for a podcast or don't hear very well,

21:48

my hearing is getting worse. And so when I

21:50

went to yoga where they like to play, you

21:52

know, music to kind of help you get into

21:54

the flow of things, I said to my teacher,

21:56

hey, don't you feel good? Can you speak up

21:58

or turn the music down? And she said, yeah,

22:00

no problem. And you know what? Yoga's better when

22:02

you can hear the instructions. And so it makes

22:06

me a little worried. But if you are

22:08

thinking about something right now, and you're like,

22:10

oh, shit, yeah, no, I should ask for

22:12

what I want, think of me encouragingly, giving

22:14

you a little thumbs up real close to

22:16

my face and saying, yeah, do it. This

22:19

week at Multitude, we have incredible stuff going

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on. Maddie, our social media manager, has started

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me really happy that our small and

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mighty team is doing all this work, including

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over on Exo-Lord, Dr. Moya McTeer, is closing

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she examines what life might be like

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writers create our favorite fictional world, and

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Dr. McTeer, and you do too. You're

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So if you're into stories, which I

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this show, go on over and check

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Exo-Lord out. It's exo-lordpod.com or search Exo-Lord

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I was saying earlier, a lot of stuff I

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I've wanted to end therapy for a while now,

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24:47

now let's get back to the show. Amanda,

24:58

we're back. And a cocktail that I've been

25:00

thinking a lot about lately is

25:02

one that was inspired by our

25:04

conversation with Mel Gilman when they

25:06

were talking about like their turkey tail

25:09

kind of vodka that they had

25:11

created. And I was like, I bet that

25:13

would be really good with whiskey. And what

25:16

if you made an old fashioned with turkey

25:18

tail whiskey, and also with some maple

25:21

syrup and a little bit of Angostura bitters?

25:23

Incredible. I think the old fashioned is such

25:25

a good drink to do like a fat

25:27

washing or savory component or a Morumami component

25:30

and mushrooms are so good for that. That

25:32

was our cocktail back for the Mel Gilman

25:34

episode because I was like really thinking about

25:36

it. For this episode, I think you

25:38

should do a mushroom reposado tequila

25:41

situation and then

25:43

create something like a little bit

25:45

of a smokier, more savory, umami

25:47

style margarita. Absolutely incredible. You can

25:49

do like a little chili simple

25:51

syrup in there or a hot

25:53

honey, maybe it'd be so good.

25:55

Yeah, yeah, maybe like a

25:58

tomato water situation in there. as well

26:00

to like really make it savory. I think that would be

26:02

really good. Incredible. Tomatillos perhaps, I

26:04

don't know. A lot of options here. Now,

26:07

Amanda, before we get into more mushroom folklore,

26:10

I have a little game for us. All

26:12

right, let's do it. This is a

26:15

game that I've called, What's That Mushroom

26:17

Gonna Do? Okay. Basically, I'm going to

26:19

show you a picture of a notable

26:21

looking mushroom. Yeah. And

26:23

I want you to tell me what magical effect

26:25

that mushroom would have if you came across it

26:27

in, let's say, a magical world or a

26:29

fairy circle or something like that. I've got

26:31

five for you today. Let's do it, Julia.

26:33

I'm ready. I'm going to start you

26:36

off with probably one of the most

26:38

stunning, and by that I

26:40

truly mean it is stunning, mushrooms

26:42

out there in the world. This is

26:44

the Bleeding Tooth Mushroom.

26:48

Oh, okay. This

26:50

looks like an otherworldly

26:53

gaping maw with

26:57

white flesh and

26:59

extremely pearlescent pomegranate

27:01

seed looking dots

27:03

of red blood, it seems.

27:05

So I'm going to go

27:08

ahead and say that this mushroom would

27:10

make you sprout

27:12

like a hundred eyes, like a biblical

27:14

angel. And so you

27:16

will have incredible vision and incredible ability,

27:19

maybe like even x-ray, like you can

27:21

kind of flip as if you're a

27:23

national treasure through different kinds

27:25

of vision, including seeing through

27:27

things or seeing heat signatures, but

27:30

they do weep blood at all times.

27:32

Terrifying. And I love it. No,

27:35

no. We play D-Amanda. And

27:37

so the idea of like being able to

27:39

like see into like the astral plane or

27:41

like see invisibility or like see stuff like that

27:44

I think is a really cool idea. I want

27:46

anyone who plays tabletop RPGs at home, feel

27:48

free to use these as inspiration for items

27:50

in your campaign. I think it's a great

27:52

idea. Yeah. And if you're really into the,

27:54

you know, superhero

27:56

mushroom powered group think

27:59

aspect of all mythology. Hey

28:01

campaign 2 joined the party is perfect for

28:03

you I promise. There's a lot

28:05

of mushroom content in campaign 2. And a

28:07

big mushroom guy? You're gonna love it. Yeah.

28:09

Alright Amanda how about our next one here

28:11

which is the veiled lady. Oh.

28:14

Alright this is the kind of thing that in

28:16

today's day and age my first thought is is

28:18

this AI generated and my second thought is don't

28:20

know that's nature which is incredible. So

28:22

this looks almost like an upside down tulip. There

28:25

is a really like lovely kind

28:28

of spongy like dried seashell looking

28:30

cap to the mushroom and then

28:33

the skirt is what I

28:35

gotta call it is like a beautiful like tulip

28:37

shaped uh veil you

28:39

know lacy gorgeous skirt.

28:42

I'm gonna say because of

28:45

the the laciness and how it's see-through

28:47

it feels very um airy to me

28:49

and so I'm gonna say that eating

28:52

this mushroom lets you fly. I know

28:54

it is such a basic feature or

28:56

thing but like from a kid to

28:58

now my my wildest fantasy if I

29:01

had powers would still be to fly.

29:03

I love that idea can I yes

29:05

end it for you. Always. How about

29:08

when you eat that mushroom you

29:10

gain like wings underneath your arms

29:12

like kind of like flying squirrel

29:14

wings that are made up of

29:16

that veil like material. Perfect. Yes.

29:19

Incredible. I love this. You're so you're so

29:21

good. I love putting you out of the spot and you come

29:24

up with creative things. It also looks an

29:26

awful lot like the animal fat

29:28

that you use to do like do you

29:30

know what I'm talking about? Yeah yeah like

29:32

calling like the idea of like you wrap

29:34

certain meats and stuff in animal fat in

29:36

order to bind it together. It looks a

29:38

lot like that as well which feels

29:41

like a really good addition for the wing

29:43

fabric. All right Amanda having our next one

29:45

which is one of my favorite mushrooms of

29:47

all time. The turkey tail. Oh yeah what

29:49

Mel was talking about. So this is gorgeous.

29:51

It looks honestly like a geode like

29:53

the the beautiful kind of rings of color

29:55

and like a turkey's tail. It's

29:58

like half of a sort

30:00

of ruffled circle. All

30:02

right, we did flying. This reminds me

30:05

a little bit of like the, you know, the neck

30:07

of a turkey or like the wing of a bat.

30:11

Ooh, how about, I think if

30:13

you zoom out enough, this would

30:15

look almost like in a platforming video game

30:17

where you're sort of like jumping up from

30:19

between ledges. So what if this

30:21

allowed you like a goat or a

30:23

sheep to sort of like perch on

30:26

ledges really well? So you can like

30:28

jump and climb and sort of

30:30

scale rocky surfaces a lot

30:32

better than before. Yeah, like as long as

30:34

the material that you're not trying to

30:37

climb on is like absolutely smooth, like

30:39

a, I don't know, like a stainless steel

30:41

or something like that, you're always able

30:43

to find purchase. Yeah, if there's any kind

30:45

of texture to it, because the turkey

30:47

tail mushroom is like polluted. It

30:50

is like a wrinkled paper or something, or like

30:52

linen after you wash it, it's so pretty.

30:54

I also really like the idea of like

30:56

maybe as you're eating this and you're trying

30:58

to climb up a space every time you

31:00

put your hand out, a turkey tail

31:02

grows for you to grab onto. Thousand

31:04

percent. That's really cool, I like that a

31:06

lot. All right, and next one

31:08

is a really stunning mushroom called

31:10

the Inky Cap. Yeah, this

31:13

looks like a DeviantArt portrait. So this

31:15

is like traditional mushroom shape of very

31:17

pure white stalk. And then the cap

31:19

of the mushroom is like ombre from

31:21

like a snowy white at the peak,

31:23

like a mountain, all the way down

31:26

to black at the rim. And then

31:28

again, what looks like a latex

31:31

makeup effect of

31:33

just like dripping like shiny

31:35

black, almost like tendrils. So,

31:38

oh, what could this be?

31:40

I'm thinking something related to like sludge

31:42

resistance to like poison, maybe you

31:45

don't have to eat your drink

31:47

anymore because you are fueled by

31:50

like a tree ingesting

31:52

pollutants and then letting out pure

31:54

oxygen again, because that play between

31:56

like light and dark between almost

31:58

like goopy and pure. is really

32:00

clear in this photo. I really like

32:02

the idea of maybe you just become liquid

32:04

shadow. After eating

32:07

this, the idea of you just

32:09

become a gloop, but it's

32:11

also you're so dark that you can going

32:13

to blend in with the shadows. Yeah, that's really good.

32:15

And presumably, you can pop back up at some

32:17

point or other. But if you

32:19

eat this mushroom, you got to expect to become

32:21

a gloop. You simply must. You just got to.

32:23

Look at it. It's so goopy. Yeah,

32:25

incredible. All right, Amanda, here is

32:28

our last one. And I

32:30

think you will recognize it. Hey,

32:32

so this is what I

32:34

think a kid would draw. If you told him to draw a mushroom, like

32:37

a real kind of bulbous red

32:40

cap, some spots on it,

32:42

which looking at it now do look more natural.

32:44

They're not just like the matte polka dot. They

32:47

are like growth and a

32:50

cartoonish thick strong. That

32:53

is the fly agaric, which we mentioned

32:55

earlier on in the episode. Now this,

32:58

maybe it's my Super Mario playing husband, but

33:00

I do just want to jump on it.

33:02

And so I wonder if this

33:04

maybe lets you be a little buoyant.

33:08

Maybe you're like gravity has only

33:10

half of the hold on you that it would

33:13

before. And that could present some

33:15

challenges in terms of doing the

33:17

things that you want to do, but also

33:19

might lift you up. Maybe

33:22

though you have to fart noxious gas in

33:24

order to

33:26

do that. You got to burp like

33:28

it's Willy Wonka. I get you. Yeah. Yeah. I

33:30

mean, it just it screams nature is telling me,

33:32

don't eat me because it's bright red. Now,

33:36

Amanda, if you had to eat one

33:38

of these that we've just described with the effects and

33:40

all, which one would you go for? Oh, a turkey

33:42

tail, 100%. All right. All right.

33:44

Very cool. And I think it would let

33:47

me hang out with new kinds of birds

33:49

and climb trees, which I always want to

33:51

do. All right, Amanda. Speaking of the

33:53

fly agaric mushroom, that quintessential mushroom

33:56

in all of art, let's talk

33:58

about the Dutch kaboot. So

34:01

they're kind of how we understand

34:03

gnomes to be in folklore.

34:06

They're like the Dutch version of, let's say,

34:08

the leprechaun or the hob or the brownie. They

34:11

are said to only be about 10

34:13

to 15 centimeters tall. The

34:16

men of the species have

34:18

long, full beards, tall, pointed

34:20

hats, usually green or red.

34:23

Think of the lawn gnome. That's

34:25

basically what this is. Okay, I was going to

34:27

say, I'm getting Smurf traditional

34:29

gnome vibes for sure. Well,

34:31

the Smurfs were inspired by

34:33

the kabutr. Hey. So

34:36

they're also connected with lost objects. Basically,

34:38

like if you lose something in the

34:40

house or out in the field, chances

34:42

are a kabutr now has it and

34:44

keeps it in their home. Makes a

34:47

ton of sense to me. And

34:49

I remember just digging my grandparents' backyard

34:51

as a kid. And mostly

34:53

it was just the trash that people

34:55

buried before there was municipal waste on

34:57

Long Island. But also that really makes

35:00

me laugh. And as a trope

35:02

I really love is like the nature or

35:04

forest spirits or otherwise underground

35:07

or forgotten people with a tin

35:09

can, a hammer, a

35:11

broken scythe, making use of all

35:13

of those discarded or lost

35:16

items. Yeah, and incorporating them into their

35:18

homes, which is really cute. And

35:20

speaking of their homes, Amanda, the reason we are

35:22

talking about them in the first place is because

35:24

they are said to live inside of mushrooms. Most

35:28

often fly a garak. Sure.

35:30

I mean, the fly garak looks like there's got to

35:32

be something in there. Like it just it looks it

35:34

looks like you would cut it open and then surprisingly

35:37

it's cake inside like that. That's

35:39

like it looks like that. It really does.

35:41

So they are said to live

35:44

in these mushrooms, either like near

35:46

houses or stables, also in forests

35:48

or on heat. It's basically anywhere

35:50

where you could find these mushrooms. Right. They're

35:52

also associated with red squirrels.

35:55

And this. All right. This is this is

35:57

wild. All right. Get ready for me. First off. to

36:00

humans. Flyogaric is toxic.

36:02

It's said that like no one has

36:04

died from eating a flyogaric in

36:07

over 100 years, but it is

36:09

toxic. Like, you know, if a child was

36:11

to ingest it, they would probably die. If

36:14

you decided to eat like five of them

36:16

in one go without any sort of preparation, just like

36:18

straight off the ground, you're going to die from that.

36:20

Got it. It doesn't stop people from trying

36:22

to eat it because it is psychoactive.

36:25

Ah, got it. Okay. But I mean, listen, Julia, all

36:27

of my favorite substances are poisonous if I take

36:30

too many. Exactly. There are ways of

36:32

eating it. I wouldn't recommend it. But

36:34

the reason that I'm bringing this up

36:36

is because in nature, animals such as

36:39

red squirrels will actively seek out flyogaric

36:41

mushrooms to eat them for the intoxication

36:43

effect. Love animals

36:46

getting high on mushrooms,

36:49

just like the human animals that they

36:51

cohabitate with. Incredible. We're talking

36:53

about flyogaric. We're talking about red

36:56

squirrels getting high. I'm sure there are several

36:58

people who are listening to this who assume

37:00

that I'm going to talk about the Santa

37:02

flyogaric theory. Excuse me. Basically,

37:04

it's this idea that Santa originated

37:07

as a Sami spiritual leader who

37:09

would give these mushrooms to village

37:11

elders, that they would then take

37:13

them as part of ceremonies,

37:16

right? Like really ceremonies, reindeer, much

37:18

like red squirrels, as I mentioned,

37:21

would notably eat these mushrooms for

37:23

the hallucinogenic effects as well. Okay,

37:26

sure. So Santa supposedly became associated

37:28

with like the right and right

37:31

of the mushroom, the prancing, aka

37:33

flying high reindeer, etc,

37:35

etc. Okay, now

37:37

I'm mentioning this because it was

37:39

a theory that became very popularized,

37:42

especially like recent, starting in the

37:44

50s became more popularized recently, like

37:46

on the internet, like there are

37:48

articles out there that people are like writing about

37:50

it being like Santa's associated with

37:53

hallucinogenic mushrooms. When

37:55

it fits that well into a

37:57

click baby headline, I'm very suspicious.

38:01

It's been incredibly debunked at this point. Basically,

38:03

this is all like the theorizing of an

38:05

anthropologist from the 50s who did not have

38:08

enough sources to actually justify his theory

38:10

on this matter. There is some

38:13

truth to this in terms of

38:15

like, the Sami would and sometimes

38:17

still do use reindeer

38:19

urine to reduce the toxicity of

38:21

the mushrooms, which allows them to

38:23

use the hallucinogenic properties in religious

38:25

practices, but it doesn't tie to

38:27

the theory of Santa Claus. That

38:30

makes all the sense in the world. And

38:32

I think is one of the modern forms

38:34

of syncretism where we're like, actually, this ultimately

38:37

is about Santa or Jesus. And

38:39

while it's not pagan, it's fine. I was

38:43

recently in the Arctic Circle and was able

38:45

to go to a museum of Sami

38:47

culture and also to eat reindeer. So

38:49

that was really fun. And thank you,

38:51

Sami. Did you like it? The

38:54

reindeer was similar to venison.

38:56

It was a little like gamey. I wouldn't

38:58

like seek it out, but I wanted to,

39:00

you know, have the experience. Have the experience.

39:02

That's good. That's good. I like that. All

39:04

right. So we've spent a lot of time

39:06

in Europe. We talked about the Philippines briefly,

39:08

but let's talk about South America. Hell yeah. How

39:11

about we talk about the Cairi, which

39:13

are creatures from the folklore out of

39:15

Colombia and Venezuela. They

39:17

are somewhat humanoid, but also

39:20

plant like. Their description kind

39:22

of varies from source to source. But

39:25

most notably, they have a large

39:27

mushroom like either hat or growth

39:29

coming out of the top of

39:31

their head. Okay. Talk about

39:34

mountainous and humid places. That

39:36

sounds like makes all

39:38

the sense in the world. Well, that's

39:40

very important, Amanda, because it is said

39:42

that when it rains, they appear. So

39:45

they're mostly sighted during the rainy season,

39:47

but they supposedly prefer to stay underground

39:49

during the drier seasons. Makes a

39:51

lot of sense. They are said to

39:53

be strong and fast and

39:55

like pretty much they like they love

39:57

to eat cows. So. So

40:00

they are like strong and fast enough to scoop

40:02

up a cow and then run away with it

40:04

and blink. No kidding. That's

40:07

got to be very strong and very fast because cows are very big. In

40:09

my mind, they have kind of a cute appearance. You can

40:11

look up some like photos of them and stuff like that.

40:14

They look cute in my mind, at least. They

40:17

are definitely a malicious creature. They

40:19

will kidnap, they will rob, they will

40:21

murder when they emerge for the season.

40:24

A little sad, but it's okay. As such,

40:26

hunters had to find a way to kill them

40:28

so they didn't like, you know, decimate all their

40:31

livestock or like, you know... Dude, cows are expensive. Yeah,

40:33

yeah. Very expensive cows. And also

40:35

your family members. Expensive

40:37

in an emotional way. So in

40:39

order to kind of figure out

40:41

a way to kill them, they found

40:44

that only a bone-tipped arrow shot into

40:46

the kidney will kill them. Okay.

40:49

And when they die, they turn into a stone. Ah,

40:52

I like that. Not like a stone statue

40:54

of the creature either, just like they turned into

40:56

like a rock, a pebble. A

40:59

pebble or like a boulder? No, like

41:01

a pebble. Oh no. What

41:03

a sad death. There's

41:05

a story of like a hunter where a

41:07

cairie steals his daughter or something like that

41:09

so he and his son go looking for

41:11

it and he manages to kill it and

41:13

it like dies and immediately turns

41:15

into a pebble that falls into the river.

41:20

And then there's like, he hears like the

41:22

rest of the cairie like coming out and

41:24

apparently all the cairie can say is

41:26

moo. Like moo, moo, moo, moo.

41:29

And so he's like, he fell out of a

41:31

tree and broke his back and wasn't my fault. Okay, bye. And

41:33

then ran home. It was

41:35

safe. Damn, okay. They're also associated

41:37

with the appearance of ant hills,

41:40

especially during the rainy season and

41:42

of course fairy rings. Sure.

41:46

And yeah, I think the aspect of mushrooms

41:48

that most freaks me out is like it's

41:50

as if there was a fruit tree, but

41:53

then only The fruit emerged above

41:55

the ground. Like The whole infrastructure

41:57

and system of the organism is

41:59

beneath. The service so he makes total

42:01

sense at things like Anthills were stay

42:04

in of the rest is obscured and

42:06

they are only that hot side evidence

42:08

of all activity going on behind the

42:10

scenes. I think that's really creepy and

42:13

cool and I like that they're together.

42:15

Have you ever seen his videos of

42:17

like scientists pouring basically like molten metal

42:19

ensue Anthills to study their sheep and

42:22

like they oh my god it's incredible

42:24

Because of it's a nice you see

42:26

them dig it out your like you

42:28

see a normal size. Kind of aunt

42:31

who are like you know a larger size

42:33

and health mill of a desert or something

42:35

like that. The poor this molten metal in

42:37

and then they have to dig it out

42:39

and it's like suge like just like from

42:41

radius in diameter. Perspective and the like pulled

42:43

out and it's ginormous. It's so for

42:45

him, Go look that up if you

42:47

get a chance to, because it's honestly

42:49

so cool. I am. Going to think about

42:52

whether I want to know how large anthills are

42:54

under the ground. Ah, it's only a specific species

42:56

of that. Oh the and. Not one it's

42:58

native too embarrassed. or at least not

43:00

where we live. Spells are and. Speaking

43:02

of these kind of like networks of

43:05

mushrooms and aunts and stuff like that,

43:07

it is sad that all mushrooms in

43:09

the forests are connected. To or at

43:12

least are aspects of the key area. Which

43:15

is again, like they probably didn't know

43:17

about the They Mycelium network or anything

43:19

like that. You. Know they didn't know

43:21

about the root systems in which are like

43:23

all mushrooms are kind of connected through and

43:26

the fact that they understand that. And that

43:28

is part of the mythos is so

43:30

forth and cool the more we learn

43:32

about organisms about you know, coral. And

43:35

mushrooms and other it like

43:37

rise and matic plants and

43:39

how old. They are upset to they

43:41

are the more I'm just like them. that

43:43

nieces Incredible. Yeah it really is. Or.

43:45

It's a the last one that I want

43:48

to mention before we call it on. This

43:50

episode of musher month is the sang which

43:52

is from Chinese folklore and is kind of

43:54

associate. with the lindsay or the receipt

43:56

mushroom if you don't know what it

43:58

was a receiver early changing mushroom is

44:01

there's sort of these like cat mushrooms

44:03

have a fan like appearance. They

44:05

sort of look like turkey tails, but

44:07

are all like one color and they're

44:10

a very popular mushroom for traditional Chinese

44:12

medicine. Usually they're dried, pulverized and then

44:14

added to boiling water to make like

44:17

an extract. Right? So

44:19

from like the beginning of Taoism

44:21

and the creation of like Taoist

44:23

temples, they were sometimes

44:25

referred to as the abode of

44:27

mushrooms because the Lingji or

44:29

spirit mushroom was utilized in religious

44:32

practices that allowed them to utilize

44:34

the hallucinogenic properties in order to

44:36

see or become spirits. Wow. Which

44:39

I think is really cool. Really

44:41

interesting. I just, I love how

44:43

many cultures are like, we found

44:45

some mushrooms. They have cool

44:48

and interesting properties that allow us to see stuff that

44:50

may or may not be there. And we're going

44:52

to use it in our religion now. Yeah. We've

44:54

talked about it all the time, whether it's, you

44:56

know, meditation, fasting substances

44:59

that alter the brain

45:01

or just like chanting ritual

45:03

and almost creating that like

45:05

heightened spiritual state. You

45:07

know, we want to connect with stuff

45:10

that's bigger and nothing does that. Like,

45:12

again, whether you're, you know, thinking about

45:14

your life after fasting for 25 hours on

45:17

Yom Kippur or you're, you know,

45:19

ingesting a holy substance to think more

45:21

about it. It just, I

45:23

don't know how you can't see all those things as

45:25

like ultimately part of the same impulse and tradition. Absolutely.

45:27

100%. These mushrooms

45:29

were extremely religiously important. They

45:31

were said to bring immortality to

45:33

those who took it. They were even

45:36

considered like tied to the divine.

45:38

So the healing of the goddess Guan

45:40

Yin was portrayed as being

45:42

done with a Lingji mushroom or with

45:44

her holding one, which I think is like

45:47

incredibly important to me being like, this stuff

45:49

will cure you. That's amazing. And

45:51

presumably you still used today. Yes.

45:54

Yes. You can definitely like find

45:56

a Lingji mushroom or Rishi mushroom

45:58

like teas or dry. or like

46:00

powdered substances that you can enjoy

46:02

there. Not to the point where

46:04

they are, you're getting

46:06

the hallucinogenic properties, but there are

46:08

like definitely like health food places

46:11

that you can enjoy these kind

46:13

of extracts from. But getting back

46:15

to the feng, the feng is

46:18

this kind of like incredible edible

46:20

monster that was known

46:22

as the meatlingi mushroom.

46:25

That's incredible. I don't

46:27

think I've ever heard the phrase edible monster

46:29

before, but it's opening up all kinds of

46:31

possibilities in my brain. Okay, so basically

46:33

it's kind of like this two eyed lump of

46:35

meat that was said to magically grow back its

46:38

flesh as quickly as it was eaten. It

46:40

was described as quote, it has a massive

46:42

flesh, which looks like the liver of an

46:44

ox. It has two eyes. Even

46:47

though you eat it, it is never really

46:49

consumed because it grows again and is born

46:51

again in the same form as it was

46:53

before. Okay, I take it back.

46:55

I never want to hear the phrase edible

46:57

monster again. That's incredibly creepy. And

47:00

I love it. So I really love this idea

47:02

of this creature that is constantly regenerating. Yeah.

47:05

Because it's much like a mushroom. The

47:07

idea that if you plucked a mushroom

47:09

because of the mycenae network, it

47:12

can still come back and grow back and stuff

47:14

like that. It's really interesting. It's really cool. I

47:16

love the connection between these two. And

47:18

while the first references to this creature were from around

47:20

2000 years ago, it's

47:23

coming back in terms of popularity

47:25

in China. Really? I

47:28

understand that any society interested in the

47:30

project of keeping people fed without completely

47:32

depleting their land, maybe that's of interest?

47:35

Yes. And I think

47:37

also just the interest of the

47:39

internet and also the cryptozoology, sightings

47:41

of cryptids, stuff like that. This

47:44

was the Chinese media getting in

47:46

on that version of it. Basically,

47:49

they started reporting these

47:51

fang followings. It started

47:53

in the late 1900s. But

47:57

the most well-known version of the fang

47:59

in modern. attention was from 2012. If

48:03

you've heard this name before, this is probably the

48:05

story that you know it from. Someone

48:08

claimed to have found a fang that

48:10

was being kept in a bucket of water

48:12

in the countryside of China. A

48:16

news team went out to investigate the

48:18

claims. A reporter went

48:21

there. He handled the

48:23

monster. There's a video of him

48:25

handling it. He's like, oh, it's

48:28

quite fleshy. There's a mouse and

48:30

a nose. But the video ended

48:32

up going viral internationally and somewhat

48:34

unintentionally because it was discovered that

48:37

it was not a fang at all. But

48:39

I don't know how to say this without,

48:41

I'm just going to say it. It was

48:44

a flashlight. If

48:47

you don't know what a flashlight is, don't Google that. Please

48:49

don't do that. But

48:52

as such, the fang very

48:54

much in the public consciousness again in China

48:56

and internationally. It's very troubling. I

48:59

thought for sure you were going to say it's like a sea

49:02

sponge, a microbe,

49:06

a fungus. No, no. It

49:10

was the other thing. Okay. Well, people

49:13

all over the world have needs and desires. That's wonderful.

49:15

That's very true. So

49:18

there's definitely some mushroom folklore out there in

49:20

the world. A note to end on. A

49:22

note to end on, right? I'll

49:24

admit there wasn't as much mushroom

49:26

creatures as I was expecting, like

49:28

I mentioned before, but we've got

49:30

lots to talk about in future

49:32

episodes about mushrooms, how they've kind

49:34

of permeated culture today, and specifically

49:37

how they permeated modern horror

49:39

as a theme. And like I said, I think

49:41

we'll have a special guest of ours coming up

49:43

in the next episode. I'm going to talk about just

49:45

that thing in the future, near future. Can't

49:48

wait. What a fun thing. And

49:50

I'm really glad we have this

49:52

foundation of all of

49:54

the existing mushroom folklore you could

49:56

find before we dive into some

49:58

contemporary and digital and maybe

50:00

like theoretical versions of mushroom folklore. There

50:02

we go. And in the meantime, the

50:05

next time you come across a fairy

50:07

ring, remember, stay creepy. Stay cool. And

50:09

don't step on it, OK? Don't

50:11

do it. Don't. Don't do it.