Riley Cotes journey to enlightenment began in earnest when a hulking man punched him in the face. Cote, now 40 and retired from professional hockey, remembers the moment with a dark laugh. Hed gotten into this particular bust-up one night during the 2009 season with one of the NHLs most vicious fighters, and took the worst of it, waking the next day with his left eye blackened shut.

What, he asked himself, am I doing?

He drove to the Philadelphia Flyers training facility and got into the shower. Feeling congested, he reached for a tissue. He didnt realize hed suffered a cracked sinus, so what happened next was physics. When he blew his nose, the air rather than coming out of his nostrils inflated his face. The pressure surged instantly behind his good eye and closed it tight.

Team trainer Derek Settlemyre heard Cote scream. His whole face had swollen up, Settlemyre recalls. We tell them, if they think they have a fracture, Dont blow your nose and he did.

After eight years in pro hockey (four in the NHL, four hopping around its minor-league teams), Cote felt his retirement bearing down. As an NHL enforcer a player whose main role is to get into fights hed taken countless hits on the ice. Off it, he self-medicated with booze and drugs. Hed brutalized his body inside and out by the tender age of 28. I damaged my brain, Cote says. Punching it and dehydrating it and partying my ass off.

Today, Cote is a new man, with a mane of long brown hair, a yoga-trimmed physique, and an aura of ease in his own skin. It is a transformation he credits largely to psychedelic drugs. Since retiring, Cote has emerged as one of the sports worlds most vocal advocates for what he calls plant medicines from cannabis, itself a light psychedelic, to weightier hallucinogens including DMT and magic mushrooms to treat post-concussion symptoms (think headaches, insomnia, depression, and possibly, the degenerative brain condition known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE). In 2017, Cote co-founded Athletes for Care, a group that promotes research into the physical and emotional health issues athletes face and novel paths for treatment. He regularly speaks at conferences on the benefits of psychedelics. And, perhaps most important, he reaches out to players who are known to be struggling post-career, even arranging magic-mushroom ceremonies where they can safely experiment with the drug.

Cote understands the hesitation surrounding these substances. While psychedelics fill him with love, gratitude, and a connection to a higher energy source, they are technically illegal throughout most of the U.S. Beyond that, the experience, whether good or bad, can be intense. Certain users experience not just so-called bad trips, but also psychotic breaks from reality. Cote says talking to a first-timer about using psychedelics is basically like asking them: Do you want to see God? Are you sure? The ask is so big, the answer is often no.

Cote was worried when he walked into the lunch area at the Good Hope House Retreat Center in Jamaica one day in April, got a green smoothie, and waited for one of the biggest weekends of his life to unfold.An ESPN crew was coming to film a magic-mushroom ceremony hed helped organize for a group of retired athletes, including former players from the NHL and NFL. All had pledged to eat breakthrough doses enough, that is, to induce a mystical state of mushrooms containing psilocybin, which is legal in Jamaica.

The opportunity to showcase mushrooms as medicine to a mainstream television audience was a precious thing, but as Cote sat with some early arrivals, he couldnt enjoy it. He kept mulling a more practical concern: Would everyone actually show up?Two people in particular Steve Downie, an ex-Flyers teammate, and Justin Renfrow, a former NFL lineman were due any minute. Or not.In the past 11 years, Cote has invited a lot of people to venture down the magic-mushroom path, and most who say yes subsequently run into excuses not to follow through. In fact, second-thought declinations are so common in Cotes experience that he doesnt judge anyone for them.

Its scary, right? Cote says. Theres a fear associated with it. Theres a lot of unknowns, like, Where am I going? What am I getting myself into? It all sounds grand when youre sitting on your couch, you know, and talking about it via text or phone. But when youve actually got to be committed to something and actually do it, its another story.

There is some irony here. Since Cote began proselytizing, scientific research bolstering the case for psychedelics has accumulated.Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore established a center for psychedelic and consciousness research in 2019, and has published 50 peer-reviewed papers that indicate psychedelics help treat depression, promote psychological insight, alleviate anxiety in cancer patients, break smoking addiction, and improve overall life satisfaction.In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration, which had for decades held the line against psychedelics, granted breakthrough therapy status to psilocybin use for severe depression, an act designed to accelerate the drug development and review process. MDMA, better known as the club drug Ecstasy, also won breakthrough status, and could receive full approval to treat post-traumatic stress disorder next year.

At the same time, the discovery of CTE has created a crisis across all contact sports, linked to myriad symptoms, including memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse-control problems, aggression, depression, anxiety, suicidality, and progressive dementia. The condition can only be confirmed after death, but the list of the dead with CTE is long, including four soccer players, more than 300 NFL players, and at least a dozen high-profile hockey players: Stan Mikita, Bob Probert, Derek Boogaard, Jeff Parker, Wade Belak, Larry Zeidel, Reggie Fleming, Rick Martin, Steve Montador, Zarley Zalapski, Todd Ewen, and Dan Maloney.

Dr. Julie Holland, a practicing New York psychiatrist and psychedelics expert, says the application of psychedelics to sports medicine is new, but makes sense based on the current scientific literature.We know that many psychedelics have really potent anti-inflammatory effects, says Holland, who is also a longtime medical adviser for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS. The other thing is, theyre being explored for treating neurodegenerative disorders, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy. These athletes that get multiple blows to the head [represent] a case where you really need not only anti-inflammatory effects, but this purported neuroplasticity that comes with psychedelics.

Cote during his playing days with the Flyers, in December 2008.

Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images

Studies largely involving rodents suggest that psychedelics reduce neuroinflammation, a key component of both Alzheimers disease and CTE; produce healing from brain injury; and possibly even prompt neurogenesis, or the birth of new neurons. They have also been shown to increase the density of dendritic spines small protrusions found on nerve cells in turn spurring the growth of neuronal connections that can be lost in cases of chronic stress or depression. Some human experiments suggest that psychedelics reduce activity in the default mode network (DMN), a web of connected brain regions responsible for self-awareness, social thinking, and thoughts about the past and future. The mystic feelings that users like Cote report such as the loss of a sense of self, and the ability to set aside the past or think afresh about the future are thought to arise from this reset of the DMN.

Cote started Athletes for Care with such edgier therapies in mind initially just cannabis, and then psychedelics as the encouraging science grew. And while he might not be the groups most famous retiree (members include former NFL star running backs Tiki Barber and Chris Johnson, and former UFC champ Bas Rutten), he looms as perhaps its most pivotal figure.He is a partner in a hemp-derived CBD recovery product line called BodyChek Wellness and an adviser to Wake, a multipronged company that is collaborating with Baltimores Lieber Institute for Brain Medicine to use genetics research for the development of psilocybin-based treatments tailored to individual patients a potentially dramatic step toward eliminating bad or ineffective trips. At AFCs most recent board meeting, in March, Cote led a deep discussion around psychedelics, presenting the current body of research and urging the group to strengthen its commitment to incorporate psychedelics into its work.

Riley has been a leader in this space for a long, long time, says Marvin Washington, a former NFL defensive lineman, who won a Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos in the late Nineties and became a pro-cannabis activist in retirement. He was the first athlete I ever heard talking about psychedelics.

The pair were at a cannabis-related conference several years ago when Cote waxed on about the mental-health benefits associated with taking both small and reality-shifting doses of psilocybin. Washington was surprised and started checking out Cotes claims. He was right, he says. He deserves a lot of credit for being in early on all plant medicines.

In his early days playing hockey, as a teenager, Cote discovered that a bong hit in the morning helped him maintain his focus through a long workout. Later, after his skill set proved unequal to becoming a scorer, he remodeled himself as an enforcer, or goon, a hockey player whose main job is to punish opponents for any penalties the referee missed. Undersized for the role at six feet one and a playing weight of 220 pounds, Cote brawled his way into the league, racking up more than 200 professional hockey fights. He increased his cannabis use then, smoking weed on a regular basis and finding that it helped him sleep, recover, and manage the anxiety and trauma of bare-knuckle fighting. Magic mushrooms, when he took them, were more of a party drug, a way to enhance the lights and music at a concert.

Cotes delivery while retelling his own journey is understated. But his presence speaks loudly. His face is rugged, with a nose that moves this way and that, like a switchback trail, to suggest his past. His hands are gnarled. By the time he retired, he had accumulated a litany of injuries: torn ligaments in both knees, a dislocated finger, broken ankle, separated shoulder, three broken noses, and at least four diagnosed concussions. Cote knew back then that he needed to heal up, and intuitively wanted to build on his past experiences with cannabis and psychedelics. So he began reading deeply, discovering that cannabis and psychedelics bore rich histories as natural medicines.

Cote also did as he learned, securing five grams of mushrooms, or whats known as a heroic dose, for his first ceremonial trip. He set an intention to treat the experience as important, even sacred, and arranged his house for the occasion, putting on some ambient music, turning off the electric lights, and setting out a couple of candles. Still, nothing hed read or done truly prepared him.

Acknowledging the experience was ineffable, indescribable, Cote reaches for language, doing his best. It was bliss, he says, and delivered an incredible sense of knowing. Eventually, he lands on something particularly hard to explain to potential initiates: I felt my ego dissolve.

This specific result suggests an additional, perhaps unexpected use for psychedelics that might be uniquely valuable to athletes: For a lot of athletes, and these could be amateurs or professionals, says Cote, everything you do from a very young age is geared toward achieving success in that sport. It becomes your identity.

In Cotes case, the identity hed spent so long forging for himself with blood and terror, jacking up his emotions to punch people he didnt hate and often admired, lifted off his shoulders during that first trip like he was shedding his skin with no more importance or difficulty than he would remove a coat. I felt free, he says.

What Cote experienced was actually a typical effect reported by users, and left him feeling like he could set hockey aside to do whatever I wanted. He spent the next several years banging away at his new cause, eventually finding a high-profile supporter in Lindy Snider, former vice president for sales with the Flyers and daughter of the teams beloved late owner, Ed Snider. Cote called her and asked for a meeting, Snider says, and came in quoting the science as it stood at the time. She was impressed.

Hes by far one of the leading voices in sports around these issues, Snider says. And the athletes hes brought into Athletes for Care are all very similar. Theyve run the gauntlet in the physical realm like nobody else. And, you know, theres associated deeper meaning with looking at all of these alternative ways to ameliorate your health, your mental wellness, your state of being, and Riley is always looking at a higher state of being. Whatever those tools look like that help us get there is what his mission is.

Snider was open to cannabis. She ran a skin-care company that made products for cancer patients and knew of the drugs potential as medicine. She also helped get her father some cannabis for relief as he lay dying in 2016. But the evolution of Cotes story has educated her, helping her see that psychedelics, too, bear importance not just in the treatment of brain injury and CTE, but also to help former athletes lead productive, enjoyable post-career lives.

Within the Flyers family, Snider says, she had too often witnessed players suffer a failure to launch after retirement. She sadly recalls one player she declines to name who felt so lost after hockey he succumbed to alcoholism and died of liver failure. I felt we failed him, Snider says. And it was this notion that there were things that could have helped him, and he didnt have access to this stuff.

It is easy to imagine that athletes would prove particularly challenging to invite on this kind of a trip, the hippie-dippy side of the experience too off-putting for people so deeply task-oriented and rooted in their physical bodies. But Cote says they are no more resistant on that front than anyone else. The spiritual side of this is always more difficult to address, in general, he explains. Thats the world were living in. Still, he routinely pitches the physical benefits as his way in, and finds retired sports stars uniquely receptive. Elite athletes are always looking for the next best thing and how to optimize their performance, he says. The average Joe in the Western world doesnt give a shit about optimization. They dont even know what that word means. They dont understand theres higher levels of performance. So they just think that wherever theyre at, thats just the hand that God dealt them.

Washington, the retired NFL player and cannabis activist, tried psilocybin after listening to Cote talk about it. He now describes it as the next moonshot beyond cannabis legalization. He also credits the drug with helping him find a sense of himself far greater than football.

From left: Justin Renfrow; Daniel Carcillo.

Brett Carlsen/Getty Images; Dale MacMillan/Getty Images

One of Cotes biggest success stories might be retired NHL star and two-time Stanley Cup champion Daniel Carcillo. Nine years of pro hockey had left Carcillo suffering from light sensitivity, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, depression, slurred speech, suicidal ideation, and more. He was public about it, speaking out toward the end of his career, in 2015, about his concussion history, hockeys disregard for players health, and his own failed attempts to find some solution in modern medicine.

After Carcillo retired, Cote says he reached out to him for more than a year about trying cannabis and psilocybin. No luck. It was only when Carcillo reached his darkest point, and started thinking about how he might get a rope around the big wood beams in his ceiling, that desperation, as he describes it, drove him to meet with Cote and learn more.

Cote made arrangements for Carcillo to attend a mushroom ceremony in Colorado, a decriminalized state. That first experience, says Carcillo, included the spiritual sensations that psilocybin is known to induce and something more. A few days later, Carcillo realized that he could start crossing off symptoms: light sensitivity, slurred speech, his suicidal feelings giving way to hope.

Carcillo came home from Colorado and started taking microdoses of psilocybin and occasional breakthrough amounts. He began to enjoy that sense of rebirth that Cote, Washington, and so many others describe. Soon, he was in the news, crediting Cote with saving my life.

In May 2020, Carcillo founded Wesana, a startup trying to develop its own psilocybin treatment and earn FDA approval. He is, perhaps out of necessity, more buttoned up than Cote. In the space that Rileys in, Carcillo says, you can talk more freely about what this does for the spirit. For me, when you go down the FDA path, they dont care about that. Like, they dont want to hear that. In fact, Carcillo says, he no longer uses words like psychedelic at all in his work. I say its a compound found in nature. Most all of our medicines are a single extract from a plant found in nature, or fungi. Thats the reality.

The effects of that compound on his psyche have been profound: This medicine, the biggest stuff that it does there is always that feeling that you are enough. And one of the things that Im really interested in is showing people not only can we recover and be a beacon of hope, but you can break out of what you think you need to stay in and do new things.

In science, a story like Carcillos might be dismissed as only an anecdote. But his recovery is seemingly validated through brain scans. The images Carcillo received from neurologists before he tried psilocybin showed a brain suffering from decreased connectivity. Big pockets of red signified areas of the brain that werent communicating. His slurred speech was a byproduct the signals from one part of his brain having to travel around these red areas, a slowdown that affected his enunciation. According to Mark Wingertzahn, Wesanas chief scientific officer, those initial scans qualified Carcillo for a diagnosis of moderate traumatic brain injury.

After hed come home, however, and continued his own ad hoc psilocybin therapy for about six months, Carcillo got another set of scans. What [doctors] were able to see is, those areas of red may have gone down to blue, or in some cases white, which is consistent with that normal brain pattern, says Wingertzahn, meaning Carcillos brain was suddenly showing greater connectivity and function. What interested Wingertzahn most, though, was what happened to Carcillos symptoms, which the former hockey player says have been reduced, on a scale from one to 10, to a number not even on the menu: Zero.

The reduction of symptoms is what the FDA does care about, says Wingertzahn, who spent 25 years at pharma companies, including Pfizer, getting new drugs to market. He thinks psilocybin-based medicines will be approved in three to five years.

Human trials have shown significant success in the areas of depression, death anxiety, smoking cessation, positive personality changes, and more. Not only that, a pair of studies have suggested that psilocybin treats depression at rates at least equal to, and by some measures much better than, todays available meds along with a whole different class of side effects.

Listed side effects for drugs like Lexapro include nausea, sleepiness, weakness, dizziness, anxiety, trouble sleeping, delayed ejaculation, painful erections, difficulty with orgasms, sweating, shaking, reduced appetite, and dry mouth. Noted side effects of psychedelics, aside from that small number who experience a psychotic break, and the occasional bout of nausea or insomnia, include joy, calm, increased awareness, self-confidence, and a sometimes obnoxious desire to tell everybody you meet about your awesome fucking experience.

Carcillo, during a Zoom call, smiles and asks: Are you interested in something like that? Its the same question, essentially, that Cote has been asking for years the seemingly obvious answer left hanging in the air.

In the days before Cote left for Jamaica, a few of the people scheduled to come canceled, including the former offensive lineman Justin Renfrow.

I was trying to make a lot of excuses, says Renfrow, who has a lot in common with Cote, having made it to the pros as an undrafted free agent and carved out a difficult career bouncing between NFL squads and the Canadian Football League. I played football injured since my sophomore year of high school, he says, explaining that the grind slowly took its toll.

The journeyman tackle told Cote he wasnt going to make it to the retreat, then secretly asked the universe for a sign. The night before the scheduled trip, he got one: a text message from Wake, the psilocybin research company, delivered at 11:11, a time his family had always invested with mystical meaning. He felt it was his deceased grandmother encouraging him to go.

Cotes old teammate Downie, meanwhile, said yes to Jamaica, and then complained that he did not have a valid passport, so he would not be able to travel. Cote talked him through that episode. Still, he couldnt be sure either man would actually get on the plane.

Cote, left, with his former teammate Steve Downie at a magic-mushroom retreat in Jamaica.

Courtesy of Riley Cote

Khara Cartagena, vice president of business development with the Spore Group, one of many startups across the country prepping for the Wild West of psychedelic legalization, was sitting with Cote as he waited to see if Downie and Renfrow would arrive.

I could see he was distracted, says Cartagena. He was clear that it meant a lot to him to help these people.

But eventually, after an anxious several minutes, Cote lit up at the appearance of Renfrow. And again when he saw a figure he thought he could recognize at a distance the height just about right, the shape in silhouette familiar, until finally the man got close enough that Cote could see the trademark missing tooth in his smile: Steve Downie, Cotes old teammate.

It was all just really beautiful, says Cote. I shouldnt be surprised. Plant medicine delivers, you know. But it was really maybe even better than I expected.

Both men were moved by their magic-mushroom experiences. Downie teared up after his first dose, and spoke during a subsequent integration session held to help people process the intense experience about how his father had died in a car accident while taking him to hockey practice. The ceremony had given Downie an incredible sense of relief.

Perhaps the most powerful moment, though, came when Cote looked at Renfrow deep into the ceremony. Renfrow had spoken to Cote beforehand about his personal uncertainty: Should he continue playing in the CFL, or pursue his passion for the YouTube food show hes created, Whats Cooking, and try to grow it? A hulking man at six feet five and 320 pounds, Renfrow was wearing a T-shirt with his initials on it in a circle. Then, methodically, he took it off. Cote felt he was watching a peace settle over the big man as it had once settled over him: a shedding of the skin and the birth of someone new.

Renfrow, in a tearful interview after the trip, confirms Cotes observation: It felt like my grandma was taking that weight, the pain and stress of playing through all those injuries, he says. I didnt need to keep going through that. He emerged knowing that he could leave football behind.

Cote, for his part, says that bringing people like Renfrow this kind of existential healing is his calling now, and he marvels at the dichotomy between the old Riley and the new. In Flyers-related photos, his eyes are often filled with terror, bestial anger, and sadness. Now, he says, here I am talking about a flower.

He laughs.

Its been an incredible journey, he says, and really, I just want to take as many people with me as possible.

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How an NHL Enforcer Broke His Body and Turned to Psychedelics to Heal His Brain - Rolling Stone

Yoga, an Indian tradition that we have gifted the world, is a powerful tool for inner engineering through which one can explore the metaphysical and achieve spiritual oneness.

Yoga enables one to truly connect with oneself. It enables an expansion of physical and mental abilities and helps us become the best version of ourselves. Afterall, inner tranquility is the recipe for greatness. This is the reason Yoga has gained unprecedented popularity across the globe with people in the United States of America, Canada, countries in Europe, Japan and South Korea adopting and practicing yoga in large numbers. The beginning and peak of the global pandemic were definite inflection points. Today, the popularity of Yoga has soared from Los Angeles to Okinawa and from London and Paris to Sydney and Auckland.

Yoga is a drugless Indian system that emphasizes stress management, lifestyle, and diet correction to reduce the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, obesity and even cancer. The Ministry of Ayush has, since its inception, gone the extra mile in promoting Indian traditional medicine systems of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy and Sowa Rigpa. It has made these endeavors in a bid to establish India as the holistic health capital of the world.

The Indian Prime Minister had proposed at the United Nations, in 2014, the idea of celebrating June 21 as the International Day of Yoga. The proposal was passed by the general assembly with a record 175 countries supporting India. On June 21, 2022, the Prime Minister of India will, once again, be leading the celebrations of the Eighth International Day of Yoga 2022, in Mysuru, performing yoga with 15,000 people. Additionally, the celebrations will feature a whole host of attractions. There will be a two-day physical and digital exhibition. The physical exhibition will have around 148 stalls exhibiting the latest innovation in the field of yoga and in other Indian traditional medicine systems.

The digital exhibition will allow for unique features like Yoga with the Prime Minister, a display where users can do an instructed yoga session (with a three-dimensional projection of the Prime Minister) and their movement is detected and shown on a giant display. This has been made into a challenge with posture recognition Kinect technology where users will have to complete five yoga asanas in a limited time frame and score maximum points. The user will have to do each asana correctly to move onto the next one.

The Digital Yoga Exhibition will showcase the evolution of Yoga from the pre-historic to the modern period. It will feature a Heal in India and Heal by India wall which will showcase career opportunities in yoga, training, institutions, and research in Yoga and its efficacy in disease mitigation and prevention. The digital exhibition will also highlight COVID success stories, Yogas impact on peoples lives, and practical demonstrations.

The theme of International Day of Yoga 2022, Yoga for Humanity, is indeed yoga for health for all. Yoga alone is inner engineering in the truest sense. Yoga is Indias gift to the world. Yoga is Indian tradition, embraced by the world. In a divided world, Yoga is a uniting force bringing people together through compassion and kindness. It is all-inclusive, and respects diversity. Practicing Yoga brings joy, health, and inner peace. It deepens the connection between an individuals inner consciousness and the external world. For these intrinsic values embedded in Yoga this years International Day of Yoga has been given the theme Yoga for Humanity.

Apart from its obvious health and spiritual benefits aside, yoga has become an important avenue for professional growth.

As per some industry estimates, the size of the global yoga market analyzed by enrolment in online and offline yoga courses, and yoga accreditation training programs was valued at USD 38 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 66 billion by 2027, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.6% from 2021 to 2027. North America leads by the sheer size of its yoga market, but the Indo-Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest compounded annual growth rate at least until 2027. Yoga has emerged as an important area of commerce, employment generation and entrepreneurship development.

It is with this in mind that the International Day of Yoga, 2022, being observed on June 21, has instituted the Startup Yoga Challenge Contest, to invigorate the youth to innovate for India and for the world. Thanks to its global popularity, yoga institutes in India and across the world will require several qualified and certified trainers. India can supply well-qualified, and accredited yoga teachers and practitioners to the world.

Yoga truly is one of the many ways India contributes to making the world a better place, a place with healthy, content people who step up for the collective good of humanity, eliminating war and strife. As Indians, it is our duty to not just embrace this great Indian tradition but also to promote it globally as a tool for harmony and universal brotherhood.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Yoga, one of the many ways India contributes to making the world a better place - Times of India

Building a culture of adaptability among leadership and staff starts with clarity and transparency about the companys objectives if you want to get everyone on board from the top down.

As you train and encourage your team to be fearless about facing challenges, they will become much more resilient and willing to go the distance, implementing a new direction at the company that is positive and beneficial for all.

Below, 15 members of Fast Company Executive Board present their best practices for introducing a new approach to the business process that makes employees feel confident about embracing a flexible mindset and becoming more involved as valuable company stakeholders in their role to move the organization forward.

1. BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE.

Use a decision-making log and publish it for the whole company to see. Help your people see the tangible results of senior leaders trying to adapt the company to change while staying true to a core set of values or principles. This provides a clear example of the right behavior and a tangible tool anyone can use to adapt to change. Brian McCann, Intergalactic

2. STAY TRANSPARENT.

Leadership must be honest with employees. Keep them informed of risks and potential opportunities. Make it a collaborative exercise to discuss tasks and execute towards mitigating risks or capturing opportunities. This creates a sense of ownership and excitement to navigate and overcome any challenge. Together, everyone learns to become a nimble and important element in future endeavors. Alice Hayden, H2 IT Solutions

3. ARM YOUR TEAMS WITH CLARITY.

There exist opportunities to identify influential teams in an organization. Therefore, arm them with clear objectives and outside resources with the aim to work through an iterative process that is set up to test hypotheses, learn, regroup, make a new version, and repeat. This experience is at the heart of design thinking and will flip fear of failure into learning adaptability. Michelle Hayward, Bluedog

4. DEVELOP A CONFIDENT AND RESILIENT STAFF.

Train employees as if they need to vertically and horizontally integrate their skill sets. We found that when we do this in acquisition scenarios, employees gain confidence to be resilient to new ideas and new, challenging processes. It also creates a greater spirit of resiliency within the organization when staff can say, I can do hard things because Ive done them in the past. Tyrone Foster, InvestNet, LLC

5. ENGAGE IN CONSTANT COMMUNICATION.

Transparency ensures companies build adaptability within their organization because it shows trust and understanding from the top down. Adaptability is usually tough for companies because theres a lack of communication and employees are typically thrown into predicaments without any previous knowledge of a situation. A level of transparency removes that barrier and makes the process easier. Josh Perlstein, Response Media

6. EXPLAIN WHY A CHANGE IS NEEDED.

Role model it. Dont react negatively to change without understanding the rationale, and be transparent when you make a change and explain it as well. Sunil Rajasekar, Mindbody

7. ENSURE YOUR GOALS AND METRICS ARE ALIGNED.

A practical way to foster change is through organization metrics. What and how you measure communicates what is important. Your cultural organizational goals and metrics must be aligned to make sure that people have the proper guidance and incentive. Capture creative and strategic thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving metrics in order to avoid over-indexing execution and individual performance. Bruno Guicardi, CI&T

8. INVITE ONGOING FEEDBACK FROM STAFF MEMBERS.

You must first be aware of what needs to be changed and why. A practical tip for this is to consistently invite feedback from team members on your organizations processes. Regularly providing open, safe spaces for honest dialogue is a great way to understand whats working and whats not and cultivate a team thats comfortable with a consistent cycle of assessment, adaptation, and reevaluation. Bilal Aijazi, Polly

9. HIRE PEOPLE WHO ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT THEY DO.

A culture of adaptability starts with a transparent hiring process. At sunday, we look for team members who are not only talented but also passionate about the restaurant industry and ready to challenge the status quo. This means adding team members who will ask the tough questions. Working in both the United States and France throughout my career has taught me to value diverse opinions. Christine de Wendel, sunday

10. ENCOURAGE A NEW BUSINESS MINDSET.

A great way to build a culture of adaptability is by implementing disruptive thinking. Practice new ways of looking at situations before your team faces an external challenge. This will develop their capacity for change, so they are ready to adapt. When a team is adaptable, they are clear on their capabilities and understand the landscape enough to react calmly in the face of a challenge. Tony Martignetti, Inspired Purpose Coaching

11. FOSTER TRUST AND CREATIVITY.

Cross-functional teams are a great way to build adaptability into the culture. By exposing different perspectives, different ways of working, and different work structures, you build trust into the system and foster creative thinking in every situation. Candice Georgiadis, Digital Agency, Inc

12. PROMOTE FLEXIBILITY TO KEEP THINGS FRESH.

Be constantly evolving. Introduce new training, new ideas, new methods, and processes on a regular basis. You dont want to focus on the same old day-to-day forever, make small edits to keep things fresh and introduce new methods to mix up normal operations. This will enable your team to be more flexible, especially if it is urgently needed. Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency

13. HELP EMPLOYEES UNDERSTAND AND OVERCOME FEARS.

Build resilience and fearlessness across your organization. Educate employees on how to navigate stressful situations effectively, how to understand their fears, and overcome them, since these skills will allow them to embrace evolution and be more adaptable, not only at work but in their personal lives as well. With these skills, they will become more agile, proactive, motivated, and productive. Andreea Vanacker, SPARKX5

14. USE MULTIPLE CHANNELS TO SHARE YOUR MESSAGE.

Organizations can build a culture of adaptability by starting with systemic transparency in communication. It will help employees understand the why, which builds trust and increases the likelihood of a positive reaction. Your means of communication should also be omnichannel so it is repeated and can be accessed through multiple sites. Mark Bryan, M+A Architects

15. USE MISTAKES AS A LEARNING TOOL.

Encourage employees to take risks and learn from mistakes. This is not only a good way for employees to get the opportunity to try new things and make mistakes, but it also creates a more innovative company culture. Kristin Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

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15 ideas to cultivate an open mindset for change in the workplace - Fast Company

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Twenty months after he developed a crush, 18 months after hed fallen in love, Diego, who is enormously appealing but also very canceled, boarded the bus with Jenni and Dave. They were going to the beach, and it wasnt a big deal except for the fact that pretty much all of Diegos friends had dropped him, so, yeah, it was. The three, all 17, sat in a row of orange seats that ran the length of the bus, Diegos eyes dark, goofy, and sad; his body freshly stretched to almost six feet; his oversize Carhartts ripped on skateboard ramps. This could have been in any American city this past January, on any bus. (First names in this article are pseudonyms.) Jenni kept her face tilted down toward her lap, hidden by a scrim of shoulder-length hair.

Then, a stop away from school, another high-school student boarded the bus. Just one more kid with a backpack in a hoodie, and at first Diego waved and Jenni smiled. Diego because he wanted to show he wasnt scared, as this kid had thrown accelerant on a stupid mistake Diego had made, thus blown up Diegos life. Jenni because shes pragmatic enough to play along with social rules, plus this kid sat right in front of her in AP Statistics. But instead of waving and smiling back, this boy just stared, his eyes flat and certain. Jenni began to hyperventilate.

When, the month prior, Jenni first befriended Diego, he tried to warn her: You really dont want to be canceled. It sucks. No one looked at him during the day at school. His teachers marked him present, then sent him to study by himself in the library because kids changed seats if he sat next to them in class. Diego no longer wanted to get out of bed. But he had talked to Jenni at the climbing gym, where hed started going after the skate parks filled up with opps kids who hated him. She noticed that Diego was surprisingly sweet and funny given how much his life had turned to shit.

She also asked him what had happened, which almost nobody did. She decided hanging out with Diego was okay.

This okay did involve putting a jacket over her head when she rode in Diegos car near school. But it was too late to hide now. After the kid got off at his stop, he took a picture of Jenni through the bus window. Jenni started crying.

on the cover

Artwork by KAWS for New York Magazine. Illustration: KAWS

Later that night, Jenni, whom Diego described as a solid, solid woman, tried to do some damage control because, as she explained, if you get an Instagram post about you, your life is over. I know what this looks like , she texted the boy. For months now, he had played the role of self-appointed enforcer. In Statistics class, hed announced, There are not many people that I would bash in the head with a hammer. Diego is one of them.

I was on the way to the beach, Jenni wrote. And I saw Dave, who I know.

Dave attended a different school, but he was such a good wingman his earnestness was so disarming, his golden curls fell so adorably into his eyes that everyone, boys and girls alike, was at least a little smitten with him. Dave was the one friend of Diegos who had never disappeared. It never even crossed my mind, like, Am I able to handle this? Dave said. Diego is like my brother. Still, he kept their friendship quiet which is to say he didnt post pictures with Diego on Instagram. That seemed to appease his peers.

The boy from the bus left Jennis message on read overnight, meaning hed seen it and not responded, a very bad sign. In the morning, he wrote back, Yeah, I know Dave, too, but I dont go sit with him and Diego.

Jenni wrote again: Im friends with Dave and I cant help it. She wasnt involved in the situation, she explained, and she didnt plan to be. Still, the day after the bus ride, the enforcer turned around in Statistics and said as a threat, Fuck Diego. I love cancel culture. If you were to cancel anyone, who would you cancel?

This nightmare began sweetly. Diego fan of Nivea deodorant, Air Jordans, and Taylor Swift; dragged on annual camping trips by his parents; his father white, his mother Filipina; 8.5-by-11-inch prints of every school photo of him and his sister hanging in his familys upstairs hall started high school and met a girl. They dated for a month. (According to Diego, this doesnt really count.) They broke up. He spent a lot of the next year hanging out in skate parks, learning to do frontside 360s. Summer after their sophomore year, the two started going out again. Fiona was Diegos first real girlfriend, and she was almost psychedelically beautiful: pale, celestial skin, a whole galaxy of freckles, a supernova of red hair. This made everything, even the pandemic, okay. Diego would do online school and skate and hang out with Fiona. Sometimes she broke plans with Diego to go on hikes with her parents, which Diegos mother loved. He said, I know, Mom! when his mother, who taught college courses on parenting and child development, reminded him to ask for consent.

Then, in the middle of last summer, Diego went to a party. He got drunk and Diego really fucked up here: Everybody, including Diego, agrees on that, so please consider setting aside judgment for a moment showed a nude of his beautiful girlfriend to a few kids there.

Three weeks later, school started senior year, finally back in person after 18 months at home, woo-hoo. Within days, teachers and administrators started noticing that the ninth- and tenth-graders were acting like middle schoolers wrestling, invading one anothers personal space. It was really clear a lot of them hadnt been in school since seventh grade, said the principal, who had held her job for only seven months before the pandemic closed in-person classrooms. Juniors and seniors, she noticed, also had big gaps in the skills theyd need to navigate complexity and a very low tolerance for relational discomfort.

Everyone seemed scared of each others bodies and breathing and out of touch with each others boundaries. Soon students started streaming into the glass-fronted administrative offices asking school staff to intervene in their relationships with one another, saying they felt unsafe. Students also wanted their administrators the principal and the two vice-principals, all young women who led with a big-sister, let-me-make-you-a-cup-of-tea vibe to investigate interpersonal incidents from years prior, stuff that no longer felt right after 18 months stuck at home.

Yaretzi, a young woman in Diegos grade with walnut skin and a gentle voice that masked her intense focus, started attending school-board meetings on Zoom and speaking up during public comment about how disregarded students felt by the way the district handled sexual harassment and assault. We were given the space and a lot of time, she said, half-joking, to reflect on why that kind of behavior was tolerated at school. No way was she just slipping back.

This was a common pattern: the isolation of the pandemic producing both pain and insight, followed by a need to assert new power dynamics as people gathered up the shards of their social lives and tried to reassemble them. Diegos school began working up a curriculum on harassment, a tier-one intervention, as one of the vice-principals called it, meaning the whole community needed help.

Two and a half weeks into the school year, a friend of Diegos approached him between classes. He was like, Yo, I heard this kid was walking around bragging that he was gonna tell your girlfriend that you showed some random dude her nude.

Diego was like, Broooo, what?

Then the kid did.

Fiona dumped him, which, frankly, good for her. She felt humiliated, betrayed, and startled that someone she trusted so much respected her privacy so little. I had put so much care into our relationship, she told me. Then I got screwed over.

Diego offered Fiona a raft of apologies Im so sorry, Ill never do that again, that kind of thing, Fiona said. He then holed up in his bedroom, ashamed, heartbroken, and furious with himself. He started writing songs with bald lyrics: Its all my fault/I hate me for that/And Ill do anything to get you back /Youre beautiful and perfect/Im sorry.

Over the course of the next three days, everyone in Diegos old friend group stopped talking to him, which he didnt really notice at first because he was too disgusted with himself to pay much attention. But by the following week, most of the other students in his grade had stopped talking to him as well. Diegos parents reached out to the principal for the first time on October 4, 2021, to alert her that students were broadcasting their sons errors and telling kids throughout the school that Diego was an abuser and if they remained friends with him, theyd be condoning rape culture. The principal, who was still planning the anti-harassment summit for November, did not respond.

A vice-principal walked Fiona through how to file a Title IX complaint. Title IX established a quasi-legal protocol meant to protect students right to access public education without discrimination or harassment. Every public school is required to have a Title IX coordinator. The principal and a vice-principal both held this job at Diegos school. (There was so much to share this year! the vice-principal said.) In terms of securing equal access to school sports, Title IX works well. But with regard to preventing harassment in high schools? The regulation is a sieve, a piece of ed code, the vice-principal admitted, that is not really written to protect students but instead revolves around protecting district and school from liability. The result is a law that both does a poor job of stopping harassment and leaves students feeling ignored and enraged. Students come in saying, I feel harmed and uncomfortable and sometimes unsafe, the vice-principal told me. What Title IX mandates from there is that the students fill out a form. That form is sent to lawyers at the school districts Office of Equity. A verdict comes back in legalese. The lack of shared vocabulary between students and the adults meant to protect them created an added layer of hurt. Assault has a very specific meaning in the ed code, the vice-principal said. So sometimes difficult conversations arise when we say, I acknowledge you feel uncomfortable and unsafe, and we should attend to that. This wasnt assault.

Through the end of October, Diego remained heartbroken and depressed. While half his school canceling him seemed a bit much, he hated himself too. He spent a lot of time alone with his pet rat, Toe (named because he didnt like the rat at first, but she grew on him), sitting under his lofted bunk bed, composing music on his mini Korg synth-vocoder, staring at the haute-adolescent mash-up on his walls: family water-park photos, concert-ticket stubs, Junior Ranger pins earned at national parks.

He also wrote Fiona a letter, but it was too much pleading love letter for her taste, too little straightforward apology. Besides, she thought, hed brought this extended exile upon himself. Hed acted like a jerk that past summer, partying a lot, even breaking up with her for a bit. That had left Fiona feeling, she said, like this person patiently waiting for him to come back, when he seemed he couldnt care less about how I felt.

Diegos father, a high-school teacher in a different town, took the day off work on November 1 to try to dig his son out of his dark hole.

That same morning, posters with blood-red lettering that read GET ABUSERS OFF CAMPUS started appearing around school. I just got really fed up, Yaretzi, who made them, said. My friend had called me to tell me about how her abuser wasnt being held accountable after multiple reports were made about him. Shed heard this from other friends too. I printed like 60 posters in an hour and ran around the school and slapped them on the walls. She herself had suffered through the fear and humiliation of sexual abuse, but her abuser did not go to the school a privilege, she said, in that this made her worry less about retaliation. Yet she saw how girls on her campus felt more unsafe than ever. So she taped the posters up in the long, locker-lined hallways, in the bright stairwells, in the girls bathrooms, in front of the fishbowl of an office where the administrative staff worked.

That afternoon, around five, administrators learned students were planning a walkout the next day over the schools handling of sexual misconduct. They also found a list on the girls-bathroom wall labeled PEOPLE TO LOOK OUT FOR. Scrawled on the off-white tile in black Sharpie were seven names. DIEGO was one.

The list caught Yaretzi by surprise. On my way home from school, I started getting calls, she told me. Im like, What the hell list are you talking about? Her intent was to lay blame at the feet of the school district, not specific young men.

Administrators phoned the parents of all the students named to tell them about the list and the walkout, which immediately got paired in everybodys mind. School staff also locked the girls bathroom and repainted the wall, but it hardly mattered. Photos were already bouncing around social media, accompanied by tags like stay safe please look out for these people and I wanna add [names] to this list.

November 1 was also Diegos mothers birthday. When a vice-principal reached her, she was heading to meet her husband and Diego, along with a friend, for dinner. She pulled her husband aside to alert him, then they limped through the meal for the friends sake. Afterward, Diegos parents sat him down.

This is serious. I dont want any surprises, his father said. Diego laid out the facts: drunk at a party, showed the nude. His mother was relieved he hadnt done something worse. His father was pissed.

It was not good, actually really terrible, he told me. Its embarrassing as a parent. You thought you raised your kid differently. You wish you had done things better. Diegos father was upset with himself, upset with Diego. He wanted his son held accountable, though he wasnt sure what that looked like yet.

At 11:39 p.m., Diegos mother wrote an email to the school:

Subject: My Son Is Not a Rapist.

This situation with my son has gotten out of control and needs to be stopped. Ill be heading to campus tomorrow with my son to help him file a Title IX Violation for those Spreading a series of sexual rumors about a peer.

Early the next morning the morning of the walkout a classmate texted Diego and said, Bro, you shouldnt come to school today.

On campus, from the moment students arrived, administrators tried to stay on top of the situation, but even the simple task of keeping the bathroom walls clean felt exhausting and futile. Lists went up; administrators scrubbed them down. Lists went up again, not always with the same names. Nearly 20 students (not even the principal knows the full count for sure) were named in all. People would put names on the wall and then other people would cross off names. And then people would write on the wall, like, How dare you take that name off and You dont know the story, the principal told me. Fiona herself did not write Diegos name. The principals whole focus became How do we stop the bleeding? As she saw it, students are acting as judge, jury, and executioner for other students.

At 10:30 a.m., 500 kids walked out of class, many dressed in red, as the organizers, most of whom were girls and queer people of color, had urged. Some had red-inked NO ABUSERS ON CAMPUS signs taped to their bodies. Others had written in pen on their skin: MAKE SCHOOL SAFE on an arm, I AM A SURVIVOR along collarbones. In the quad, Yaretzi led the crowd in ten minutes of silence to honor survivors. Then everybody walked up to the parking lot for speeches. Students punctuated these by banging on drums and rattling keys. They chanted No abusers on campus! and Fuck admin!

I have been here for four years, one of the organizers told a local newspaper reporter. Ive walked people, hand in hand, up to the office to go report their assault, and a lot of times, they were turned away or they said, Okay, heres a piece of paper, fill out this report, and talk about what happened to you.

There are known abusers in that crowd right now, Yaretzi added in that same interview. Theres so much protection for the abusers rather than the victims. Were just sick and tired of it.

It was a wild day, a wild day, the principal told me in her office, choking up, her back to the treadmill desk she had started using to ease her stress. Im having a hard time talking about it even now. She had students screaming, the calls for systemic change wrapped up in very public accusations against specific young men, a disturbingly high percentage of whom were boys of color, almost none of whom she knew anything about. She had a whole student body aching, telling her to fuck off. Just two weeks before, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Childrens Hospital Association had jointly declared a state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health.

In the popular imagination, the evolution of the crimes of the boys on the wall was rapid and steep. Youre an abuser quickly morphed into Youre an assaulter, which soon turned into Youre a rapist. The truth, according to Jenni, was most people didnt actually care what theyd done. Someone goes, Oh my God, I heard hes a bad person dont talk to him. And then people are scared to be on the wrong side. So they just do it. They dont think about it. Theyre just like, Oh, I dont know him, so I guess I wont talk to him.

The unifying rally cry on campus was Were not safe here. Even for students whod never felt that way themselves, suddenly there was a very compelling narrative to buy into, the principal said. There was a lot of social capital and relational capital to be found suddenly I dont wanna say it was a lie in understanding your own experience within the context of this narrative. That story line rested on the idea that the administration failed to do its most basic job. Parents started emailing the principal, asking if students were getting raped on campus.

A letter Diego wrote to himself. Photo: Courtesy of Subject

This was not just Diegos school. This was all over the country. A boy touched a girls waist without consent at a Spirit Week rally shunned by his community and called a sexual abuser. A student accused a boy of touching her at a school dance major investigation, lawyers on all sides. A student outed by the friend of a girl he tried to feel up after she reciprocated his affections while cuddling and holding hands threats on social media, thoughts of taking his own life.

The case of Kathleen Kurtz and Robert Straub v. Lewisburg School District, in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, reads like a horror story in the form of a civil-action complaint. The plaintiffs were parents of a 14-year-old boy, Minor JX. In November 2020, classmates at school started calling JX a rapist, pedophile, and child molester, according to the complaint, and encouraged other students to do the same. Then, on March 19, 2021, a girl at his school made an anonymous report to ChildLine, the State of Pennsylvanias child-abuse hotline, accusing JX of being a rapist. When a classmate was asked what JX had done, another girl said, You know what you did, JX, and refused to elaborate. JX started begging his parents to let him skip school. His parents sent a letter to the school principal:

JX is a sensitive soul and we fear this is damaging to his confidence at a very crucial time in his life where he is building his own Self-worth.

These horrific verbal attacks he is undergoing can make or break what kind of human he becomes.

The local police investigated the ChildLine call. As the complaint reads, the allegations were entirely fabricated. Still, the bullying continued. JXs Mother reported that, given the ongoing bullying and name-calling from November 2020 to the present, the School was no longer an emotionally safe place for JX to be educated, the complaint reads. He told his parents his life was so bad right now that he cant see how it can get better anytime soon. JXs parents sued under Title IX. The judge tossed the case, explaining the facts failed to prove JXs harassment was based on his sex.

At Oakland School for the Arts, vigilantism drew the attention of the NAACP. Before the pandemic, a group of students had been swapping nude images of female classmates. The administration disciplined the ringleader, but many felt his punishment was light. Then, while stuck at home for remote learning, some students formed a group chat to share experiences of sexual abuse and harassment and frustrations with reporting them to the school. They requested a Zoom meeting with the dean about how to make the campus feel safer. But the meeting was a disaster, two of the students told me. The dean wanted to talk about vaping, not sexual misconduct, and the students were incensed. Its hard to have somebody not necessarily believe you, but its even harder when its like somebody should be really concerned about you, one of the students said. The group chat organized itself into the Student Safety Committee and in late September planned a walkout and rally in a park across the street from the school. The event devolved. While students, primarily women of color, shared their personal stories of sexual violence up front, students in the crowd screamed at specific boys, most of whom were Black: Rapist! You need to go die in the ditch.

The rally ended early, one of the organizers told me, after a school administrator approached her. He was crying and was like, Youve got to shut this down, she said. We dont have the mental-health support for this.

The organizers spent the next day in the school administrators office. It was just, like, a horrible experience, one said. It was like talking in circles or like talking to a wall. Parents of accused boys showed up as well.

How are you going to put that genie back in the bottle? a Black woman whose sons were called rapists asked the dean. She had no doubt that the girls who had singled out her sons had experienced real pain. Im not saying that theyre not harmed, she said. What Im saying is that hurt people hurt. No individual had accused either of her sons of any specific abuse or crime.

In the weeks and months that followed, parents and grandparents began showing up at Oakland School for the Arts board meetings, saying they were scared to send their children to school because of all the sexual violence. Families of the accused boys reached out to the local NAACP chapter to talk about consolidating a case. Parents told Black children about the Central Park Five. This can ruin your life simply because she says so The school empowered a group of teenage young ladies, little mini-Karens, one of the mothers said. Another mother told me her son struggled with returning to a place where everyone thought he was a rapist. To survive every day, going to school like that, she said, having to prove hes worthy, a good person, when he feels like hes going to a school of hundreds of kids who think otherwise?

Oakland School for the Arts eventually sent a letter to the school community acknowledging that most of the allegations of sexual assault against a number of predominantly African American boys were either not backed by evidence, unfounded, or in some instances a result of mistaken identity or assumed guilt by association and that the community had real healing and soul-searching to do.

On November 4, Diego lost his job with a youth organization in town. You suspended my son due to graffiti on the wall that you saw on Social Media? Diegos mother wrote to his bosses. NOT ONE person has accused my son of sexual assault.

One of the bosses wrote back that she was not in a position to say that Diego has sexually harassed or assaulted anyone, but the truth was not the issue. Other kids in the program, which was entirely online, now said they felt unsafe with Diego. The program had to distance itself from him based on the fact that this has gone very public and has compromised the way participants feel and/or interact.

The Title IX claim about Diego ended up with the incident being declared outside the schools purview. The vice-principal told Fiona she could file a police report. She didnt want to do that. In communication with her family, however, the school made a plan to help Diego and Fiona repair. Fionas family, the vice-principal wrote in an email to Diegos, made two requests:

1. That all pictures are deleted from every possible device, cloud, storage/media platform, etc.

2. That it be made clear to Diego and his family that this was a serious violation that is having an impact on the students overall well-being.

Done and done. As individuals, at the beginning, the two had managed this incident okay. Fiona had no interest in getting back together. But a couple of weeks after their breakup, when Diego was still eating only a handful of peanut-butter pretzels a day, theyd met at the beach and talked. I was like, I dont appreciate getting treated like an abuser, Diego said. And shes like, I dont think youre an abuser at all. I know that. But this had grown way beyond them.

The public conversation recast Fionas view of Diegos actions in a worse light. She was mortified knowing that every time people thought about Diego now, they thought about her nude photo. Still, she felt validated and supported by the list. After the clinical and pointless Title IX claim, it was refreshing to know that, like, Wow, someone else is standing up for me, she said. Someone does care about my story.

Everyone hoped that after Thanksgiving break Diego would feel comfortable returning to school. That didnt happen. Other boys whose names had been on the list were doing horribly too. One had hitchhiked away from home earlier in the year after his ex-girlfriend called his mother one morning to tell her she was going to cancel her son that day. Then she did. He returned a day later at the ex-girlfriends urging. (They couldnt stay away from each other, his mother said. She didnt want him to leave.) But being in a town where everybody shunned him, except for the person primarily responsible for that shunning, was just too painful. His mother stayed up all night with him so that he didnt slip into the bathtub with a kitchen knife. Then he ran away again.

Yaretzi tried to keep the focus on systemic change. One simple ask, which Fiona would have appreciated, too: more counseling support to complement the reporting process. Yaretzi spoke with the superintendent and the Office of Equity, pleading with them to, at a minimum, connect students with outside mental-health resources. Theyre like, Well, what would you propose? she told me they said right after she made her pitch. And then I just started laughing. I was like, I just told you what I proposed! I mentioned the possibility of a Linktree. Have you ever seen a Linktree? It would take ten minutes and cost zero dollars.

A scarcity mind-set not just in terms of money but in terms of care, morality, and protection set in. Students kept coming into the principals and vice-principals offices upset over the fact that in the days after the protests, the school helped create safety-and-support plans for some of our male-identifying students who have been named, the principal said. And our female students saw that as Who are you protecting? Whose narrative is more important to you? Who do you believe?

For instance, the school put Diego on independent study for the month of November. The guy who caused a lot of pain to me now gets kind of like a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card? Fiona asked. Shouldnt there be something offered in the other direction? (The school did offer her a safety-and-support plan, but she declined because she didnt share any classes with Diego.) Meanwhile, some of the families of accused students had started deploying what has become the standard legal tactic in the Me Too backlash, displayed most publicly at the Depp-Heard trial: going on the offensive. The families demanded disciplinary action against the students shunning their sons. But I cant make your kids be friends, the vice-principal told those parents. I cant stop kids whispering and laughing when your kid walks into the classroom.

In the worldview that set in, being kind to a canceled kid is all downside. If youre kind, youre an apologist, then you too will be shunned. As another canceled kid told me, hed really tried to press his ex-friends on why they ostracized him, but there was no point. They were like, You know why. And I was like, I dont know why. And theyre like, You know why. And then I just ended up leaving because how can you argue with that?

The schools official protocol on how to deal with ruptured relationships was to use restorative practices. This usually meant a facilitated conversation among the people directly involved, with the goal of creating empathy and coaxing kids out of angel/devil, black-and-white thinking. But Diegos school had a countervailing policy: You couldnt use restorative practices in cases of sexual misconduct. You also couldnt make anyone participate in restorative practices. Given that the students existed in a universe where just talking with an alleged abuser made you an apologist where you could lose all your social capital simply for suggesting that someone might deserve compassion who would agree to restore?

It was an impossible situation, a whole world supersaturated with emotion, starved for common ground and facts. The school tried to get the stalled anti-harassment training back on course, but the advocacy group it had hired to run the workshop declined. This is not the time for us to come, its representatives said. People need an open mind to learn.

Diego barely ate for weeks. He slept 12 hours a night. He wrote bad poems. He stared at the pink Post-it note he had put in his phone case on November 1:

Reminders

Compliment people always

be kind and respectful to everyone regardless of previous encounters

be generous

Not wish for more or better

Think before acting

He who is not satisfied with what he has will not be satisfied with what he would like to have

dont talk shit ever

What else did he do? Cry? I dont know, he said. Eventually, he agreed to go with Dave to Daves familys cabin for the weekend. On the way there, they stopped at a taco truck. Diego said, Bro, Im not hungry. But Dave made him order three tacos anyway and stood there while he ate.

Diegos parents kept pressing the school to do something, to at least use restorative practices with Diego and the students threatening their peers with social ostracization if they talked to him. Yet on December 2, 2021, the vice-principal sent an email explaining to Diegos parents that a restorative circle was not going to happen. Those students canceling him, she wrote, have no personal ill-will toward Diego but that the social pressures on them are so great that to be associated with Diego would cause too much harm for them. She also said shed reached out to their peer groups, teachers, or classes but they believe these interventions would cause more conflict (at least at this point). So that was that.

The bullying and harassment complaint that Diegos parents had filed in November was closed on December 17. The outcome letter acknowledged that the situation which in this case referred to Diegos cancellation was indeed both severe and pervasive and, as such, violated the districts bullying-and-harassment policy. To remediate this, the letter continued, school officials had counseled the offending students to stop that behavior. Yet in a tacit admission that this made no difference, Diego now would be excused to eat lunch early and leave campus early so he could avoid interacting with other students. His teachers would also excuse him from class because they couldnt stop the bullying.

Over Christmas break, Diegos sister, two years older, came home from college. The whole family got in the car, as they did every year, to chop down a Christmas tree.

Diegos sister had made the best of shelter-in-place, which shed spent in her apartment near school she pulled through all her STEM courses. She even earned a commercial drivers license and now worked as a public-bus driver. Diegos friends used to tell him they were jealous of how close he was to her. Now her politics, according to Diego, involved spending a lot of time on Twitter and, according to her dad, thinking he was a privileged white guy with a beard. Hed taken to saying to her, Key word: Nuance!

Diego drove the family car to the Christmas-tree farm. On the way, his sister called him a bad driver. He told her to shut up. She then said, Abusers deserve to be canceled. Like virtually all young people in their town, shed seen the image of her brothers name on the school-bathroom wall, posted and reposted many times.

Diego: Bruh, that was a little out of pocket. Get the fuck out.

Sister: Oh my God, I dont want you in my life anymore. Everyone started crying. Their parents kicked her out of the car and told her to find her way home.

New Years came. Then February. The experience kept rooting in the dark rut of its own logic. A kid spat on Diego in a stairwell. (It wasnt clearly caught on security video, so no one took disciplinary action.) Diegos mother started losing her own friends. (There are levels of abuse, you know, theyd tell her. You dont know what your son did.) She started making Diego drive her to work to get him out the door to school. But he often drove to school and just sat in the car. His whole day was working by himself in the library anyway. Why enter the building at all? On occasion, hed see other boys in the library whose names had been on the wall, and theyd sit together. But mostly he felt invisible.

Race remained a topic almost too toxic for the school to touch. You are telling us that most of the boys that were accused were Black and brown students, and all of the kids who are canceled are brown or Black, and the white boys were able to walk back on the campus, no problem, Diegos mother said to the principal. And yet youre not telling these white kids this? Thats called white fragility and being afraid of these girls.

A reprieve finally came in February, when Diego and Dave traveled to the South on a trip organized through Sojourn Project, a social-justice nonprofit that takes groups of students to places like Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham to learn about the modern civil-rights movement. It felt so good to be in a different place with different kids, tune in to the arc of history, focus on justice with a capital J. They talked a lot about how people use and respond to negative power. Diego described the trip as one big therapy session.

The universe snapped back into perspective for a moment. Diego had fucked up and hurt someone; people had ostracized him. That wasnt the whole world. But the good feelings did not last long. Emboldened from their travels, Dave and Diego posted trip pictures together on Instagram: the two of them goofing off on buses; Dave, smiling, his body held up parallel to the ground by Diego and a pack of kids. This got Dave fully canceled. Within two weeks, he, too, was eating lunch out of his car, thinking about an MLK quote he had learned in the South and half-remembered now: It was something like, Its not about what will happen to me if I help this someone, he said. Its about what happens if I dont help them.

When were home, Dave said, I feel like were in a bubble of hate.

By this point, the guardians of the social order had changed. Boys are worse, Im not going to lie, Diego said. Guys just want to feel powerful, and they feel entitled to be mean to other people. And they really didnt want the girls to think they stood with abusers.

My friend Ethan I mean, my previous friend, Dave said. I have three classes with him. And he made it clear. Like, I miss you. Its just, like, this situation is so dumb, I just cant hang out with you.

Dave tried to get his school to help. He approached the counselor, dean person, I forget what she is, really, he told me. She said, Canceling is very new to me, and its a very hard thing to deal with. He asked if she could set up a restorative conversation. And she said, Well, I can ask, but I cant force them to do it. And so she asked and they said no.

Reason and control felt like distant concepts. Diego and his sister pretended the fight had never happened the next time she came home, but Jenni was still putting a jacket over her head when she rode in Diegos car. I feel bad for putting my reputation before my friend, she said. But, ummm A boy threatened to beat up Diego while he was visiting Dave at school. Diegos father thought about going over to this boys familys house because the school district, obviously, was not going to intervene. Everybody was exhausted. Diegos principal had decided to quit.

The absurdity of the situation caused something in Diego to crack, and that release allowed for new clarity: Youre only canceled if youre trying to hang out with the people refusing to associate with you. The rest of the world doesnt know and probably doesnt care. Diego and Dave started taking the bus to the beach on Friday nights and talking to anybody who looked their age. Everyone I met, I was like, By the way, this is what is happening at my school right now, Diego said. Its better to hear it from me than from some kid: Hes a certified abuser. Oh my God. But almost no one met his disclosure with much besides sympathy. They were all like, Dont worry, bro. Youll get through it. Or: Your school is wack as hell.

Read the original post:
Story of a Canceled Teen - The Cut

Western Universitys Own Your Future program reflects a partnership between units across the institution.

Many doctoral students end up in careers outside tenure-stream academia. Consequently, universities are placing more and more emphasis on broad skills development for their PhD students to equip them for a variety of careers. But it can be challenging and resource-intensive to construct doctoral-level programming that is both effective and works across all disciplines.

Western Universitys Own Your Future program seeks to help change that with a doctoral professional development program that is in-depth, comprehensive and can be replicated and shared beyond the institution.

The program has two main components: skills identification and skills building.

With the former, students complete the programs Power Skills Assessment tool, in which they self-assess their skills in six competency areas: communication and relationship building; leadership; thriving; teaching and learning; intercultural and social fluency; and career engagement. Based on this self-assessment, students receive a report that identifies their current strengths, growth areas, and areas requiring experience. The student report also directs students to workshop opportunities to build their strengths.

When it comes to skills building, PhD students have access to approximately 80 workshops, each tied to at least one skill. For example, students can use understanding of comic design to increase their skill in communicating ideas broadly, or complete anti-oppression training to strengthen their ability to work and engage with others effectively. Many of the skills training workshops provide students with training that will benefit their immediate research needs as well as their future career skills needs, such as time management and project management.

Lorraine Davies, associate vice-provost in the school of graduate and postdoctoral studies at Western, is the Own Your Future academic lead. She is also the primary investigator for an assessment of the program funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO). As part of the HEQCO Skills Consortium, Dr. Davies and her team will consider three key questions:

In the evaluation project, which is still ongoing, Dr. Davies and her team had students complete mock job interviews with a team of career evaluators, including an employer, and the Power Skills Assessment at the start of the study. After completing three workshops, the students again completed mock job interviews and the Power Skills Assessment. Dr. Davies and her team will compare the pre- and post-training data, among other data, to assess the program. (See the project description on page 18 of the HEQCO Skills Consortium Interim Report for fuller details.)

The goal of this evaluation project is not simply program improvement, but also the creation of evidence-informed resources that can be adopted and adapted by other institutions. As Dr. Davies told me, We are committed to sharing our work with others, and to learning from best practices at other universities. To this end, Own Your Future has a creative commons license, and Dr. Davies team intends to share the results nationally.

There are a number of things about the Own Your Future program that catch my attention. The first is that the program reflects a partnership between units across the university, including (but not limited to) the careers and experience department and the school of graduate and postdoctoral studies. My own research on best practices in graduate professional development suggests that these collaborative models are more effective than other approaches.

Second, I am pleased to see the explicit ties between the student self-assessments and the workshop offerings (through the student report), and the explicit identification of career skills in the workshops. As I have discussed, explicit instruction is an evidence-based teaching practice that can advance skills training effectiveness.

And finally, I am impressed by the desire of Westerns school of graduate and postdoctoral studies to share resources to benefit doctoral students across Canada. While universities can be highly competitive, there is a more collaborative spirit in the graduate professional development space, as demonstrated by the work of the Graduate and Postdoctoral Development Network. Given the importance of doctoral professional development, Westerns school of graduate and postdoctoral studies willingness to share its work is admirable.

I will watch the evolution of Westerns Own Your Future program with interest and encourage you to check it out for yourself.

Is your university doing innovative things regarding student skills training and professional development? If so, I would love to hear about it. I also welcome opportunities to speak with universities about skills training. Please connect with me at loleen.berdahl@usask.ca using the subject line The Skills Agenda.

I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, stay well, my colleagues.

Read more from the original source:
Empowering doctoral students and other universities University Affairs - University Affairs

Sleep is a mystery we dont definitively know what it is, why we do it, and why we need so much of it.

To spend 8 hours a day incapacitated, for every day of our lives, there has to be something important going on! But there isnt exactly consensus scientists still debate whether it cleans the brain; although they can agree that if you dont get enough, youll go insane.

The potential size of the sleep market is as big as it can get we all need sleep on a daily basis. The sleep economy is made up of the products, services, devices, and applications that help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and manage your sleep. The industry has seen a flood of investment activity in recent years and as wearables proliferate and enable our desire to monitor and optimise our bodily functions interest and investment will intensify.

We can all attest that lack of sleep makes it harder to concentrate, increases grumpiness and stress, impairs memory and judgement, and lowers motivation to do things that are good for us, like exercise. It can also lead to poor decision making and increase desire for sugary foods.

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On top of that, sleep is essential for cell repair, memory formation, emotional regulation, and hormonal balance. A good nights sleep ensures the right amounts of hormones are released at the right times. Every organ in our body needs sleep, and accidents increase when were sleep deprived.

Theres more to sleep than rest and recovery. During the day, we only access 10% of our brains. In dreams, we get to explore tangential connections, identify unconsidered patterns, regulate emotions, and shape memories. As we sift through the days events and decide which memories to keep and which to discord, sleep has the power to shape the stories we tell ourselves and hence, who we are. This critical, autobiographical process happens by incorporating new data into our memory bank and identifying patterns and connections between them.

Despite its importance, our society has a large problem with sleep. Our permanent connection to our digital devices has disrupted our circadian rhythms and sleep patterns, with debilitating consequences. In Australia, 50% of adults suffer from at least one chronic problem with sleep be that trouble falling or staying asleep, or waking up before you want to. 10% of Australian adults have insomnia. This costs us dearly. People who receive less than 6 hours of sleep per night have a 13% higher mortality rate.

In healthy sleep, we oscillate between REM and non-REM phases of sleep.

In healthy sleep, we yo-yo between REM and non-REM stages of sleep. This cycle repeats every 90 minutes and consists of about 5-6 cycles. Sometimes we skip a stage, or it gets disrupted. For sleep to work its magic, all stages need to happen.

As venture capital investors, we always ask why now?

Since sleep has been a constant for the entire history of humanity, why do we believe we are on the precipice of an inflection point, thatll unleash a wave of innovation in this industry?Here are some macro trends that we think will play a role in driving an evolution in the way we sleep.

Where running on three hours of sleep may have once been glamorous in certain circles, as a society we are waking up to the importance of sleep as an input into health and wellbeing. Our chronic lack of sleep is being recognised as a global health crisis the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has even classified it as endemic. More people are recognising that a bad nights sleep is just as damaging if not more as a night of heavy drinking or guzzling down an unhealthy meal.

Moreover, not only are sleep deficits unhealthy, theyre downright dangerous. As proof, each year at daylight savings (an event which disrupts peoples sleep), the number of car crashes goes up by 6% in the following week.

Companies are are taking notice: Calm, Headspace, and Insight Timer have invested heavily in their Sleep Series, recognising how much the world needs to be lulled to sleep by the sonorous voices of Stephen Fry or Matthew McConaughey.

Theres a range of products to optimise sleep, from lower tech smart mattresses and pillows, weighted blankets, temperature controlled bedrooms, blackout blinds to higher tech dreamscape music, light projectors, and noise modulation. Quite remarkably, theres no leading consumer brand for sleep owning and bundling this tech!

Edible products that can help people fall asleep are gaining in popularity. Active ingredients can be found in gummies, cookies, teas, or even ice-cream. Some popular edibles include melatonin a naturally occurring hormone that induces a feeling of sleepiness. As it turns out, blue-light exposure reduces the natural production of melatonin one of the reasons that looking at screens right before bed can make it harder to fall asleep.

Another popular active ingredient is CBD a cannabinoid. In some parts of the world, its gaining popularity as a natural sleep remedy, as it curtails the production of cortisol the stress hormone.

Sleep trackers capture data, providing insights about sleep and suggestions on how to improve your sleep. They come in all shapes and sizes, like WHOOP around your wrist, the Oura ring, the Beddr forehead wearable, the Dreem headband, and the 10 Minds Motion Pillow.

The Dreem headband uses a technique called polysomnography (PSG) to track sleep stages.

Sleep tracking devices are about 95% accurate in measuring whether youre asleep, but only 60% accurate in measuring sleep quality or stage. It primarily relies on lagging indicators such as heart rate, movement, and noise. A more accurate method would be to measure leading indicators, such as eye movement and ESG, however most people are reluctant to wear headbands to bed simply to get more accurate measurements of their sleep. As Apple and Googles Fitbit accelerate innovation in wearables, were watching with interest the innovations rolled out for tracking sleep.

So youve gotten a baseline picture of your sleep, and you want to improve it. Its time to find a sleep coach! Human and AI-powered sleep coaches can help you determine how much sleep you actually need, optimise your bedtime routine, and serve as your accountability buddy to cement a healthy sleep routine.

Not only is poor sleep a lagging indicator of poor health or illness, poor sleep can also increase the risk of disease or even death. Sleep deficiency is correlated with chronic conditions such as heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and depression. Furthermore illness often disrupts sleep, fuelling a vicious cycle of degeneration. For example, getting less than seven hours of sleep makes diabetes harder to manage as both insulin resistance and hunger increases the next day.

Sleep monitoring is increasingly being used as a diagnostic tool. For example, disruption to sleep cycles can indicate early stages of Alzheimers disease. Monitoring sleep not only enables early diagnosis, it can track the progression of degenerative conditions. In addition, diagnosing and treating mild to moderate cases of obstructive sleep apnea can help prevent the development of cancers, while detecting changes to respiratory rates can catch COVID-19 early.

Dreams offer a glimpse into the subconscious mind a place of wisdom and power. Human civilisations have been interested in programming dreams for thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, people slept in sacred beds at the Serapeum of Saqqara in hope of receiving divine messages. In ancient Greece, the sick would go to sleep temples or spiritual hospitals to channel the gods healing powers. Today, dream incubation is a part of spiritual practices like dream yoga.

The Serapeum of Saqqara.

Artists knew that dreams can enhance creativity. The connections that are formed while we dream can offer a new perspective when we wake up. The artist Salvador Dali had a creative process called slumber with a key. He would sit in a chair holding a heavy key over a plate and meditate on a problem as he dozed off. When he fell asleep, his hand with relax, and drop the key on the plate, waking him up, often with a fresh perspective.

Slumbering with a key.

Recently, practices called dream intelligence have sprung up to harness dreams to promote learning and growth. These techniques use dreams to embed positive habits or bolster the learning of new skills, like languages. Content we review right before bedtime affect our hypnagogic dreams visceral dreams that occur just after we fall asleep. This means what we see, hear, or smell right before we sleep can be programmed to influence our dreams, and in doing so, our thoughts and behaviours.

In one experiment, researchers exposed participants to certain kinds of content right before they fell asleep, and documented how it impacted their dreams:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are people trying to monetise the power of hacking dreams, with marketers experimenting with how to reach people through their dreams.

Early experiments present participants with stimulus right before they fall asleep. In small study, 18 people watched a video that showed Coors Light beer cans interspersed with with nature images, set to synth beats. The participants then fell asleep to the same soundtrack. A whopping 30% of participants claimed to have dreamt about Coors beers. In our dreams, we are defenseless prey for marketeers. The daytime savvy weve built to tune out the relentless bombardment of advertising material goes out the window, as were unable to scrutinise whats marketing and whats our subconscious telling us something important.

Marketers seem determined to break down the last bastion of our privacy. The American Marketing Association (NY) found that 77% of marketers surveyed would. like to experiment with DreamTech.

Theres some brands that have already staked tall claims to their ability to influence our dreams. Burger Kings nightmare burger, which was rolled out for Halloween, is said to be clinically proven to induce nightmares, making it 3.5x more likely that someone has a nightmare after eating one.

Someone in my dream turned into the burger, said one study participant. The burger then transformed into the figure of a snake.

Definitely doesnt look like it would go down a dream

We believe the convergence of these trends will drive the creation of companies that reimagine how we approach sleep.

This article was first published by AfterWork Reading.

See the original post here:
Wearables, edibles and monetising dreams: What is the future of sleep? - SmartCompany

In this episode, we discuss:

Show notes:

Hey, everybody, Chris Kresser here. Welcome to another episode of Revolution Health Radio. This week, Im really excited to welcome Dr. Christopher Hobbs as my guest. Dr. Hobbs is a fourth-generation, internationally renowned herbalist and mycologist, and he earned his PhD at UC Berkeley with research and publication in evolutionary biology, biogeography, phylogenetics, plant chemistry, and ethnobotany. Hes now on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

I first encountered Dr. Hobbs many years ago when I was studying Chinese medicine in the Bay Area, and I attended a talk that he gave on the medicinal use of culinary and edible mushrooms, and on psilocybin. Hes been one of the foremost experts on the health benefits of mushrooms for several decades. Hes been foraging for mushrooms, cultivating mushrooms, and using mushrooms to make medicine since the late 1970s. He has almost 50 years of experience in this field, and, as I mentioned, he comes from a family of herbalists and traditional medicine practitioners. So this is in his blood. He is a true expert and [has] a wealth of knowledge on this really exciting topic of mushrooms and how we can use mushrooms to improve our health.

We talk about Dr. Hobbs history as a mycologist. We talk about the nutritional and health benefits of mushrooms, particularly their role as prebiotics and the impact that they can have on our gut microbiota. We talk about beta-glucan, a special type of soluble fiber that is present in mushrooms, and the research on the immunomodulatory effects of beta-glucan. We talk about the phenolic compounds and terpenes that are present in mushrooms. You may have heard of terpenes in recent discussions of the benefits of medical cannabis, and also in essential oils. These are quite powerful compounds that are being studied in a variety of different contexts, and they have some exciting potential health benefits. We talk about how to get started with foraging for mushrooms and [how to] do that in a safe way, and many other topics.

This was one of my favorite podcast conversations because Im so fascinated personally with the health benefits of mushrooms, and Dr. Hobbs is one of the best people in the world to talk [with] about this subject. So I hope you enjoy the show. Lets dive in.

Chris Kresser: Dr. Hobbs, its a pleasure to have you on the show. Ive really been looking forward to this.

Dr. Hobbs: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Chris Kresser: All right. Lets just dive right in. We both share [a] common background in Chinese medicine, and, of course, mushrooms have a long history of use in Chinese medicine, perhaps mentioned in the oldest medical textbook, and in many other traditional forms of medicine, as well. What got you interested in mushrooms in the first place?

Dr. Hobbs: My dad was a professor of botany, and his dad was a professor of botany. So Im a third-generation botany person. But they didnt dabble in fungi too much. Then, because I liked being in the woods a lot, naturally, youre going to eventually start stumbling over the mushrooms and wonder, What are these strange creatures? Then in 1977, I saw a notice for the first or second mushroom conference that Paul Stamets did on Orcas Island. This was in [1977]. And I just decided to go on a whim. A couple of friends of mine were going. They invited me, so I said, Okay, why not? I went, and Dr. Guzman was there, the worlds leading researcher on psilocybin, and Dr. Smith, who wrote all the old field guides in the [1950s], [1960s], and [1970s], [and was a well-known] university professor, and a number of other really hot mushroom identifiers and researchers and hunters. We had a great time. It was really one of the best conferences I ever [attended]. That really got me going like a rocket ship, and I wanted to know more. From then on, I took off on mushrooms, and my interest never flagged, year after year after year.

Chris Kresser: At that point, initially, were you mostly interested in them for their health uses? Or just as a third-generation botanist or an avid nature enthusiast or all of the above?

Dr. Hobbs: All of the above. Ive always had this central question in my mind since I was very young. And that is, Why do some people get sick and some people stay healthy? What causes that? Even as a young child, I was interested in that. I think probably why is that something came through my grandmother. My grandmother was a community herbalist and my great-grandmother [was a] community herbalist, on my moms side. It skipped [my mom]. She was a concert pianist and artist. But definitely, my grandmothers notes and notebooks. She was a community herbalist in Pasadena, California, and had an herb garden and went down into Chinatown in [Los Angeles] on the red line and studied Chinese medicine. And this is back in the [early] [19]20s.

I never met her because she died before I was born, but my mom told me about her and used to tell me a lot of stories about her. I have a spiritual connection with her because Ive always been really keen on music and piano, and she studied in Paris. So [my grandmother has] been my connection with my ancestors. Bringing that lifelong interest in health and disease to nature got me interested in herbalism, and then, eventually, in 1986 [or] something like that, I came up with the idea [that], Well, mushrooms must be healing, too. At that point, I hadnt studied Chinese medicine, so I started looking in the world literature. I was an avid researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, because I lived in Santa Cruz at the time for many years. Id always go into the science library, and Id be trying to dig out stuff, and I found out mushrooms do have healing properties and they are used in other cultures.

I did some research and I came out with my first little pamphlet, Medicinal Mushrooms, in about 1988 or something like that. Then the second edition [in] 1995, and now my new edition, which is [from] 2021. So I put it together, and I have to benefit my ancestors, really.

Chris Kresser: It sounds like you have quite a lineage of ancestors in [the] plant medicine world whove inspired you and motivated you to continue this work. You mentioned the health benefits of mushrooms, and thats something Im particularly interested in, as well, although fungi are so amazing in so many different ways. I know Paul Stamets has written a lot about their potential for supporting the environment, and even cleaning up toxic waste, and so many other properties. But in this episode, Id love to dive into the health benefits a little further since a lot of our listeners are interested in that.

Ive read your book [and] I loved it. I actually saw you speak in the Bay Area many years ago, when I was studying Chinese medicine. This is more than 20 years ago now, I think, or 15 years ago. Ive been fascinated with the healing benefits of mushrooms since I was a student in Chinese medicine, and even a bit before that. From your perspective, from a 30,000-foot view, what do mushrooms have to offer from a health perspective? Why should people be eating or consuming mushrooms in other ways in the modern world?

Dr. Hobbs: After teaching workshops and writing about it for so many years, Ive simplified it down to what I consider the most crucial and helpful parts of the medicine that mushrooms are offering. Certainly, I can name them pretty easily and quickly. Number one, just getting to know our forests better. Theres a long tradition of going out in the forest and hunting mushrooms and learning about them, as a family, for instance, in many, many cultures throughout the world. Thats a big deal to go out on a weekend and spend the day hunting mushrooms, find some porcini, and the kids get all excited. I certainly took my son out. Forest therapy is a real thing. The trees are exuding so much terpenes and phenolics out there. When were in the forest, we get the serenity [and] the beauty of the sound of the wind in the trees. All of that is so healing. But theyre also pumping out all these chemicals, which are relaxing and calming us. These terpenes have a lot of calming properties on the nervous system.

So were getting that medicine from the forest. Then, its so important for us to make a connection with the natural world in the forest because so many [people] live in cities and dont understand what were losing when the forests are being cut down and burned. I think thats number one because we all know very well that the health of the planet and our environment and our community is going to directly affect our health. We have to look at a wider scale of how vital it is to maintain and support the natural processes and web of our world and not pollute so much. We have to look at how were polluting this world.

Chris Kresser: Id love to linger on that a little bit because I think its such an important point, especially now in the modern world as we get more and more connected to digital devices, and people are spending more and more time on those devices and feeling less and less connected to the natural world. Yet as you pointed out, thats really built into our DNA. We evolved in a natural environment, and we dont really know what the long-term implications are of a life that is spent completely divorced from the natural world, as many people are today. I come across studies almost every week about the impact that being in the wilderness or spending a lot of time in green space has on our health and well-being. Its profound. Its not a small effect. Im sure youve heard of Richard Louvs work. Nature deficit disorder is a term now that I think is legitimate, and theres a lot of evidence to back it up. I think a lot of people are suffering from that.

Dr. Hobbs: Very much so. I go backpacking myself to the wilderness every year, and I know what youre saying. Just getting out in the wilderness, away from everything. I was recently in West Virginia and, boy, its mile after mile after mile of gorgeous, green, leafy forest, and a few meadows here and there. I was staying at a cabin that was way, way up high, and you could see for miles and miles, and there was no sign of habitation anywhere. The sound at night was dead quiet and dark, and the stars were out. It was really quite refreshing and healing. So I know what youre saying. Nature is so important. So, just the fact that mushrooms are out there in the forest and theyre an integral part of the forest. The forest couldnt really exist without them.

When you say forest, thats a system. Its not just a bunch of trees planted in a plantation or something. A forest [has] so many parts to it. [There are] the insects and beetles, which interact with the trees, and the plants and other organisms that feed on and use the carbon that fungi break down when the tree recycles and dies, and also takes the sick and weak ones out. Fungi are an integral part of what we call the forest. So thats probably number one, I would thinkhow important the natural world is. Like you [said], we have to understand [and] protect our forests. These are our legacy. So many creatures on planet Earth depend on the forest being healthy. Thats our responsibility.

Chris Kresser: Yes, agreed.

Dr. Hobbs: There are a number of parts to fungi as medicine. Number two, you could say that they have chemicals in them, [that] they have active constituents if we ingest them. Thats one typical way of looking at what were getting out of mushroomsthe active constituents. It turns out that theres something even more fundamentally important than that, [which] is mushrooms as what I call food medicine. This is a very important concept that we have to talk about more [and] we have to teach about more, is that food is medicine. We eat so much food every day. If someone said, I want to be healthier, or if they have a lot of chronic illnesses, they might say, I want to be healthy. Im not healthy; I feel sick. Whats the one thing I can do to be healthier? Well, the one thing you can do is redefine what medicine is. Medicine is not pills. Its not chemicals. Medicine is so much more than that. In this case, the medicine is the totality of the fungi. Of course, in the forest, thats part of the medicine that we discussed first. But secondly, medicine is the food that we can eat. We eat so much food every day. We could start incorporating more mushrooms into our diet and less animal products. Because animal products, as far as creating protein and nutrition, vitamins, minerals, and so forth, [are] so inefficient. [They take] so much land. And of course, theres the emissions. Theres the methane gas that comes out of cows and other livestock. Theres the chemicals, the feeds, and so forth. Its not the most healthful way for our planet or our bodies.

Because were consuming so much food every day, we want to make that food count. I think its important to keep a journal and say, How much of the food that Im eating are low-nutrient, high-calorie foods? Study after study shows that if we can lower our calories and keep our calories in a narrow band, then were going to live longer. Thats probably the single most powerful way that we can extend our lives and have less illness.

Chris Kresser: Yeah, about 60 percent of the calories that the average American consumes come from ultra-processed and refined foods that are, like you said, devoid of nutrients and full of lots of ingredients that we dont want to put in our bodies.

When you think of mushrooms and their nutritional value and medicinal value, there [are] several things to consider. Theres the mineral content, which as you pointed out in your book; many mushrooms are really high in minerals and other essential compounds [and] nutrients. Then there are the phenolic compounds, terpenes, [which] you mentioned earlier in the context of the forest discussion, [and] which I want to come back to and discuss in more detail because, thanks to cannabis and essential oils being more common, people are starting to become aware of terpenes and their medicinal effects. Then there are things like the beta-glucan[s], [which are] the soluble fibers that are present in mushrooms [and] are being intensively studied for a whole range of beneficial effects, particularly around activation of the immune system. Id love to dive into those kinds of components of mushrooms, and if theres anything I missed in terms of general categories of the benefits of mushrooms.

Dr. Hobbs: Well, as far as number one, environment and forests. Number two, food medicine. And if you were to take the most important part of that, [it] is fiber. You mentioned terpenes and phenolics, and those are small molecular weight compounds. But mushrooms have an abundance of cell walls because both fruiting bodies and mycelium are made up of these strings of cells, which have a pretty thick and tough coating, the cell wall of the fungi. The cell wall is composed of proteins and chitin, which is a very hard polymer. Thirdly, its composed of beta-glucan. And a few other things, but those are the three main polymers. Glucan is simply a glucose polymer. Its a long string of glucose molecules, which are one of the main sugars. So, beta-glucans are important, yes. Thats one of the most important parts of the medicinal qualities of mushrooms. But the chitin in the cell wall is also very, very important. My point being that all mushroom cell walls are full of soluble and insoluble fiber, which form an incredible prebiotic. So when we eat more mushrooms, were probably getting the best prebiotics available out there. Theres more soluble and insoluble fiber in mushrooms than any vegetable. Turkey tail, for instance, is up to 60 percent beta-glucans [and] around 90 percent soluble and insoluble fiber. There is no other food out there that has that much usable, prebiotic fiber.

Chris Kresser: Not even close, no.

Dr. Hobbs: Not even close. There [have] been some new studies Ive been talking about lately, which Im so excited about. We see more and more studies investigating our microbiome and how it plays a role in our health, digestion, [and] nutrition, by tweaking and activating and regulating our immune response body-wide. Its so crucial to many parts of our bodys health and function. But recently, theyve shown that it can actually affect our mood and cognition, and thats when it starts getting really interesting. It turns out that theres a new study that shows that when people ate a lot of mushroom prebiotic fiber in their diet, they had much higher microbiome diversity. And many of the new studies show that species diversity in our microbiome is the number one factor as to how were going to get health benefits from our microbiome.

Chris Kresser: Thats such an important point. I had Dr. Justin Sonnenburg from Stanford on the show a couple of years ago. Hes a microbiologist [and] studies the microbiome, and most of the show was talking about the importance of microbial diversity and eating a broad range of different types of what he calls microbiota-accessible carbohydrates, which is a fancy way of talking about fiber that can be fermented by gut bacteria versus some fibers, which cant be fermented and still play other important roles, but are not as useful in terms of promoting bacterial diversity.

Dr. Hobbs: Exactly. Thats why fungal fiber is so good because its not digestible in our upper [gastrointestinal] tract.A lot of it ends up getting down into our lower tract where the microbes can work on it. One quick sidebar on that, if youre a big oats fan like I am, [is that] oats contain beta-glucan, too. Oats are one of the [healthiest] foods out there. Heres a couple of facts. First of all, all oats are pre-cooked. If you buy oatmeal, or you buy oat groats, or steel cut oats, and then pour some almond milk on it and let it soak and soften up and then put fruit on it and eat it, and [you think] youre getting raw oats, youre not getting raw oats. [They] are already cooked. There are raw oats available out there, oat groats. If you take those pre-cooked oats, and then cook them again by making oat porridge or a bowl of oatmeal, all those complex fibers are getting broken down, and then theyre highly absorbable in our upper [gastrointestinal] tract. Youre not getting nearly the full benefit of the oats if youre going to buy pre-cooked oats or if youre going to double cook your oats. Thats just a quick sidebar there.

Chris Kresser: I think the fiber question is one that has gotten, like you said, a lot more attention recently. Ive been talking about it for years and even telling patients [that] when youre choosing what food to eat, you need to think about how its going to nourish you, and also how its going to nourish your gut microbiota. Because there are certain foods that are much more important in terms of nourishing us that were actually able to digest and absorb. And then there are other foods that we dont actually digest and absorb those carbohydrates. But that doesnt mean theyre not tremendously valuable. The bacteria and other microbes are digesting and absorbing those complex polysaccharides, and theyre turning those into compounds like short-chain fatty acids and other molecules that, as you pointed out, can lead to changes systemically throughout the body, the gutbrain axis, and the relationship between the gut and the brain. Theres even a lot of research now that suggests that depression and anxiety could be primarily gut disorders. That inflammation that originates in the gut suppresses activity in the frontal cortex and ends up causing all the telltale symptoms of depression. So its a pretty exciting time that we get to better understand all this stuff and to have these fungi that we can use to modulate our health in a really powerful way.

Dr. Hobbs: And theres so much availability out there. Thats the other thing.

Medicinal mushrooms have become a hot topic, with claims that they can do everything from boost our defense against viruses and other pathogens, to protect us against cancer, support healthy brain function, and improve our response to stress. Hear expert Dr. Christopher Hobbs discuss all the ways we can benefit from mushrooms, in this episode of Revolution Health Radio. #chriskresser #medicinalmushrooms

Chris Kresser: Lets talk a little bit about the beta-glucans. You go into tremendous detail on this in your book, which I really appreciate because Im a geek and I like to learn about this kind of stuff. It sounds like, from my research and from reading your book, that one of the primary actions that [beta-glucans are] being studied for is as an immunomodulator. They activate innate immune cells like macrophages, dendritic cells, granulocytes, [and] natural killer cells, and they can trigger the effector cells like CD4+ and CD8+ and patrol the blood, sense potential pathogens, and prime our immune system for a more effective response. I think over the past couple of years, [it] has become really obvious why thats important for all of us.

Dr. Hobbs: Thats absolutely right. As you mentioned, the beta-glucans, and to a minor degree, the chitin, is one of the main things you think of when you think [about] the therapeutics of medicinal mushrooms, is immunomodulation, anti-cancer, antibacterial, [and] anti-infective actions of medicinal mushroom[s]. Thats probably one of the first things you think of when you really think [about] the nuts and bolts [of] biological activity. But the other really big piece of that is that this has been so widely studied throughout the world. There are literally thousands and thousands of research papers on the action of the beta-glucans in at least 50 species of fungi all over the world, especially in Japan [and] China, but [in] other places, as well. There is incredibly deep scientific literature and body of research on the medicinal effects of beta-glucans and how [they affect] our immune system. All the ins and outs of it, how deep you want to go down to the level of T cells and B cells and so forth, as you mentioned. Its pretty exciting. Dont forget that yeast also is a mushroom, and there are some studies showing that yeast supplementation can also activate that immune response.

The other big advantage of beta-glucans, or other biological activity groups, is anti-inflammatory. For instance, [in] lions mane and chaga, their beta-glucans have been studied for easing gut inflammation like gastritis, gastric ulcer, [and] things like that. Thats been well-studied. Those two species are widely used in Russia and China for easing stomach distress. Thats probably the number one thing that lions mane is used for in China is stomach distress and [gastrointestinal] distress because of its powerful, soothing, and anti-inflammatory effects.

Chris Kresser: Right. So weve got mushrooms, [and] theyre a great source of some essential nutrients. I think the highest sources [are] turkey tail and reishi.

Dr. Hobbs: Sixty percent in turkey tail and about 55 percent in reishi.

Chris Kresser: I know that there are, of course, other sources of beta-glucan in the diet, but none that are that high as a percentage of the weight of that food that Im aware of.

Dr. Hobbs: Well, not fungal beta-glucan. All fungus has fungal beta-glucan. These are highly branched and impossible for us to digest in the upper digestive tract. Grains have beta-glucans, as well, but they arent highly branched; theyre more linear. And they dont have the immunomodulating and anti-inflammatory effects that fungal beta-glucans do.

Chris Kresser: They act more [like] the typical soluble fiber acts. They have some benefit for the gut flora, but not as potent in terms of their immunomodulatory effects.

Dr. Hobbs: No, but they do have some anti-inflammatory effects.

Chris Kresser: You also mentioned another component, which are phenolic compounds and terpenes. Tell us a little bit about the action of those compounds in mushrooms. And are they found in all mushrooms in similar amounts? Are there some mushrooms that are higher in those compounds than others?

Dr. Hobbs: First of all, the beta-glucans, by the way, are in various levels in each species. Not every species is going to have the same amount of beta-glucans. We mentioned that. But all edible mushrooms like shiitake, porcini, chanterelle, all those that you might find in the woods, all have a significant amount of beta-glucan. Wild mushrooms have [beta-glucans], and ones that you would buy in the store have beta-glucans. They are irregular, but theres still a significant amount of beta-glucans in all fungi. Whereas, with terpenes, thats a completely different category of compounds. Those have a wide variety of biological effects. To a lesser degree, theyre found as monoterpenes, which are C10 compounds. Those are smaller terpene molecules, which are volatile often and have an aroma. So some mushrooms have a volatile terpene kind of smell, and those can have a sedative effect on the nervous system.

Then you get the diterpenes, and those are C20, a 20-carbon molecule, so those are bigger. Those are not typically volatile. Those are best characterized by the diterpenes hericenone and erinacine in lions mane. Those compounds are at a pretty high concentrationabout 5 percent to dry weight basis, and those compounds are pretty exclusively found in the genus Hericium, which are the lions mane. Those have been shown to have mood modulating effects. There have been a couple of clinical trials showing that it can help people [ease] anxiety or depression. Its not a drug, remember. If theyre eaten regularly, then its going to have a much stronger effect.

Chris Kresser: I had a patient with essential tremor syndrome who we [tried] a lot of different [treatments on] and got some help and benefit from various interventions. But the thing that almost completely stopped the tremor was lions mane. Its been studied for nerve [regeneration] and neuroregenerative effects, as well.

Dr. Hobbs: It has, yes. And there is some really good research. Its been shown that a number of mushrooms, including lions mane, [which] is probably the best studied, have neurogenic properties. However, thats all laboratory research, remember. There are no clinical trials to support that. However, a lot of people are picking up on that and trying it, so thats really good. Because its a food, its a very safe medicine to use. Its a food medicine. So definitely, we can experiment with that. If you do have nerve damage or nerve injury, or nerve inflammation, its very much worth a try as a supplement or a powder.

Chris Kresser: Absolutely, [theres] no real downside there. You mentioned monoterpenes, diterpenes, that are primarily found in lions mane, and then there are countless triterpenes, right, in reishi?

Dr. Hobbs: Countless triterpenes. Triterpenes are more widespread in mushrooms than ergosterol, which is the precursor for vitamin D. Its found in all mushrooms, [and] its part of the cell wall that adds fluidity. Its a lipid type substance. When you get a compound that big, it turns out that its not water-soluble anymore. Its more of a lipophilic compound. Theres a massive variety of triterpenes found in the glycoside form, which the mushroom might attach a sugar to so that it can more freely move around the water-based environment inside the fungi. Also the same in plants, those are called glycosides. Or it could be just as the aglycone, a plain triterpene. These compounds definitely have been incredibly well-studied in reishi. This is one of the main active components of reishi mushrooms.

There are a vast, vast amount of different ones in there. There are a number of different species that can be used for reishi-like mushrooms. Each species might have a different mixture of triterpenes. Thats why its interesting to try different ones and see how they work. Triterpenes are very well-known as anti-inflammatories, but also immune modulators. They do add to immune modulation of the beta-glucan. Definitely very strong, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antinociceptive, [and] pain relieving.

Chris Kresser: Right. Blood sugar, metabolic effects.

Dr. Hobbs: Blood sugar regulation, liver support, hepatoprotective. Those are only some of the many. If you read a list of all the different biological activities that have been shown with reishi triterpenes, its a long, long list.

Chris Kresser: Ill quote from one passage from your book. Its anti-cancer, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, liver protective, anti-obesity, blood sugar regulating, and antimicrobial effects, to name a few. It almost sounds too good to be true, right? Its just a remarkable spectrum of activity.

Dr. Hobbs: It is, and thats why its [been] used for such a wide variety of ailments in China for over 2,000 years.

Chris Kresser: I want to go back to something you said about the antioxidant properties because I wasnt aware of this. I learned when I read your book that the antioxidant potential of mushrooms is much higher than in the most commonly eaten fruits and vegetables that people typically think of as having a high antioxidant value. That was news to me. I knew mushrooms had a lot of beneficial properties, but I didnt think of them as really potent antioxidants until I learned that from your book.

Dr. Hobbs: Right. Thats one of the many facets of reishi. Quite a few other species have triterpenes, too. A lot of the conks, like boletus and, for instance, zhu ling. Zhu ling has a lot of triterpenes in it. Chaga has some. Probably most mushroom species have some triterpenes in them. Turkey tail definitely has triterpenes.

Chris Kresser: This has been fascinating [and] so helpful to really understand all the different medicinal effects that mushrooms can have. Its also particularly fascinating to understand how those effects can differ across different mushrooms. Eating a number of different species of mushrooms will give you different benefits. Some mushrooms are much higher in beta-glucan. Others might be higher in certain types of terpenes or specific terpenes that are going to give you a particular benefit that youre looking for.

Dr. Hobbs: And cordyceps have amines, which can affect our nervous system.

Chris Kresser: So cordyceps, lets talk a little bit about that because I find its such a fascinating organism. Tell people what cordyceps is, to begin with, because thats the fun part. And then we can talk a little bit about the unique health benefits of cordyceps.

Dr. Hobbs: Cordyceps, in its original form, is attached to an insect. There are two main species that we should quickly discuss. The first one is Cordyceps sinensis.

Cordyceps sinensis is composed of a moth caterpillar that lives in the Tibetan Highland underground for three years. When the larva hatches, it feeds on roots underground, and then after three years, some of them become infected with cordyceps, [and] some dont. Cordyceps [are] in the soil, and many other organisms are in the soil, too. So some of them are infected by Cordyceps sinensis, which seems to be like the caribou and the wolf, [in] that the Cordyceps sinensis job is to take out and basically digest the ones that it somehow senses are not very fit for the population. It infects them in the soil, invades them, and then before it kills the larvae, it changes its neurochemistry so that the caterpillar moves up toward the surface and orients itself just below the surface. Then the fruiting body projects out of the top of the head of the moth caterpillar. So if thats not freaky enough for you.

Chris Kresser: Yeah. I would sometimes explain this to patients, and theyre like, Theres no way Im going to take that. But then once [I explained] the benefits, I got some to come around. Its always fascinating to talk about that. Cordyceps, of course, in Chinese medicine and other systems of traditional medicine, has a long history of use as a tonic for sexual health and vitality, well-being, energy levels, and its used in some traditional cultures for athletic performance and recovery. I think there [is] even [a] limited amount of modern research that supports that use, as well. It seems to me [that out] of a lot of the mushroom species that we talked about, cordyceps has some unique benefits in that regard. It seems to be particularly targeted in that direction.

Dr. Hobbs: Perhaps because of the amines that are found in there, perhaps because of terpenes in there that contribute, and, of course, the beta-glucans. Then the other species is Cordyceps militaris. This is the one that you should buy. You should not buy Cordyceps sinensis because there really are no authentic Cordyceps sinensis outside of going to Chinatown [and] buying the caterpillars with the fruiting bodies coming out of their heads for hundreds of dollars. So just go ahead and focus on Cordyceps militaris. They have many of the same benefits as Cordyceps sinensis. Ive tested them myself in the laboratory for authenticity with DNA, and the products that Ive tested have been pretty authentic. They are Cordyceps militaris. Thats the way to go.

Chris Kresser: And if someones taking a mushroom supplement or something like that, its going to be Cordyceps militaris and not Cordyceps sinensis.

Dr. Hobbs: Right. It took us a while to get that all straightened out in the industry, but now, I think its pretty settled.

Chris Kresser: Id love to finish by asking you for some tips for someone who wants to get started with mushroom foraging and doing it in a safe way. How can they learn more about that? Id love to talk a little bit about your book as a resource. For those who are interested, like you said, [its] a great way to get out into the forest and collect your own food and get a little bit more intimate with that whole process. How can folks get started with this?

Dr. Hobbs: Well, get my book, for one thing.

Chris Kresser: Well put a link to it in the show notes. Its Christopher Hobbs, Medicinal Mushrooms: The Essential Guide, for those of you who are listening.

Dr. Hobbs: Also, check into my website because I have a lot of stuff on there, medicinal mushroom-wise. [Its] http://www.ChristopherHobbs.com. Easy to remember.

Chris Kresser: Your book has fantastic information about the benefits of mushrooms, [their] history, and also information about how to prepare mushrooms. How to eat them, how to make tinctures [and] extracts, which mushrooms are better to cook and eat because they have a better flavor, [and] which mushrooms tend to be very bitter or chewy, [where] you might want to make them into an extract or something else.

Dr. Hobbs: How to grow them, of course.

Chris Kresser: How to grow them. Yeah.

Dr. Hobbs: How to identify toxic ones, though you should get a good field guide, as well. Mine isnt an absolute, end of the line [identification] book.

Chris Kresser: Thats what I was going to ask. I know a lot of people are nervous about that, and rightfully so. I think a substantial percentage of calls that go into poison hotlines are from mushrooms. There is some risk.

Dr. Hobbs: The book I recommend first and foremost is a field guide, David Aroras All That the Rain Promises and More. That is a fantastic book. Theres nothing better. [Its] easy to put in your pocket. Hes got decades and decades of experience. He shows you the toxic lookalikes, [and] he really [goes] into depth on the edibles. He doesnt touch on medicinals too much, but he will give you some really good basic information. And then other than that, Id say, look for a local field guide. It makes it easier to identify. Dont try to get the Mushrooms of the United States. Youre better off getting Mushrooms of the Northwest United States or Northeast, or wherever you are. Try to find your regional mushroom guide, which has pictures. And also, join a mushroom society or club. We have so many [here] in California, and there are more popping up all the time. Join a local mushroom club or society if you can. Go on some forays. There are usually some really seasoned mushroom hunters out there, and [they] can identify your collections. There should also be mushroom fairs. We have a number of mushroom gatherings and fairs where you can bring your mushrooms in and have them identified. Or look for local walks, even with one individual thats well-seasoned. Get some direct, hands-on stuff going on with someone who really knows what theyre doing. Thats important.

Chris Kresser: Thats really, really helpful. For the last question Im going to ask you, if you had to pick only three mushrooms, what would be your top three for medicinal value?

Dr. Hobbs: Well, thats easy. One, two, three. Reishi, turkey tail, and psilocybin.

Chris Kresser: Yeah, well have to do another show on psilocybin because Im also very interested in that and the psychospiritual, emotional, and even physical benefits of psilocybin. How about for eating? Top three culinary mushrooms.

Dr. Hobbs: Porcini is definitely number one. Beyond that, I love chanterelles. I love candy caps. There are so many good edibles out there. Im in love with shiitake. So those are my handfulporcini, shiitake, and chanterelles. I love oysters, too. There are probably 10 really well-known edibles. And thats another class, just talking about the 10 top edibles and how to prepare them and how to find them and so forth.

Chris Kresser: Well, I definitely would love to have you come back and talk about psilocybin on another show. And I think the audience would love that, too.

Dr. Hobbs: Can I mention my upcoming class series?

Chris Kresser: Please do. We have a lot of listeners in California and the Bay Area.

Dr. Hobbs: Im really, really delighted to be doing a seven-week medicinal mushroom course. A to Z, everything you would like to know, in depth, [with] PowerPoints, and a big Q&A period at the end. Thats one of the biggest benefits of doing it live. And its not in person; its live on Zoom. We did it last year, [and] it was totally incredible, so I hope you can join us. Its through the BotanicWise Network. Its going to be in late June and July. And then I wanted to mention that Im doing a seven-part psilocybin course that is going to be everything you ever wanted to know about psilocybin, including how it works in the body, the clinical trials, how to become a guide, how to work with a guide, how to find them, how to grow them, and [how to] dry them. Everything you would want to know. How to microdose, all that is going to be covered in my seven-week course with the Shift Network. So look for that in August and September.

Chris Kresser: Fantastic. And are these on your website, as well?

Dr. Hobbs: They will be on my social media, so follow me, especially on Facebook and Instagram. Im posting on Instagram quite a bit. Dr. Christopher Hobbs.

Chris Kresser: And again, I highly recommend Christophers book. Christopher Hobbs, Medicinal Mushrooms: The Essential Guide. Ive read it twice, and its a phenomenal resource for all things mushrooms, from understanding their medicinal value to understanding how to cook and prepare them and make medicine out of them.

Christopher, its been a fascinating conversation. Im so grateful for your time. Youre a wealth of knowledge on this topic, and [I] look forward to having you back to talk about psilocybin in the future.

Dr. Hobbs: Thanks, Chris. Much appreciate the invitation and your good questions and interaction. That was a lot of fun. I appreciate it and hope to be back another time.

Chris Kresser: Look forward to it. Okay, everybody. Thanks for listening. Keep sending your questions to ChrisKresser.com/podcastquestion.

This episode of Revolution Health Radio is sponsored by Kettle & Fire and Paleovalley.

As a member of our community, Kettle & Fire has a very special offer for you. Go to KettleandFire.com/Kresser and use the code KRESSER at checkout to save 20% on your entire order.

Paleovalley is also offering our listeners an exclusive offer. Head over to Paleovalley.com/Chris and use the code KRESSER15 to get 15% off your order.

Read more:
RHR: Medicinal Mushrooms and Their Unique Health Benefits, with Dr. Christopher Hobbs - Chris Kresser

The term yoga has acquired a very reductive meaning in popular culture. It is often referred to as a form of exercise that renders flexibility, and Instagram influencers who know how to twist their bodies in impossible knots have somehow become the supreme authority of what yoga can do. Sometimes, apart from its physical aspect, they throw in a discussion about mental health and meditation and participate in the wokism that seems to have overtaken our lives.

However, in truth, yoga the ultimate union of mind and body has a far more complex, and erudite explanation. In its evolution of 5,000 years, we have come to know several forms of yoga. While Hatha Yoga (which mostly comprises asanas) is the most popular one, it is also the most rudimentary type of yoga. Other types of yoga, that move beyond physical practice include Iyenger yoga, Kundalini yoga, Bikram yoga etc. Another form of yoga that is easy to practice, and can be incorporated in our daily lives is called Ashtanga Yoga or Raj Yoga.If you are hearing about this form of yoga for the first time, worry not, you arent alone.

ET Panache Digital spoke to Himalayan Siddha, Akshar Founder, Akshar Yoga Research and Development Centre to understand the basis tenets of Raj Yoga and how we can make it a part of our lives. Here are a few excerpts from the interview.

Himalayan Siddha, Akshar, Founder, Akshar Yoga Research and Development Centre

Through this yoga, you learn to manage your emotions better which means you can make yourself happy at any given point of time, feed yourself whenever you feel hungry and live your life according to your own desire. Raj Yoga focuses on the development of all three important aspects of your life which is physical, mental, and spiritual growth. You will begin to notice an immediate change in the physical aspect when you start this practice because Raj Yoga demands discipline out of you. You will have to rise along with the sun in the morning and do your practice. Raj Yoga is a science based holistic solution.In Raj Yoga, even the utensils that you use have to be planned with much thought as any and all metals are not allowed and only silver, gold, clay and even certain leaves are used as containers for food. There are specific reasons as to why each material is beneficial for you for example using banana leaves is considered to be a very good habit as it energizes your food and enriches it. Walking is an integral part of Raj Yoga as the practice encourages you to walk regularly as a form of exercise for the mind, body and soul. Raj Yoga will also train you on the correct tone of voice to use and how this can have an impact on your communication with others.

Tratak is beneficial for the eyes and this helps your vision become better and how standing positions in Raj Yoga will strengthen your body and help to eliminate problems like sciatica. It also helps to shape the mind and make you able to prioritise better. When the mind is better organised you will be able to discern for yourself the activities and people that will support you in your growth and where you should put your attention.

How is Raj Yoga different from Hatha Yoga?Hatha Yoga is an ancient system that focuses on the science of Kriyas known as shatkarma. As this form of Yoga involves the body to be forced to achieve its asanas, pranayamas or the cleansing rituals, the practitioners referred to it as the form of yoga that requires force.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a book that most Hatha Yoga practitioner of the modern world have read through. This book was first written by Swatmaram, disciple of Guru Gorakshnath. The 'Hatha Yoga Pradipika' is a compilation of Hatha Yoga as taught by Guru Gorakshanth and his guru, Maharishi Matsyendranath. This book describes the means and ways in the form of Asanas, Pranayams , Mudras , Bandhas , Shatkarmas to become a Hatha Yogi. Hatha yoga is a spiritual practice which means that it is about detachment from the material world and attachment to the higher planes. While practicing Hatha Yoga, we will disconnect from society and remove ourselves to more secluded locations like the mountains etc.

Raj Yoga as the name suggests is the king of yogas. In this form of yoga Lord Krishna is a central figure and plays a very important role. This is because lord Krishna demonstrated the power of yoga showing how when one practices yoga he can live his life king size and evolve himself for the greater good. In Raj Yoga we can learn about the way in which to overcome lifes challenges and still be able to emerge triumphant. Raj Yoga focuses on development of the brain and attention is given to behaviour, life skills and how you lead this life. There is no room for error in Raj Yoga because it teachers you perfection. You must learn from the mistakes of others and from society in order to bring perfection into everything that you do.

The eight limbs discussed in Ashtanga yoga are Yama, Niyama, Asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and Samadhi. All of these 8 limbs need to be worked on simultaneously and not sequentially.

The eight limbs discussed in Ashtanga yoga are Yama, Niyama, Asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and Samadhi. All of these 8 limbs need to be worked on simultaneously and not sequentially.

Yama includes Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya (non-covetousness), Aparigraha, Brahmacharya (celibacy).

Niyama involves Saucha, Santosha, Ishwarapranidhana, Tapasya and Swadhyaya.

Raj Yoga focuses on meditation and how you can master this for your growth and development. It brings attention to perfection in every task that you undertake. Raj Yoga highlights on learning all aspects of human development.

Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha are the four main tenets that Raj Yoga focuses on. In order to become a master of these four areas, learning begins from a very early age where a child is trained in communication, body language, behaviour and in every possible way to prosper and achieve success in this life. All the training is done in the most organic and natural way without any sort of artificial enhancements. The approach is a purely holistic one. Yoga teaches you to be your most authentic self because this is what brings holistic growth and victory.

Can Raj Yoga be followed by those who have corporate jobs? In Raj Yoga the primary requirement for anybody is to keep yourself as clean as possible. It is absolutely possible for corporate professionals to adapt to the practice of Raj Yoga as this was made for us to live life better. But most of us have become very material oriented which means that we do not put heart and soul into what we are doing and mostly do things without any purpose. For example a person who is focused on earning his livelihood is satisfied when he is well fed and clothed and does not care beyond his own needs. This is called being materialistic and Raj Yoga goes to higher levels of existence.

In the corporate world Raj Yoga principles can be applied 100% because it is not a question of you versus anybody else but it is a competition only between you and your own self. Rather than filling yourself with negative emotions like envy, jealousy, anger, greed and unhealthy competition when looking at other peoples achievement Raj Yoga tells you to focus on your own skill building. How can you develop your own skills in order to reach a greater level of success without bringing down anybody else or envying another persons success? -- Raj Yogas focus is on you reaching your highest and truest potential through your own hard work and merit.

When the mind is better organised you will be able to discern for yourself the activities and people that will support you in your growth and where you should put your attention.

To practice this you must form a thought and then put your entire focus on this thought while you do your tratak meditation. Along with this another visualisation meditation technique known as Brahmand Dhyan is used which is the visualizing of the entire universe or cosmos. This will help you envision the vastness of the universe and in turn believe in your own limitless potential.

See the original post here:
Be the master of your mind! From voice control to behavioural patterns, Raj Yoga makes you the king of you - Economic Times

We tend to get out and about more during the summer than during the colder months. There is so much going on and I don't blame anyone for wanting to spend that outdoor time with their pets. If you have pets that go with you everywhere, make sure you keep these things in mind this summer.

Dog left alone in locked car. Abandoned animal concept.

This is something that happens every single year. People will bring their dog with them to the grocery store, leave the dog inside their vehicle on a 90-degree day without the air conditioner on and cause major damage, or even death, to their pet. If you want to bring your pet, make sure you have the air conditioner on, the car on, and the doors locked, and keep them cool. Or, you could leave them home in the air-conditioned house.

516461357

That plastic dog houses that kind of look like crates are actually more like ovens. You definitely can't use that alone as their shade. That plastic holds in the heat and if your dog or cat is sitting in it as its only reprieve, it can be super dangerous

PC Ryker Wager

Don't walk them on asphalt or concrete because it can definitely burn their feet. If it is too hot for your hand or barefoot, it is too hot for theirs. You can always get them little booties or shoes. They make those.

Julia Toner / poodle mix

Make sure they have plenty of water, especially if they are outside dogs. You want to make sure that they always have access. Change it often, check it often. I feel like these are all no-brainers, but they still need to be said.

Close Up Of An Adult Female An Adult Male Nymph And Larva Tick Is Shown June 15 2001

Make sure you double and triple-check your pets for ticks and bug bites. This is especially true after a camping trip or lake trip. Bug bites can mostly be harmless, but ticks can cause Lyme disease and fleas can be problematic.

Does your loyal pup's breed make the list? Read on to see if you'll be bragging to the neighbors about your dog's intellectual prowess the next time you take your fur baby out for a walk. Don't worry: Even if your dog's breed doesn't land on the list, that doesn't mean he's not a good boy--some traits simply can't be measured.

LOOK: 30 fascinating facts about sleep in the animal kingdom

Read more:
5 Ways To Keep Your Pets Safe During This Hot Twin Falls Summer - kezj.com

There is no denying the long-lasting legacy of the King of Rock & Roll. Elvis Aaron Presley might have died 45 years ago at the tender age of 42, but the legendary musician lives on, from his music, movies and iconic dance moves that have made the entertainer one of the most impersonated musicians in the world, from the stage, in churches in Las Vegas, in movies and on TV, Halloween and everything in between. With his unique voice, strong magnetic personality, larger-than-life stage persona and genre-defining music, making a biopic of Elvis the Pelvis would have been relatively easy, but the cast and crew knew they didnt want to simply recap the long list of achievements made by the celebrated performer, and be done with it.

So rather than focusing heavily on the singers childhood before he cut his first single, the film chooses to also feature the strong African-American rhythm and blues music that was present but routinely ignored or downplayed during that time, and how the rich genre slowly shaped the younger singer as he was growing up in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis attempts to bring light to that in his grand, glamorous biopic that not only charts the singers career and his relationship with manager Colonel Tom Parker, but also the Black pioneers who inspired him.

The fact that we do not have Elvis without Black music, and giving credit where credit is due, said actor Austin Butler, who plays Elvis in the film, at a press conference that Geek Culture attended. The narrative has been told in so many different ways, and Im just so proud of the fact that we get to be a part of this film. Sister Rosetta [Tharpe] was inventing rock and roll in the 40s.

To which, musician Yola, who plays Tharpe in the film, added, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was the safe place. She was very outwardly queer in the 40s thats kind of dangerous so she had to be a safe place. She discovered Little Richard, she invented rock and roll, and she also discovered people.

She was being the elder. Growing up with her was more about this sense of home that [Tharpe] had to create for people so when they come to Club Handy, they reconnect with the spirit of rock and roll, finished Yola.

While the media then was focused more on the performer rather than the inspiration, Elvis himself never avoided the association, and was open about his debt to Black music from the very beginning of his career, to a point where his reputation suffered due to the perceived influence his music had on the moral well-being of his white listeners. In a 1957 interview, Elvis said, [Black musicians] been singing it and playing it just like Im doin now, man, for more years than I knowThey played it like that in their shanties and in their juke joints and nobody paid it no mind til I goosed it up.

And there was no way that director Baz Luhrmann was simply going to gloss over the subject matter or pay it a cursory regard in his biopic. Elvis not only meaningfully explores the singers upbringing in a largely Black neighbourhood in segregated America, but it also showed how this experience defined him as an artist. Viewers will see young Elvis mesmerised by gospel music as a child and as an adult, audiences will see him sneaking off to Beale Street in Memphis to hang out with noted musicians BB King, Little Richard and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. These relationships that Elvis had are an integral part of who he is, and Luhrmann wanted it front and centre in his film on the King.

Well, there are just things you cant tell the story without. You cant do America in the 50s, 60s and 70s, and you cant do someone who is about music, without dealing with Black artists and music. Thats the journey that Elvis went on, his relationship to all these characters, said Luhrmann.

If theres a big debate out there about that, have we grown? Have we? Has it been an evolution? Along the way, you experience this very personal intimate journey of this guy called Elvis and this guy called Colonel Tom Parker. I have people come and go like, Yeah, okay, that was in, but where are we now? Are we going backwards?.

Whilst BB King, Little Richard and Sister Rosetta Tharpe were all important, the friendship and mentorship between King and Elvis were the most heavily fleshed out in Elvis. The film saw Elvis frequently attend Kings shows and even depicted a scene of the iconic image that saw Elvis and King arm in arm.

To prepare himself for the role of the famed BB King, Kelvin Harrison Jr. worked closely with Butler to develop the on-screen friendship between the two music greats. Harrison Jr. also conducted a lot of research and self-reflected on what it meant to be a Black musician at the time, when the music being played was not just country, but was rhythm and blues and pop music too. It was for everybody but heard by nobody due to the segregation up until Elvis came along. Harrison Jr. frequently wondered how BB made music, sold his music, and what type of advice he could give to young Elvis.

I feel like my job was to come in and kind of just be the brother, you know? Austin and I met before the movie, we went to dinner and figured out how do we talk about art? How do we talk about craft? What are we insecure about? What are we scared of? What does it feel like for you to step into this role? What does it feel like for me to come in and step into this role? And I think thats the relationship that BB and all of us are sharing at that moment, shared Harrison Jr.

What does this mean to us in this time? What does it mean for me as a black actor? BB to be a Black musician that only has been able to feel the real audience in Memphis at that time to get a tour bus for the first time. Understanding just the time, and just like looking at the research and figuring out what was BBs politics and value systems around developing who he was as an artist and his business? How does he develop his business? And how can [he] share that advice with him (Elvis) while also encouraging him to be the artist that he wants to be?

Butler had a similar method of preparation too but took additional training to really capture Elvis essence and characteristics. The actor had a movement coach, a dialect coach, a singing coach and a karate instructor. After all, portraying an iconic person is never easy. Butler also felt immense pressure and feared failing Elvis, his legacy, the singers surviving family, as well as the legion of Elvis fans around the world.

So how long does one prepare to be the King? Well, the 30-year-old actor, who had small roles in Disney shows before, felt such a huge sense of responsibility and fear that the preparation process took two years.

I had those two years where I really didnt do anything else but just obsess. I just tried to be as meticulous as possible, but at the end of the day, its all about finding his humanity, because what I was most fascinated by was stripping away the icon, stripping away the caricatures or the Halloween costume of Elvis and getting down to who was he in an empty room by himself at the end of the day? How did he wake up in the morning? You know, what was his inner life? questioned Butler.

And hes an incredibly sensitive, spiritual man so it was just finding how he evolved over the years. That was sort of my process.

Butler listened to numerous recordings of the star and took notice of how his voice changed over the years. He would then mimic Elvis evolution in everything he did so that his performance wont come off as simply a caricature that plenty have seen before.

I was struck by how his voice changes over the years. You listen to an interview in 54 or 55, 56 and then another one in 62, he sounds totally different. And then you hear him in 72 and he sounds different from that. And then 77, he sounds different. You got all these different voices so I would spend a day sort of living in one of them. I think because there have been so many caricatures of him that for me, I really doubled down on making it feel like this was my life, that that Im seeing from inside of him, and not falling into any of these traps because its really hard not to because we all have this idea of what he sounds like, explained Butler.

Perhaps, out of his entire experience of preparing and then moving on to play Elvis himself, Butlers most life-changing moment was recording gospel music that was later used in the films scene where little Elvis snuck into a gospel tent.

In fact, it was that particular moment where Butler felt like Elvis himself, that he had channelled the same little Elvis who heard gospel music for the first time and became completely engulfed by the melody of voices and movement around him.

I think there were about 30 of the most incredible gospel singers Ive ever heard in my life. And I remember the first person starting to sing, and I got chills. And then as the voices came together, tears came out of my eyes, said Butler.

And then everybodys stomping their feet, and suddenly I start feeling. Im standing they let me stand in the centre and Im stomping my feet, and I felt that moment that little Elvis had.

I was just, raptured.

Elvis takes the screen on 23 June 2022.

Dont judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.

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'Elvis' Is Not Just A Celebration Of The King's Career, But Black Music As Well Says Director Baz Luhrmann - Geek Culture