Ep. 240: William Padilla-Brown

Plant Cunning Conference – In-Person in New York – July 24-26, 2026

MycoSymbiotics Mushroom & Art Festival July 29- August 2d, 2026Today on the podcast, AC & Isaac Hill interview mushroom citizen scientist and community builder William Padilla-Brown about his path into mycology, from early curiosity about consciousness and “plant medicine” to diet-driven health struggles that pushed him into growing his own food, foraging, and functional mushrooms. He credits discovering online superfood and medicinal-mushroom content (including David Avocado Wolfe) as a turning point, then explains how mushroom videos took off on YouTube and led him to start MycoSymbiotics and launch MycoFest in 2015 to create a lasting community and legacy for his family. Will recounts cultivating cordyceps after finding a specimen at the first festival, rejecting the idea that it was “impossible,” and learning through observation—treating life as a readable language. He describes MycoSymbiotics’ cutting edge work: wild strain selection, DNA barcoding, cultivation, extraction, third‑party analytics, and making potent products affordable. The conversation also covers ecological literacy through mushrooms, conservation concerns like Pine Barrens development and matsutake habitat loss, the importance and diversity of native truffles (including training a dog to find tuber canaliculatum), aroma as a form of “medicine,” modern distraction and nervous-system hijacking, and adapting to AI by leaning into uniquely human creativity. He closes with MycoFest details (first weekend of August; July 31–Aug 2; MycoFest.net; Artemis, PA; code MYCOMMUNITY), plus MycoSymbiotics sites, classes, a farmer co‑op, and local projects.

00:00 Meet William Padilla-Brown

01:55 Origins in Plant Medicine

06:03 Health Wake Up Call

09:09 David Wolfe and Medicinals

11:28 Myco Symbiote to MycoFest

13:12 Nothing Is Impossible

15:30 Learning From Living Signs

21:05 Mycology Cutting Edge Today

23:44 Matsutake and Habitat Threats

25:29 Truffles as Ecological Gateway

27:16 Native Truffles in Pennsylvania

30:14 Truffles and Sensory Depth

30:41 Overstimulation and Numbness

31:54 Aroma as Medicine

33:58 Capitalism and Responsibility

36:16 Distraction Casino Reality

38:53 Using the System for Good

40:53 Social Media and Rage Bait

44:27 AI Music and Human Spark

48:55 MycoFest and Community Wrap