Under the Microscope: A Candid Interview with Mycologist Willy Myco

Disclaimer: We do not encourage illegal activity. Check with and adhere to your local laws. We do not claim psychedelics or plant medicine to be a substitute for professional medical care. Always consult with your doctor. The goal of this article is to promote safety and education.

Getting into the world of psychedelics can feel like stepping into uncharted territory, but educators like Willy Myco are making sure we don’t have to go it alone. Known for his engaging presence on YouTube with his channel Willy’s World, he’s created a community where people can learn every aspect of growing their own medicine. As a seasoned mycologist, psychedelic advocate, and content creator, he’s spent years demystifying the complex world of fungi and mind-expanding substances. I owe my own psychedelic journey to Willy, and am privileged to call him a mentor and a friend. So, today, we’re sitting down with Willy to peel back the layers of his journey, his work, and his vision for the future of psychedelics.

Can you tell us about your background and where your psychedelic journey started?

My psychedelic journey started with my mother who was also into psychedelics. I witnessed her connection to the universe through the use of psychedelics and it really sparked my interest. I was only 14 when I started researching everything I could about them. I went to the University of Massachusetts and got my bachelor’s degree in microbiology. After that, I decided to visit other countries like South America and Africa to better understand their connection to psychedelics. And then, I went to Harvard and got my masters in drug synthesis.

Wow! That’s quite the start! I know you ended up in the world of pharmaceuticals. Tell me about that.

I was at the top of my class at Harvard, and I had a few pharmaceutical companies attempt to headhunt me. One in particular that was based in Boston offered me a position as an Experimental Drug Tech and I took it. It was a team of 4 of us, and our job consisted of extracting and synthesizing different compounds for experimental drugs. I only remember one of the medications we worked on being released. It was for diabetes, and I got to tour with the company at conferences for it. The other medications never saw the light of day.

When did you start focusing more on natural healing?

I was living in Boston with a company apartment, a company vehicle, everything. I was making great money, but I was really still deep in the cultivation community. I developed a distaste for psychedelic cultivation message boards like DMT Nexus and The Shroomery—there was no Youtube at the time or video tutorials you could learn from— because the people on these message boards treated newcomers terribly and were always gatekeeping information.

The company I worked for started as a few buildings and eventually expanded to cover an entire city block. I worked weird hours—sometimes 14 hour days away from home. One night, after hours, I was making my way to the cafeteria, but I was looking at my phone and got off on the wrong floor. I realized that as long as I’d worked there, I hadn’t actually seen most of the building, and decided to do some exploring to see what other departments were like. I got to this room where it looked like there were a bunch of microwaves on the walls and I peeked inside and saw that there were ashes and dust inside each of them. And then I walked into the next room, and found they were housing animals there, and that’s when I put 2 and 2 together. They were testing these experimental drugs on animals and then disposing of them. As a vegetarian, this haunted me. I couldn’t sleep. I thought of my dog and just couldn’t be a part of it anymore. Prior to this, I had already released a couple videos online, and then left Youtube for almost a year. When I logged back on in 2015, I saw that my channel had blown up, and I decided to dive into it head-first. I gave up my apartment and my car, and moved back in with my mom to focus on creating content.

I’m involved with a number of different message boards and everyone has such different styles of cultivation. You always stood out to me because you love helping others. I appreciate that so much.

Someone once commented to ask why I didn’t address my followers as fans. I don’t want to call anyone a fan cuz that sounds beneath me, so I started calling them my Trip Team Fam, and that has become so much bigger than me. A lot of people that come to us don’t have anyone to call family, and they find it with us. And we are a family. I’ve paid for people’s medical bills, I’ve paid their rent, I buy gifts for their kids. It is truly a family.

Regarding mushroom legalization, is there a shift that’s happening right now?

Yes. Washington DC is leading the charge as far as legal sales for psychedelics go. In fact, it’s not illegal to gift someone psychedelics if they purchase something, which is similar to how cannabis started out. You had to buy a hat or something and you’d get so many grams. In Washington, there are a lot of dispensaries popping up, and they’re working hand-in-hand with chemists and cultivators, and everyone is making money along the way.

I went to Colorado to meet with politicians to talk to them about how to structure legal sales. I think within the next few years, laws will take form that will allow people access to psychedelic medication. You will see votes come up, starting with more liberal states like California.

Are you interested in helping to shape policy?

100%. I want to be able to assist because a lot of politicians don’t know anything about psychedelics or cannabis, and I want to see it benefit everyone. If we don’t do our part, what will end up happening is large corporations will come in and take over the market and push everyone out, including the people who have been carrying the legalization of this movement on their backs for decades. What I’ve proposed to lawmakers is that we need 2 types of licensing: a cultivator license and a retail license, and you can only have one. What happened with cannabis was that dispensaries who owned both licenses started investing solely in their own product and cutting cultivators out. It’s best if we keep those 2 separate for psychedelics, so that everyone can benefit.

You seem to have a real love for what you do. What makes mycology so meaningful to you, personally?

Mycology is everything to me. There’s a saying that we’re all mushrooms having a human experience, and there’s a great theory about how fungi found their way to Earth through an asteroid strike that released spores which spawned plants and mushrooms. Another theory suggests that human evolution owes its massive advance to fungi. Since the dawn of civilization, humans have realized the healing potential of mushrooms. In fact, fungi is one of the most commonly used ingredients in modern pharmaceuticals. They also heal the earth we live on, breaking down plastics and woods. Our planet would be much more overrun with trash than it is today if not for fungi. Also, mushrooms have been rooted in spirituality as far back as 2050 BC. I believe they are a holy sacrament that everyone should be able to access without the risk of being locked away in a penitentiary.

I love that. What else can we expect from you this year?

After 5 years in the making, my book, Keys to the Gods, is coming out in quarter 2. (We’re pushing hard for April 19th which is Bicycle Day.) I believe it will revolutionize the way people look at psychedelics. We’re in a new studio and lab in Puerto Rico, and we have a lot of amazing videos coming out. Also, my new podcast, Psychedelic Bodega, is releasing this summer. We’ll be interviewing politicians, experts, people from the adult industry—everyone—on everything from psychedelics to life experiences and so much more.

I can’t wait for those! Thank you so much for being here with us today and allowing me to pick your brain. Before we wrap this up, is there anything else you’d like to put out into the universe?

Just that, as we move ahead, I would love to see more women and people of color involved in the entheogen space. It’s an open space and it’s for everyone no matter who you are. Find the right community that accepts you for who you are and they will carry you along your path.

You can follow Willy’s journey here:
Instagram: @official_ttf_willy
Youtube: youtube.com/@WillysWorld
Twitter: twitter.com/willy_myco