" by bioneer, louie schwartzberg. we'll show a short clip during the break, after these keynote segment. paul has built a great company, written foundational books on mycelia, i'm sorry, and sparked a global mycelia awakening. his astonishing inventions in microtechnologies are addressing some of the world's most urgent, global ecological and health crises, from remediating toxic sites in farmlands to preventing bee colony collapse disorder to supporting our immune systems in these dangerous times. today, paul will address the deepest underlying crisis of all, the crisis that resides between our ears. it's a crisis of consciousness, that's precipitating the widespread awakening that we are a part of nature, not apart from it. so please join us in welcoming our beloved friend, colleague and mycelia ambassador, paul stamets, live from british columbia. - yeah, it's been a long journey, folks. i have been on this planet now for 65 years. my first interest in mushrooms was fiing psilocybin mushrooms. and indeed i wrote my

" by bioneer, louie schwartzberg. we'll show a short clip during the break, after these keynote segment. paul has built a great company, written foundational books on mycelia, i'm sorry, and sparked a global mycelia awakening. his astonishing inventions in microtechnologies are addressing some of the world's most urgent, global ecological and health crises, from remediating toxic sites in farmlands to preventing bee colony collapse disorder to supporting our immune systems in these dangerous times. today, paul will address the deepest underlying crisis of all, the crisis that resides between our ears. it's a crisis of consciousness, that's precipitating the widespread awakening that we are a part of nature, not apart from it. so please join us in welcoming our beloved friend, colleague and mycelia ambassador, paul stamets, live from british columbia. - yeah, it's been a long journey, folks. i have been on this planet now for 65 years. my first interest in mushrooms was findg psilocybin mushrooms. and indeed i wrote my

[applause] hello, brave sunday bioneers. i guess you have to be a certain age to get the phyllis schlafly reference. she was not our friend. [laughter] so let s start with the scary stuff. how does that word make you feel? [laughter] i used to feel the same way, and what was my darkest fear? ending up drooling under a bad botanical print in some grim institutional hallway. and then i learned that the percentage of americans over 65 in nursing homes is two-and-a-half percent, and it s dropping. even for people over 85, it s only 9%. what else was i worried about? dementia. but if you substitute that two-and-a-half percent in nursing homes, 90% of the remainder is cognitively fit. alzheimer s is a terrible disease, but it is not a typical part of aging. even as the population ages, dementia rates are falling significantly. there s more cases of alzheimer s because the number of older people in the population is growing, but the odds of anyone in this room getting dementia have dropped significantly, and we re getting diagnosed

well we at bioneers have worked long and hard to cover many of the critically important issues of ouras possible, and to be as inclusive of as many of the groups working for justice, peace, and a healthy planet as we can. we ve always included presenters from a wide range of backgrounds, working in a broad spectrum of domains. indigenous voices have been central to bioneers since we started, and early on we saw the critical importance of the environmental justice movement and sought to highlight leaders whose message was that social justice,

(kenny and nina chuckle) paul first spoke at bioneers in 1996, when he was unknown. he showed up with this wild proposition that mushrooms can save the world and he turned out to be right. (kenny and nina chuckle) it was clear from the outset that he's the rare genius and visionary citizen scientist who can actually manifest his vision in the most practical terms. since that time, paul has earned richly deserved,