Hello, Reader

Welcome to the second edition of my Digital Fortress newsletter! Bookmark this link to read any of my previous newsletters you may have missed: 90smmedia.com/newsarchive.

My subscriber list is growing, which means more of you are helping me stay resilient against losing my community to keyword-heavy AI moderation on the major platforms. Plus, it proves I haven't bored you all off yet. If you're new here, my '90 Second Mycology' name comes from the use of microwavable 90-second brown ready-rice packets to document and archive the low-tech farming methodologies of specialty, ornamental, and functional fungi.

This monthly broadcast drops on the 9th of every month at 9:00 AM Eastern, and it's your primary direct line to stay connected with 90 Second Mycology, right alongside bookmarking my two main websites - 90secondmycology.com and 90smmedia.com (scammers will never share these links with you!)

Let's dive into this second edition that I've been wanting to write about/podcast about for a while now. It's a big one! (Podcast/live stream deep dive episode on the topic coming soon? Maybe!)

🧬 The Unsolved Murder Behind Magic Truffles

If you've followed my work for a while, you know I operate right here out of the sunshine state of Florida. I know the Tampa Bay area vaguely enough to know that as of the year 2026, it's a mix of swamp, humidity, and constant construction everywhere you look. Back in 1977, it produced something that changed mycology forever.

In late August of that year, a legendary, somewhat eccentric mycologist named Dr. Steven Pollock drove down to Tampa, Florida for the Second International Mycological Congress in a Winnebago he had converted into a mobile research lab (immediate thoughts of Breaking Bad if you're a fan of the show). Pollock teamed up with botanist Gary Lincoff to hunt for rumored psychoactive species in the humid lawns and pastures nearby. While searching on their hands and knees, they spotted a tiny, obscure wild mushroom poking up out of the grass. It looked like just another nondescript little brown mushroom, but closer inspection revealed something extraordinary. They had stumbled across an entirely unknown, wild species. Pollock cloned the tissue inside his Winnebago lab, and to honor the city where this lone specimen was plucked from the humid, sandy soil, it was officially named Psilocybe tampanensis.

At first, nobody knew if this new species carried any active properties. Pollock ran chemical analyses and confirmed it contained significant levels of psilocybin and psilocin. But the real shocker came when he observed how the fungal mycelium behaved on tissue cultures. Under environmental stress, the mycelium began knitting itself into dense, subterranean nodules called sclerotia. Because these hardened, underground nuggets looked like gourmet subterranean truffles and packed the exact same active potency as the fruit bodies above ground, they earned the famous nickname "magic truffles" and later, "Philosopher's Stones". Pollock had proven that the fungus could store its potency entirely underground without ever needing to sprout a mushroom.

The real challenge started immediately after. Finding another specimen in the wild proved nearly impossible. It took almost 20 years before anyone reported finding another one in Mississippi in 1996, and over four decades before it was spotted again in Florida around 2021. Even with those exceptionally rare, poorly documented sightings, practically every P. tampanensis culture in circulation today still descends directly from Pollock’s original 1977 clone. Realizing every bit of research hinged on that single isolate, Pollock focused on the underground sclerotia; a natural survival mechanism. These hardened masses of mycelium acted as an energy vault, allowing the fungus to store nutrients and survive harsh conditions indefinitely.

Pollock pioneered accessible, low-tech methods to propagate these sclerotia en masse inside basic glass jars. While experimenting with different substrates, he discovered that simple grains like grass seed, rye, and whole brown rice provided the ideal nutrient base for rapid sclerotia formation. He proved that high-value genetics could be preserved, multiplied, and harvested continuously in a simple home setup without expensive lab gear or temperamental fruiting chambers.

In 1979, Pollock and fellow mycology enthusiast Michael Forbes founded Hidden Creek in San Antonio, Texas. Taking out ads in High Times magazine, they exploited legal grey areas to sell P. tampanensis sclerotia and spores through the mail under the moniker "Philosopher's Stones." Almost overnight, Hidden Creek exploded into a massive mail-order operation. Pollock funneled every dollar from those jar sales toward his ultimate dream: securing federal permits to build the world's first legal, pharmaceutical-grade mycology lab focused on developing psilocybin therapies for mental illness.

That vision was abruptly cut short on January 31, 1981. Botanist Gary Lincoff arrived at Pollock's San Antonio home for a visit, only to discover Pollock shot to death inside his laboratory. His murder remains unsolved to this day. When journalist Hamilton Morris investigated the cold case for Harper's Magazine, he uncovered a paper trail as dark as it was perplexing. Police detectives had originally linked three men, Ernest Dietzmann, Jerry Baker, and Arthur Lenz, to a planned robbery, and reported that their fingerprints matched prints at the crime scene. Yet, no one was ever prosecuted. Even stranger, official records detailing why prosecutors dropped the case were mysteriously destroyed.

The missing files have fueled decades of intense speculation. Pollock was on the verge of launching a legal, low-cost mental health revolution four decades ahead of its time. Whether his death was a botched robbery buried by local police corruption or an intentional shutdown by higher entities determined to derail a psychedelic breakthrough, the official truth was wiped from the books.

When law enforcement sealed the house, state authorities moved to seize and destroy the hundreds of research jars inside. But Pollock had already shared tissue cultures with a small circle of trusted researchers, including a young Paul Stamets, prior to his death. Pollock’s dream of a legal psychedelic therapy center was violently halted, but those decentralized genetics survived, ensuring that his legacy and this rare fungus were never lost.

🌐 Around the Mycosphere

Here are a couple of interesting reads and updates from across the mycelial network:

Scientists Discover Entirely New Class of Fungi Hiding on Tree Roots: Researchers at Uppsala University isolated a strange root-dwelling fungus from pine trees in Sweden and realized it didn't fit into any existing biological classification. They officially established a brand-new class of fungi, Semicentenialomycetes, and named the pioneer species Semicentenialea rex after the King of Sweden.
- My take: Imagine spending decades classifying life on Earth just to find an entirely unmapped evolutionary class of fungus hanging out on a basic pine root. Science loves to pretend we’ve mapped the planet, but mycology constantly reminds us that we don't even know what's happening six inches under our own boots. Name it after a king or a marketing character named "Uncle Ben" on a microwavable rice pouch; either way, nature is out here running unreleased code right under our feet. If we just get outside and explore, we can find so many more undiscovered patch updates to mother nature's simulation.
World Health Organization Issues Blueprint on Antifungal Resistance: The World Health Organization (WHO) published a global blueprint urging health agencies to take fungal pathogens and antifungal resistance seriously. Fungal infections currently impact over 300 million people annually, yet fungi remain largely ignored in national health protocols and drug development pipelines compared to bacteria and viruses.
- My take: Modern medicine spends billions fighting bacterial superbugs while completely ignoring the fungal kingdom like a forgotten, dried-up bag of 90-second brown rice under your bed neglect-tek style. Now the WHO is finally pointing out that fungi are quietly building resistance to our few working treatments while we aren't looking. Sterile technique isn't just something we preach in home mycology labs, turns out humanity as a whole might want to start brushing up on it before nature forces the lesson. How long until 70% isopropyl alcohol and 3% H2O2 no longer do anything to combat rogue fungal spores and fecal flakes?

🏰 Inside the Fortress 🍄‍🟫

Here are some things that I've been up to in case you've missed them:

Taking Over the PT: SporeCast: I’ve officially stepped in to host the PT: SporeCast once a month, live on the Cultivr app. It’s a full 3-hour, unedited live session where we dive deep into all things mycology, with my own "monthly pick" towards the end of the show. It then gets edited down into a smooth listen for podcast platforms afterward. The first episode is available to listen to now, with my first monthly topic being my personal experience with the darknet markets and a quick history of the darknet as a whole from the TOR browser to .onion sites:

PT: 90SM TAKEOVER E 1

Aug 30 · PT: SporeCast

131:06

Patreon Archive Overhaul ($1 Entry): I’m currently in the middle of uploading a massive wave of supporter-only archive content over on Patreon since they have let me come back and start over in March. We’re talking vintage live streams and early YouTube videos that were wiped off the platform years ago, including a few clips that newer followers have literally never seen. To make the vault accessible to anyone who wants to browse through the history, the barrier of entry for paid Patreon access now starts at just $1/month at Patreon.com/90secondmycology. Select higher tiers comes with FREE MERCH every 3 months for your first year.
The Official 90SM Ziplock Tek (In Production): For those tracking the supporter-only releases: the successor to my 2023 "Microwave Tek" video is officially titled the 90 Second Mycology Ziplock Tek. I know people have been waiting a long time for this one. Literally years, and I still have to mention it in my newsletter broadcasts to keep you EXCITED. It's still actively in production, but it’s tracking to be the next major "theatrical release" dropping into the Patreon vault. Stay tuned...it’s coming. BIG THINGS COMING!
Miss Baby 90 Turned 3-years Old Already: September 3-6, 2026 was a full weekend birthday celebration. I put the digital mushroom work aside and focused on family time. Those of you who were there for my last YouTube solo live stream back in 2023 (where I had huge announcements, including the launch of my original Patreon and its benefits) may have learned about miss baby 90 coming into the world in 2023. Yeah, yeah baby nonsense, who cares? I do. So, I'll write about it.
Her being born is what really slowed down the 90 Second Mycology content-chain, on top of moving from the original 90SM apartment kitchen into a single-family home. My "big mycologist" local tractor-trailer trucker job has always been what pays the bills. Your direct support is what helps continue the content. Many people even donated items to my family back then from the miss baby 90 Amazon registry. That meant the world to us!
Then all of the platforms started to ban me without warning, and it hurt things even more. My original YouTube channel, my Patreon, my original Instagram; I was losing my community left and right with no real backup plan. This newsletter and my new content production flow is my way of slowly getting back into things. Life happens! What can you do? I'm thankful for everyone who has stuck around this long from January of 2020, and thankful for all of the new fans that still continue to find my '90 Second Mycology' content to this day. I'm thankful that Patreon eventually agreed they were too harsh on me and let me come back to their platform.
My latest comeback update video is up on my NEW YouTube channel at YouTube.com/@90smmedia - now that miss baby 90 has turned 3-years old on September 3, 2026, she's interested in the world of fungi now more than ever and it makes every process moving forward that much more exciting!

🛒 Mycological Material Vendors & Research Equipment

At the time of writing this email, Booming Acres is holding a Labor Day Weekend sale with 15% off site-wide on everything from grain bags, agar cups, full farming kits, and 20% off all-in-one research grow bags for your specialty, ornamental and functional fungi. I'm just a brown rice guy, so I didn't happen to catch how long the sale is actually running for 💀. If you happen to miss the sale, you can always use research code '90SM' for 10% off your order. You can also support 90SM at no extra cost to you by using my affiliate link at any time: 90secondmycology.com/boomingacres

If you haven't discovered the Culture Cave store website yet, you should check it out! From the creators of thecultivr.app, it's a marketplace where you can search independent mycology vendors and thousands of genetics in one place, then buy direct from the grower's own storefront. Vendors keep 100% of each sale. Give it a look at culturecave.store.

Find more 90SM sponsors and research codes at 90secondmycology.com/links and find my curated Research Equipment lists on my Amazon creator storefront at 90secondmycology.com/amazon

OG 90SM fans know that common sense will almost always prevail, so bookmark this link to read any of my previous newsletters you may have missed: 90smmedia.com/newsarchive, and share the newsletter signup with your friends at 90smmedia.com/newsletter!