Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl
The podcast that delves into the raw reality of achieving your dreams. Hosted by Marley Freygang who thought she had it all figured out, the show explores the gritty details of what it really takes to "make it" in today's world. From the high-pressure demands to the relentless hustle, she shares her experiences of the less-than-instagramable side of chasing your dreams.
But it's not all doom and gloom. With refreshing honesty, she provides actionable tips and advice, aiming to empower listeners with the confidence, clarity, and direction, they need to become an “it girl”. Whether it's starting a business or breaking into a new career, each episode features unique interviews, practical advice and carefully curated insights.
So tune in to "Confessions of a Wannabe IT Girl" and join us to help filter out the BS and become the next "it girl”.
Confessions of A Wannabe It Girl
Are We on Drugs? A Starter Guide to Mushroom and Kana with the Co-Founder of Fungtion Phoebe McPherson
Disclaimer: This episode does not contain medical advice.
You're probably wondering, why are people so hyped about mushrooms. Are these drugs? Phoebe McPherson, the founder of Fungtion, is here to help give you the 101 on mushrooms and kava. In this episode, we explore how these plant-based wonders can boost mental health and energy. If you're seeking a natural alternative to help with your mental health or simply looking to enhance your emotional well-being, we've got you covered!
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Hi guys and welcome back to Confessions of a Want to Be it girl. In this episode, we're talking about mushrooms and conna and drugs. No, I am totally kidding, but I am an absolute noob when it came to this topic. So it was so nice to have Phoebe from Function on the podcast to break down what mushroom elixirs and conna can do for your mental health, for your well-being, and we touch on all that and more. Like I said, I was a complete noob. I am only less of a noob post this interview, but this stuff is really interesting to help you deal with mental challenges or experiment into opening your heart center a little bit more. So, without further ado, let's dive in.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Confessions of a Want to Be it girl. I'm your host, marley Fraging, and I'm here to help you filter out all the bullshit and become the next it girl. This podcast explores the reality of what it really takes to make it out there. As it turns out, it is way less Instagramable than I thought it was going to be. I'm still very much a work in progress, but there's simply nothing else I'd rather be doing than chasing my dreams. So let's learn from my mistakes and work together to achieve our dreams with more confidence, clarity and direction. Let's get after it.
Speaker 2:Welcome.
Speaker 1:Phoebe, thank you. I am so excited to talk about this entire space. I kind of don't even know where to begin because, like I mentioned to you, my knowledge on this topic is negative 100. And so you can educate me today. So would you say you are in the wellness space?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would definitely say I'm in the wellness space, I'm in the mushroom space, the plant space and the psychedelic adjacent space.
Speaker 1:Ooh, I like the psychedelic adjacent space. So you are a co-founder of Function. But it's really cutely spelled. It's got a G in it. Function just saying Like just fungi. Yeah, it's like very cute and you sell elixirs such as cona and mushroom and you know, because I don't know what's going on. Like are these drugs? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Great question, not drugs, I like to tell people. You're not getting high, just high on life. So Function is a nature-inspired wellness brand and our elixirs are a tincture sublingua tinctures meaning that you take them, they're ingestible and they are for general well-being. So we have two the mushroom elixir and the cona elixir. The mushroom elixir is for energy, focus and libido, and it combines functional mushrooms and plants to support your beings, support your body on a daily basis. And then we have the cona elixir, which combines functional mushrooms and cona, a plant that I hope you get to talk a lot about, and some other incredible plants to support empathy and joy and calm, and I kind of describe them as the yin and yang of daily well-being. You have something that's more masculine the mushroom elixir. It's for energy and focus and getting the day going. And then the other one is for softening into your feminine, your yin. It's for going to sleep and feeling your heart, feeling your emotions and feeling safer, just in your body.
Speaker 1:Wow, so I saw that I'm not going to lie. I saw this in your beautiful deck that you were kind of like. The target market is Maybe the girl who's heard of mushroom coffee but doesn't know what it is. Well, welcome You're here. I don't think a lot of us know what it is, so why would we indulge in mushroom coffee and then maybe cona as?
Speaker 2:well, yeah, that's a great question, Well one. I think anything mushroom is a positive in everyone's life, but we're in this phase of humanity where we're looking towards more natural ways of healing and natural ways of being. Look, I personally am a big fan of coffee, but we don't always need that massive caffeine stimulation.
Speaker 2:So, in terms of mushroom coffee, I know I know, Look, we all live a good cortado, but having something like a mushroom coffee is going to be more supportive for your nervous system, more supportive for your cortisol levels. We're all trying to be a little bit less stressed, so that's why mushroom coffee. But then here for us. Our target market and people that I love speaking to on a daily basis are people like you. I call them the mushroom curious right.
Speaker 2:We are all interested in the world of mushrooms and plants, and when you start to realize how incredibly impactful they can be on your system, on your stress levels, on your mood, on your focus, on how you even work like everyone is excited about that, people's eyes light up and then they start to feel it in their body, in their brains, in their nervous systems, and they're sold. Something I say on a daily basis is that I don't care if you are taking my products or someone else's, but if you are feeling educated about mushrooms and plants and you find something that works for you, my job's done, wow.
Speaker 1:That's really like a powerful statement. So why do you feel such a you know attraction to mushrooms? Like, did it do something for you? Yeah, our journey.
Speaker 2:So I was always really into vegetables and plants. When I was a kid. I was vegan for 17 years, oh my God, and I was vegan. I was growing up in Washington DC, northern Virginia, where that was like not a thing. I remember making green juices and green smoothies and taking them into high school and my friends were like what are you drinking, right?
Speaker 1:now.
Speaker 2:Before it was cool. Before it was cool. But because of that I did my own research and understanding of plants and mushrooms and as I got older I started to realize just the profound benefits that they can have. And you know, oftentimes people think mushrooms are like a vegetable or a plant, but they're not. They're a fungi, right, it's one of the five kingdoms of organisms on this planet and we're just starting to learn about the massive benefits of mushrooms.
Speaker 2:And they can help every single part of your being, from being anti-cancer, anti-fungal, anti-tumor. They can support your nervous system, your brain, every part of being a human mushrooms can be there for. And how incredible that something that is so regenerative, something that is eating dead matter and then producing these incredible benefits for us, are so freely here for us. And so I think just the more and more that I've learned about mushrooms, the more and more I'm just hooked and deep diving. And then, outside of that, psilocybin mushrooms, of course, have been so massive for me and so many people that I know Just even micro dosing with psilocybin has completely changed the way that I view life and view the way that I approach other people, and also it's completely changed the way that I experienced my own body.
Speaker 1:So psilocybin is what we would consider the drug. Like we're not getting these at, like the farmer's market. Not yet, Not yet oh but I like where your head's going.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's coming. I think it's absolutely coming. So psilocybin is like one of the compounds in certain strains of mushrooms. So psilocybin containing mushrooms and it's a hallucinogen, so it's producing these hallucinations for us, it's expanding our consciousness, it's working on our 5H2A receptor sites. So everything that you've heard about magic mushrooms those are psilocybin containing mushrooms, but then mushrooms in general can have so many different benefits, and I like to say that there's kind of three buckets of mushrooms that we are talking about on a day-to-day basis. We have the gourmet mushrooms, the ones that we can order pizzas, the one that we order at gelina, and then some of those are actually also medicinal or functional mushrooms. So these are the ones that have incredible benefits for our body, like everything that I just described, and then we have the psilocybin containing mushrooms that are the quote unquote drugs, if you like to call them that drugs or magic mushrooms, or I like to say they're medicine for us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. Okay, so then, what is Kana? Yeah, Then I know you love Kana and I'm very excited to just. What. Is it a mushroom? Is it a fungus? What is it? I actually have no clue.
Speaker 2:So Kana is a plant or a succulent. It's this incredible, incredible plant from South Africa. It looks like ice grass. It's technically like the same family. You might have seen ice grass if anyone here is in California, go out to the beach and you've probably seen it but Kana is this incredible plant that's been used for thousands of years by the indigenous, the Korean, the Sun in South Africa, for everything from elevating your mood to suppressing appetite and helping you focus on a daily basis. This plant is known as being or functioning as an SSRI in a PDE form inhibitor, meaning that it's elevating your mood, supporting your nervous system, helping with anxiety, depression, feelings of overwhelm, feelings of codependency. But in addition to that, it's non-addictive. There's no withdrawal from it. It has incredible, incredible benefits for people across the spectrum of humanity, and I think it's going to be just as big as the mushroom space one day.
Speaker 1:I love that. So how would we go about taking these things? Where do we get them? What's the process?
Speaker 2:Yeah, which would you like me to start with? Mushrooms, plants or something different?
Speaker 1:Stew mushrooms and then do Kana, because I feel like those are really what we're tapping into.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely so. Mushrooms can be taken in a wide variety of places, but we'll talk about functional mushrooms. So functional mushrooms, you can buy your farm as a market or at the grocery store, and many of them you can cook with. So, chautauki, mai-tauki, oyster Lines, main quarter-steps, all really amazing, beautiful.
Speaker 2:So that's the first way, cook them up with butter, salt, whatever, and eat them and just them food as medicine. The second way to take them is in the form of an extract, so you can do alcohol and hot water extracts and when you're doing that you're pulling out different compounds, polysaccharides, radiculcans and a variety of other alkaloids that are going to have incredible benefits for your system, like I said, anti-cancer, nervous system support, brain support, etc. And then the third way to take them is through a powder ground up and either an extract or just as the whole mushroom, and so you can put it into your smoothies. So those are some of the ways that you can take them. At function, we do a triple extraction, so hot water, alcohol and then fermentation, and we put it into a bottle with glycerin, so coconut fat, and it tastes really good. And then you get to take it on a daily basis like a sweet treat. But there's no sugar, no added sugar, no like fake shit in it whatsoever.
Speaker 1:So do you just take it and like drop it in your mouth and from like the cute little bottle, yes, you put it in a smooth oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so it's that easy. You can take it right into your tongue, just pop it into your mouth. They taste really, really sweet. The coconut glycerin and the flax-derived glycerin does this incredible thing where it tastes almost like honey, but there's no sugar, no fake sugar, no monk fruit stevia, all of that crap that we're finding in so many of our products. But it doesn't affect the taste of other things. You can drop it into your coffee, into your water, into your smoothie, whatever you want to do. I personally always have minis of it in my car and I take it whenever I need a boost, or I put it in my morning coffee or whatever morning drink I'm going to have that day.
Speaker 1:I love that. So then, how would we Get Kana, take Kana, make Kana all the things?
Speaker 2:For sure. So the way that it was traditionally taken which I think is really fascinating when we think about learning about the history of plants is that this plant would be uprooted and then the roots would be spit on and then fermented in like an animal sack or pouch in the hot sun. Then they would braid it and dry it and chew on it and it would mix with your saliva and you were essentially micro-ducing Kana the whole day. Here in the United States we're not really going to be doing that on a day-to-day basis Probably not.
Speaker 2:I would personally love to do it. I empower you to go do it. Yeah, I'm really excited to have that experience. But we're typically working with a standardized extract, so this plant is going to vary wildly in its form of potency. So having a standardized extract is one of the best ways to use it so you can get it as a powder and you can just put it under your tongue, or you can put it in your smoothie, or then again putting it in like a tincture so that's how we do it here or you can get it like in capsules, and so many like mushrooms and plants that are medicinal you're going to get either in capsules, in powders or in tinctures. It just makes it easy for you to take it on a day-to-day basis. I personally prefer tinctures because I think liquid just adding to my drinks and putting a bunch of them in like a shot of water and having it all together it's just super easy to take with you, yeah, so that's my favorite way to do it.
Speaker 1:It feels like, yeah, then you can travel with it. I like keeping it in your car. I also like I'm one of those kinds of people who forgets to take my medication. So it's like, oh my gosh, then it's in the car, it's on my way, there it is.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, and I think for many people you included, I'm sure you're really busy, you're running around all the time. You don't want to have 12 different tinctures on you that you have to take, and so that's what we thought about. With function, you know we're putting in multiple mushrooms and plants all together, really concentrated and extracted, so you're getting all of this goodness from like six, seven, eight different mushrooms and plants in one tincture, one. Go throw it in your coffee or car or your mouth, whatever, and you're good to go Love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's get into. Like there's kind of some protocols Like you can't take it one day and be done and all the work is done. Yeah, what's the setup? Is there anything you shouldn't be on while taking them? What's? Give me the skinny on the protocol.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so many of the mushrooms and plants that we work with at function are adaptogenic, meaning that they're non-toxic and they're helping your body adapt to stress. We love, yes, which means that you can take them with anything else that you're taking. They're not going to have contraindications. So that's like your reishi mushroom, your cordyceps, your lines being your chaga, vodiolla, holy basil, nacrona, ginseng these are all incredible adaptogens, so meaning that you can take them. That being said, because this is herbal medicine, you need to be taking it multiple days in a row so that it can build up in your system.
Speaker 2:These aren't pharmaceuticals. You need time, just like nature. Be patient, be gentle with it. So taking five days on, two days off is a pretty typical protocol. It also aligns with a really common microdosing protocol, so oftentimes when people are microdosing, they want to add in their herbs. Under that same thing, I also believe that it's honoring eastern and western cycles of nature. So the western cycle of nature is the weekdays and then the weekends, so you take it five days on, two days off, and then the eastern cycle of nature asks us to take time off of our plants and herbs to keep it really potent in our system. So that's what I would recommend.
Speaker 1:Love that mix because I feel like so often, especially in the wellness and holistic space. Sometimes there's a lot of pushback to Western, which I get it. At some level it's earned but at the same time, like we're living a little bit in the western side and we need to work with them together.
Speaker 2:Exactly I think what comes to mind is this phrase from a friend Kanya I think she's the one that said it, but I'm not sure she's the founder of Rainbow Mushrooms and she said it's easy to be a Buddha in the forest, but being a Buddha in the city is the ultimate practice of loving awareness. And I think it really speaks to this notion that, yes, we can shun Western medicine, shun Western ways of living, but we're living in LA, we are living in a Western society and we have to honor that. And I really believe that we are experiencing this reconvergence of humanity and nature and of eastern and western medicine, and both are absolutely important. So, yes, take your herbs, but if your arm gets cut off, please go to the hospital, don't go to the doctor Do not use a postage on your sawed-off arm Like.
Speaker 2:I had an experience mid-last year where I almost died, oh my god, and I was in the hospital for multiple days. I had blood poisoning, septic shock. According to the doctors, I was 12 hours from death I don't know if that's true or not and I was so. So you were killed this fall regardless.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:I was very, very grateful for Western medicine and what happened is, when I came out of the hospital, I was then using herbs, I was using eastern medicine to support my gut, my gut, my microbiome, after all of these antibiotics that had to be pumped into my system Thankfully pumped into my system, but you kind of see where we get this honoring of both sides right. There has to be this harmony between these two worlds and I hope that people start to realize that and not shun one side so aggressively.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Wow. There's a lot there and that's really crazy that this whole experience happened to you, but you were able to come out of it with just such a respect for both and with the setup that you have and the knowledge you have of what you do, but still went through this.
Speaker 2:It's just kind of a lot. Yeah, when I think sometimes, being in the wellness space, like I'm an herbalist, all of this, people think, oh well, you're never going to get sick, you're never going to have something. No, we're human Stuff's going to happen to us. I like to say that I'm pretty healthy. Naturally, I eat mostly organic. I cook most of my meals at home, I'm drinking my water, I'm really taking care of my body, but things still happen. I had blood poisoning. There wasn't really much that I could do to even know that it was coming, and I was just so grateful that doctors were there. And when these experiences happened to us, all we can do is have gratitude for coming out of it the only ways through and then we get to decide how we approach today after.
Speaker 1:Wow, and after this did you start like a conna protocol or mushrooms.
Speaker 2:Oh, this was just yeah. So halfway through last year I did an herbal protocol just for my gut and then I was I mean, I've been microducing conna for a while, or a very long time, and so I was still microducing conna and that was just to kind of support some of the trauma that I had. I was really, really terrified. My veins kept collapsing so they kept poking me, and people have been through such worse things so I don't tend to, or I don't want to, diminish their experiences, but for me it was the first time I'd ever been in a hospital for an extended period of time and I remember they had poked me like 30 or 40 times and they kept having to do it.
Speaker 2:And I remember I came out of the hospital, my mom flew across the country because she was so worried and we went to go get food and I went to the bathroom and I basically had this side effect where, if it happened, I would have to go back to the bathroom or back to the hospital, and I started breaking down, crying again because I couldn't even handle it. And so then the coming days I was using conna and Rashi, which is an incredible mushroom, to really just calm my nervous system and remind my body like you're safe, you're okay, like you can move through this, Like I didn't want to hold on to that and allow it to physically manifest in my body.
Speaker 1:Wow, and that you know. That really leads right into my next question, like who should be on a conna protocol? Like who are we talking about? Like what are the? What does their lives look like currently? Before starting, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So I can't speak to individuals, but what I can say is that conna is incredible for people that are looking for support for their nervous system. If you are someone that tends to be extra moody, tend to be really anxious, tend to be very stressed out, yes, exactly, you could benefit from a microdosing protocol or from benefiting from using conna. It's been safely used for 40, 50 years by people in South Africa and now here in the United States, and it's something that you can absolutely experience. But what I love is, outside of just kind of a more medicinal protocol, is you can use it recreationally in terms of going out, you can use it as an alcohol alternative. Oh, tell us more.
Speaker 2:So conna creates these really euphoric senses of being and when we go out, when we're drinking or, you know, taking other party favors, having recreational experiences, oftentimes what we're looking to do is feel better in our body, maybe escape and feel like we can connect to people around us. Right, we want to kind of forget some of the stresses of the world, and conna does that, but it does it in a really sustainable way where it's not wrecking our nervous system. So how beautiful is that to have a plant available to us where, if we go out to the bars, maybe we have conna and then we only have two drinks instead of five drinks. Conna has this incredible effect of enhancing whatever you're taking around it, so if you take it as kind of your precursor before drinking, you might drink less, which is great. I think that's a huge bonus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you're taking it as a precursor to a more recreational drug type experience. What you might find is that the other substances are enhanced, so you might not need to take as much. You can take it in a microdose following a massive like MDMA or mushroom experience and it's going to support your serotonin levels and support your detox. And you're coming back to yourself.
Speaker 1:Right, because you know, I think there's a lot of people out there you know, who are kind of like the millennial Coachella attendees experience Exactly Person. But yeah, what you know, do you do in between those experiences to maybe help your health a recover or b, change your overall health, because it seems as though these are really overall health changing as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh no, absolutely health changing. I think anything that's helping your mental health and your mental state of being and your nervous system is going to help your wellness overall. And you talked about like the Coachella girlies and millennial Coachella girlies Me too, hopefully, but I've been to festivals where I offer Kana to festival goers and they take it and that's all that they take the entire night and there's others that take it and then they take their other party favors after and it's an incredible experience, the way that Kana works in those types of containers that it's opening up your heart. It's increasing feelings of love and joy and empathy. Kana is an empathogen, which is the same classification as MDA and MDMA, mda being Sassafras. So how incredible that we have a more natural empathogen for this recreational experience, so that you can connect more readily.
Speaker 2:That's also legal right 100% legal, amazing, 100% legal. You can connect with your friends, you can feel better, know that you're not taking something synthesized, but rather something natural and supporting your system. So I think if that's something you're looking for, if you feel like you are extra stressed, extra anxious, extra overwhelmed, look into taking Kana. I think it's such such a support for me, such a support for so many of the people that I've worked with personally and worked with kind of one degree removed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you remember the first time you did a protocol for Kana? What was the experience like, just for yourself, just to walk people through it a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. Well, I'll say the first time I took a massive dose of Kana. I had this really interesting experience I had mushrooms in Kana at the same time, which you can totally do, which you can totally do. Yeah, so let's start being in Kana. They're best friends.
Speaker 1:Beautiful Because of these friends, yeah best friends take them together.
Speaker 2:But I had this experience where I started laughing and crying at the same time and I looked at like my life around me and I realized that no one that I was working with or for I didn't want any of their jobs. I was uninspired by my life. The relationship that I was in was absolutely not serving me and it was so eye-opening and it wasn't debilitating but rather empowering where I knew my entire life would change and that was really the catalyst for what brought me to even being in the mushroom implant space. It was absolutely incredible. And then I never took a micro dose of Kana in a protocol until much, much later.
Speaker 2:The first time that I was consistently doing it was following my very first time working with ayahuasca Wow, yeah. So it was a three day or a three night sit or three night walk with ayahuasca and I'm so grateful for the experience and it ripped me apart. I was in a really fragile state after I was having what would be known as PTSD episodes. Following it, I was having these disassociative episodes that would last like eight or more hours.
Speaker 2:And it was really debilitating what's happening multiple times a week.
Speaker 2:My partner at the time like shout out to him because I cannot imagine what it must have been like for him to have to experience that and try to support me and he and I, like, we were working with Kana and I started taking micro doses of it and by doing that, and then working in conjunction with a trauma therapist, I was able to come back to myself and the PTSD episode started to go away and I was able to get a grip on it. And I think the reason that it was so powerful and so profoundly effective is that Kana allows you to experience these really intense emotions without suppressing them and without them overwhelming your system. So you can imagine that, like you're facing this really scary thought or this really scary emotion and you can meet it and say like, okay, this is scary for me, but I'm not going to let it like affect me negatively. I'm going to address it, think about it and move through it and that's all happening in your brain and in your heart and in your nervous system. Wow.
Speaker 1:That's. I'm kind of speechless because it's so crazy. What experience that led to you having such more understanding about this one specific use of Kana. When you're doing or on a Kana protocol, how long should you be doing it for? We said five onto all. When would you, as everyone different? When would you start to feel the?
Speaker 2:effects. Before I continue, I do just want to say anyone that's interested in working with Kana I'm not a doctor. If you are on any sort of medication, ssri, always talk to your doctor or inform them of what you're interested in doing. That's always very important.
Speaker 2:But, disclaimer out there, but continuing on, I think anyone that's interested in a protocol five days on, two days off is a really beautiful place to start because it allows you to start to feel it in your system. Use it for two, three months and then see if you'd like to take a break. I always recommend taking a break, coming back to baseline and seeing how that works. But Kana has the ability to work with you for years and years, and years. But many people find that after several months you can take a break and you just turn back to Kana when you may be going through feelings of overwhelm or a more difficult period. Like maintenance. Yes, exactly Like maintenance. One of the cool things about Kana is that it's actually regulating your amygdala. The amygdala is a part of your brain that's responsible for your fight or flight. Oh good, yeah, good, good. So what it's doing is it's making you less reactive to your stresses, without suppressing your reaction to them.
Speaker 1:We love a little helpful, nancy Lair.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:We just want some help with our extreme flight or flight. I'm so impressed by your knowledge of this whole space, and we did talk a little bit about Western medicine and I take no offense at all to it. I'm someone who's been on Prozac for a while. I've struggled with anxiety and whatnot. How do you make the transition, maybe, to being off and using these things instead, or how do you start to unravel?
Speaker 2:all the issues.
Speaker 1:I love what you're saying about how they don't really repress the issues or what you're working through.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I think Kana is really profound in that it does have SSRI effects, like many anxiolytics and antidepressants, but it doesn't seem to have the same side effects, one of them being that pharmaceutical SSRIs seem to really suppress emotions. People report feeling very numb or kind of going through the motions, and so I cannot tell you whether to go off any pharmaceutical. But if it's something that you're interested in, I have known of many people who have come off their SSRIs by micro-reducing Kana which is incredible, so a really, really small dose under 50 milligrams or coming off of their SSRI and then replacing their SSRI with Kana. One of the things is that Kana is an SSRI, so you need to be aware of the side effects of eseratonegic reaction, eseratonin syndrome, especially the dose that I'm working with it.
Speaker 2:With Kana elixir is very, very, very small, so the risk is very minor, but there is still a risk. So, of course, talk to your doctors, but that would be the first place to start. Kind of talk to them, see what you're feeling ready for and then try it out. One of the things that I love about Kana is that, especially in the Kana elixir, it has a rapid onset, so it's not something that does need a boat up in your body. Over time you can feel it within 30 to 45 minutes. Well, yeah, I had an experience like two months ago where really stressful time I was driving down the PCH and I started feeling so overwhelmed and I'm sure we've all been there.
Speaker 1:The head spin.
Speaker 2:The head spin. I was feeling a little dissociated and I felt like just tears coming and I wanted to feel it and like honor that feeling. But driving down the PCH I've got a lot going on and I had the Kana elixir in my car and I pulled it out and I took two dropper folds, so two whole droppers, and within 10 minutes I was feeling back to myself. I felt like I had taken a deep breath and everything that was on my shoulders kind of slid off and I was able to address it one by one.
Speaker 1:So because I feel like you'll actually know the answer to this. It goes into your body. What is? Do you know what the reaction is in your head? Or, like, just magically, we feel better.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'd love to believe that, yes, we magically feel better. I mean, perfect Barbie land here we come yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:So Kana is functioning as an SSRI in a PDE4 inhibitor through two main alkaloids that I'll address. So mesambrine and mesambrinone. Mesambrine is functioning as an SSRI and SSRI is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, meaning that it's freeing up more serotonin in your brain. So Kana is doing that for your body, so it's releasing more serotonin, so it's preventing the reabsorption of serotonin. Yes, and which is how many antidepressants work in insulitics? So there's more serotonin free for you. We know serotonin is vitally important.
Speaker 1:We all like it.
Speaker 2:Yes, we all like it. Very important for mood stabilization, mood enhancing, just feeling better on a day-to-day basis and feeling just very level and happy. So it's functioning in that way. And then it's also functioning with the mesambrine and alkaloid as a PDE4 inhibitor, which is really incredible for dopamine, it's incredible for a euphoric feeling. So that's when you're feeling happy and just really grateful to be alive, I'm really happy to face the world. And then it's also functioning on your opioid receptor sites, which is really incredible as well. What's an opioid receptor?
Speaker 1:site.
Speaker 2:So it's functioning as an analgesic, meaning a pain reliever, so it's helping to relieve pain as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, what's that?
Speaker 2:Yes, so relief from what ills you not just emotionally but also physically. So that's how it's working in your body, it's working in your brain. But the reason that we say it's a heart opener or it opens your heart oh, I've heard this yes, it's because it's helping to increase feelings of trust and connection and opening up your heart. When your heart's open, you believe other people, you want to be connected to other people.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, wow, I mean it's so crazy because there's so many different ways to experience this and incorporate this into your life, you know. Now I'm going back to the coffee question no-transcript. Why would I want to go and order a coffee Like, what is your mushroom coffee order? How do we ingest?
Speaker 2:it.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, all the things Like I know it's like I see it on the sides of the streets, like all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is it? Okay, so a mushroom coffee typically. Typically, let's look at like a Chagachino or Mudwater. Shout Out, shane. They just opened a new cafe in Venice. What's it called? Santa Monica? It's called Mudwater Gather Beautiful, yeah, it's amazing. Go in there, get there. The lattes are great, but there's no caffeine, right. So using function of mushrooms and plants to create, so it's not actually coffee. It's not. Well, what is coffee? Right? It's like ground up beans to stimulate you, but no, it's like a mushroom coffee. It has a very small amount of caffeine, like 25, 35 milligrams of caffeine. So it's an alternative, something that tastes like coffee and feels like coffee. So you continue to get that ritual, but it's not coffee. I'm someone that I love my morning drink Me too, every single morning.
Speaker 1:Every.
Speaker 2:Yeah same, I have my fun drink, I have my stimulating drink and my water, yeah same. Yeah, here we go. And so for me, when I'm waking up, it's okay, what does my body need today? So usually my morning ritual involves doing some journaling. I pull a tarot card, I do my five minute journal, which is literally like seven minutes total, and then I make a morning drink. And when I'm making my morning drink, I really get this moment to tap into my body and let my body tell me okay, these are the places that I need support. And then I decide, okay, do I need an extra jar of caffeine? Do I need some matcha? Because I want, like long energy over, you know, six to eight hours, four to six hours, or do I want something that's more adaptogenic and supportive? So then, like a mushroom coffee. So really like, sit with yourself and ask what do I need today? Am I trying to get much more chaga and reishi into my body?
Speaker 2:because I know it's going to be a really anxious day and I don't want all these jitters from caffeine Like what do I want?
Speaker 1:So does it? How does it affect the cortisol, Because I know that's a very big deal with coffees like your adrenals or totally?
Speaker 2:Yeah, supporting, supporting your adrenals. So most mushrooms adaptogenic mushrooms chaga, reishi, limes, mane, cordyceps are not going to be affecting your cortisol levels, they're really going to be supporting them. So we love to see that across the board. And I know you asked my morning drink what? So I think I have two. So proceed for curiosity. The first would be a chaga latte. The chaga latte from Little Lunch in Venice, shout out, it's absolutely amazing. Yes, it's so good. Oh, the Venice fog, it's so good, it's so good.
Speaker 2:I get it with pistachio milk. I'm a big fan of pistachio milk. Haven't even heard of it. So that would be the first. And then, if I need the extra jolt, then I get it with espresso and then, if not, I get it with matcha. So kind of deciding. And then, if I'm making something at home, I actually make my own herbal latte with mushrooms, which I really love. I use my friend's summer. She's just launching a new company called Kamana. It's a mesquite coffee company, so it has these really incredible stimulating benefits to it. Just like coffee, but not a ton of caffeine in it. So I'll make that in a French press, then I'll add in some sort of nut milk and then I'll add in my functional mushrooms and blend it all together and I get this really frothy.
Speaker 1:You know coffee drink without like all of that stimulation I love so you know there's a lot here and I feel like we barely scratch the surface of the understanding of you know what you said psychedelic, adjacent plant medicine, wellness space. If somebody is curious to learn more, like where would you turn people to find out more?
Speaker 2:That's such a good question. I mean, come to my page if you want to learn about Kana. On Instagram, I have three posts that are posted or pinned and you can learn everything that you want to know about Kana and then kind of go from there. The second, the let's function Instagram page. We have a ton of information, learning about mushrooms I think that's another really great place and then continuing your exploration from there.
Speaker 2:What I will say is that I cannot imagine being in your shoes of being someone that's just starting to learn about mushrooms and plants, because it is so overwhelming out there and there's so much contra indicating or contradictory excuse me information that it must be so difficult to sift through. One of my goals in the next year is to create more really accurate information for people to find that they have a place to start and really get an accurate understanding. I'll give a shout out to my friend Danielle. She's the head of education over at Four Sigma. She co-wrote an amazing book called Healing Adaptogens and I think that's a really great place to start If you're interested in wellness from plants and mushrooms, so that's a good place to start.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, and what's next for you and function? Give us all the skin. Yes.
Speaker 2:So what's next for us? We have some really exciting things coming in the next few months that I can't quite reveal.
Speaker 1:That's okay, but we're watching.
Speaker 2:Yes, so at the end of next month, so end of February, keep an eye out on the function website because we have an exciting launch coming that involves Kana, involves Kana in a more recreational sense. So get really excited and then later this year, just know that we'll be expanding into some new products and I'm stoked to share.
Speaker 1:And where can we find you and function and all the good things?
Speaker 2:Yes, so let's functioncom and at let's function on Instagram and TikTok for the function page. Come and find us, give us a shout out, dm us and then for me, phoebe McPherson. So it's at underscore, phoebe, underscore McPherson. Find me on Instagram, reach out and then there's a text only number in my bio. If you ever need herbal advice or plant or mushroom advice, I try to be a good resource to send people in the right direction.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that's so kind. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to break this all down for us. I am thrilled.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to Confessions of a Want to Be Ick Girl. Don't forget to rate and subscribe to the show. As always, we'll see you next Tuesday.
