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Eugenia Bone was writing about fungi before they were cool. But unlike the hipster who abandons bands the moment they top the charts, she's doubling down on mushrooms as they go mainstream. In her latest book, she offers a balanced take on psychedelic mushrooms that should bring ungrounded expectations back to earth.

We spoke to Eugenia about cooking with psychedelic mushrooms, differences across mushroom species and cultivars, and the invisible and often overlooked functions of fungi in ecosystems.

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Your career spans from traditional food writing to psychedelic education. What drew you to explore psilocybin mushrooms in your work?

For writers, curiosity is destiny. You follow whatever fascinates you if you're privileged enough to survive as a freelancer. My path from food to mushrooms to microbes is more consistent than it seems. It's all about how invisible things function in our lives. They’re these outside forces we can't see but change everything. Whether it's cooking, preserving, or simply observing, I'm fascinated with these hidden effects.

With psychedelic mushrooms specifically, I'm still exploring fungi. I’m still interested in the unseen effects of mushrooms on the environment and people. I've been writing about psychedelic mushrooms for the last 20 years and watching them grow in popularity in the public consciousness, along with mushrooms in general.

During this time, I've seen things go a bit off the rails, with people having outsized expectations about mushrooms curing everything. I felt a responsibility to bring the conversation back down to earth and write about mushrooms in a really practical, consumer-oriented way.

What are your thoughts on cooking with psilocybin mushrooms? Are there ways to make them more palatable without compromising their effects?

They taste pretty shitty, honestly. Some people claim there's a flavor difference between species like cyanescens and cubensis, but I haven't done side-by-side tastings. That would get you really screwed up! When I reviewed The Psilocybin Chef Cookbook, I could only test one recipe per day because the effects would last six hours.

There's no real culinary aspect to magic mushrooms, in my opinion. If you're eating them fresh, they're not very palatable, and if they're dried, the flavor is irrelevant; it's just a delivery vehicle for tripping. In recipes, the mushrooms are essentially disguised, added like you'd use dried oregano. They're not really the star ingredient like you'd find in a book about porcini mushrooms.

However, I am currently working on recipes for Amanita muscaria, which is different and doesn’t contain psilocybin. It's that classic red mushroom with white dots. If it's pretreated properly, it can be rendered inert of its psychoactive compounds and used in dishes. It's not an extraordinary mushroom to eat, but it has social wow factor because everyone thinks it's toxic. I suggested to a chef friend who was opening a restaurant that he could serve detoxified Amanita muscaria and the press would go wild. He just looked at me and said, “Eugenia, have you ever heard of insurance?”

You've given mycology talks in all sorts of venues, from botanical gardens to libraries. What are people most surprised to learn about fungi?

Now people know so much more, but in the past, especially at garden clubs, most people only thought of fungi as pathogens—molds, mildews, and rots of their plants. So I would tell them about how fungi actually help plants survive and their evolutionary role in plant wellbeing. I've been able to share the good side of fungi, which has had a bad rap in the botanical world for a long time.

I explain how endophytes act as stress reducers for plants, helping them tolerate things like drought, or how mycorrhizal fungi enhance a plant's ability to get nutrients from the soil and survive adverse conditions. The role of saprobes in recycling nutrients in a given ecosystem is also fascinating. I would tell them this little poem: “Fungi kill plants; they rot plants; they help young plants grow; they protect plants; they kill plants; they rots plants; they help young plants grow…”

You can't be moralistic about symbiosis, but fungi and plants are intricately involved, not unlike animals (including humans) are with bacteria. These symbionts are important to their hosts and cannot be separated without consequences. That's the kind of story I would tell. Now I'm starting to focus more on other topics, like helping people understand how to analyze correlative science behind various claims about psychedelics.

Your new book 'Have a Good Trip' explores the magic mushroom experience. Which aspects were you most interested in capturing?

One thing that's really lacking in public knowledge is how the mycology itself affects people's experiences. I write a lot about cultivars and how important they are in analyzing potency. Different breeds of Psilocybe cubensis can be hugely different. One strain can be three times more potent than another. That’s like the difference between a Chihuahua and a Great Dane. Most people don't even know different species exist, let alone cultivars. That knowledge gap matters, especially for microdosers working with such tiny amounts.

When I go to dinner parties in New York and mention my book, everyone asks about bad trips. They have trouble reconciling the incredible science headlines with the “your brain on drugs is like a fried egg” messaging they grew up with. In my book, I try to provide a thorough analysis based on large-scale surveys and synthesized data from social sites like Reddit and Shroomery, along with experiences from my wide network.

I also explain how to read scientific papers and understand the FDA system. I cover spirituality, some challenges that churches face with legal status, how to deal with fake products, and problems that occur in raves and music festivals. There's information about how to get into clinical trials, and I'm working with a former clinical trials director for Compass Pathways, to help explain the challenges psychedelic companies face in developing their trials to meet FDA requirements. I basically cover what is known, what is unknown, and what is unknowable about the magic mushroom experience.

Given the challenges with fitting psilocybin into our medical model, how do you see psychedelic mushrooms being integrated into society?

We should really be asking the people with the longest history of using these mushrooms, like the Mazatec. It's stupid not to. They're the professionals. We should be asking Indigenous people these questions and paying them for their answers.

From what I understand of their perspective, the individual is only as healthy as their community. If that’s true, we might need community centers that provide psychedelics, ideally staffed by people who know their local cultural history. Colin Pugh from the Brooklyn Psychedelic Society dreams of every neighborhood having its own psychedelic center. The benefit, besides whatever psychedelics give, is that people from similar communities might be similarly oriented in terms of their identities or financial situations.

Having these local centers could transform how we think about psychedelic healing. Instead of focusing solely on individual efficacy or trying to force these substances into our existing medical model, we could create spaces where healing happens in context—where the providers understand the community's specific challenges and histories.

Whether a center is in a Haitian neighborhood in New York or a rural community in Oklahoma, this model recognizes that psychedelic experiences don't happen in isolation. They're part of a larger web of community relationships and support systems. That's what the Indigenous communities have known all along.

Want more from Eugenia?

Pick up a copy of Have a Good Trip, or check out her other books on the hidden forces that influence our lives.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.