Meet Sam Wagner | Educator, Mycologist, & Myco-social Worker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Wagner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?

I worked in the social work field for 15 years and had seen how badly systems fail the people it claims to serve. Many social welfare systems do not operate with the intent of helping people get out of the system and move upwards in class and resources. Those same systems often serve the people as a priority. I decided to quit this system and do social work differently – rid of tradition, take the anarchist way, and govern myself.

When I began working with mushrooms, it wasn’t so much a thought process to start a business as it was a need to follow the “call”. A surprise encounter with mushrooms generated more intrigue into the fungal kingdom and how it weaves through everything. Though I had not left social work yet, I knew if I didn’t leave soon my mental health would suffer further. I began learning and growing from books and internet forums until a few years later when I saw my path with “myco-social work”. Knowing that I would not be successful running my business while continuing to work at my full-time corporate social welfare job, I quit and took work as a bartender part-time and mycologist full-time.

The business has gone through several name changes, one of which involved working with a partner for a short time. The process of sorting through the purpose and meaning behind the business has not always been clear. I am constantly reminded of Lao Tsu’s proverb “the way that can be named is not the constant way”. While I don’t always remember that, it has always proven to be true. Now, Shroomsquatch Myco-Ventures exists to teach and empower individuals to engage with fungi and explore its ways of working with the greater network of us and our planet.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

I originally started as a mushroom farm and have always loved the farming process; however, as I engaged with my customers, I saw that there was a desire and a need for more education about fungal cultivation and education in general. This led me to start Shroomsquatch Myco-Ventures. The idea of a squatch is something mysterious, something that you need to choose to believe in, something that’s existence is unproven – until it is. In this way, we are all the shroomsquatch. We have the opportunity to believe – to have faith even – in ourselves as an inter-dimensional being that is capable of engaging our natural world and using that as a way to engage our emotional and spiritual worlds in a more connective way.

Mycelium – the growth mechanism that produces mushrooms – connects the pieces of earth that it moves through in both known and unknown ways. When we study these connections, we can sometimes infer a meaning to the connection and gain some knowledge into fungal relations. Other times, we are left merely making assumptions (not good science) or surprised at the mystery of our natural understory. We as a species have a similar experience, and mycelium is a great representation of the energy that humans exchange regularly. Sometimes, we understand, and other times, we don’t. This is a primary piece in the business mission. As much as we want you to grow mushrooms, our goal is to provide tools for others to find their path/way and become more connected to themselves, others, and their natural world.

Starting Shroomsquatch Myco-Ventures did not come easily. I spent a lot of time working on other ideas within the mycology field all while working another job. The reality of burnout crept up on me, and I took a step back to view the full picture. I stopped working myself to dust and sat down and listened. “The way that can be named is not the constant way” kept coming into my mind. The number of customers coming to my farm that wanted to learn was almost as high as the number buying mushrooms, and they all wanted to talk at length to me about all things fungal. I started paying attention to this and many other factors and recalled the “myco-social work” concept. There are numerous ways to practice social work, and this one, the teaching and exploring one, was the current calling I was ignoring. It was hard to accept at first. I felt like, “I am no expert, I am a failure as a farmer, why listen to me?” I have always struggled with the ego getting involved with something I am doing, especially when it of the helping nature. I always feel that if I cannot remove the ego from the task entirely, it is somehow not good enough, not of pure enough intention and action. Through ongoing mediation, contemplation and listening, I have been able to step onto the path that is Shroomsquatch Myco-Ventures, and though I don’t know all the places the path leads, I have faith in being on it.

Currently, we are offering classes at varying tiers of learning levels. We have a low-tech cultivation course, a mycology 101 class, and a one on one in home or lab program for those who want to pursue cultivation on a much deeper level. I do continue to cultivate several varieties of mushroom on a small scale and produce cordyceps on a larger scale. I also provide mushrooms to a local brewery to make beer containing various mushrooms. Since we are education focused, we also sell all the materials for the cultivation process.

As we continue to develop as a company, my primary focus is to remain quiet, to let the fungi and the mycelial universe guide the way and learn from those who join us along the way. If our customers can walk away with the tools they need to cultivate and explore the fungal kingdom, we have succeeded as a business. If they gain a higher sense of self and spirit during their process, we will be honored and grateful to walk alongside them.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would need to visit many of the outstanding breweries in the area beginning with Trve Brewing. Meow Wolf is an experience not to be missed. We would then go eat a burger at My Brother’s Bar.

Winter would be the best time for them to visit because skiing is the most joy you can have on two feet. Arapahoe Basin is my home base for skiing; so we would likely go somewhere beginner friendly for day one, then to A-Basin for day two.
I am an avid runner and would take them to do a Boulder Skyline Traverse or the Pawnee-Buchanan loop in Indian Peaks.
If the time of year allowed, I would take them climbing at Turkey Rocks and Thunder Ridge and mushroom foraging at the higher altitudes.
For more far flung adventures, a fast packing trip through the Canyonlands in Moab combined with climbing at Indian Creek would be on the agenda.
There would also be some evenings spent doing nerdy things like playing board games with friends in town and lab work.
Camping in Lost Creek Wilderness would also be an option as would spending time tramping through the San Juan Mountain

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My wife Kate Welle has always believed in me and my following my guts, my passion, my “calling”. The love we get to share is my top priority of life, and no amount of business or career could come close to the experience of getting to live a loving life with her. She always has more faith in me that I do, and I often try to borrow some of hers to get me through the doubts and fears.

My father Sam Wagner, Sr. also deserves immense credit to me being here. He died of cancer in 2021 and was always more encouraging about me starting a business around mycology than any other path I had pursued prior. Maybe part of that was his immediate need to address his life and the imminence of death. He always instilled a work ethic that I would never have been able to cultivate on my own, and I am so grateful.

I owe a great amount of credit to all of my mycology teachers who have all come to me through book and internet form. Peter McCoy, Tradd Cotter, Roger Rabbit, William Padilla-Brown, Paul Stamets, to name a few.
Peter McCoy’s “Radical Mycology” is likely the single best piece of literature written on fungi in existence, and when applied well can get most anyone of track to a successful mushroom business.

There are numerous other people who have put their faith in me in some form or another, and I am not going to express thanks here. I will do that on my own time.

Website: shroomsquatch.com

Instagram: @shroomsquatchmv

Image Credits
Logo – Noah Chute 1. Bo Collins 2. Sarah Briggs 3. Chris Adams 4. Sam Wagner 5. Karl Schuttler 6. Sam Wagner 7. Kyle Herlache 8. Sam Wagner