Meet Jonathan Fredette | Founder, Evolved Mushrooms, Citizen Health Scientist

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

Hi Jonathan, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Studying ways to improve my own personal health were essential for my early development. I realized that there is a massive deficiency in general understanding of individual health. When I explored the wide spectrum of different medicinal mushrooms, it became apparent to me that there was powerful medicine to be found here. These mushrooms can address so many systemic and individual chronic health conditions, including and especially psychological wellbeing. These were many of the thoughts that inspired the creation of Evolved Mushrooms. Our mission is pretty simple. We want to provide people with tools that optimize their total wellbeing – medicinals that we use in our own lives on a regular basis.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think my story is a bit unique because I have influence from so many different arenas. I have always been so much more curious than limiting my research to just mycology (the study of fungi). I am interested in all of the intersecting sciences that support humanity’s well-being, especially in relationship to our own social and natural ecosystems. Fungi present an incredible function within those relationships, and is such an unexplored terrain of study within the natural sciences and medicine. It’s a fringe subject we need to explore in a mush greater capacity. If there’s anything that sets me apart, its my “jack of all trades” approach to my career. I am a mix of citizen scientist/educator, entrepreneur, amateur mycologist, community facilitator and business owner. I’ll study mysticism and alchemy one day and nutritional sciences the next. It’s a nice balance that keeps me engaged and all of these sciences became necessary skills to help serve my people. At the end of the day that’s where my heart is within my work. I think like many people who start up their own enterprise, we just want to help people.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Here in Portland, it’s really a matter of your mood. If adventure is calling, there’s the coast on one side and an epic series of forest and waterfall hikes on the other, with a city that has some of the best food in the world (I’ll stand by it). You can drop a random pin on Portland’s google map and have multiple options of amazing places to go. I still think we need a mushroom cafe’ and someone’s gotta be the first to host it here in Portland.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
If there’s a book I want to shoutout, it would be the Alchemist. How many people saw that coming? The Alchemist is an amazing fable that follows a young shepherd in pursuit of his dream and ultimately, for love. His exploration of his own personal treasure becomes the driving factor for his hero’s journey. So much of the treasure we seek in life can emerge from self-exploration. I hope the work we do will honor the individual’s own journey.

Website: Evovledmushrooms.com

Instagram: Evolved_mushrooms