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Short Stuff: Death Cap Mushroom · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. Josh here, Chuck here,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Jerry No here, Dave no here. That's okay because, like
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I said, it's a short stuff.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Good Eve being everyone, we are. Death Cap Mushroom.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great one.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: It's a metal band right for sure.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Even just death cap would work too, death Cap for
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Qtie even would be cool.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Oh man, I like those guys, Yeah, they're great.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Did you like Postal Service?
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I love the Postal Service more than death Cab.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: It's just the one dude from death Cab, right, isn't
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: his solo?
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Probably not solo, he Ben Gibbert. He linked up with
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: someone else. It's like him and another guy. I can't
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: remember the other guy. But man, I love that Postal
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Service record.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, good good. So I'm glad you did. I'm glad
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: they made it. Then me too. So we're not talking
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: about death Cap for Cutie. We're talking about death cap mushrooms.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Not for you, I think is the main message.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Here, not for Cutis or anyone.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: No. And the reason they call it death cat mushroom
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: is because it can kill you if you eat it.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: It's not necessarily an automatic death sentence. But apparently the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: fatality rate from eating this mushroom is ten to fifteen
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: percent of people who eat it. High.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: That's in this house to berks article, they are like,
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: you know, that's pretty low.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I'm like not to me, no, that's I mean, that's
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: really high. Look at white button mushrooms, buddy, it's almost
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: like zero. And I think the people who do die
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: from eating white button mushrooms ate too many at once
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and choke to death.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: This is why I don't eat mushrooms at all. Oh
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: you don't, huh No, it's a texture thing. They're too
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: slimy for me.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I've tried.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Oh no, you gotta wash the slime off. And I'm
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: not expecting you to actually try this, but I know
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: exactly what you're talking about. If you wash the slime off,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: you dry it, you lick the top of it, put
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: some salt on it, and eat it raw, and it's
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: got a nice thirty crunch almost to it. And I
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: love those.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: You know, it's funny.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever mentioned not liking eating something
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: where you didn't say no, no, no, you're just.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Doing it wrong.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I like eating everything, all right.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: So there was an outbreak in twenty sixteen. In the
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Bay Area of San Francisco, where fourteen people consumed well
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: the defcat mushroom.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, got really, really sick.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: One very sad story of a child suffered permanent neurological damage.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: And the question is like, how did these things get here?
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Because they did not originate here. That's one of the questions.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Are you setting me up to answer it?
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Well? Sure do you?
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Okay?
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Answer because I do.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I have a general answer apparently. So. It's a ecto
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: micorhizal fungus that engages in symbiotic relationships mutualism with specific
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: kinds of trees, and in Europe they're typically beech trees
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: or oak trees, and it lives in the roots, the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: main part of the fungus, and it trades nitrogen that
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the mushroom draw from the soil to the oak or
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the beech tree in exchange for sugars and water and carbon.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: And they do this by basically connecting their roots to
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: the tree roots. And everybody's happy until you come along
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and eat one of the death caps. Yeah.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: I think we did a whole episode on mutualism, didn
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: we surely sibiosis.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Or something else. Yeah, but I didn't answer your question.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: The answer seems to be that somebody imported a tree
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: from Europe at some point that had a death cap
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: mushroom mike or ISAA in its roots. And surprise, death
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: cap mushrooms are in North America.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and they know that it wasn't a native species,
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: because you know, that could be possible that there's just
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: like a California, North America version. Sure, but it would
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: be genetically different somehow. But the ones that we have
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: over here are exactly the same. It's the same mushroom.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I think the first known sightings were in nineteen thirty
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: eight del Monte Hotel in California.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of these in California, Yeah, and then.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: Five six, seven, eight years later at the cal Berkeley campus.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: And now they're kind of all over the place or
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: on the East coast. They live in the pines in
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: the East Coast, but those oaks in on the West
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: coast all the way up to Vancouver, I believe. But
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: they've also found them outside of Europe and Western Russia,
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: southern Scandinavian coasts and North Africa.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they go. I think also on the West coast
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: of the United States. They grow all the way down
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to La County. Yeah, which is how cheech Marin accidentally
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: ate one.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Oh did he really or is that a joke?
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: That is Joe, I'm sorry so mad at you. You
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: could have said, like I know it was you have
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to say it really weird like that.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Seems so likely that cheach mayor might have accidentally in
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: one of these.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I think he kind of went straight with that whole
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Nash Bridges gig that he got, And Dobbey Chong is like, no, man,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I still eat whatever I find on the ground.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Uh, speaking of Nash Bridges, And you know, maybe I
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: shouldn't say this.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: I'll tell y'all here.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, I can't wait. Is it about Don Johnson? Yeah?
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: All right, So should we take a break or should
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: we talk a little bit more about it?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Let's take a break, all right, We'll be.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Right back with more on this death cap mushroom.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: All right, we're back.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: And this is something I don't fully understand, but the
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: death cap mushroom is an invasive species in California, where
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: it grows in very beautiful woodlands and forests. It is
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: not considered such on the East Coast, where it grows
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: in more urban settings like urban parks, but it still
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: could be invasive. Like I don't understand what the diath is.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It's very easily contained an urban area. You've got your park.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: But then you know, you say, like, hey, mushroom, try
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: to try to spread from this part. Yeah, deal with
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: this sidewalk, then the street, then the sidewalk, then a building,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: then another sidewalk, then the street, then the sidewalk, then
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a sidewalk, then the sidewalk, then the sidewalk, and the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: mushroom goes Okay, final, I'll just stay.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Here, all right.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: So I guess that makes sense. Yeah, I guess I
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: didn't fully understand what invasive meant. I thought invasive just
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: meant if it was there and not great for the area.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: I didn't mean it had to be like super widespread.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't either, But that's what I took from this
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: description of it. So that's my take. I should say,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that's not like.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: The I thought that was a quote It was.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Of am Pringle the letters in Science Rubinstein, Professor of
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Botany and Bacteriology at the University of Madison, Wisconsin.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Wow, look at you.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we should say shout out to how Stuff works
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: for helping us with this article by writing it, and
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: they interviewed Professor Pringle about this and she was very helpful.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a couple of toxins when it comes to
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  Speaker 3: the death cap. One of them is a phallotoxin, and
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: you're talking, you know what you would expect dehydration, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: but eventually electrolyte imbalances and kidney damage. But the really
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: bad booger in there is amatoxin, and that will stop
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: cell function. It targets the transcription of RNA by RNA
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: polymer raise two, which we've talked about before, and that
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  Speaker 3: basically causes cell death. That prevents the cell from making
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: the proteins and cell components that it needs to be
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: a cell.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Right, So that's always bad. And apparently it goes very
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: quickly to your liver and just starts destroying your liver.
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  Speaker 1: And apparently people go to the emergency room sick with
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: sick on basically after eating a death cap mushroom, we'll
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: find that the doctors want to give them a liver
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: trans plant if one is available. Wow, that's how bad
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: it can get. And one of the reasons why it
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: can get so bad is because after the initial like
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: nausea and vomiting and horrible, like I shouldn't have eaten
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: that mushroom that I found in that field. Sensation it
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: goes away and you think that you're fine, but actually,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in reality that amatoxin is is just destroying your body.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: And then by the time you start to feel those effects,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: you're in really big trouble.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Didn't liver one of the longer weights or am I
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: making that up?
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Longer weights?
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Of weight w A I T s for transplant.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know. No, I don't think so, because you
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: can cut off like a chunk of your liver and
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: don'tt it because I don't know if it grows back
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: or else. It just a little bit can can perform
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of function one of those kidneys. No, I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: don't think I don't think so. I think it's liver.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: So we got all the organs are readily available.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Right for transplanting for sure.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's so easy to get when you just
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: walk in and they try to give you two livers
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: most of the time.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: I could have maybe this is while ago I could
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: have sworn. I read reports of like people dying on
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: the liver transplant list.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Oh I believe it, but I don't think that. I
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: don't think livers the least available. Okay, I gotcha, but
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I could be wrong. But yeah, I think everybody dies
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: on the organ transplant list waiting, or I should say
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: not everybody on the list dies, but I'm saying for
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: any organ there are people dying on the wait list.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I gotcha. Yeah, boy, that's a nice courage.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: So the takeaway from this is, don't eat the death
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: cap mushroom at all. You need it, And if you're
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: a forager, you really got to know what you're doing.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: You shouldn't be like, hey, I saw this on Top Chef,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: like I can go out in the woods and just
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: pick stuff and eat it. You got to be really
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: familiar with the fungi where you are, and if you aren't,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: just don't try it.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Don't risk it. It's not worth it.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: No, I think we should issue a general CoA for
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: us here. Don't even if you think you are familiar
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: with your local mushrooms, don't try it. We're not telling you,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: under any circum stances to go try this.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Okay, I think foraging is wonderful, but so I'm not
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: going to.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Say that personally, but we're saying you're welcome to just
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: know what you're doing to reform. Now, there are all
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: kinds of resources if you're interested in stuff like that
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: that can very clearly tell you like what's safe and
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: what isn't. But you should still take a buddy who's
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: done it before. I think you can identify, according to
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: doctor Prinkle, who can eat just one. It has olivaceous
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: with coloring with green tinge, and a mature death cap
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: has a brown brown striations on the cap.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: And don't forget fairy rings around the stem.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Which who can forget the fairy rings?
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Right? It goes without saying that that's just a bunch
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: of fairies forming a circle by holding hands. Yeah, so
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I saw one of the things Chuck about this. The
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: reason why people eat these is because they taste good.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Oh interesting.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: So people are caught by surprise when all of a
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: sudden they start puking because the fact that it tasted good,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I think indicated to them that this is fine to eat.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, who's never going to get sick by
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: eating a bad mushroom?
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: And it has two thumbs, and it's podcasting with you
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: right now?
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I do this guy, right here. Oh that's not how
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say. Oh, cheech Marin, you got anything else?
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I got nothing else.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Short Stuff is out.
• 11:29
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• 11:32
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• 11:37
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