Running with Mushrooms
We only share when there’s something worth sharing, and will never spam you.An intro to the ‘Running with Mushrooms’ research project and Sporesight’s founder, Jess Jorgensen,
Hi 👋
I’m Jess Jorgensen—an insights person, really into mushrooms, and the founder of Sporesight.
Running with Mushrooms is my world mushroom tour exploring global myco-culture.
This was the start of an epic adventure. A world mushroom tour. Exploring the industry and culture of mushrooms around the world.
After 67+ ethnographies and interviews with mycologists, mushroom start-ups, mycopreneurs, innovators and thinkers in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia (and counting!), it became:
Sporesight - A Foresight Consultancy, for mushroom and psychedelics brands, start-ups, mycopreneurs, NGOs, big corps, brave brands and progressive agencies wanting to understand the ‘shroom boom’, Sporesight can help you make sense of this fast-evolving category.
The Spore-Co - A collective of foresight & fungi folk, as I help to connect mycologically curious people who care about sustainable futures. I’ve built a network of 200+ amazing foresight practitioners, mushroom folks, NGOs and businesses working with mushrooms or psilocybin around the world. They’re now a collective of brilliant minds who work with Sporesight to solve foresight and strategy challenges.
Spore-drops - A blog/newsletter sharing spore-sized email drops of fungi & foresight wisdoms about how mushrooms and nature are shaping good futures. Posts started by capturing my world mushroom tour, sharing how the ‘shroom boom’ is affecting people, culture and our collective futures, with occasional behind-the-scenes dairies of my journey from a full time Director-level career to running with a fungi passion. Now, they’re geared towards fungi x futures.
Mostly, it’s a series of great chats with mushroom folk about mushroom stuff!
Listen to a quick intro to Running with Mushrooms:
Music credit: Amaroo | She Royalty (Instrumental Version) | Courtesy of Epidemic Sound
Image description: A woman, Jess Jorgensen, stands against a light orange and forest green wall. She’s wearing a tailored orange crop jacket and matching trousers, over a white turtleneck t-shirt. She’s looking down towards her hands, cleaning a pair of reading glasses. Photo by Juanita Petronio, shot in Cape Town, 2023
Who is Jess Jorgensen?
I’m a Foresight and Cultural Strategist, Ethnomycologist and Amateur Mycologist based between London and Cape Town.
In 2024 I was the Global Consumer Insight Lead for two brands at The Absolut Group / Pernod Ricard, while setting up Sporesight. Since 2006 I worked as a Director of Cultural and Consumer Insights at great agencies like BAMM, Flamingo and Instant Grass, helping big brands to consciously consider consumers within cultures (lots of c’s there; unintentional alliteration).
In 2023 I started exploring a wild passion for mushrooms, diving into fungi cultures and subcultures: from Ethnography (study of humans) to EthnoMycology (study of humans and mushrooms).
I’m now working to merge these two worlds.
Why mushrooms?
Simply, I love fungi. Researching and geeking out about fungi is weird, rewarding, radical, polite civil disobedience.
Fungi offer ways to challenge and disrupt outdated systems and status quo that aren’t serving us. In food, health, materials, the environment and more.
In the words of Doug Bierand, In Search of Myctopia:
“Part of the growing appeal of fungi is that they represent means, examples, and ways of thinking through which we might subvert an unsustainable status quo.”
Image description: Illustration of young girl laughing, wearing a white beanie, white t-shirt with brown and white mushroom sprouting, and big nerdy glasses.
Why ‘Running with Mushrooms’?
Mycelium runs. The delicate fine filaments of the ‘root’ structure of mushrooms silently—and quickly—break down plant and animal debris, recycling carbon, nitrogen and other essential elements while making new soil. Running with Mushrooms - a research project - is literally running with mycelium, as each chat leads to another like a literal mycelial network.
I hope you’re inspired to geek out with me 🍄
