Mei Lin Chen

I write about what mushrooms do to the brain, not how to find them in the woods. I started a PhD in Neuroscience at UCSF but left after qualifying exams to write full-time. Turns out I'm better at explaining science than doing it at a bench. I cover psychedelics, neuroscience, and mental health for various publications, and I've attended symposiums at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research.

I have no foraging experience and no plans to start. My interest in fungi is strictly neurochemical: psilocybin, muscimol, the serotonin receptor agonism, the clinical trial data. I'm a member of the Science Writers Association and previously fact-checked for a health publication. When I write about psychoactive mushrooms, I'm writing about the research, not the experience.