Parenting is a Joke

In this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, comedian‐turned‐psychedelic advocate Tracey Tee recounts how a series of life-altering psilocybin experiences led her to found Moms on Mushrooms, an educational community dedicated to helping mothers explore the benefits of microdosing. After facing conservative upbringings, personal health challenges, and a devastating car accident, Tracey discovered that intentional, sub-perceptual doses of mushrooms provided profound clarity and emotional resilience without impairing her ability to parent. She contrasts this approach with more passive remedies, such as SSRIs or alcohol, that merely numb discomfort, arguing instead for the co-creative power of psychedelics to foster presence, compassion, and authentic connection within families. By destigmatizing maternal use of plant medicine and emphasizing community support, Tracey aims to empower women to reclaim their well-being and model healthy emotional expression for their children.

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[00:00:00] Ophira Eisenberg: It used to be chill. It's all up and small. I think I'm still fun parenting a joke. Hey everybody, I'm back with a snack. Joining me is the incredible Tracey Tee. She is a standup comedian. But because I don't know if you still relate to that as your title, Tracey, but I will always say it once. A standup, always a stand.

[00:00:23] Tracey Tee: Yeah. I think, it never leaves you it never leaves you. Yeah. I'm like, who was

[00:00:27] Ophira Eisenberg: that woman? Oh yeah, I did that. But yeah, thank you. But currently she works in the world of psychedelics in terms of education, community healing, getting the world out word out. Because you live in Colorado and I believe Oregon are the two states where it's decriminalized.

[00:00:45] Ophira Eisenberg: Maybe more are getting. In line. It's certainly a lot more destigmatized, I would say. And I have a joke where I talk about parents, moms, specifically on mushrooms and other drugs. And when I say the mushrooms part, I see it. People nod and then I go, are you microdose? And mo, a lot of people just know about it.

[00:01:03] Ophira Eisenberg: I would say five years ago someone said the word microdosing. I didn't even know what that was. No, it's true. You, we were talking about like how there was, this tragic car accident and after, just one of the many steps along the way that took you to where you were like, I need to double down on this.

[00:01:24] Ophira Eisenberg: And I'm hearing from you other than yourself, your own journey of dealing with depression and menopause and using plant medicine to help you. Where does it become like, oh, I need to make this a business or get the word out, or, find other people.

[00:01:45] Tracey Tee: Yeah. Thank you for asking that. It was definitely like a dramatic journey and, as we phased out the Pump and dump show and Band of Mothers podcast and I started to lean into my healing a lot more 'cause at the time, and I was interested and it was working.

[00:02:01] Tracey Tee: It was really that first journey where I was just shown a lot of like maybe my future a little bit. Like things just became a lot more clear and I did another journey many months after that and in, or I guess it was like several journeys later, but I, one point I was lying on the floor with that same, my same guide.

[00:02:20] Tracey Tee: Okay. I was crying and I was saying. I think I'm just put on this world to eat mushrooms and I really believe that. Like I love, I like this is my medicine. Most people say they have a master teacher and mushrooms just are. I'm just like made to take mushrooms for sure. And so when I started working with it, like I said, my life just took this kind of really intense trajectory.

[00:02:41] Tracey Tee: And that's not to say it was only the mushrooms. I was really devoted to the work. I was really wanting to change a lot of things I didn't like about myself and just level set and answer those questions. That started when I was turning, when I turned 40, and so that first journey really clarified that and made it very clear that mushrooms were going to be it for me.

[00:03:01] Tracey Tee: And then when I got that download, which I don't even give myself credit for, because it really wasn't of moms on mushrooms, I said, no for a long time. Yeah. I was like, I nick, come on now. First of all, you're like, come on, now. I'm just starting. I'm not a I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist. I don't, I'm not a life coach.

[00:03:17] Tracey Tee: Who am I to even begin to think, to talk to the, to about people this. And I was also very scared. I was very quietly working with mushrooms and not really telling anyone else in my family. And my life was changing so fast, but, so I just kept saying no. And it was like no. Like I remember one time like being on my floor in prayer, with my head on the ground, I was like I really don't think I'm the right person for this job. I don't wanna do it. And then eventually I just said yes. I just

[00:03:46] Ophira Eisenberg: Gave up. Yeah. And why, I don't take this in the, I'm not judging it at all. I'm just genuinely curious why not women on mushrooms.

[00:03:55] Ophira Eisenberg: People on mushrooms. Why moms? Yeah.

[00:03:57] Tracey Tee: A lot of that had to do with the po dump show, almost all of it. Okay. Because. What we saw, and we talked about this earlier, what we saw in the Poda show was this desperate need for moms to come together and laugh about the things they had in common. It was the community why we eventually morphed into Band of Mothers because the whole point of the show was to remind you that you're not alone and that all moms can, like, all different kinds of moms can come together.

[00:04:21] Tracey Tee: We always said like whether you. Eight, your own placenta or you never tried a cloth diaper. Like we still are, we're still wiping butts, right? Like the commonalities are so it doesn't matter. And when you can release that and laugh, it's so healing. And then adding on these, years of stories from women that we heard, heartbreak and oh my gosh, just loneliness and all the things, what the pandemic taught me was what the PO dump show did so well in like the olden times, bringing moms together.

[00:04:52] Tracey Tee: Booze food, laughter. What I saw was that now it was time to start talking.

[00:04:56] Tracey Tee: And we can laugh about it, but if we don't heal it, it's just gonna keep going and going. And the mushrooms are, psilocybin is a, it's a community medicine. It does not wanna be taken in a vacuum. Almost anyone will tell you that.

[00:05:11] Tracey Tee: And it was just so clear to me. It was so clear to me that. This was the helper. Like this was the aid that we needed, the excuse the zeitgeist, the connector for us to start talking. And it's so loving and gentle and everything I knew about it was wrong. I was just, I had fear and propaganda ingrained in me, and when I started to look at the science and look at the research and look at the reality and experience it, it was nothing like what I thought it was.

[00:05:37] Tracey Tee: What kind of propaganda are we talking

[00:05:38] Ophira Eisenberg: about?

[00:05:39] Tracey Tee: We're talking about, oh, you're gonna jump off a building? Oh, yeah. Oh, brain. You think you can fly your brain? You think you can fly? You might, but those things are real, but it's not like you're not gonna, you can't die from mushrooms. You can't you, like physically can't ingest enough mushrooms to have an overdose.

[00:05:53] Tracey Tee: It's not the same. And we compare our fears of micro of mushrooms to what we understand about like alcohol and fentanyl. And they're not anything alike. You're not, you, it's not addictive. It's actually anti addictive. You cannot become addicted to psilocybin because it will build up a tol, you'll build up a tolerance in it and it won't work anymore if you take too much like it's like already.

[00:06:15] Tracey Tee: It's geared for healing. It's so magical. And the other thing I really love about mushrooms is Paul Stat said this really well. Mushroom magic mushrooms grow on every continent. On the planet except for Antarctica. It is the most democratic medicine. It is. There are cultures that use it really beautifully, but it's, you can't really.

[00:06:36] Tracey Tee: Culturally appropriate because it's available everywhere. Gross. Some shit like it's available everywhere. That's right. It wants, it's a mushroom, it wants everyone to use it. Like it's, it makes itself available. And so all of those things are just like, this is it for moms. And yes, I just took that, I took all the lessons from the Poto show and to dump them into.

[00:06:58] Tracey Tee: Microdosing,

[00:06:59] Ophira Eisenberg: And I was watching some very cable television shows that you've been featured on, which of course are gonna come at it from a, a judgemental and clickbait. And part of it is by design, and part of it is truly because I've learned that the presenter, whoever it is, can't appear to be taking part in it.

[00:07:19] Ophira Eisenberg: Oh, totally. Oh yeah. And so they have to take this hard stance that all they do is I. It's so funny because I think what, whatever judgment people have about psychedelics, these are the same people who are like, yeah, I was parenting a little buzzed, on a couple glass, half a bottle of wine or whatever, and nobody blink, nobody eye at that.

[00:07:38] Ophira Eisenberg: So the basic question that I'm sure you got asked numerous times, but I saw one instance where people are like, so are you high when you're parenting your kids?

[00:07:47] Tracey Tee: Yeah. No, that was my biggest fear too. And the whole point about microdosing is that you're not high. You're not high.

[00:07:55] Tracey Tee: Like we don't wanna be high. And, this is coming from a mom who happily drank two bottles of Chardonnay in the middle of the afternoon at a play date. Like I was that mom that was drunk and buzzed around her daughter. I did bring my, my daughter like, grew up going to the liquor store and getting wine like she so I, I had to really say, where's my prejudice? If I can do this around my kid? No, why not this? Just because it's illegal, stupidly illegal. But microdosing, you're taking sub perceptual amounts. You're taking amounts that are not altering your perception at all. I always equate it to, I guess if you're gonna give an example, it's having that like first cup of coffee, right?

[00:08:34] Tracey Tee: It doesn't change how you show up. It doesn't alter anything that you do, but you just know it's there. You might be a little bit more alert, you feel the coffee kick in, but it's not inhibiting you in any way. And that's what a microdose is and that's why it's so great for moms.

[00:08:49] Tracey Tee: And I also think, and we can talk about large dose journeys later, and I, a lot of, I go against, a lot of people disagree with me, but I really feel that the modern. The modern Western mother. We don't have any idea about psychedelics, like intentionally using. We don't really understand what plant medicine is.

[00:09:05] Tracey Tee: We are not a culture that has ceremony or ritual or even intentionality. We're very passive. We want to take Wellbutrin and sit back and let it fix my menopause. We want, we have a headache. We take an Advil, we wait for it to go away. We don't have a lot of buy-in, like collective buy-in on our healing.

[00:09:21] Tracey Tee: And so my concern is that we hear about the potential about the healing effects of a large dose journey, which I very much believe in. And so we just go straight to Z to that to 60. Jump in, take five grams of something, and you can become very destabilized if you don't have any context or awareness or preparation for it.

[00:09:41] Tracey Tee: And microdosing is a really beautiful way to create a relationship with a psychedelic, like actually understand what it means to co-create your own life. And use something as an ally, not as a complete bandaid. And from there then you have not only education and empowerment, but you have context to go and explore something bigger, in a bigger altered state so that it can actually do what it's supposed to do, which is help you.

[00:10:06] Janey (Queer Family Podcast): Family podcast.

[00:10:11] Janey (Queer Family Podcast): Hey there listeners, do you like to hear real and honest stories and do you also believe in inclusion and diversity? If so, I have the podcast for you. My name is Jamie and I'm the host of the Queer Family Podcast. The show all about family, but with Gay, I go in depth with weekly guests about how they built their beautiful queer families and how we all show up in a world that wasn't necessarily designed for families that look like ours.

[00:10:40] Janey (Queer Family Podcast): The mission is to uplift, highlight, normalize, and celebrate lgbtqia plus families in all of our beautiful identities. And we do just that week after week, tune in every Monday to new episodes. Episodes. Find us wherever you find your pods. Happy listening. Love is. Love is

[00:10:58] Ophira Eisenberg: Love. On the Queer Family Podcast.

[00:11:00] Ophira Eisenberg: Love is love. So the moms that are coming and joining your com community, what would you say they are searching for? Are they searching for an alternative to an antidepressant? Are they looking? Yeah,

[00:11:12] Tracey Tee: I would say at least 80% of the women who come to us in our community or courses are looking for a better.

[00:11:20] Tracey Tee: Answer to an antidepressant. Many women are on one, if not several antidepressants. They don't know how or why they're working together. They just, the doctors just keep adding something on because the other one's not working. They don't know how to get off. They're terrified of getting off. They don't know what their life looks like without it.

[00:11:38] Tracey Tee: And, but their soul is I know this isn't the way. Like I, I don't remember the last time I've cried. I don't remember the last time I've laughed and I know I want something more. So that's a big part. I would say the rest, most women are looking for more presence. They sense that the overwhelm, the distraction of our modern life is getting out of hand and it's almost like you don't know how to stop it.

[00:12:03] Ophira Eisenberg: Yeah, I always say a lot of this stuff, it's I get a lot of judgment for whatever I do in my life and sometimes I just go you know what, until there is affordable childcare, until there is like any sort of structure that helps support parents. I wasn't aware until I had a kid how much America hates children.

[00:12:21] Ophira Eisenberg: They hate children. Yeah, it's so true. And then after that, they hate mothers more. I.

[00:12:27] Tracey Tee: And then on top of all about the umbrella of all that is that we hate discomfort. Yes. We hate dis and which is why we don't like children. We don't like loud noises. We don't like un we don't like unscheduled events.

[00:12:39] Tracey Tee: We don't know what to do with a tantrum. We don't know what to do if someone's tired. We don't like it. If someone's hungry, we feed them right away because we don't like uncomfortability and we don't like moms who are uncomfortable. We don't like sad moms can't stand sad moms. We can't stand angry.

[00:12:53] Tracey Tee: Moms call them Karens. We can't stand moms who beat to their own drum. They're weird. Yeah. And po possibly a danger to their children. That's the knee jerk bad mom. That's they're bad moms. What? And we really don't like them. We really don't like moms who are also women.

[00:13:14] Ophira Eisenberg: How do you think society feels about moms and mushrooms?

[00:13:19] Tracey Tee: Actually we don't get a lot of trolls. I think the authenticity of what we're trying to do at moms is somehow protecting us from the hate. Doesn't mean the people don't think, and I've lost friends and family members because of what of my work with psychedelics.

[00:13:36] Tracey Tee: But I, 90% of the time I what I hear from women who are my mom's age, including my mom. We have a ton of women, like in their third act of life, or say, I wish I had this when I was, I wish I had this when I was a young mom. I wish I knew that there was another way. I wish someone could, I wish I could have talked about this and people wouldn't have judged me.

[00:13:57] Tracey Tee: And I get letters from people like, oh yeah, I took LSD when my kid was five years old. It changed my life. I never told anyone because I was too afraid of being judged. These are letters I get from women that are like, thank God you're doing what you're doing. I wouldn't be here. I would've.

[00:14:13] Tracey Tee: I would've unli myself had I not, had it not been for psilocybin, for LSD for Ayahuasca. I hear it all the time. And so I think what scares people about moms on mushrooms and why we've gotten so much press is because what society doesn't understand, what America doesn't understand right now is a mom who's taking your health and happiness into own hands.

[00:14:32] Tracey Tee: I know empowering moms is the most scary. They're like whoa. Like I was fine with you on Valium. I was fine with you drunk. I was fine chloroform in you while you had your baby so we didn't have to hear you scream. I'm not fine with you being fine with yourself. That is true.

[00:14:49] Tracey Tee: That's too much.

[00:14:50] Ophira Eisenberg: Yeah, because what's next? You might take some jobs 'cause you might take, be happy and be

[00:14:55] Tracey Tee: able to work or might you might source some problems or not work or be happy or not work or just. Or buck the system and raise your kid according to how your kid needs to be raised. You want to not how you want to Yeah, how you want to

[00:15:07] Ophira Eisenberg: Yeah, I know.

[00:15:08] Ophira Eisenberg: No, it, it pokes, it's pokes it fingers at a lot of, you know what we I'm just gonna call it I believe in capitalism, but there are some very serious ways that capitalism Yeah. Really needs, especially moms to stay at home and be sad and drink chardonnay and yeah. Feel and. Maybe not be in so in charge and just get those kids so they can become the next workforce.

[00:15:32] Tracey Tee: It's really true. That's like my, it's very apocalyptic. Yeah. But it's, once you see it, you can't unsee it, and when you decide, I would say one of the biggest things that, that microdosing, that mushrooms ever did for me, people ask me this all the time, like, how did it change your parenting?

[00:15:49] Tracey Tee: And I would say a, it's probably the number one thing it did was change my parenting. And the reason is because I started looking at my daughter as a human and I started leaning into what was right for her and fuck all what everybody else thought I should be doing with my kid. Which means for my kid who's an introvert, whose social battery gets, needs to be recharged.

[00:16:11] Tracey Tee: Her words not mine. I love these young kids. They're so aware. Yeah, I know. They're, it's so true. Yeah. It meant canceling extra activities that weren't lighting her up. It means really protecting her energy. It means understanding that she needs quiet time. It means understanding that she loves being around her dad and I, and prioritizing family time that's just dropping in, even if it's just watching a movie.

[00:16:32] Tracey Tee: I started listening to what Evie needed and I stopped caring about what my family thought, what my friends are doing with their kids, and I stopped comparing myself to everybody. Then I just devoted my life to what is best for Evie. Protecting her and guiding her. It doesn't mean you just, I'm not a parent that says the kid will tell you what they need.

[00:16:50] Tracey Tee: Not at all. I actually got much more clear with boundaries. I felt much more empowered as a mother. I felt much more no I'm the one in charge here. I'm gonna tell you how it is. And I felt good about saying it 'cause I knew it was coming from the right place. And it just. It was like such a burden lifted off of me.

[00:17:07] Tracey Tee: It felt amazing, and it feels amazing.

[00:17:09] Ophira Eisenberg: That's amazing. Oh my God, I, I am inspired talking to you. It's, this is a rare occasion that I will say that too because, I love connecting with people, but I feel like this is completely on a different level as it should be. As it should be. It's, it is, it's really, that's really on psychedelic.

[00:17:28] Ophira Eisenberg: That's right. Oh my goodness. I thank you so much, Tracey. It's, I just so pleased that we, I ended up getting connected to you. And for all my listeners if you were just nodding your head and going, I need more. First of all, you can just follow Tracey and all the socials at Moms on Mushrooms Official, but also you might want more education.

[00:17:49] Ophira Eisenberg: You might be just curious. You can go to the website. There is a guide that you can download for free. There is a community, there is education. There's so much allyship and guidance that she offers through moms on mushrooms. Thank you so much, and I hope we get to catch up some more because I find this just so fantastic.

[00:18:08] Ophira Eisenberg: Let's do it. Let's do it.

[00:18:10] Tracey Tee: Let's get you on shrooms. Okay, great. Sounds good. I'm in.

[00:18:13] Ophira Eisenberg: Okay.

[00:18:14] Tracey Tee: Thank you. Thank you.

[00:18:17] Ophira Eisenberg: Thank you so much for listening to this snack, and yes, I know someone asked for an update on my foot yeah, you're right. I did break it standing. That's my profession. Not a marathon runner, not a mountain climber, not a hurdler.

[00:18:30] Ophira Eisenberg: Not not even anything that requires, I'm not a professional kicker. I broke it standing, purely standing, I guess running through airports is my. My suspicion. Anyhow, thank you so much for listening. Just a reminder that during the summer I'm down to one episode a week. There will be one next week, which I feel will fall during the holiday weekend, so look forward to that.

[00:18:52] Ophira Eisenberg: And all throughout the summer, you can always get new episodes from me on Tuesday. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss one over the summer. Hit follow or subscribe depending on where you get your podcast. Follow me at ra e on all the socials so you can find out. Where I'm up to. I'm traveling throughout the summer, probably coming to you on TikTok, if that's your favorite.

[00:19:14] Ophira Eisenberg: I'm at Ra NYC and if you like to hear your podcast by watching them. Yeah, that's right. You can see all my guests in this podcast in our interviews on my YouTube channel. That's Ra Eisenberg. And then just find the parenting is a joke playlist. So thank you so much. I hope you're having a great week, and I'm sure you enjoyed this snack with Tracey T.

[00:19:37] Ophira Eisenberg: We'll see you soon my friends.

[00:26:03] Ophira Eisenberg: It used to be chill. It's all up and small. I think I'm still fun parenting a joke. Hey everybody, I'm back with a snack. Joining me is the incredible Tracey Tee She is a standup comedian. But because I don't know if you still relate to that as your title, Tracey, but I will always say it once. A standup, always a stand.

[00:26:27] Tracey Tee: Yeah. I think, it never leaves you it never leaves you. Yeah. I'm like, who was

[00:26:31] Ophira Eisenberg: that woman? Oh yeah, I did that. But yeah, thank you. But currently she works in the world of psychedelics in terms of education, community healing, getting the world out word out. Because you live in Colorado and I believe Oregon are the two states where it's decriminalized.

[00:26:49] Ophira Eisenberg: Maybe more are getting. In line. It's certainly a lot more destigmatized, I would say. And I have a joke where I talk about parents, moms, specifically on mushrooms and other drugs. And when I say the mushrooms part, I see it. People nod and then I go, are you microdose? And mo, a lot of people just know about it.

[00:27:07] Ophira Eisenberg: I would say five years ago someone said the word microdosing. I didn't even know what that was. No, it's true. You, we were talking about like how there was, this tragic car accident and after, just one of the many steps along the way that took you to where you were like, I need to double down on this.

[00:27:28] Ophira Eisenberg: And I'm hearing from you other than yourself, your own journey of dealing with depression and menopause and using plant medicine to help you. Where does it become like, oh, I need to make this a business or get the word out, or, find other people.

[00:27:49] Tracey Tee: Yeah. Thank you for asking that. It was definitely like a dramatic journey and, as we phased out the Pump and dump show and Band of Mothers podcast and I started to lean into my healing a lot more 'cause at the time, and I was interested and it was working.

[00:28:05] Tracey Tee: It was really that first journey where I was just shown a lot of like maybe my future a little bit. Like things just became a lot more clear and I did another journey many months after that and in, or I guess it was like several journeys later, but I, one point I was lying on the floor with that same, my same guide.

[00:28:24] Tracey Tee: Okay. I was crying and I was saying. I think I'm just put on this world to eat mushrooms and I really believe that. Like I love, I like this is my medicine. Most people say they have a master teacher and mushrooms just are. I'm just like made to take mushrooms for sure. And so when I started working with it, like I said, my life just took this kind of really intense trajectory.

[00:28:45] Tracey Tee: And that's not to say it was only the mushrooms. I was really devoted to the work. I was really wanting to change a lot of things I didn't like about myself and just level set and answer those questions. That started when I was turning, when I turned 40, and so that first journey really clarified that and made it very clear that mushrooms were going to be it for me.

[00:29:05] Tracey Tee: And then when I got that download, which I don't even give myself credit for, because it really wasn't of moms on mushrooms, I said, no for a long time. Yeah. I was like, I nick, come on now. First of all, you're like, come on, now. I'm just starting. I'm not a I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist. I don't, I'm not a life coach.

[00:29:21] Tracey Tee: Who am I to even begin to think, to talk to the, to about people this. And I was also very scared. I was very quietly working with mushrooms and not really telling anyone else in my family. And my life was changing so fast, but, so I just kept saying no. And it was like no. Like I remember one time like being on my floor in prayer, with my head on the ground, I was like I really don't think I'm the right person for this job. I don't wanna do it. And then eventually I just said yes. I just

[00:29:50] Ophira Eisenberg: Gave up. Yeah. And why, I don't take this in the, I'm not judging it at all. I'm just genuinely curious why not women on mushrooms.

[00:29:59] Ophira Eisenberg: People on mushrooms. Why moms? Yeah.

[00:30:01] Tracey Tee: A lot of that had to do with the po dump show, almost all of it. Okay. Because. What we saw, and we talked about this earlier, what we saw in the Poda show was this desperate need for moms to come together and laugh about the things they had in common. It was the community why we eventually morphed into Band of Mothers because the whole point of the show was to remind you that you're not alone and that all moms can, like, all different kinds of moms can come together.

[00:30:25] Tracey Tee: We always said like whether you. Eight, your own placenta or you never tried a cloth diaper. Like we still are, we're still wiping butts, right? Like the commonalities are so it doesn't matter. And when you can release that and laugh, it's so healing. And then adding on these, years of stories from women that we heard, heartbreak and oh my gosh, just loneliness and all the things, what the pandemic taught me was what the PO dump show did so well in like the olden times, bringing moms together.

[00:30:56] Tracey Tee: Booze food, laughter. What I saw was that now it was time to start talking.

[00:31:00] Tracey Tee: And we can laugh about it, but if we don't heal it, it's just gonna keep going and going. And the mushrooms are, psilocybin is a, it's a community medicine. It does not wanna be taken in a vacuum. Almost anyone will tell you that.

[00:31:15] Tracey Tee: And it was just so clear to me. It was so clear to me that. This was the helper. Like this was the aid that we needed, the excuse the zeitgeist, the connector for us to start talking. And it's so loving and gentle and everything I knew about it was wrong. I was just, I had fear and propaganda ingrained in me, and when I started to look at the science and look at the research and look at the reality and experience it, it was nothing like what I thought it was.

[00:31:41] Tracey Tee: What kind of propaganda are we talking

[00:31:42] Ophira Eisenberg: about?

[00:31:43] Tracey Tee: We're talking about, oh, you're gonna jump off a building? Oh, yeah. Oh, brain. You think you can fly your brain? You think you can fly? You might, but those things are real, but it's not like you're not gonna, you can't die from mushrooms. You can't you, like physically can't ingest enough mushrooms to have an overdose.

[00:31:57] Tracey Tee: It's not the same. And we compare our fears of micro of mushrooms to what we understand about like alcohol and fentanyl. And they're not anything alike. You're not, you, it's not addictive. It's actually anti addictive. You cannot become addicted to psilocybin because it will build up a tol, you'll build up a tolerance in it and it won't work anymore if you take too much like it's like already.

[00:32:19] Tracey Tee: It's geared for healing. It's so magical. And the other thing I really love about mushrooms is Paul Stat said this really well. Mushroom magic mushrooms grow on every continent. On the planet except for Antarctica. It is the most democratic medicine. It is. There are cultures that use it really beautifully, but it's, you can't really.

[00:32:40] Tracey Tee: Culturally appropriate because it's available everywhere. Gross. Some shit like it's available everywhere. That's right. It wants, it's a mushroom, it wants everyone to use it. Like it's, it makes itself available. And so all of those things are just like, this is it for moms. And yes, I just took that, I took all the lessons from the Poto show and to dump them into.

[00:33:02] Tracey Tee: Microdosing,

[00:33:03] Ophira Eisenberg: And I was watching some very cable television shows that you've been featured on, which of course are gonna come at it from a, a judgemental and clickbait. And part of it is by design, and part of it is truly because I've learned that the presenter, whoever it is, can't appear to be taking part in it.

[00:33:23] Ophira Eisenberg: Oh, totally. Oh yeah. And so they have to take this hard stance that all they do is I. It's so funny because I think what, whatever judgment people have about psychedelics, these are the same people who are like, yeah, I was parenting a little buzzed, on a couple glass, half a bottle of wine or whatever, and nobody blink, nobody eye at that.

[00:33:42] Ophira Eisenberg: So the basic question that I'm sure you got asked numerous times, but I saw one instance where people are like, so are you high when you're parenting your kids?

[00:33:51] Tracey Tee: Yeah. No, that was my biggest fear too. And the whole point about microdosing is that you're not high. You're not high.

[00:33:59] Tracey Tee: Like we don't wanna be high. And, this is coming from a mom who happily drank two bottles of Chardonnay in the middle of the afternoon at a play date. Like I was that mom that was drunk and buzzed around her daughter. I did bring my, my daughter like, grew up going to the liquor store and getting wine like she so I, I had to really say, where's my prejudice? If I can do this around my kid? No, why not this? Just because it's illegal, stupidly illegal. But microdosing, you're taking sub perceptual amounts. You're taking amounts that are not altering your perception at all. I always equate it to, I guess if you're gonna give an example, it's having that like first cup of coffee, right?

[00:34:38] Tracey Tee: It doesn't change how you show up. It doesn't alter anything that you do, but you just know it's there. You might be a little bit more alert, you feel the coffee kick in, but it's not inhibiting you in any way. And that's what a microdose is and that's why it's so great for moms.

[00:34:53] Tracey Tee: And I also think, and we can talk about large dose journeys later, and I, a lot of, I go against, a lot of people disagree with me, but I really feel that the modern. The modern Western mother. We don't have any idea about psychedelics, like intentionally using. We don't really understand what plant medicine is.

[00:35:09] Tracey Tee: We are not a culture that has ceremony or ritual or even intentionality. We're very passive. We want to take Wellbutrin and sit back and let it fix my menopause. We want, we have a headache. We take an Advil, we wait for it to go away. We don't have a lot of buy-in, like collective buy-in on our healing.

[00:35:25] Tracey Tee: And so my concern is that we hear about the potential about the healing effects of a large dose journey, which I very much believe in. And so we just go straight to Z to that to 60. Jump in, take five grams of something, and you can become very destabilized if you don't have any context or awareness or preparation for it.

[00:35:45] Tracey Tee: And microdosing is a really beautiful way to create a relationship with a psychedelic, like actually understand what it means to co-create your own life. And use something as an ally, not as a complete bandaid. And from there then you have not only education and empowerment, but you have context to go and explore something bigger, in a bigger altered state so that it can actually do what it's supposed to do, which is help you.

[00:36:10] Janey (Queer Family Podcast): Family podcast.

[00:36:15] Janey (Queer Family Podcast): Hey there listeners, do you like to hear real and honest stories and do you also believe in inclusion and diversity? If so, I have the podcast for you. My name is Jamie and I'm the host of the Queer Family Podcast. The show all about family, but with Gay, I go in depth with weekly guests about how they built their beautiful queer families and how we all show up in a world that wasn't necessarily designed for families that look like ours.

[00:36:44] Janey (Queer Family Podcast): The mission is to uplift, highlight, normalize, and celebrate lgbtqia plus families in all of our beautiful identities. And we do just that week after week, tune in every Monday to new episodes. Episodes. Find us wherever you find your pods. Happy listening. Love is. Love is

[00:37:02] Ophira Eisenberg: Love. On the Queer Family Podcast.

[00:37:04] Ophira Eisenberg: Love is love. So the moms that are coming and joining your com community, what would you say they are searching for? Are they searching for an alternative to an antidepressant? Are they looking? Yeah,

[00:37:16] Tracey Tee: I would say at least 80% of the women who come to us in our community or courses are looking for a better.

[00:37:24] Tracey Tee: Answer to an antidepressant. Many women are on one, if not several antidepressants. They don't know how or why they're working together. They just, the doctors just keep adding something on because the other one's not working. They don't know how to get off. They're terrified of getting off. They don't know what their life looks like without it.

[00:37:42] Tracey Tee: And, but their soul is I know this isn't the way. Like I, I don't remember the last time I've cried. I don't remember the last time I've laughed and I know I want something more. So that's a big part. I would say the rest, most women are looking for more presence. They sense that the overwhelm, the distraction of our modern life is getting out of hand and it's almost like you don't know how to stop it.

[00:38:07] Ophira Eisenberg: Yeah, I always say a lot of this stuff, it's I get a lot of judgment for whatever I do in my life and sometimes I just go you know what, until there is affordable childcare, until there is like any sort of structure that helps support parents. I wasn't aware until I had a kid how much America hates children.

[00:38:25] Ophira Eisenberg: They hate children. Yeah, it's so true. And then after that, they hate mothers more. I.

[00:38:31] Tracey Tee: And then on top of all about the umbrella of all that is that we hate discomfort. Yes. We hate dis and which is why we don't like children. We don't like loud noises. We don't like un we don't like unscheduled events.

[00:38:43] Tracey Tee: We don't know what to do with a tantrum. We don't know what to do if someone's tired. We don't like it. If someone's hungry, we feed them right away because we don't like uncomfortability and we don't like moms who are uncomfortable. We don't like sad moms can't stand sad moms. We can't stand angry.

[00:38:57] Tracey Tee: Moms call them Karens. We can't stand moms who beat to their own drum. They're weird. Yeah. And po possibly a danger to their children. That's the knee jerk bad mom. That's they're bad moms. What? And we really don't like them. We really don't like moms who are also women.

[00:39:18] Ophira Eisenberg: How do you think society feels about moms and mushrooms?

[00:39:23] Tracey Tee: Actually we don't get a lot of trolls. I think the authenticity of what we're trying to do at moms is somehow protecting us from the hate. Doesn't mean the people don't think, and I've lost friends and family members because of what of my work with psychedelics.

[00:39:40] Tracey Tee: But I, 90% of the time I what I hear from women who are my mom's age, including my mom. We have a ton of women, like in their third act of life, or say, I wish I had this when I was, I wish I had this when I was a young mom. I wish I knew that there was another way. I wish someone could, I wish I could have talked about this and people wouldn't have judged me.

[00:40:01] Tracey Tee: And I get letters from people like, oh yeah, I took LSD when my kid was five years old. It changed my life. I never told anyone because I was too afraid of being judged. These are letters I get from women that are like, thank God you're doing what you're doing. I wouldn't be here. I would've.

[00:40:17] Tracey Tee: I would've unli myself had I not, had it not been for psilocybin, for LSD for Ayahuasca. I hear it all the time. And so I think what scares people about moms on mushrooms and why we've gotten so much press is because what society doesn't understand, what America doesn't understand right now is a mom who's taking your health and happiness into own hands.

[00:40:36] Tracey Tee: I know empowering moms is the most scary. They're like whoa. Like I was fine with you on Valium. I was fine with you drunk. I was fine chloroform in you while you had your baby so we didn't have to hear you scream. I'm not fine with you being fine with yourself. That is true.

[00:40:53] Tracey Tee: That's too much.

[00:40:54] Ophira Eisenberg: Yeah, because what's next? You might take some jobs 'cause you might take, be happy and be

[00:40:59] Tracey Tee: able to work or might you might source some problems or not work or be happy or not work or just. Or buck the system and raise your kid according to how your kid needs to be raised. You want to not how you want to Yeah, how you want to

[00:41:11] Ophira Eisenberg: Yeah, I know.

[00:41:12] Ophira Eisenberg: No, it, it pokes, it's pokes it fingers at a lot of, you know what we I'm just gonna call it I believe in capitalism, but there are some very serious ways that capitalism Yeah. Really needs, especially moms to stay at home and be sad and drink chardonnay and yeah. Feel and. Maybe not be in so in charge and just get those kids so they can become the next workforce.

[00:41:36] Tracey Tee: It's really true. That's like my, it's very apocalyptic. Yeah. But it's, once you see it, you can't unsee it, and when you decide, I would say one of the biggest things that, that microdosing, that mushrooms ever did for me, people ask me this all the time, like, how did it change your parenting?

[00:41:53] Tracey Tee: And I would say a, it's probably the number one thing it did was change my parenting. And the reason is because I started looking at my daughter as a human and I started leaning into what was right for her and fuck all what everybody else thought I should be doing with my kid. Which means for my kid who's an introvert, whose social battery gets, needs to be recharged.

[00:42:15] Tracey Tee: Her words not mine. I love these young kids. They're so aware. Yeah, I know. They're, it's so true. Yeah. It meant canceling extra activities that weren't lighting her up. It means really protecting her energy. It means understanding that she needs quiet time. It means understanding that she loves being around her dad and I, and prioritizing family time that's just dropping in, even if it's just watching a movie.

[00:42:36] Tracey Tee: I started listening to what Evie needed and I stopped caring about what my family thought, what my friends are doing with their kids, and I stopped comparing myself to everybody. Then I just devoted my life to what is best for Evie. Protecting her and guiding her. It doesn't mean you just, I'm not a parent that says the kid will tell you what they need.

[00:42:54] Tracey Tee: Not at all. I actually got much more clear with boundaries. I felt much more empowered as a mother. I felt much more no I'm the one in charge here. I'm gonna tell you how it is. And I felt good about saying it 'cause I knew it was coming from the right place. And it just. It was like such a burden lifted off of me.

[00:43:11] Tracey Tee: It felt amazing, and it feels amazing.

[00:43:13] Ophira Eisenberg: That's amazing. Oh my God, I, I am inspired talking to you. It's, this is a rare occasion that I will say that too because, I love connecting with people, but I feel like this is completely on a different level as it should be. As it should be. It's, it is, it's really, that's really on psychedelic.

[00:43:32] Ophira Eisenberg: That's right. Oh my goodness. I thank you so much, Tracey. It's, I just so pleased that we, I ended up getting connected to you. And for all my listeners if you were just nodding your head and going, I need more. First of all, you can just follow Tracey and all the socials at Moms on Mushrooms Official, but also you might want more education.

[00:43:53] Ophira Eisenberg: You might be just curious. You can go to the website. There is a guide that you can download for free. There is a community, there is education. There's so much allyship and guidance that she offers through moms on mushrooms. Thank you so much, and I hope we get to catch up some more because I find this just so fantastic.

[00:44:12] Ophira Eisenberg: Let's do it. Let's do it.

[00:44:14] Tracey Tee: Let's get you on shrooms. Okay, great. Sounds good. I'm in.

[00:44:17] Ophira Eisenberg: Okay.

[00:44:18] Tracey Tee: Thank you. Thank you.

[00:44:21] Ophira Eisenberg: Thank you so much for listening to this snack, and yes, I know someone asked for an update on my foot yeah, you're right. I did break it standing. That's my profession. Not a marathon runner, not a mountain climber, not a hurdler.

[00:44:34] Ophira Eisenberg: Not not even anything that requires, I'm not a professional kicker. I broke it standing, purely standing, I guess running through airports is my. My suspicion. Anyhow, thank you so much for listening. Just a reminder that during the summer I'm down to one episode a week. There will be one next week, which I feel will fall during the holiday weekend, so look forward to that.

[00:44:56] Ophira Eisenberg: And all throughout the summer, you can always get new episodes from me on Tuesday. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss one over the summer. Hit follow or subscribe depending on where you get your podcast. Follow me at ra e on all the socials so you can find out. Where I'm up to. I'm traveling throughout the summer, probably coming to you on TikTok, if that's your favorite.

[00:45:18] Ophira Eisenberg: I'm at Ra NYC and if you like to hear your podcast by watching them. Yeah, that's right. You can see all my guests in this podcast in our interviews on my YouTube channel. That's Ra Eisenberg. And then just find the parenting is a joke playlist. So thank you so much. I hope you're having a great week, and I'm sure you enjoyed this snack with Tracey T.

[00:45:41] Ophira Eisenberg: We'll see you soon my friends.