Cacao, Mushrooms & the Mind

An evening with Dr Corin Storkey (Seleno Health) and Mason Taylor (SuperFeast)

Long before neuroscience had words for it, ancestral cultures understood that the heart, mind and body speak to one another. The Andean and Daoist traditions each built a detailed map of that relationship. Modern neuroscience is now drawing the same map in its own language.

Join us for an evening of story, science and tasting that explores nootropics (plants and fungi that support the mind) from three angles: the heart, the root and the network.

The Heart and the Root, with Dr Corin Storkey, Seleno Health

What actually happens in your gut and brain when you drink cacao? Corin opens the night with the neuroscience of emotion and follows ancestral cacao and maca on their journey through the body, from the first sip to the signals that shape mood, focus and feeling. Framed through Andean cosmovision, where cacao has long been honoured as a medicine of the heart, this session shares new findings from Seleno Health’s Bean to Brain project, a clinical research collaboration with the University of Otago. You’ll discover why not all cacao is created equal, what separates a true ancestral bean from a supermarket chocolate bar, and how cacao supports neuroplasticity: the brain’s remarkable ability to grow, adapt and rewire itself.

The Network, with Mason Taylor, SuperFeast

Mason then explores nootropic mushrooms through the lens of Daoist tonic herbalism: how these traditions understood fungi as allies for the mind and spirit, and what that means for how we use them today.

Taste and Talk

We finish with a shared tasting of ancestral cacao and functional mushrooms, then an open Q&A with both presenters.

This evening is for anyone curious about plant medicine, brain health, or where ancient wisdom and modern science meet. No prior knowledge needed.