Latest news with #Chilton
Boston Globe
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
UNH pulls DEI webpage, changes a staffer's title and certain hiring practices as state DEI law takes effect
Advertisement Academic and administrative leaders were also asked to remove DEI-related content on their websites as the review takes place, according to Chilton. Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up Chilton said the new law had also prompted changes to hiring and promotion practices, ending the use of diversity statements, which she said were previously optional and used infrequently. The president also pointed to 'organizational adjustments,' like changing the job title of the university's chief diversity officer, a role Now, Petty will temporarily hold the title of associate vice president for community, civil rights, and compliance. 'Nadine and her team will also play a key role in planning how UNH continues to foster a campus culture that supports access, belonging, and student success in a way that fully complies with state law,' Chilton said. Advertisement A university spokesperson declined to provide additional details about the temporary nature of this change, and whether the university anticipates reinstating the position. One of the lawmakers who championed the DEI ban said the temporary measures should remain in effect. 'These temporary changes need to become permanent,' said state Representative Joseph Sweeney, a Salem Republican, in a 'UNH remains fully committed to providing educational access and opportunity, and to fostering a learning and working environment where all members of our community feel that they belong and can succeed,' Chilton said in her letter. 'However, the new law requires us to reexamine how we pursue these goals within its parameters.' She said the university doesn't believe its current policies or practices conflict with the state law, but 'the broad language of the provision and the risk of significant financial penalties require us to take proactive steps to mitigate uncertainty.' If a school is out of compliance with the DEI ban, the state can withhold all of its public funding, according to the law. Public K-12 schools are also explicitly prohibited from implementing DEI-related initiatives. The Manchester School District has changed the job title of its former chief equity officer to executive director of student engagement, outcomes, and success. Deb Howes, president of the teacher's union AFT-NH, said there are relatively few DEI positions in New Hampshire that might be affected by the new law. At its peak, she estimated there were about five DEI positions. Advertisement Amanda Gokee can be reached at
Los Angeles Times
18-06-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
What is a mushroom really? Two titans of the wellness world duke it out
Their friendship was rooted in a mutual love of mushrooms. Paul Stamets and Jeff Chilton met in 1978 in Olympia, Wash. Back then, Stamets was a student and aspiring mycologist, and Chilton was a commercial mushroom grower. Their intellectual bond grew so strong that in the coming years they wrote a book together: The 1983 home mushroom grower guide 'The Mushroom Cultivator.' It became a bible for aspiring and amateur mycologists that still sells 5,000 copies per year, according to Chilton, establishing the duo as the trailblazers in the popularization of all things fungi. For many years, they remained close. Chilton was even best man at Stamets' first wedding. Despite writing a cult classic text together that many people credit as the reason they started growing fungi, Stamets, 69, and Chilton, 77, are now at odds over the fundamental question of what constitutes a mushroom. Is it a 'fruiting body,' better known as the toadstool, that emerges from the ground in a panoply of shapes and textures? Or could a mushroom also be synonymous with its fungal roots, otherwise known as mycelium, from which the fruiting bodies sprout? This disagreement is not just a personal one between Stamets and Chilton. It's one in which millions of dollars are potentially at stake, along with consumer trust. Mushrooms like reishi, lion's mane, chaga and turkey tail are big business in the U.S., with consumers taking them in an effort to bolster brain and gut health, even though purveyors of such supplements are cautious not to make specific claims about their products. Still, mushroom supplement packaging has been known to include phrases like 'immune support,' 'digestive health' or 'supports mental clarity.' Thanks to a 'shroom boom' partly turbocharged by increased interest in both the aesthetic and psychedelic qualities of mushrooms, news of the potential health benefits of nonpsychedelic mushrooms has spawned a growing supplement market for so-called 'adaptogenic mushrooms' in North America. With each day that passes, it seems mushrooms gain a new convert. Google searches into mushroom supplements have nearly quadrupled over the last five years. Meghan Markle recently spoke of using nonpsychedelic mushroom supplements to manage anxiety and stress, while across the pond, singer Ellie Goulding just launched her own business, specializing in mushroom lattes made of fruiting body extracts. All of this might not have been possible without Stamets, a bearded man who often wears round tinted glasses and a cap. In 1980, he founded mushroom supplement company Fungi Perfecti, which generated $30 million in annual revenue as of 2020, the most recently reported figure. Chilton wouldn't provide an exact number, but he says that is comparable with his own family's two companies' combined revenues. Chilton prefers to keep a lower profile, but Stamets — the idiosyncratic black belt in tae kwon do — is the iconic face of the ascendant medicinal mushroom movement, thanks to his longtime public evangelizing of many types of mushrooms' benefits. His 2008 TedTalk on how mushrooms could save the world has more than 5 million views, while the first of his two podcasts with Joe Rogan has 12 million views on YouTube, ranking it among the more popular episodes. In 2019, Stamets starred in the popular Netflix documentary 'Fantastic Fungi,' in which he suggests mushrooms could help save humanity from its seemingly inexorable death march. Stamets also has an eponymous Star Trek character named after him, and regularly delivers sold-out keynote lectures all around the world, during which he recounts how an extremely high dose of psychedelic mushrooms supposedly cured him of his stammer at 19. When Stamets talks about mushrooms, or is photographed with mushrooms, they're typically toadstools, but he also points to evidence indicating that mycelium has higher overall levels of active ingredients than the fruiting bodies. Accordingly, his company Fungi Perfecti's Host Defense Mushrooms supplement products are often made solely of mycelium, grown on a rice substrate in the company's Olympia lab, although some consist of a blend of fruiting bodies and mycelium. Tubs containing pills made up of these fungi are on the shelves of Whole Foods and Sprouts stores across the country and in the supplement aisles of Erewhon across Los Angeles County. Stamets' company describes him as 'the world leader in medicinal mushroom research,' and he insists that because mycelium is part of the fungal organism, it is therefore a mushroom. 'I prefer mushroom fruit bodies for food and tea,' he tells the L.A. Times via email. 'I prefer mycelium for supporting immunity, neurological health, microbiome health and for many other benefits. ... I know that mycelium is far more immunologically active and beneficial for immune support when taken as a supplement.' Chilton, who is usually clean-shaven, wears clear rectangular glasses and is a keen trout fisher, founded mushroom distributor Nammex in 1989. The company provides the mushrooms for Real Mushrooms, an online sister firm that sells fungi supplements, and is a rival to Fungi Perfecti. Real Mushrooms' supplements are made from fruiting bodies, and grown outdoors in China to reduce costs. Chilton is emphatic in his belief that mushrooms are not mycelium, not least since they differ in structure and chemistry, and for more than a decade he has been on a crusade to expose what he believes has been rampant mislabeling across the industry, spawning a tit-for-tat fight that has largely been fought in competing academic papers, podcasts and the gossip chambers of the mycology world. Then Chilton took the disagreement to a new level. His escalation had been brewing after he petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in 2023 to ensure 'mushroom' and 'mycelium' are differentiated on supplement labels and to 'disclose the presence of any substrate [like oats or rice] on which the fungal ingredient is grown.' In December, he gave a presentation to the agency's Office of Dietary Supplement Program, claiming that there is 'deceptive marketing of dietary supplements and functional foods containing mycelium fermented grain and labeled as 'mushroom.'' He even called on the FDA to take 'appropriate enforcement action' to ensure the safety of mycelium products. It has not. Chilton alleges that there are two smoking guns that support his case. Firstly, that mushrooms do not contain starch, but supplements consisting of mycelium grown on grain does. Secondly, that mycelium lacks beneficial compounds like beta-glucans, which are known for certain potential immune-boosting properties and are more plentiful in fruiting bodies. 'Mycelium products made in the U.S. are typically not pure mycelium, they often mostly consist of grain starch,' Chilton tells the L.A. Times in a FaceTime call. 'The issue is fermented grain masquerading as mycelium or mislabeled as mushroom. People are being sold grain powder.' But according to Stamets, 'to say that rice substrate, being cultured by mycelium as it grows through it, is just rice, inert or a filler are lies.' He acknowledges that beta-glucans are important, but says that differences in levels between mushroom species are 'huge' and that current testing methods struggle to produce consistent results, while citing evidence of his products' immunological benefit. His company touts itself as having 'complete control' over its supply chain and he has raised questions over the quality of Real Mushrooms' products, which are typically processed to create extracts and isolate specific beneficial compounds. 'Many companies, especially companies importing Chinese mushroom extracts like Nammex, promote their products as being fruit body extracts when, in fact, the liquid extract is sprayed back on the extracted mushroom pulp and then sold as 100% pure extracts,' he says. Chilton says in response: 'Unfortunately, Paul is uninformed about our extraction process. Our hot water extract is never separated from the ground mushroom, ensuring that the important mushroom compounds are in a more bioavailable powder state and nothing is left behind.' Stamets and Chilton have never debated publicly, but they both claim to have the facts to support their positions. Stamets says despite the relative absence of beta-glucans, the increased levels of other obscure medicinal nutrients found in mycelium eclipse those of fruiting body mushrooms, while Chilton points to hundreds of years of human consumption of mushroom fruiting bodies in Asian traditional medicine systems. If one man is proven to be right, and another wrong, it could be disastrous for one of their businesses, and the other companies that use similar formulations for their own mushroom supplements. As it stands, the science is somewhat unclear — despite the best efforts of both protagonists — leaving Stamets and Chilton to squabble over whose products are superior. (Chilton's personal mantra is: 'No mycelium, no grain, no starch.' Meanwhile Stamets says: 'It is silly to disconnect mycelium from mushrooms.') The failure of either party to produce data that a consensus of experts agree on underlines key differences between wellness and pharmaceutical companies. The latter have larger budgets to fund research and stronger motivation: pharmaceuticals need federal approvals and supplements do not. And with no end in sight, Stamets and Chilton's disagreement is causing ructions in the mushroom community of business people, mycologists and fungi enthusiasts. 'It's almost like watching your parents fight,' says Dennis Walker, host of mushroom business podcast 'Mycopreneur.' 'The two godfathers of the industry have divergent opinions on such a fundamental question.' Walker says the sector is split about 50:50 between companies that, like Stamets', use mycelium-based products, and like Chilton's, fruiting bodies. Few mushroom aficionados discuss the row publicly for fear of stoking its flames or discouraging consumers from taking either adaptogenic or psychedelic mushrooms, but 'all the mycologists and mushroom people talk about it privately,' Walker adds, disclosing that his podcast has received sponsorship fees from Chilton's company Nammex. One mushroom expert refused to comment on the issue over concerns of becoming a 'pariah.' Another did not want to make an 'enemy' of Stamets. So, who might be right? It's complicated, but Dr. Gordon Saxe, executive director of the Krupp Center for Integrative Research at UC San Diego, which conducts research on nutrition and natural medicine, says mycelium products grown on rice substrates 'may be even more effective' at aiding health than fruiting bodies. He is also collaborating with Stamets on forthcoming research. 'Mycelium has the advantage that it can be mass-produced under controlled, aseptic conditions, assuring specified levels of key compounds and preventing contamination by undesirable microorganisms and insects,' adds Saxe. 'This permits potentially medical-grade, scalable production, something not achievable with fruiting bodies.' Andrew Weil, an author and founder of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, which offers courses fusing alternative therapies including homeopathy and traditional Chinese medicine with conventional medicine, says that he sparked Stamets' interest in medicinal mushrooms back in the 1970s. Weil appeared on Fungi Perfecti promotional materials for mycelium products holding large mushrooms on a 2016 poster. But he tells the L.A. Times that he now disagrees with his longtime friend Stamets' appraisal of the potential benefits, and today recommends people use fruiting body products. 'Both probably have medicinal benefits,' he says. 'But it is cheaper to produce mycelial extracts of medicinal mushrooms, and because they include some substrate material on which the mycelia grow, makers of these products are open to the charge that they are selling expensive rice and sawdust.' 'Paul Stamets calling for mycelium to be defined as mushrooms is akin to Michael Jordan calling to move the three-point line,' wrote Robert Johnson, a founder of mushroom product line Mycroboost, in a 2023 Rolling Stone piece. Jason Slot, a professor in fungal evolution genomics at Ohio State University, says that the data from published studies does not conclusively show that one is more beneficial than the other, but he summed up what is likely the mindset of many consumers who watch mushroom documentaries and then go out seeking to buy fruiting body supplements. 'If you're not comparing apples and oranges, [and] you want apples, but the oranges are perfect; who cares if the oranges are perfect? You want apples,' he says. 'Mycelium is fundamentally different from the mushroom,' Slot adds. 'From the ecological perspective of the fungus, it's doing different things.' Back in 2015, Fungi Perfecti's products said prominently on the jar, 'made with U.S. grown organic mushrooms.' But in 2017, the American Herbal Products Assn., a trade group, issued guidance calling for more precise labeling in the industry so that the life stage of the fungi from which the product is manufactured is clearly stated. ''Mushroom' when used as a noun may be used as a synonym for 'fruitbody',' it said. ''Mycelium' means the vegetative portion of a fungus.' However, it also supported using the phrase 'mushroom mycelium.' Fungi Perfecti now specifies when its products are made of mushroom mycelium, though the designs are still adorned with mushroom fruiting bodies. It's unclear whether consumers always know which one they are buying. Or if they know what mycelium means. 'To promulgate a viewpoint that mycelium is inferior or inactive,' Stamets says, 'despite the huge body of literature demonstrating the exact opposite is disingenuous marketing at best, a denial of reality, and, at worst, purposeful deception.' On the packaging, he adds: 'Our label design includes images of the recognizable fruit body that the mycelium forms. This is normative across dietary supplements. Most echinacea root products have an image of an echinacea flower or plant on the package although the specific extract is made from the root.' As the mushroom supplement industry surges into the mainstream, the deepening rift between Stamets and Chilton has become a symbolic fault line — not just over fungi, but over how science, storytelling and commerce entwine in wellness culture. Their decades-long friendship, now strained, reflects a wider identity crisis for the industry they helped build: What is a mushroom, really, and who gets to decide? And whose camp will define the next chapter of this booming industry?
South Wales Guardian
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Guardian
Conor Maynard speaks on paternity drama and ‘really difficult' past year
Chilton publicly claimed last year that the R U Crazy singer is the father to her daughter Penelope, who was born in October 2024. In March this year, the music artist, 32, said in a social media post that he had taken a paternity test and that the results 'confirm that I am not Penelope's father'. Maynard, who had maintained his silence prior to the social media post in March, told ITV's This Morning: 'One of the main reasons I felt like right now was the right time to speak about it was because … the last year has been really difficult, and mental health is something that I've struggled with for a big portion of my life. 'Obviously, this most recent year has been definitely up there, in terms of my experience and my battle with it, and I've never really shied away from that in the sense, you know, my fans who follow me online and on social media, I've spoken about it openly before. 'Today I've released a brand new song, which goes quite deeply into my battle with anxiety and obviously there have been a lot of things that have happened, and there's a lot of things that have contributed to why things have been so difficult.' He continued: 'What was probably one of the most difficult aspects of the entire situation was it was so kind of shocking to me how it seemed like there was such a failure from the public, and also sometimes even from the press, to require proof before condemning me for something that, obviously, ultimately ended up being false and being not true.' He added: 'It was just very difficult to kind of understand that this was all happening without anyone really knowing the true story, or anyone really knowing whether or not it was completely true. 'I think what was difficult for me was, instinctively, you want to defend yourself, you want to be able to speak your side, but I didn't know what was true and what was not.' Asked if he been told about about Chilton's pregnancy before the media storm, he said: 'I was aware of the situation before, however I had no idea that it was going to go to the press. 'I didn't know any of that was going to happen. In my mind, it was like, well, obviously the natural proceeding would be to get a test to basically make sure that everything is 100% certain, and then obviously we deal with it accordingly. A post shared by Conor Maynard (@conormaynard) 'Obviously, that's not the way it went. And I think it was difficult to remain silent.' He added: 'I instantly was painted as a deadbeat dad and … all of my comments across all of my social media was very much all about that. 'As I said, instinctively you want to defend yourself … but I also felt like it wasn't right to speak on it until I knew the truth myself, and I didn't want to force that, I obviously researched paternity tests and that kind of thing, and I know that it can be considered dangerous for a child that isn't born yet, and also when they're very early in life. 'I was kind of just waiting and allowing that decision to come from the other side.' Maynard confirmed the two had initially met at a party with her other Traitors contestants. Chilton told the It Can't Just Be Me podcast in October 2024 that they met at Raffles hotel in London for a Traitors after-party organised by winner Harry Clark, whose girlfriend, Anna, is the sister of Maynard. Chilton has been approached for comment.
Leader Live
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Conor Maynard speaks on paternity drama and ‘really difficult' past year
Chilton publicly claimed last year that the R U Crazy singer is the father to her daughter Penelope, who was born in October 2024. In March this year, the music artist, 32, said in a social media post that he had taken a paternity test and that the results 'confirm that I am not Penelope's father'. Maynard, who had maintained his silence prior to the social media post in March, told ITV's This Morning: 'One of the main reasons I felt like right now was the right time to speak about it was because … the last year has been really difficult, and mental health is something that I've struggled with for a big portion of my life. 'Obviously, this most recent year has been definitely up there, in terms of my experience and my battle with it, and I've never really shied away from that in the sense, you know, my fans who follow me online and on social media, I've spoken about it openly before. 'Today I've released a brand new song, which goes quite deeply into my battle with anxiety and obviously there have been a lot of things that have happened, and there's a lot of things that have contributed to why things have been so difficult.' He continued: 'What was probably one of the most difficult aspects of the entire situation was it was so kind of shocking to me how it seemed like there was such a failure from the public, and also sometimes even from the press, to require proof before condemning me for something that, obviously, ultimately ended up being false and being not true.' He added: 'It was just very difficult to kind of understand that this was all happening without anyone really knowing the true story, or anyone really knowing whether or not it was completely true. 'I think what was difficult for me was, instinctively, you want to defend yourself, you want to be able to speak your side, but I didn't know what was true and what was not.' Asked if he been told about about Chilton's pregnancy before the media storm, he said: 'I was aware of the situation before, however I had no idea that it was going to go to the press. 'I didn't know any of that was going to happen. In my mind, it was like, well, obviously the natural proceeding would be to get a test to basically make sure that everything is 100% certain, and then obviously we deal with it accordingly. A post shared by Conor Maynard (@conormaynard) 'Obviously, that's not the way it went. And I think it was difficult to remain silent.' He added: 'I instantly was painted as a deadbeat dad and … all of my comments across all of my social media was very much all about that. 'As I said, instinctively you want to defend yourself … but I also felt like it wasn't right to speak on it until I knew the truth myself, and I didn't want to force that, I obviously researched paternity tests and that kind of thing, and I know that it can be considered dangerous for a child that isn't born yet, and also when they're very early in life. 'I was kind of just waiting and allowing that decision to come from the other side.' Maynard confirmed the two had initially met at a party with her other Traitors contestants. Chilton told the It Can't Just Be Me podcast in October 2024 that they met at Raffles hotel in London for a Traitors after-party organised by winner Harry Clark, whose girlfriend, Anna, is the sister of Maynard. Chilton has been approached for comment.
RTÉ News
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Singer Conor Maynard opens about 'really difficult' past year
Singer Conor Maynard has spoken about his paternity drama with The Traitors contestant Charlotte Chilton and said the last year has been "really difficult". Chilton publicly claimed last year that the R U Crazy singer is the father to her daughter Penelope, who was born in October 2024. In March this year, the music artist, 32, said in a social media post that he had taken a paternity test and that the results "confirm that I am not Penelope's father". Maynard, who had maintained his silence prior to the social media post in March, told ITV's This Morning: "One of the main reasons I felt like right now was the right time to speak about it was because … the last year has been really difficult, and mental health is something that I've struggled with for a big portion of my life. "Obviously, this most recent year has been definitely up there, in terms of my experience and my battle with it, and I've never really shied away from that in the sense, you know, my fans who follow me online and on social media, I've spoken about it openly before. "Today I've released a brand new song, which goes quite deeply into my battle with anxiety and obviously there have been a lot of things that have happened, and there's a lot of things that have contributed to why things have been so difficult." He continued: "What was probably one of the most difficult aspects of the entire situation was it was so kind of shocking to me how it seemed like there was such a failure from the public, and also sometimes even from the press, to require proof before condemning me for something that, obviously, ultimately ended up being false and being not true." He added: "It was just very difficult to kind of understand that this was all happening without anyone really knowing the true story, or anyone really knowing whether or not it was completely true. "I think what was difficult for me was, instinctively, you want to defend yourself, you want to be able to speak your side, but I didn't know what was true and what was not." Asked if he been told about Chilton's pregnancy before the media storm, he said: "I was aware of the situation before, however I had no idea that it was going to go to the press. "I didn't know any of that was going to happen. In my mind, it was like, well, obviously the natural proceeding would be to get a test to basically make sure that everything is 100% certain, and then obviously we deal with it accordingly. "Obviously, that's not the way it went. And I think it was difficult to remain silent." He added: "I instantly was painted as a deadbeat dad and … all of my comments across all of my social media was very much all about that. "As I said, instinctively you want to defend yourself … but I also felt like it wasn't right to speak on it until I knew the truth myself, and I didn't want to force that, I obviously researched paternity tests and that kind of thing, and I know that it can be considered dangerous for a child that isn't born yet, and also when they're very early in life. "I was kind of just waiting and allowing that decision to come from the other side." Maynard confirmed that he and Chilton had initially met at a party with her other Traitors contestants. Chilton told the It Can't Just Be Me podcast in October 2024 that they met at Raffles hotel in London for a Traitors after-party organised by winner Harry Clark, whose girlfriend, Anna, is the sister of Maynard.
