Feel-Good Friday: SydneyMusic, Mental Health, and Magic Mushrooms

Welcome to this week’s Feel-Good Friday! Each week, we share a bunch of exciting and interesting stuff in the hopes that you can find something fun to do, or a new deal to get in on. But this week’s a bit different.

Instead, we’re celebrating the revival of a Sydney institution, amplifying the efforts of the good people at Beyond Blue, as well as sharing some fun news about your favourite fungi. No, not shitake.

SydneyMusic Saved From Closure

The local music scene in Australia needs as much support as it can get, and this week we’ve seen a miracle. SydneyMusic—self proclaimed “no-nonsense gig guide” that largely acts as a directory as to what acts are playing in Sydney each week—has been saved from the imminent closure by the legends at RØDE Microphones and Heaps Normal.

The site was expected to close in June, but when it announced the closure would be happening it was inundated with one-off and recurring donations from its users. That secured the site another month or so of operations, but the end was still coming. Now, RØDE have pledged to fund a portion of the site’s monthly budget for the next two years, and will act as a core sponsor for “next era of SydneyMusic”.

Plus, non-alc beer brand Heaps Normal—known for its support of the Aussie music scene—have also offered a “significant contribution” to boost the team’s resources and help them get the site up and running smoothly.

Honestly, we love this. SydneyMusic is exactly the kind of local project Man of Many loves, and to see it given new life is awesome.

“We’re so bloody excited by the thoughtfulness and energy we’ve heard from people wanting to solve the many challenges facing live music in Sydney,” said creator and co-founder Joe Hardy. “Sydney’s most comprehensive gig guide is back and firing on all cylinders.”

Beyond Blue Taps Gamers For ‘Beyond The Sceen’

Mental Health organisation Beyond Blue is preparing to launch its annual Beyond The Screen initiative, a national fundraising campaign working with Australia’s gaming community to raise vital funds and awareness for mental health services.

The campaign encourages participants to take on an individual challenge that somehow reflects their own personal wellness journey. It might be co-op gaming with your friends, finally starting that YouTube channel you’ve thought about for ages, or even just committing to daily walks.

The goal is, of course, to raise money – but you can also win rewards from brands such as Logitech, RØDE (they’re everywhere), Bandai Namco, Fujifilm, and more. Plus, every $66 raised gives individuals an entry into the big prize: a custom gaming PC, built by Sidekick PC.

If you’re interested in donating, or participating, the Beyond The Screen campaign will be running until July 31.

Magic Mushrooms are Even Better For You Then We Thought

Speaking of mental health treatments, recent years have seen the humble psilocybin—or magic mushroom—pinpointed as particularly helpful in treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. It turns out, though, that the mushroom may also be good at slowing down the way our cells degrade with age.

According to the authors of a new study, human fetal lung cells were given a dose of psilocin (the stuff magic mushrooms metabolise into in our guts) to test if it’d slow down the aging process, and the lung tissue’s lifespan increased by as much as 57 per cent. When the experiment was repeated with adult tissue, it saw a 51 per cent extension.

This is thought to be because of psilocybin’s impact on telomeres, the bits at the end of each of our chromosomes that typically get shorter and shorter with age. Essentially, the presence of psilocin seems to correlate with healthier telomeres, and even it’ll make a difference even when the telomeres have already started aging.

While there’s still a lot for scientists to hash out as far as how safe the treatment is for humans (so far its only been tested on mice), the idea that we might be a one-step closer to slowing down the most harmful effects of aging is a pretty exciting thing.