William "Willy" Myco, a masked, self-taught educator, has spent a decade posting online tutorials showing viewers how to synthesise controlled psychedelic substances, including LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline and DMT vape cartridges. His growing platform has drawn scrutiny from both YouTube and Patreon, which took down his accounts after Wired made enquiries, citing policies against instructions for producing controlled substances.

Myco, 38 and originally from Boston, built a following of roughly 96,000 on YouTube and over 14,500 paying subscribers on Patreon, alongside income from selling mushroom genetics, merchandise and consultancy services. He frames his work as harm reduction and education rather than promotion of drug use, and is appealing Patreon's removal of his account, which funds his team. Supporters see him as democratising psychedelic knowledge outside academic and regulatory gatekeepers, while critics question the accuracy of his claims and his insistence on anonymity.