The Threat of Fungal Pathogens

10min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

This chapter explores the potential dangers posed by fungi, discussing their ability to infect living organisms, the growth stages of the fungus, and the impact of human activities on increasing deadly fungal epidemics. The speakers also touch upon the adaptation of 'The Last of Us' into an HBO series and its influence on awareness of human fungal pathogens.

How likely is the fungal infection in The Last of Us? The one that takes over human brains and brings humanity to the brink of extinction, could something like that really happen?

In this episode we sit down with Emily Monosson, an expert on deadly fungal infections, and discuss the handful of fungi (we know of) that are today, right now, causing catastrophic declines in wildlife, eradicating trees, destroying crops, and increasingly impacting humans.

Monsoon explains that many in the field worry that fungi are an underestimated threat and that our actions are causing an increase in invasive and deadly fungal epidemics. We explore what is at stake, why this is happening now, and what we can do to prevent future outbreaks.

• Emily Monosson's Website

• Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic

• 2013 Trailer for The Last of Us

• Newsletter

• How Minds Change

• David McRaney’s Twitter

• YANSS Twitter

• Show Notes