The Biggest Living Organism on the Planet

From the SAND Archives we present a conversation between SAND co-founder Maurizio Benazzo and biologist and writer Merlin Sheldrake from SAND’s Wisdom in Times of Crisis Series (2020).

In this talk they discuss Merlin’s book Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures.

Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist, writer, and speaker with a background in plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), and sits on the advisory board of the Fungi Foundation.

Merlin’s research ranges from fungal biology, to the history of Amazonian ethnobotany, to the relationship between sound and form in resonant systems. A keen brewer and fermenter, he is fascinated by the relationships that arise between humans and more-than-human organisms. He is a musician and performs on the piano and accordion.