For The Wild

MERLIN SHELDRAKE on Embodied Entanglements /365

Feb 14, 2024

Merlin Sheldrake, a biologist and author of 'Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures', shares his motivations for studying fungi and discusses the complex ways it has shaped his life and thought. The episode explores the importance of popularizing fungi, delves into the complexities of restoration and conservation efforts, explores the intricate relationships between fungi and plants, and discusses the metaphor of decomposition in transforming harmful ideologies. It also touches on surrendering to the unknown and appreciates Merlin Sheldrake's work in the environmental movement.

58:51

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Episode guests

Merlin Sheldrake

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Quick takeaways

Fungi are essential for maintaining the composition of the Earth's atmosphere and nourishing plants, emphasizing the interdependence of all living beings.

Studying the unique lives and behaviors of fungi can challenge existing concepts and lead to new perspectives and ways of thinking in our changing world.

Deep dives

Importance of Fungi in Shaping the World

Fungi play a vital role in the biosphere by maintaining the composition of the Earth's atmosphere, creating soil, and nourishing plants. They are a diverse group of organisms that have a profound impact on the world. Understanding and appreciating the activities of fungi can lead to new ways of thinking and perceiving the world.

Introduction

2min

Fungi: Hidden Organisms in the Living World

30min

Reflections on Restoration and Conservation

7min

Fungal Research and Mapping Underground Networks

11min

Transforming Harmful Ideologies through Decomposition and Transformation

4min

Exploring Surrender through the Fungal World

2min

An Appreciation for the Guest's Work

2min

Winding through questions of philosophy, science, and meaning making, this week’s episode brings together vital thoughts on what it means to live an embodied life in an entangled world. Guest Merlin Sheldrake shares the motivations that drew him to study fungi and the complex ways this study has shaped his life and thought.

As Merlin shares, “An account of life that doesn't include fungi is an account of a living world that doesn’t exist.” Our relationship with fungi is non-negotiable. Merlin invites listeners to pay attention to what this relationship means and how it shapes not only our lives, but the entanglement of life across the world. With this, Merlin also shares the ways fungal life offers a diversity of expressions and possibilities – offering up the perspective that the diversity and complexity of relationship and expression is what makes life fertile.

Across the episode, Merlin and Ayana contemplate the history and meaning of science, and come to see life as a process and a relationship. The meaning we make does not come out of a vacuum, but rather out of relationship. Life itself, in its many forms, is improvisational. Understanding this, we are left with the provocation: How might we speak to the world, rather than about it?

Merlin is a biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and winner of the Royal Society Book Prize and the Wainwright Prize. Merlin is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, and works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks and the Fungi Foundation. A keen brewer and fermenter, he is fascinated by the relationships that arise between humans and more-than-human organisms. (merlinsheldrake.com)

Music by Matthewdavid. Visit our website at https://www.forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

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