"We are a family of cells making sense of laughter, a watery collection of tireless vitality. We are a long-tongued bee lost in legume and clover and a blanketing dayscape of small biotic collisions. We are a newt-filled dawn and a mud flat packed with clams. We are a split gill with twenty thousand sexes; a termite queen basking in adulation. Knowing this will always protect you." - Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, "Continuation"

This is the third episode of REBIRTH, a limited podcast series produced by advaya, in partnership with Stella McCartney Beauty.

This episode features Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian: a mycologist and Visiting Professor of Biology at Bard College in NY, as well as faculty with the Bard Prison Initiative. Patty writes: "It is past time that humans turn to the fungi to which we are bound, step into our mutual totality, and create space and futures for our wild ways of being." In this conversation, we dive into mycology as a queer discipline: what do our fungi friends teach us about entanglement and interdependence in a more-than-human world? How can we, like fungi, reclaim land, bodies, and nutrients, and rebirth into the world through decomposition?

About Patty: Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian is a mycologist and Visiting Professor of Biology at Bard College in NY, as well as faculty with the Bard Prison Initiative. Her research focuses on fungal taxonomy, diversity, evolution, symbiosis, and ecology, particularly of the less studied fungal groups, such as the insect-associated Laboulbeniales. She is a co-founder of the International Congress of Armenian Mycologists, which seeks to jointly protect Armenian sovereignty and biodiversity. Patricia also studies philosophy of science, feminist bioscience, and queer theory, exploring how mycology and other scientific disciplines are situated in and informed by our sociopolitical landscape. Her work The science underground: mycology as a queer discipline appears in Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience. Her forthcoming book, Forest Euphoria, will be published by Spiegel & Grau.

The episode additionally features reflection prompts by Haile Thomas, music by Lea Thomas, "Mirrors to the Sun", provided by Spirit House Records, and the series cover art is illustrated by Jia Sung.

Transcripts, further reading and resources and video footage of this podcast with subtitles can be found through the YouTube playlist of this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjKkmvDmI67Q4V9pMCvMn6RJhzzdq6MBU

advaya is a platform for transformative education. We create learning programmes with the leading minds of our time to shift perspectives, transform our relationships and enable thriving lives in harmony with the natural living world.

Find advaya through our website: https://advaya.co/, our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/advaya.co/, and our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Advaya.

Stella McCartney Beauty believes that there is another way to effectively care for our skin. Their products have been formulated to work in harmony with the skin, supporting its key functions of regeneration and protection. Housed in recyclable packaging with a refill system, the range is completely vegan and cruelty-free. Shop the collection here: https://www.stellamccartneybeauty.com/

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