The Mushroom Hour Podcast

 Today on Mushroom Hour we are graced by the presence of wild food expert and author Robin Harford. Robin is a plant-based forager, ethnobotanical researcher and wild food educator. He has published numerous foraging guidebooks and established his own wild food foraging school in 2008. His foraging courses were recently voted #1 in the UK by BBC Countryfile. Robin is the creator of Eatweeds which is listed in The Times Top 50 websites for food and drink. He has travelled extensively documenting and recording the traditional and local uses of wild food plants in indigenous cultures. His work has taken him to Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and the USA. Robin regularly appears on radio and occasionally on television. His work has been recommended in BBC Good Food magazine, Sainsbury’s magazine as well as in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph among others.     TOPICS COVERED:   Childhood in the Wilds of the Devon Countryside   Finding Freedom, Questioning Big Brother   Reconnecting with Nature as Somatic Healing   Sensory Method of Plant Identification    Power of Contemplative Practice & Bio-Individualism   Developing Relationship with Wild Plants as a Form of Activism   Finding Perspectives on Anger and Love   Foraging as an Act of Reverence   Processing Trauma & Addiction Through Somatic Experience with Plants   Living Wild Food Tradition of the Roamer Communities in England   In Search of Nomadic Hunter Gatherer Communities   The Oceanic Moken People & Anthropological Diversity   Getting Started Foraging & Preparing Wild Plants   Joining the Eatweeds Community   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Eatweeds Website:  https://www.eatweeds.co.uk/   Eatweeds Facebook Community:  https://www.facebook.com/foragingcourses   Frank Cook (Inspiration):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_C._Cook_IV   Hildegard of Bingen (Inspiration):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen    Laurel Luddite Paper:  https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/laurel-luddite-this-is-anarcha-herbalism-thoughts-on-health-and-healing-for-the-revolution    Latcho Drom (Film):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latcho_Drom    Moken Culture:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moken    Against the Grain (Book):  https://www.amazon.com/Against-Grain-History-Earliest-States/dp/0300182910    Botanyeveryday:  http://www.botanyeveryday.com/  

Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Matt Kasson, Associate Professor of Forest Pathology and Mycology at West Virginia University. Dr. Kasson received his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the Pennsylvania State University where his research focused on using a native fungus, Verticillium nonalfalfae, as a biological control of the invasive tree, Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven). He also holds an A.A.S. from Paul Smiths College and a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Maine. His current research areas include fungal-arthropod interactions, biological control of invasive plants and pathogens, and the biology and ecology of historic and emerging diseases of forest trees. Dr. Kasson is currently the Director of the International Culture Collection of (Vesicular) Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (INVAM) and currently has research focused on the metabolites associated with interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their plant partners. Dr. Kasson teaches undergraduate courses on general plant pathology and forest pest management and offers special topics courses for graduate students including advanced plant disease diagnostics.  TOPICS COVERED:   Origin as a Young Naturalist in Susquehanna  Overview of Forest Pathology and Fungal Pathogens  Chestnut Blight, Dutch Elm Disease, Laurel Vascular Wilt  Reproductive Strategies of Pathogenic Fungi  Fungal Pathogens as a Bio-control Agent  The Precautionary Principle  Changing Environments & the Emergence of Pathogenic Disease  Adaptive, Facultative Capacities of Fungi  Massospora Fungi & Zombie Cicadas  Discovery of Psilocybin & Amphetamine in Massospora-Infected Cicadas  Future Research into Massospora Effects on Cicadas  Fungus Feeding Millipedes as Biodiversity Hotspots  Meeting the Team in the Kasson Lab at West Virginia University  Sage Advice for Academic Pursuits into Mycology  EPISODE RESOURCES:   Matt Kasson WVU Profile: https://www.davis.wvu.edu/faculty-staff/directory/matthew-kasson  Matt Kasson Twitter: https://twitter.com/kasson_wvu  Tree of Heaven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_altissima  Verticillium nonalfalfae (Fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verticillium_nonalfalfae  Colletotrichum (Fungi Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colletotrichum  Cryphonectria parasitica (Fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight  Massospora cicadina (Fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massospora_cicadina  Brachycybe lecontii (Millipede): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachycybe_lecontii  Neonectria (Fungi Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonectria  

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by magnanimous mushroom mogul Britt Bunyard. Britt is the founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of the mycology journal Fungi. Britt received a Masters in Botany from Clemson University and a PhD in Plant Pathology from Penn State University. He has worked academically (and played very amateurishly) as a mycologist his entire career, writing scientifically for many research journals, popular science magazines, and books. He has served as an editor for mycological and entomological research journals, and mushroom guidebooks. A popular evangelizer on all things fungal, Britt has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, National Geographic Magazine, PBS’s NOVA television program, and in 2016 was made Executive Director of the Telluride Mushroom Festival. He’s given talks on mushrooms ranging across so many different subjects, I’m excited to learn what he’s focused on now and what he sees as the future of mycophile culture.    TOPICS COVERED:   Childhood Foraging Morels in Ohio & Clutching an Audubon Guide  Dynamic Interplays of Entomology & Mycology  Insect & Macrofungi Symbioses  Flies, Yeasts & Mushrooms  The Birth of Fungi Magazine  Traveling the World Seeking Mushrooms & Stories  Most Popular FUNGI Magazine Issue about Genus Psilocybe  Explosion of Mycophilia Across the Western World  Promising Future of Mycoremediation Research  Revolution of Listening to Nature  Origins & Future of the Telluride Mushroom Festival  From Britt’s First Telluride to Becoming Executive Director of the Festival  Fungal Solutions Accommodating Human Population Growth  The Future for Britt & Fungi Magazine  EPISODE RESOURCES:   Fungi Magazine Website: http://fungimag.com/   Fungi Magazine Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/43995545858/   Drosophila melanogaster flies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster   NAMA Website: https://namyco.org/   The Mycologist Journal (Inspiration): https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Mycologist-0269-915X   The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Mushrooms-Everything-Cultivating/dp/1631599119/   

Professor Simard's must-read first book "Finding the Mother Tree" is OUT NOW:https://suzannesimard.com/finding-the-mother-tree-book/   This book will change how you see forests and how you understand the relationships between trees and fungi.Today we have the humbling opportunity to speak with the incomparable Professor Suzanne Simard. Suzanne is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been compared to Rachel Carson, hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is both dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers (think James Cameron’s Avatar) and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. We’ve had the chance to read an early copy of her first book “Finding the Mother Tree” and have been mesmerized by how Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates vital truths – that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks full of mycorrhizal fungi by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities and living communal lives not that different from our own.   TOPICS COVERED:   Simard Family Origins and a Life-long Love with Old Growth Forests   “Free-to-Grow” Policies   Competition vs. Cooperation Views of Forest Ecology   Discovering the Mycorrhizal Network   PhD Research – Transfer of Carbon between Trees via Mycorrhizae   Groundbreaking Research Published in “Nature” in 1997   Women in Forestry   How Do Trees & Fungi Benefit from Their Mycorrhizal Relationships?   Mapping a Mycorrhizal Network   What is a Mother Tree?   Benefits of Uniting Anthropomorphic Epistemologies and Scientific Research   Aboriginal, First Nation & Indigenous Systems of Knowledge   An Intimate View of Suzanne’s Life to Humanize Scientific Endeavour   “The Mother Tree Project”, Future Plans & Future Research   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Suzanne Simard Website: https://suzannesimard.com/  "Finding the Mother Tree" (Book): https://suzannesimard.com/finding-the-mother-tree-book/  The Mother Tree Project: https://mothertreeproject.org/   Sir David Read (Inspiration): https://royalsociety.org/people/david-read-12152/   Dr. Teresa Ryan: https://indigenous.forestry.ubc.ca/profiles/teresa-ryan/   Prof. Susan Dudley: https://www.biology.mcmaster.ca/component/comprofiler/userprofile/sdudley.html?Itemid=1027

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by mycophagy legend Larry Evans. Larry Evans is a mushroom hunter, teacher, cultivator, song writer, and cook. He has been instrumental in organizing forays, festivals, and workshops in Colorado, Montana, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Bolivia, and now Jamaica. He is a founder of the Western Montana Mycological Association, wrote a field guide to mushrooms of the Amazon, and appeared in Ron Mann’s come-documentary Know Your Mushrooms. His vast body of work includes detailed accounts of burn morel tracking throughout the Western US, explorations of jam-packed fungal jungles in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador and evangelizing audiences about means of fungal digestion, how fungi remediate contaminated soils, and what the process of mushroom making is all about. Time to laugh and learn with a real-life fungal pioneer.    TOPICS COVERED:   “Know Your Mushrooms”   Changes in Soil Carbon Throughout Earth’s History   Fungal Peroxidase Enzymes & the Carbon Cycle   When it Comes to Wood, Bury Not Burn!   Fossil Water, BCR & Soil Carbon Implications on Wildfires   Fire-following Fairy Cups   Understanding Soil Carbon in Land Management   Trophic Levels of Wood Resources   Mycoremediation & Fungal Adsorption   Protein Production in the Developing World   Mycofiltration   Demystifying Human Fictions of Money & Property   Creating New Value Systems   New Models of Human Organization Inspired by Self-Balancing Systems   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Larry Evans Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrMushroomlarry   Larry Evans IG: https://www.instagram.com/mushroomlarry/   Western Montana Mycological Association: http://wmma.wildsoil.com/   "Know Your Mushrooms" Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWf7fM5iLYc   Soil Carbon Cycle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_carbon   Daldinia concentrica (mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daldinia_concentrica   Geopyxi carbonaria (mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geopyxis_carbonaria 

Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of Reggie, activist, mycologist and founder of Oakland Hyphae. Reggie studied political science at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and now has over a decade of political campaign experience ranging from local and state-level races to 3 Presidential races to working with the New York State Democrats, the DCCC, and the DNC. On the West Coast Reggie worked on a local level to replace police in schools with guidance counselors for the Black Organizing Project in Oakland. Inspired by early-life transformative experiences with psilocybin-containing mushrooms, Reggie has had a lifelong passion for mycology and now consults with the largest mushroom cultivators in the world. He has worked with the largest cultivators in The Netherlands and is currently advising in the establishment of the largest commercial mushroom farm and state of the art testing lab in Jamaica. He also has over 10 years of domestic experience in the US cannabis industry. Reggie is a member of the Advisory Board for Decriminalize Nature and an avid activist for police reform and an ally of The Movement for Black Lives. TOPICS COVERED:  Reggie’s Introduction to Psilocybin & Travels to Europe  Activist Work for Political Change & Racial Equality  Psilocybin Mushrooms as an Ancient Spiritual Technology  Formation of Oakland Hyphae  The First “Psilocybin Cup” April 2021  Combining Passions for Mushroom Cultivation & Plant Medicine BIPOC Activism   Process of Testing Compounds in Psilocybin Mushrooms  Importance of BIPOC Leadership in Psychedelic Spaces  Future of Oakland Hyphae  Next Psilocybin Cup & Oakland Psychedelic Conference 9/20/21  Lessons Learned from the Cannabis Industry  Oakland as a Leader in Equity in Plant Medicine  Colonization of Psychedelics in Jamaica  Influence of Big Money on Emerging Psilocybin Mushroom Marketplace  EPISODE RESOURCES:   Oakland Hyphae IG: https://www.instagram.com/oakland_hyphae/  Oakland Hyphae Website: https://www.oaklandhyphae510.com/  Spring 2021 Psilocybin Cup: https://oakland-hyphae.teachable.com/p/oakland-hyphae-psilocybin-cup-spring-21  The Ancestor Project: https://www.instagram.com/theancestorproject/   Negus in Nature: https://www.instagram.com/negusinnature/  Twisted Tree Nursery: https://www.instagram.com/twisted_tree_nursery/  Pacific Substrates: https://www.instagram.com/pacificsubstrates/  Diaspora Psychedelic Society: https://www.instagram.com/diasporapsychedelicsociety/  Kilindi Iyi: http://babakilindi.com/  Darron le Barron: https://www.instagram.com/darren_le_baron/  Decriminalize Nature: https://www.instagram.com/decriminalizenature/  SF Psychedelic Society: https://www.instagram.com/psychedelicsocietysf/

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with Jeff Lowenfels. Jeff is the author of the Award-winning books “Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide To The Soil Food Web”, “Teaming With Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition” and “Teaming With Fungi: The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae”. Jeff Lowenfels has become a leader in the organic gardening/sustainability movement because of these best-selling books. His “Guide to the soil food web” has been hailed as one of the most important gardening books in the last 25 years. His talks have converted tens of thousands of gardeners at venues throughout North and South America to follow the path of organic gardening. Jeff hosted Alaska public television’s most popular show, “Alaska Gardens with Jeff Lowenfels.” Most importantly for him, Jeff is the founder of the national program “Plant A Row for The Hungry.” This program is active all 50 states and Canada and has resulted in millions pounds of garden produce being donated to feed the hungry every year.    TOPICS COVERED:   Transformation from “Chemical Head” to Organic Gardener   Discovering the Soil Food Web   Teaming with Microbes  Nematodes, Protozoa, Fungi and the Rhizosphere   Testing for Soil Health   Teaming with Nutrients   How do Plants Eat?   Biological Processes of Plant Cells   Roles of Mycorrhizal Fungi   Humans Controlled by Microorganisms   Spiritual Microbial Ecology   Chemical Agriculture & the Soil Food Web   Our Future Depends on Soil   Planting a Row for the Hungry   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Jeff Lowenfels' Column: https://www.adn.com/author/jeff-lowenfels/   "Teaming with Microbes": https://www.amazon.com/Teaming-Microbes-Organic-Gardeners-Revised/dp/1604691131   "Teaming with Nutrients": https://www.amazon.com/Teaming-Nutrients-Gardeners-Optimizing-Nutrition/dp/1604693142/   "Teaming with Fungi": https://www.amazon.com/Teaming-Fungi-Organic-Mycorrhizae-Gardeners/dp/1604697296/   Rudolf Steiner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner   Dr. Elaine Ingham: https://www.soilfoodweb.com/   Microbiometer (Test your soil biomass!): https://microbiometer.com/   Plant a Row for the Hungry: https://gardencomm.org/PAR   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the incredible myco-maven Mia Maltz PhD. As a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Biomedical Sciences at UC Riverside, her research focuses on fungal communities and functional ecology in novel ecosystems, including pumice plains, drying lakebeds, and the lung mycobiome. Mia studied at the University of California, Irvine where she received my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, with an emphasis on Ecological Restoration and Fungi. Her dissertation work in Kathleen Treseder’s Lab of Fungi, Ecosystems, and Global Change looked at the effects of habitat fragmentation and ecosystem degradation on fungal community composition and function. For her dissertation research, Mia investigated whether restoration techniques affect fungi and evaluated the efficacy of methods for restoring mycorrhizal fungal function within degraded landscapes. As an ecologist working at the interface of community ecology, biogeography, and mycology, her work broadly focuses on community responses to environmental perturbations, which feedback to influence plant and fungal community structure and ecosystem functioning.    TOPICS COVERED:  Discovering a Passion for Permaculture & Ecological Restoration  The Power of Showing Up & Making Connections  Importance of Surveys Prior to Any Course of Bioremediation  Functions of Different Mycorrhizal Fungi  Roles of Saprobic Fungi & Pathogenic Fungi in Ecological Restoration   Plant and Microbial Communications  Importance of Precautionary Principle  Ecological BioStimulation & BioAugmentation  Founding of CoRenewal & Amazon MycoRenewal Project  Open-Source Research Protocols  Future Economic Significance of Bioremediation  Environmental Justice   Dust Microbiome & Fungal Ecosystems in the Air  Women in Mycology  EPISODE RESOURCES:  Mia Maltz Academic Website: https://sites.uci.edu/maltz/   Mia Maltz Personal Website: http://miamaltz.com/   Mia Maltz IG: https://www.instagram.com/myceliumia/   Mia Maltz Twitter: https://twitter.com/miamaltz   CoRenewal & Amazon MycoRenewal: https://www.amazonmycorenewal.org/   John Todd: https://www.toddecological.com/   Jan Colemeier: https://www.amazon.com/Marine-Mycology-Higher-Jan-Kohlmeyer/dp/1483241882   Treseder Lab: http://faculty.sites.uci.edu/tresederlab/   Dr. Michael Allen: https://ccb.ucr.edu/facilities/lab   Mycological Society of America - Students: https://msastudents.org/   CZNet: https://criticalzone.org/   Protocols.io: https://www.protocols.io/   Phlebia centrifuga (fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlebia_centrifuga   

Anthony Basil Rodriguez is a New York-born independent photographer and filmmaker. Since childhood he has been oriented toward a range of visual worlds. As a teenager, Anthony began to carry around an old film camera that his younger brother had lying around from a school project. Eventually taking his hobby more seriously, Anthony obtained a job pushing carts in order to buy his first digital camera. One day after a thunderstorm he was discovered by a local news station knee-deep in floodwaters collecting photos of the aftermath. He spent the following three years submerged in live television, editing daily newscasts. During this time, he honed and developed a true eye and skill for editing, videography and ultimately storytelling. Since leaving the news industry Anthony has continued to push his craft, interlacing realms of photography, video and film. This work continues to bring Anthony around the world in pursuit of research and documentation of rare plants, disparate peoples and the flux of global society. One of his current projects, Growing Back to Nature, really caught my attention as it features foragers, citizen mycologists and seekers who are trying to carve out a future path based around a more holistic connection with our planet and what it is live more in tune with natural systems.   TOPICS COVERED:   Anthony Discovers a Talent for Visual Media  Breaking into Television News Production  Childhood Passion for Plants  Ethnobotanical Adventures  Bananas – The Fruit that Changed the World  Worldwide Cultural Influence of the Banana  The Jamaican Banana King  How Traveling Extensively Changes Us  “Growing Back to Nature” Docuseries  Influence of William Padilla-Brown  Wasteland Rebel and Zero Waste Lifestyle  Changes in the Art & Craft of Film in the Social Media Age  Power of Storytelling to Shape Society  Getting Our Sh** Together Could be Fun  EPISODE RESOURCES:   Anthony Rodriguez Website: https://anthonybrodriguez.com/  Anthony Rodriguez IG: https://www.instagram.com/revofthought/   Growing Back to Nature Website: https://growingbacktonature.com/  Growing Back to Nature IG: https://www.instagram.com/growingbacktonature/  "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World" (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Banana-Fate-Fruit-Changed-World/dp/0452290082  "Conquest of the Tropics" (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Tropics-Creative-Enterprises-Conducted/dp/0342184768  "When the Banana was King" (Book): https://www.amazon.com/When-Banana-Was-King-Jamaican/dp/9768202238  William Padilla-Brown Website: https://www.mycosymbiotics.net/  Reishi (Mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingzhi_(mushroom)

Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of Ryan Paul Gates, founder of Terrestrial Fungi. Ryan has spent the last ten+ years collecting and breeding fungal cultures from around the world. The strains he is probably most famous for propagating and breeding are cordyceps and ganoderma mushrooms. Ryan was really an early pioneer at popularizing cordyceps cultivation in the US, exposing us to techniques used from all over the globe. His team at Terrestrial Fungi are constantly hunting and breeding new and improved strains to add to their already staggering genetic library. They are constantly refining our selection process to bring Cordyceps farmers reliable and high yielding potent genetics. In the summer of 2019, they collected over 200 wild Cordyceps militaris ascospore isolates from over 30 carefully selected wild specimens: building their work of releasing the first single ascospore progeny strains of Cordyceps militaris in the USA. A master manifester and elevator of vibration, you can tell Ryan puts the highest intention and care into his work.   TOPICS COVERED:   How Ryan Discovered a Passion for Fungi  Falling in Love with Cordyceps  Cordyceps militaris Decentralized Knowledge Share  Developing Cordyceps militaris Cultivation Techniques  Basics of Cordyceps militaris Biology  Balancing Open-Source Mentality, Economic Self-Interest and Concepts of Reciprocity Mechanics of Culturing Cordycep militaris Strains and Selecting Genetics  Birth of Terrestrial Fungi  Rethinking Ganoderma Taxonomy  Elucidating Ganoderma lucidum  Challenges of Breeding Ganoderma  Future Plans for Terrestrial Fungi  Advice for Breeding Fungi Strains  Guidance from Music, Spirit & Other Organisms in Following the Path of Fungi  EPISODE RESOURCES:    Terrestrial Fungi Website: https://www.terrestrialfungi.com/   Terrestrial Fungi IG: https://www.instagram.com/terrestrialfungi/   Terrestrial Fungi FB: https://www.facebook.com/TerrestrialFungi/   RusticRosette Website: https://www.rusticrosette.com/   Shroomery.org: https://www.shroomery.org/   Appalachian Gold Fungi: https://www.instagram.com/appalachiangold_fungi/   Cordyceps militaris "dendrite" strain (Fungi): https://www.terrestrialfungi.com/products/cordyceps-militaris-dendrite-liquid-culture   Dr. Robert Blanchette: http://forestpathology.cfans.umn.edu/Blanchette.htm   Google Scholar Cordyceps militaris Research: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=cordyceps+militaris&btnG=   Grifola frondosa (Fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grifola_frondosa