The Mushroom Hour Podcast

Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed once more by the presence of Mycomaterial Specialist Ashley Granter. Along with Biofashion Designer Aurelie Fontan, Ashley is a founder of Osmose Studios - a multidisciplinary design studio dedicated to exploring how society should draw inspiration and processes from Mother nature. Working with mycelium as well as natural dyes and fabrics, they aim to bring forward beautiful design that doesn’t cost the planet and actually fosters the regeneration of lost ecosystems.    TOPICS COVERED:   Birth of Osmose Studios    Working with Classic Biomaterials in New Ways    Fashion, Materials, Regenerative Design    Future of Biomaterials Rooted in Technologies of the Past?   Product Design Grounded in Consumer Experience    Dresses Made with Kombucha & Mycelium Leather   Interior Design made with Mycelium    Diverse Landscape of the Biomaterials Industry    Scaling Sustainably and Decentralized – like a Fungus   Integrating Waste Streams into New Materials    Genetic Modification vs Directed Evolution    Business’ Role in Preserving Ecosystems and Biodiversity   Biomaterials as a Craft vs Mass Production   Working with Your Life Partner as a Business Partner    EPISODE RESOURCES:   Osmose Studio IG: https://www.instagram.com/osmose_labs/   Armillaria (fungal genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria   Cantharellus (fungal genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantharellus   Francis Crick's books: https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/francis-crick/219274/   "Synthetic Aesthetics" by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg: https://www.daisyginsberg.com/work/synthetic-aesthetics-book    

Dr. César Marin, researcher and academic in Chile, discusses the agency of fungi in symbiotic relationships with plants and the distribution of nutrients in plant networks. The podcast also explores the oldest tree in the world and its fungal associations, the connection between conifers and mycorrhizal fungi, drug decriminalization as a solution to the drug trade, the flaws of rationalism in science, and the fascinating impact of understanding fungal organisms on our perception of the world.

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by magnanimous mycological scholar Dr. Keith Seifert, adjunct professor in the biology department at Carleton University. Dr. Seifert has spent more than forty years studying fungi on five continents. At Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, he did research on microscopic fungi from farms, forests, food and the built environment to reduce toxins and diseases affecting plants and animals. He was president of the International Mycological Association, an executive editor of Mycologia, and associate editor of several other scientific journals. Dr. Seifert is here to dive into his debut book The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi – Exploring the Microscopic World in Our Forests, Homes and Bodies. In this marvelous book, he invites us to see our world as one full of microbial ecological succession, symbiotic interactions with fungi and maybe an understanding that this epoch could truly be considered the mycocene.   TOPICS COVERED:   Descending into the Hidden Kingdom   Spectrum of Symbioses   The Lives of Endophytes    Holobionts   Fungi and Human Agriculture   Mycotoxins   Ancient History of Fungal Domestication – Beer, Bread & Cheese   Rot to Fermentation Continuum   Invasive Species, Biopiracy, Biocolonialism   Human Houses as Ecosystems   Mold Colonies in Our Homes   Dandruff, Candida & Fungi in the Human Microbiome   Amphibian Apocalypse   A World Powered by Fungi    EPISODE RESOURCES:   "The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi": https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-hidden-kingdom-of-fungi-exploring-the-microscopic-world-in-our-forests-homes-and-bodies-keith-seifert/17251543?ean=9781771646628   Keith Seifert iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/77976   Keith Seifert ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Keith-Seifert-2   "I Contain Multitudes": https://edyong.me/i-contain-multitudes   Phytophthora infestans (Irish Potato Famine Pathogen): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora_infestans   UG-99 Wheat Rust: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ug99   Escovopsis aspergilloides: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escovopsis_aspergilloides   "When Darwin Comes to Town": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34930832-darwin-comes-to-town   "The Song of the Dodo": https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12868099    

Irene Antonez is a Prague based Russian/Ukrainian artist and musician, who works in the genre of bio art and botanical/mycological illustration with a focus on fungi and microorganisms. She holds two Masters' degrees: in Future Design and in Fine Art. Irene draws inspiration from her microscopic research of fungi as well as mushroom hunting, ethnomycology, ethnobotany, old scientific illustration books as well as from her family history of " mushroom obsession". She uses a microscope to explore the invisible world of tiny organisms that we typically overlook. Irene believes that it’s highly important to emphasize the spirit or « soul » in each living being no matter its scale or size. In her artwork, Irene plays with combinations of various scales to show the beauty and importance of tiny, microscopic creatures to the World. She is constantly engaged in various mushroom-related projects all around the world. She has been a guest speaker at mycological events like the Hawaii Mushroom Conference and has her artwork displayed in exhibitions both in Prague and internationally.    TOPICS COVERED:   Growing up in a Mycophilic Culture   Family Love of Art & Music   Future Design   Ethnomycology    Psychedelics & Artistic Expression   Traveling through Microscopic Worlds   The Soul and Spirit of Microorganisms   Scale & PerspectiveFlow & Curiosity   Becoming a Fungal Ambassador   Inspiring Mycological Awakenings   Early Art Exhibitions   Immersion into Audio & Visual Artwork   Mushroom Foraging in Prague   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Irene Antonez Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/IreneAntonezArt?ref=search_shop_redirect   Irene Antonez IG: https://www.instagram.com/irene_antonez_art/   Mikhail Vishnevsky (inspiration): https://golden.com/wiki/Vishnevsky%2C_Mikhail_Vladimirovich-DZKYXW5   Rhodotus palmatus: https://www.mushroomexpert.com/rhodotus_palmatus.html    Hydnellum peckii: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydnellum_peckii   "The Invention of Nature" (book): https://www.andreawulf.com/about-the-invention-of-nature.html   "Entangled Life" (book): https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to be joined by Gabrielle Cerberville, aka @chaoticforager. Gabrielle is a wild food educator, mycophagist, permaculturist, and interdisciplinary artist. Her entertaining educational videos on Tiktok, where she shares her knowledge of edible plants and fungi, have been viewed by millions worldwide. She has lectured extensively on the importance of ecological awareness and land knowledge and believes that ethics and knowledge must go hand-in-hand to support a sustainable future.   TOPICS COVERED:   Growing Up in the Mountains of PA   Developing Mushroom Identification Superpowers   Underrated Edible Fungi   Puffball Superstar   Expanding the Wild Culinary Repertoire     Adventures in Kalamazoo   Becoming TikTok Famous   Foraging as an Evolving Practice   Social Media vs Entertainment Media   Success & Mental Health Tips for Social Media   Artistic, Acoustic, Ecological Explorations   Elevating Mainstream Fungal Understandings   Chaotic Future Plans   Embracing the Human Role as Nature's Stewards   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Chaotic Forager Website: https://chaoticforager.com/   Gabrielle's Creative Alchemy: https://gabriellecerberville.com/   Chaotic Forager TikTok: https://www.instagram.com/chaoticforager/   Chaotic Forager IG: https://www.instagram.com/chaoticforager/   Armillaria tabescens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_tabescens   Tylopilus alboater: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylopilus_alboater   Calvatia gigantea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvatia_gigantea   Lab Girl (Book): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25733983-lab-girl   Braiding Sweetgrass (Book): https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are graced by the presence of Dr. Michael J. Hathaway - Professor of Anthropology at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Associate Member of the School for International Studies, and the Director of SFU's David Lam Centre for Asian Studies. He is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow and author of What a Mushroom Lives For (2022) and Environmental Winds (2013). Hathaway is a cultural anthropologist with two central interests. First, he is deeply interested in China’s place in the modern world, looking at how little-known dynamics there have created world-spanning effects in surprising realms such as feminism, environmentalism, and Indigenous rights. His aim is to disrupt the typical assumptions that globalization emerges solely from the West. Second, Hathaway is doing what he can to foster a transformation in scientific understandings based on colonial assumptions of the natural world. For a quarter-century, Hathaway has lived in, worked, and traveled in China and increasingly in Japan, where he has explored the entangled and emerging worlds of transnational environmentalism and Indigenous rights. More recently, Hathaway has been exploring hidden histories of Indigenous-led activism across the Pacific Rim and how they have shaped the contemporary world. Today we’re going to dive into his newest book, “What a Mushroom Lives For”.   TOPICS COVERED:   Environmentalism and Indigenous Rights in China   The Mushroom at the End of the World   Matsutake World Research Group   New Relationships with Biology    Human Exceptionalism   World Making   Thinking Like a Mushroom   Umwelt   Matsutake’s Economic Ecosystem   The Yi People & Their Fungal Economy   Entanglements of Yaks, Mushrooms, Barley, Trees and Public Policy   How Matsutake Continually Shapes Cultures and Economies into the Future    Efforts to Cultivate Matsutake   Can Shifting Ecological Worldviews Shape the Future?   EPISODE RESOURCES:    Michael J. Hathaway Website: https://www.michaeljhathaway.net/   "What a Mushroom Lives For" (book): https://www.amazon.com/What-Mushroom-Lives-Matsutake-Worlds/dp/0691225885Matsutake Worlds Research Group: https://people.ucsc.edu/~atsing/migrated/matsutake/    "The Mushroom at the End of the World" (book): https://www.amazon.com/Mushroom-End-World-Possibility-Capitalist/dp/0691162751   Jakob von Uexküll: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Johann_von_Uexk%C3%BCll   The Yi People: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_people   Schizophyllum commune (AKA Splitgill Mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophyllum_commune   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the magnanimous Martin Osis. Martin is passionate about wild mushrooms! He loves to look at them, touch them, smell them, taste them, and talk about them. For decades he has been educating and entertaining people and groups about mushrooms by talks, forays, workshops, identification courses and just going on and on and on about mushrooms to pretty much anyone who will listen! His enthusiasm about mushrooms makes him a sought-after speaker at many functions. Although he is an amateur mycologist, he is generally regarded as one of Alberta’s experts in mushroom field identification, constantly studying emerging scientific papers on mycology, as well as scouring the diverse habitats to see what species might be growing in Alberta. His particular interest in medicinal mushrooms comes from a strong desire to help people get and stay healthy by natural means. Other interests include fungal biodiversity, DNA sequencing of fungi, mushroom photography, and of course, edible fungi. As one of the founding members of the Alberta Mycological Society, he has been a major contributor to AMS, and has created several projects including the ever-popular Great Alberta Mushroom Foray, held in a different location annually in Alberta. He also was the driver in the formation of the Medicinal Mushroom committee at NAMA. Martin is currently on the Advisory Board of “My Fungi”, an Alberta mushroom company developing expertise in psilocybin production for research, mushroom grow kits and mycoremediation.   TOPICS COVERED:    Nature & Theology   Alberta Fungal Biodiversity Hotspot   The Russula Edibility Riddle   Leccinum Mysteries    Cataloging Fungal Diversity   What Does Fungal Biodiversity Tell Us?   Mushrooms in Eastern Medicine   Oyster Mushrooms, Statins and Your Heart   Observational Experience    Topical Applications of Medicinal Mushrooms    Fungal Microbiomes & Complex Relationships with Bacteria   The Rise of Tremella    Medicinal Mushroom Compounds   Future Projects with My Fungi, New Books and More    EPISODE RESOURCES:   Alberta Mycological Society: https://www.albertamushrooms.ca/   MyFungi: https://myfungi.ca/   Russula (genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula   Leccinum (genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leccinum   Leccinum vulpinum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leccinum_vulpinum   Lyophyllum shimeji: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyophyllum_shimeji   Tremella fuciformis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremella_fuciformis   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to chat with internationally renowned wild foods expert, wilderness skills teacher and founder of “Rural Courses”, Michael White. Michael caught the foraging bug young and early experiences of loading sheep feed buckets full of field fungi and eating them piled high on buttered toast, sentenced Michal to a life dedicated to the hunt! Foraging for plants and fungi rubbed shoulders with hunting, fishing, and farming to the extent that eating from the land became his norm and to buy from the shops an uneasy extravagance. Four years in London studying classical singing was enough to confirm that city life, or that of an opera singer was not for him and on graduating he flung himself into almost total self-sufficiency.  Skills learned in childhood became essential tools for putting food on the table and driven by necessity, his foraging abilities improved rapidly. In his early 20’s Michael began teaching foraging and self-sufficiency skills. This side of life has grown into a new passion, taking him into cities, other countries, schools, but mostly the forest, to inspire and educate thousands of people about the awesome word of fungi, foraging and life on the land. Currently life is very full for Michael raising three children, teaching, expanding his understanding about medicinal mushrooms and living off the land. His greatest pleasure is to share knowledge and a love of the natural world with his son and two daughters and the fantastic people he meets through courses and workshops.    TOPICS COVERED:      Kent’s Wild Food Landscape   The Decision to Start Educating Others in the Wild    Life in the Wilds Takes Work!   Reclaiming Power through Rewilding   Foraging as a State of Mind   Diverging from Modernity    How do Foraging and Wildcraft Practices Change Social Cohesion?    Educating Children about Nature   Culinary Inspiration from Foraged Fare   Medicinal Properties of Plants & Fungi    Wild Beer, Wine and Spirits   Hunting and Working with Game    Starting the Path to Self-Sufficiency    Dangers of Our Experimental, Digital World   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Rural Courses Website: https://www.ruralcourses.co.uk/    Michael White IG: https://www.instagram.com/rural_courses/   Macrolepiota procera (AKA Parasol Mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrolepiota_procera    First-Nature (Plant and Fungi ID): https://www.first-nature.com/    Family Phallacaea (AKA Stinkhorns): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallaceae

Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are honored to be joined by Piotr Zieba, professor’s assistant at the University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland. Piotr works with gourmet and medical mushrooms and his journey started on Faculty of Biotechnology and Horticulture. During his bioengineering studies he found out that nobody was doing research on mushrooms. So, Piotr took matters into his own hands and organized a Student Science program to start to cultivating mushrooms. At this point in his career, Piotr has completed a master thesis about oyster mushrooms, coauthored 11 scientific papers and is now finishing PhD studies. His work focuses on different properties of mycelium from in vitro culture and fruiting bodies, but also focuses on supplementation of mushroom substrate with novel bio-materials. Working on a multidisciplinary science team, Piotr is currently pursuing all kinds of exciting work on mushrooms from attempting to cultivate wild mushrooms, using nontypical agriculture and food waste in mushroom cultivation and using waste mushroom substrate as fertilizer. His passion for mycology is palpable, and along with a great team of professors, doctors and students he is working to learn everything he can for the glory of mushrooms.   TOPICS COVERED:   Childhood in Nature Picking Mushrooms   University of Agriculture Krakow   Visions of a Mushroom Cultivating Future in Poland   Experiments with Substrate   Nutritional Profiles of Mushrooms Grown on Different Substrates   Contamination Learning Curve   Mycelium vs Fruiting Body Nutritional Compounds   Mapping Nutrition Profiles with Differing Growth Parameters   Isolating and Cultivating Wild Fungi   Impact of Piotr’s Research on his University   Advice for Mushroom Cultivators   Downstream Applications of Spent Mushroom Substrate   Future Cultivation Tech – Ozone Sterilization   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Poland Fungi IG: https://www.instagram.com/polandfungi/   Piotr Zieba Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zieba-Piotr   University of Agriculture in Krakow: https://en.urk.edu.pl/   Marasmius alliaceus (Fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycetinis_alliaceus   Pleurotus ostreatus (Fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleurotus_ostreatus

Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are blessed to speak with Manoj Doss. Manoj is a cognitive neuropsychopharmacologist at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University. His research is at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychopharmacology with focuses on episodic memory and hallucinogenic drugs. Manoj utilizes complex cognitive paradigms, brain imaging, and computational modelling to explore what makes psychedelics unique compared to other classes of psychoactive drugs, both in terms of basic drug effects and mechanisms for treating clinical populations. Although Manoj is optimistic that psychedelics will soon have a place in psychiatry, he remains cautious of exaggerated claims and negligence to potential downsides, something he terms 'psychedelic myopia’.    TOPICS COVERED:   Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuropsychopharmacology   Psychedelic Neuroscience   Types of Memory - Episodic, Semantic, Procedural   Parts of the Brain - Hippocampus, Neocortex   Recollection vs Familiarity   Psychedelics Impacting Memory through Familiarity   Is Memory Stored in Parts of the Body Other than the Brain?   How Do We Make False Memories?   Debunking the “Default Mode Network” Narrative   Psychedelic Science and Incorporating Existing Scientific Disciplines   Showing Psychedelics are Actually Useful in Treating Any Disorders   Commentary on Structuring Psychedelic Research   Future of Psychedelic Therapy as Adjunct to Existing Therapies?   Tempering Conclusions and Expectations from Psychedelic Research   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Manoj Doss Twitter: https://twitter.com/ManojDoss   Manoj Doss Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manoj-Doss   Manoj Doss @ Johns Hopkins: https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/doss   John O'Keefe Nobel Prize work on Hippocampal place cells: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04913-9   Doss et al paper on reward dynamics: http://dml.ucdavis.edu/uploads/6/1/9/7/61974117/gruber_ritchey_wang_doss_ranganath_2016.pdf   Default Mode Network Hypothesis: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00020/full   PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin: https://www.amazon.com/Pihkal-Chemical-Story-Alexander-Shulgin/dp/0963009605   Janice Chen paper on shared experience: https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=mOwF8UEAAAAJ&citation_for_view=mOwF8UEAAAAJ:M05iB0D1s5AC   Marc Berman paper on benefits of interacting with nature: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02225.x