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   

Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are honored to be joined by Geoff Williams PhD, International Sentinel Network Coordinator for the US Forest Service. Geoff studies the social dimensions and microbial ecology of host range expansions and geographic range expansions of forest trees, their fungal pathogens, and their insect herbivores. Geoff just moved to Oregon from West Lafayette, Indiana where he studied the role of the microbiome in Thousand Cankers Disease of Eastern black walnut in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University. Prior to that he has worked and lived in Idaho, Arizona, Mexico, and Chicago, originally hailing Ann Arbor, Michigan. In his current position he is gathering information on forest insects and pathogens across the world. The ultimate goal is to build networks of cooperation and information exchange with international collaborators to help protect native forest tree species in the US and all over the world from the next highly destructive or devastating insect or fungal pathogen that could be introduced through trade and travel. The opinions expressed by Geoff in our show to do not represent policy stances of the US government.   TOPICS COVERED:   A Winding Path towards Forest Pathology   Fungal Phytopathogens   Community Assembly in Forest Ecosystems   Novel Pathogenic Interactions in the Age of the Anthropocene   Proactive Approach to Managing Forest Pathogens   Complex Social Impacts of Forest Pathogens    Interconnectedness of Forest Ecosystems Across Continents    Global Forest Health Crisis   Interplay of International Trade Agreements & Natural Resource Protections   Sentinel Tree Network   Urban Forest Management   “Invasive Species” & Invasion Biology Framework   Invasive Species vs Invasive Populations   Citizen Scientist Role in Monitoring Forest Pathogens   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Geoffrey Williams Website: https://geoffreymwilliams.weebly.com/   Thousand Cankers Disease: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth/plant-pest-and-disease-programs/pests-and-diseases/thousand-cankers-disease/thousand-cankers-disease   Geosmithia morbida (fungal pathogen): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosmithia_morbida   Juglans nigra (Eastern Black Walnut): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglans_nigra   Laurel Wilt Disease: https://www.fdacs.gov/Agriculture-Industry/Pests-and-Diseases/Plant-Pests-and-Diseases/Laurel-Wilt-Disease   Sentinel Trees: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10340-018-1041-6   Cortinarius violaceus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortinarius_violaceus

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the fungal trifecta behind Umbo Medicinal Mushrooms – Rashad Evans, Jake Plummer and Del Jolly. Rashad Evans is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion who intimately understands the connection between mind and body, and the importance of having both in sync. He credits mushrooms for that one-two punch of focus + energy in training and competition, and then easing the transition from fighter to daily life. Rashad is passionate about transforming sports nutrition and transforming access to education so that others can have the same opportunities that he did.    Jake Plummer is a Pro-Bowl NFL Quarterback who spent 10 years in the league earning a reputation as a natural leader. He inspired his teammates to believe in themselves and in each other – personal excellence for the sake of the team. This ethos is what drew him to natural medicine, eager to learn what mushrooms can do for each of us individually and how we can pool that collective power to help make a better world for all.   Focused on shifting the cultural narrative, Del Jolly worked as part of Decriminalize Denver and Charlotte’s Web CBD before co-founding Unlimited Sciences, a psychedelic research nonprofit partnered with the likes of Johns Hopkins University. He believes functional mushrooms have just as much, if not more, potential than psychedelics and is committed to exploring and unearthing everything he can.    TOPICS COVERED:   UFC, NFL and Medicinal Activism - All Roads Lead to Mushrooms   Introduction to Queendom Fungi     Athletes and Functional Mushrooms   Preaching the Mushroom Gospel to NFL and UFC athletes   Functional Mushrooms More Impactful than Psychedelics?!   Role of Psychedelic Mushrooms in Team Sports   Sparring & Microdosing   Fungally-Expanded Perspectives on Achievement and Dominance   We are all Actors   Mushrooms & Masculinity   Rites of Passage   Formation of UMBO & Entering a Limitless Future   The Power of Intention   Making Medicine Accessible to All   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Umbo Website: https://getumbo.com/   Umbo Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getumbo/   Unlimited Sciences Website: https://unlimitedsciences.org/   MycoLove Farm Website: https://www.mycolove.farm/   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by mycological ally, cultivator and community creator Olga Tzogas of Smugtown Mushrooms. Her journey with Fungi and plants started over 15 years ago. She began working with these allies when foraging in both urban & more wild settings as she learned to identify species for food and medicine. Olga, alongside her community, established Smugtown Mushrooms to satiate their need for mushrooms & growing supplies, workshops, events & community-based science where they are based on traditional Haudenosaunee land, in the so-called city of Rochester NY. While learning more & embracing the never-ending, unlocked potential mushrooms & fungi have to help heal both people, planet & soul. Olga teaches workshops throughout the continent about wild mushroom identification, medicinal mushrooms, biology, and mushroom cultivation. She was a core organizer for the 2016 Radical Mycology Convergence and the MycoSymbiotics Festival from 2015-17. In 2018, Olga help co-create the New Moon Mycology Summit, a justice-focused, mycology centered event, linking many disciplines extending throughout the living world.  Olga is a member of the Rochester Area Mycological Association, CPAMC, WPAMC & the West Virginia Mushroom club. Annually, Olga guides small groups immersing in land based and traditional knowledge of Northern Greece, highlighting the fungi and plants there.  I’m excited to learn from a legend in mycology who seems to bring the teachings of fungi into every aspect of her life.   TOPICS COVERED:   Lifelong Love of Mushrooms   Forests and Mushrooms in Greece   Hosting Forage Trips in Greece   Mycology Reaching Across Disciplines & Cultural Barriers   Story of Smugtown   Grappling with Oligarchy   Are We Allowed to Just Exist?   Are Currencies, Corporations and Governments the Answer?   Starving for Natural Connection    Mushrooms Remediating Social Ecologies      Evolution of Mycological Community   Solutions Inspired by Mushrooms   Smugtown Shifting Focus to Community Building   Building Networks of Solidarity and Support    EPISODE RESOURCES:   Smugtown Mushrooms Website: https://www.smugtownmushrooms.com/   Smugtown Mushrooms IG: https://www.instagram.com/smugtownmushrooms/   Smugtown Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smugtownmushrooms/   New Moon Mycology Summit: https://www.facebook.com/newmoonmycologysummit   2021 Indigenous Peoples Day Event in DC: https://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/12/native-american-protesters-hit-by-sonic-weapons-in-dc/   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to chat with internationally renowned wild foods expert, author, and public speaker Miles Irving. Miles has worked with some of the world's best chefs and has been a pioneer in the Wild Food Renaissance. In 2009, he authored The Forager Handbook, hailed by many as the 'foraging bible'. Through communicating with people around the world and delving deep into the environmental - and emotional - issues facing us, he has sought to bring together traditional ecological knowledge and those hungry for land-based connection, community, and culture. Reconnecting with the life-giving wild land which has long sustained us is key. There is not only a way forward but a wildly different way of looking at the world.   TOPICS COVERED:   Exploring Nature with Father & Grandfather   Connection with Nature Starts with 1 Species   Become a Recovering Weirdo   Activating Powers of Observation & Pattern Recognition   The Forager Handbook   Pulling Down the Neoliberal Regime   Greenwashing   Guiding a Lost Society Back to Nature   Going Deeper into Ecology through Wild Foods   Traditional Ecological Knowledge   Common Edible Plants   Nettle and The Umami Equation   Working with Acorn Flour   Porcini’s GABA-induced Happiness?   EPISODE RESOURCES:    World Wild Website: https://www.worldwild.org.uk/   Goldcrest (bird species): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldcrest   Mark Lewis (inspiration): https://prn.live/its-all-about-food-mark-lewis-chmachyakyakya-8000-year-crops-07-26-16/   Chamaenerion angustifolium (AKA Fireweed): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamaenerion_angustifolium   Braiding Sweetgrass: https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass   The Wild Wisdom of Weeds: https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-wild-wisdom-of-weeds/   Tending the Wild: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520280434/tending-the-wild   Dark Emu: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21401526-dark-emu   Boletus edulis (AKA Porcini): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis