Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of interviewing Professor Vera Meyer from the Technical University of Berlin. Professor Meyer’s career has seen her as a visiting scientist to the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London (2003) and to the department of Fungal Genetics and Metabolomics at Leiden University in the Netherlands (2005 - 2006). In 2008, Professor Meyer was appointed assistant professor for Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology at Leiden University, a position she held for three years. Since 2011, she has been professor at the Institute of Biotechnology and head of its department for Applied and Molecular Microbiology at the Technical University of Berlin. Her scientific work in the field of fungal biotechnology has been published in more than 100 publications. Vera also works as a visual artist, using the pseudonym V. meer. She puts a strong emphasis on sculpting and creating objects from chance finds like forest mushrooms, decaying wood and scrap metal. Inspired by her scientific work with fungi in microbiology, she combines these materials in the sense of a found object. Through her artwork, she wants to enhance the awareness for fungi and their potential in biotechnology and for a sustainable bioeconomy in general.   TOPICS COVERED:    Childhood Fascination with the Invisible   Fungal Biotechnology   Seeing Fungi as Friends and as Foes   Importance of Multi-Disciplinary Approach    Open Science Movement   Aspergillus niger, Citric Acid and the Origins of Modern Biotechnology    Primary and Secondary MetabolismModulating Metabolic Processes of Aspergillus in Making Products   Synthetic Biology   BioReactor Cultivation & Ecology of a BioReactor   Mycelium Materials   Building a Mycelium Materials Database   Transdisciplinary Collaboration   Reconciling Biotechnology with Conservation and the Precautionary Principle   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Vera Meyer Academic Page @ TU Berlin: https://www.tu.berlin/en/vcard/vera.meyer   Vera Meyer Art (V.Meer): https://www.v-meer.de/   Vera Meyer IG: https://instagram.com/v.meer_/   Art Lab Berlin: https://artlaboratory-berlin.org/de/forschung/mind-the-fungi/   TU Berlin - Natural Building Lab: https://www.nbl.berlin/   "Beauty of the Morbid" Article: https://fungalbiolbiotech.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40694-016-0028-4   Aspergillus niger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspergillus_niger   Fomes fomentarius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomes_fomentarius   Macrolepiota procera (AKA Parasol Mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrolepiota_procera   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to chat with Connie Green founder of Wine Forest Foods and author of “The Wild Table”. Since 1979, Connie has been providing chefs like Thomas Keller, Cory Lee, Michael Mina, Traci de Jardins and many more with mushrooms of unparalleled quality. As one of the very first pioneers in the American wild mushroom business, Connie has filled a key role in educating chefs and the public about the wild foods now so widely loved in American cuisine. Over the decades, she has cultivated a network of great mushroom pickers has been woven across the West, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, and even Europe. Hand and hand with this wild life with wild mushrooms is a love and respect for the forest ecosystem from which the mushrooms flow. Connie has always preached principles of sustainability in harvesting and hopes that, in her own words, “commercial mushroom hunting can give a living back to loggers and make our forests economically more valuable in the long term left standing than converted to board feet of lumber”. What a privilege to speak with a culture creator and pioneer in wild mushroom harvesting.    TOPICS COVERED:   Fields of Chanterelles & Beginning of Commercial Foraging   Putting in the Miles in the Forest   Scouting Habitat and Making Good Observations   Northern California Chanterelle Habitat   Ukiah, Oregon - The Town Morels Built    Fire & Ecological Transformation in Northern California   Tan Oak Destruction    Economic Value of Forest Fungal Productivity vs Board Feet of Lumber   Regional Fiefdoms of National Forest service    Symbiosis of Amateur and Professional Foragers   Foraging Sustainably, Cultivating Forage Grounds   Commercial Foraging Networks   Wild Food Regulation   Advice to Enter the Business of Wild Foods   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Wine Forest website: https://wineforest.com/   "The Wild Table": https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Table-Seasonal-Foraged-Recipes/dp/0670022268   Ukiah, Oregon: http://www.cityofukiahoregon.com/history.html   Cantherellus californicus (AKA California Golden Chanterelle): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantharellus_californicus   Notholithocarpus densiflorus (AKA Tan Oak): https://calscape.org/Notholithocarpus-densiflorus-()Morchella tomentosa (AKA Gray Morel): http://www.mushroomexpert.com/morchella_tomentosa.html   Craterellus tubaeformis (AKA Yellowfoot Chanterelle): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craterellus_tubaeformis   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the distinguished and prolific George Poinar, Jr. PhD. George received his Ph.D. in biology from Cornell University and spent most of his career in the Department of Entomology at the University of California at Berkeley before moving to Oregon State University, where he is a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology. His interest in the tropics, along with a passion for paleontology, culminated in the book The Amber Forest, co-authored with his wife, Roberta, and published by Princeton University Press. He is also the author of other books, including Life in Amber. In addition, he is a founder of The Amber Institute. He is a pioneer when it comes to studying associations between invertebrates and other organisms in amber. One of his projects was recently all over the news as he discovered a new genus and species of fungal entomoparasite growing out of a fossilized ant – the older mushroom growing from an ant that has ever been found!   TOPICS COVERED:   Young Naturalist Inspired by Walden and Thoreau   Entering Entomology   Research Tours through Southeast AsiaInsect Vectors of Disease-Carrying Parasites in Africa   Insect Diseases in Russia   Pivoting to Vertebrate Parasites in France, Germany & Holland   Ancient History of Insect Pathogens and Their Parasites   The Basics of Amber Preservation   Preparing and Cutting Amber for Examination   Determining the Age of Specimens in Amber   Phylogeny and Ancestry in Family CordycipitaceaeExtracting Genetic Information from Amber Specimens   Meeting Michael Creighton and Jurassic Park Inspirations   Evolutionary Insights from Ancient to Modern Fungi   EPISODE RESOURCES:George Poinar Jr PhD: https://science.oregonstate.edu/directory/george-o-poinar-jr   Family Cordycipitaceae: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordycipitaceae   Richard Korf (Inspiration): https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/28593   Rhinoceros Beetles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynastinae   "Laboratory Guide to Insect Pathogens and Parasites": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4288060-laboratory-guide-to-insect-pathogens-and-parasites   Hermitage Museum (Russia): https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/   Hymenaea (Tree Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenaea   Paleoclaviceps parasiticus (fungus): https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=310964   Allocordyceps baltica (fungus): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1878614621000799   

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of being joined by the University of Victoria Emeritus Professor, Nancy Turner. Professor Turner is an ethnobotanist whose research integrates the fields of botany and ecology with anthropology, geography and linguistics, among others. She is interested in the traditional knowledge systems and traditional land and resource management systems of Indigenous Peoples, particularly in western Canada.Nancy has worked with First Nations elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America for over 50 years, collaborating with Indigenous communities to help document, retain and promote their traditional knowledge of plants and habitats, including Indigenous foods, materials and medicines, as well as language and vocabulary relating to plants and environments. Her interests also include the roles of plants and animals in narratives, ceremonies, language and belief systems. Dr. Turner has authored, edited, co-authored or co-edited over 30 books. Her 2014 two-volume book, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America , represents an integration of her long-term research. She has received a number of awards for her work, including membership in Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada, honorary degrees from Vancouver Island University, University of British Columbia, University of Northern British Columbia and Simon Fraser University; and the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ Canada Prize in the Social Sciences for Ancient Pathways.   TOPICS COVERED:   From Berkeley to Missoula to Vancouver   Kincentricity   Epistemologies & Living Language    Traditional Ecological Knowledge   Respecting our Non-Human Relatives   Residential Schools & the Suppression of Indigenous Ways   Traditional Territories & Living Traditions   First Nation Agroforestry Practices   Cottonwood Mushrooms & Hazlenuts   Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights & Title   Models of First Nation Land Access   Blending Western Scientific Knowledge & First Nation Knowledge Systems   7 Generation Thinking   Society Suffused by Ecological Thinking   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Prof. Nancy Turner website: https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/environmental/people/faculty/emeritus/turnernancy.php   "Plants, People and Places" (book): https://www.mqup.ca/plants--people--and-places-products-9780228001836.php   "Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge" (book): https://www.mqup.ca/ancient-pathways--ancestral-knowledge-products-9780773543805.php   Tricholoma populinum (fungus): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237163157_The_cottonwood_mushroom_Tricholoma_populinum_A_food_resource_of_the_Interior_Salish_Indian_peoples_of_British_Columbia   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are host to the distinguished Dr. Kabir Peay – head of Stanford University’s Peay Lab. Dr. Peay completed a master’s degree at the Yale School of Forestry and Environment Science (F&ES) in 2003 and obtained a PhD in 2008 from UC Berkeley’s Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management (ESPM) in Matteo Garbelotto's lab. He completed postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley in the Dept. of Plant & Microbial Biology with Tom Bruns, and at Stanford in the Dept. of Biology with Tadashi Fukami. He was an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota from 2011-2012 before coming to Stanford in 2012 to join the Dept. of Biology in his current position. The Peay lab studies the ecological processes that structure natural communities and the links between community structure and the cycling of nutrients and energy through ecosystems - focusing on fungi! Much of the research focuses on plant-fungal root associations, better known as mycorrhizas, which constitute one of the most pervasive mutualisms in terrestrial ecosystems. By integrating their lines of research, they hope to weave together a 'roots-to-biomes' understanding of plant-microbe symbiosis.   TOPICS COVERED:   A Love of Nature, Inspiration in the East   From Environmental Consulting into Ecological Understanding   Discovering Fungal Symbioses   Defining Ecology & Community Assembly   Understanding Scale in Community Ecology    Embracing Fungi in All of Their Ecological Roles   Facultative Capacities of Fungi   Mycorrhizal Lessons in Community Ecology    Broadening Ecological Perspectives Beyond Purely Competitive Frameworks   MISSPs & Mediating Mycorrhizal Interactions   Fungal Biogeography   Ecological Succession & Stages of Community Assembly   Future of Mycorrhizal Research   Mapping Fungal Genes to Ecological Functions   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Peay Lab Academic Website: https://mykophile.stanford.edu/   Dr. Peay Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=E6GRsP4AAAAJ&hl=en   Dipterocarpaceae - tree family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipterocarpaceae   Chytrids: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chytridiomycota   Pinus ponderosa (tree species): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_ponderosa   Suilllus pungens (fungus species): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suillus_pungens    

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the honor of being joined by Elan Hagens. Elan Hagens is a native Oregonian who has been playing in the woods, wildcrafting and going to outdoor education classes her entire life.  Her passion for everything animals and the outdoors led her to working with dogs in in her early 20s. Following that path landed her an opportunity to participate in a dog based reality show on CBS! Later work at an Iditarod sled dog kennel and training her dogs how to forage for native Oregon truffles further deepened her love for everything outdoors and led to her creating Temptress Truffles a decade ago.  Temptress Truffles is all about wild foraging, wildcrafting and connecting people to the outdoors. Elan loves watching people learn how to engage with nature in different ways besides technical outdoor sports and activities. She teaches classes in mushroom foraging, food Justice and nature crafting. In January 2021 she cofounded a new business called Fruiting Bodies Collective. Through an excellent podcast show, a growing facilitator training program and other projects, the Fruiting Bodies Collective hopes to destigmatize psychedelics and serve marginalized groups. All of Elan’s projects seem to stem from a deep-rooted passion for sharing her lifelong love of everything outdoors and helping everyone, no matter their background, to appreciate the natural environment as she does.   TOPICS COVERED:   Nature-Loving Tagalong with a Mother Who Loves Fresh Food   Becoming a Reality TV Star   Intentional Choices of Sponsors and Partnerships   Truffle Fundamentals   The Secret to Truffle Hunting - Habitat    “Raked Truffles” vs Dog-Found Truffles   Running a Foraged-Goods Business    Indigenous Land Acknowledgement   BIPOC Representation in the Outdoors   Mycological Elitism   Harvesting Wild Clay, Building Community   Fruiting Bodies Collective    Engaging and Educating as Psilocybin Emerges into the Mainstream   Black and Indigenous Representation in Psychedelic Spaces   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Temptress Truffles IG: https://www.instagram.com/temptresstruffles/   Fruiting Bodies Collective IG: https://www.instagram.com/fruitingbodiesco/   Danner - Elan Hagens: https://vimeo.com/551545643   Sparassis crispa (fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparassis_crispa   

Today on the Mushroom Hour we are honored to be joined by Dr. Andrew Wilson - Assistant Curator of Mycology in the Sam Mitchel Herbarium of Fungi at Denver Botanic Gardens. For Dr. Wilson the discovery of mycology began back in the late 90’s at San Francisco State University in taking classes from world renown mushroom taxonomist, Dr. Dennis Desjardin. Working with Dennis, Andrew earned a Masters degree studying the mushroom genus Gymnopus from Java and Bali. He later went on to earn a PhD in the lab of Dr. David Hibbett at Clark University. His project took him back to Southeast Asia, this time to study the ecology and evolution enigmatic puffball genus Calostoma and their relatives. In 2009, Andrew graduated and began a postdoc with Dr. Gregory Mueller at the Chicago Botanic Garden where he explored the systematic evolution of the Cantharellales and the model ectomycorrhizal mushroom genus Laccaria. He also did a one-year postdoc at Purdue University, in the lab of Dr. Cathie Aime, teasing apart the complex evolution of plant pathogenic rust fungi. At Denver Botanic Gardens, Dr. Wilson is working on a regional contribution to the Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS) that encompasses the state of Colorado, with a focus on the Southern Rockies. In this effort he is training students on how to study biodiversity using natural history collection and DNA sequence analysis. He is also working on new tools in DNA sequencing to better sample and study fungal diversity.   TOPICS COVERED:   Formed in a Family of Biologists   Intellectual Explorations at San Francisco State University   Genus Gymnopus   Expeditions to Southeast Asia   What are Systematics?   Genus Calostoma   Role of Isotopes in Understanding Fungal Ecologies   Biogeographic Histories of Fungi   Interpreting Ancestry and Evolution in Phylogenetic Data    Gondwana Supercontinent   Finding a Living, Ancient Ancestor on the Lacarria Family Tree    Denver Botanic Gardens & Sam Mitchell Fungi Herbarium   New Methods of High-Throughput DNA Sequencing    Biodiversity & Evolutionary History of Southern Rocky Mountain Fungi   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Dr. Andrew Wilson - Denver Botanic Gardens: https://www.botanicgardens.org/team/profile/andrew-w-wilson-phd   Dr. Dennis Desjardin (Mentor): https://biology.sfsu.edu/faculty/desjardin   Dr. David Hibbet (Mentor): https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?id=355   Gymnopus (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnopus   Calostoma (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calostoma   Laccaria (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laccaria   Calostoma cinnabarinum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calostoma_cinnabarinum   Colorado Mycological Society: https://cmsweb.org/   Colorado Mycoflora Project: https://coloradomycoflora.org/   

**Support the Kickstarter and be part of the sea change in understanding soil health!**    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/regenerative-soil-microscopy-the-book-courses-and-database   (Campaign ends 7/17/22)   Today on Mushroom Hour we're grace by the presence of Matt Powers (M.Ed) - author, educator, citizen scientist, entrepreneur, and family guy who teaches people all over the world how to live more regeneratively. Personally driven by a deep desire to have the best food possible for his wife and cancer-survivor, Adriana, and their two boys. Matt, a former public high school teacher with a Masters degree in Education, is creator of over a dozen online courses and author of over 20 books on permaculture and regenerative soil science - The Permaculture Student series and the Regenerative Soil Trilogy are just a couple examples. Matt is also the host of A Regenerative Future, the podcast and Youtube show, where he interviews leaders in the regenerative space and shares his own work and insights. I'm excited to learn all about the soil ecosystem, regenerative soil microscopy and more!TOPICS COVERED:   Searching for Health in the Soil   Horizontal Gene Transfer in Soil Microbes   Hallmarks of Soil Health   Importance of Bacterial & Fungal Endophytes   Critical Role of E. Coli in Soil Ecosystems   Rhizophagy   Microbes Shaped by and Shaping Their Surrounding Ecology   Developing an Open-Source Soil Health Database   Organic Matter in Soil and Nutrient Density in Plants   Advantages of Farms and Producers Sharing Markers of Soil Health   Process of Performing Soil Microscopy   Dark Field and Epifluorescence   Regenerative Soil Microscopy Kickstarter   Community-Based Tools, Knowledge and Solutions    Power Found in Understanding Soil   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Regenerative Soil Microscopy Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/regenerative-soil-microscopy-the-book-courses-and-database   Matt Powers Website: https://www.thepermaculturestudent.com/   Bill Mollison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison   Dr. James F. White: https://plantbiology.rutgers.edu/faculty/white/James-White.html   Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Yeast fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharomyces_cerevisiae   Purple Sulfur Bacteria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_sulfur_bacteria   Bionutrient Meter: https://bionutrient.net/site/bionutrient-meter   Zach Bush: https://zachbushmd.com/   Arbuscular mycorrhiza: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuscular_mycorrhiza   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are humble hosts to the talented Sigrid Jakob, President of the New York Mycological Society. Sigrid only discovered fungi within the last several years, but her intense passion quickly catapulted her into the forefront of citizen mycology. She has played a leading role in rebooting the North American Mycoflora project and transforming the national organization into the Fungal Diversity Survey known as FunDiS. She is an accomplished citizen science facilitator, providing resources for at-home genetic sequencing to allow those with no background in biochemistry to successfully extract and amplify DNA. In her non-mushroom life, Sigrid is a 55 year old independent brand strategist who lives in Brooklyn, is mother to a 17 year old and holds degrees in philosophy, psychology and photography. A modern Renaissance woman who shares the tools with which to examine fungal diversity for the laymen, I am excited to learn about how we all can contribute to putting together the seemingly endless tree of fungal diversity.   TOPICS COVERED:   Growing up with Hunters, Gardeners and Woodsy Folk   Fungal Diversity in NYC   Role of Community Mycology in Mapping Biodiversity   Fungal Diversity Survey   Observational Data Fueling Conservation   Conservation Framework Around Fungi in the US vs Europe   Getting Deeper into Fungal DNA   Developing Fungal DNA Sequencing Protocols   Sourcing Tools and Reagants for At-Home Sequencing   Impact of Amateur Sequencing Data    Greenwood Cemetery Fungal Diversity Project   Findings and Future of the Greenwood Cemetery Project   Presiding over the New York Mycological Society   Future Plans for NY Mycological Society   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Sigrid Jakob IG: https://www.instagram.com/greenwoodzombie/   Sigrid's Dung Fungi IG: https://www.instagram.com/dung_fungi/   Fungal Diversity Survey: https://fundis.org/   New York Mycological Society: https://newyorkmyc.org/   Green-Wood Cemetery: https://www.green-wood.com/   Youtube Series "Fungal PCR at Home": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyaNM6lJmGo   NY Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/style/greenwood-cemetery-mushrooms.html   Sporormiella (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporormiella

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with chef, forager, and biology geek Graham Steinruck. Graham has worked in the restaurant industry in with many of Colorado’s most talented chefs and was the former owner of a wild mushroom distribution company called Hunt & Gather that supplied wild harvested ingredients to chefs in the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. He was also the host of a podcast called ‘A Fermented Affair’ where he discussed fermented food and drink as well as mushrooms. He served as the 2012 editor of SporesAfield, the newsletter for the Colorado Mycological Society, as well as the vice president of the club in 2011. He is a presenter and chef for the Wild Mushroom Dinner at the Telluride Mushroom Festival. Recently his recipes were featured in the cookbook ‘Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide’ and will be featured in the new ‘Fantastic Fungi Cookbook’ scheduled to be published later this year. Graham is a Colorado Department of Health and Environment Wild Mushroom Identification Expert and continues to teach courses on mushroom identification and foraging, cooking, and cultivating various culinary and medicinal fungi.    TOPICS COVERED:   Discovering Mycology in Denver, a Formative Moment with PorciniBalance Between Permissive & Prohibitive Philosophies Around Commercial Foraging   Forest Management Practices   Foraging Permits – the Good and the Bad   Wild Mushroom Licenses   Liability in Commercial Foraging    Legal Frameworks Around Foraging   Advice to Find Legal, Abundant Forage Grounds   Making Mushrooms the Star of the Culinary Show   Porcini Mushroom Bisque, Chanterelle Succotash   Underappreciated Hawk’s Wings and Snow Fungus    Mollusks and Mushrooms   The Genius of Simple Culinary Preparations   Mycouprrhizal Mushroom Farm   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Graham Steinruck IG: https://www.instagram.com/instantgrahamster/   Myco-Uprrhizal Mushroom Farm: https://www.instagram.com/myco_uprrhizal/   Wild Mushrooms Cookbook and Foraging Guide: https://islanderbookshop.com/products/wild-mushrooms-a-cookbook-and-foraging-guide-by-kristen-and-trent-blizzard    Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook: https://bookshop.org/books/fantastic-fungi-the-community-cookbook/9781647222956    Psilocybe azurescens (fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_azurescens