Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Mushroom Hour Podcast
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| Ep. 197: Mycocosmic - Underworlds, Hope, Poetry & Fungal Intelligence (feat. Lesley Wheeler) | 23 Nov 2025 | 00:54:59 | |
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Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/ TOPICS COVERED:
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| Ep. 196: Think Fungi - Ottawa's Crown Lands & the Great North American Fungi Quest (feat. Robert Courteau) | 12 Oct 2025 | 01:00:27 | |
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Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/
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| Ep. 187: Richer than Gold - The Fungal Biodiversity of Ecuador (feat. Daniel Newman) | 20 Jan 2025 | 00:43:49 | |
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Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/
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| Ep. 97: Mushrooms of the Mountain Ranges & High Meadows of California (feat. Thea Chesney) | 26 Sep 2021 | 01:26:27 | |
Thea Chesney is a lifelong Sierra Nevada foothill resident and naturalist. She has had an interest in mushrooms (and plants, and the rest of the natural world) since early childhood, which gradually became an obsession. She holds a B.S. in forestry from UC Berkeley, with an emphasis in botany and natural sciences. During her time at Berkeley, she spent plenty of time working and hanging out in the Berkeley mycology labs and continues to return to campus to provide specimens for and aid in teaching their mushroom ID course. She worked on a mushroom survey crew for the U.S. Forest Service around Mt. Shasta for several seasons, which allowed her to become intimately familiar with the fungal inhabitants and ecology of the area. Since then, she has continued with the Forest Service as a botanist for a long-term California-wide meadow monitoring project. She teaches occasional workshops in mushroom and plant identification, both for work and independently. She has also been involved with the California Rare Fungi Working Group since its inception. Her fieldwork and her own studies of plants and fungi are centered in the Sierra Nevada and other mountains of California, and she is currently working on a field guide to mushrooms of these understudied regions with Noah Siegel and Christian Schwarz.
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| Ep. 96: Hyphae Labs - The First Annual Oakland Psychedelic Conference (feat. Reggie, Ian and Tomás from Hyphae Labs) | 17 Sep 2021 | 00:48:47 | |
Get Your Tickets for the 1st Oakland Psychedelic Conference: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oakland-psychedelic-conference-tickets-169188460239?ref=eios Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are beyond blessed to be joined by three members of Oakland’s own Hyphae Labs, Ian Bollinger, Tomás Garret and Reggie who has joined us on the podcast previously. 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 is a also member of the Advisory Board for Decriminalize Nature and an avid activist for police reform and an ally of The Movement for Black Lives Ian Bollinger is a dedicated researcher, scientist and host of the Understanding Entheogens Podcast. Advising for harm reduction through education by working with the entheogen decriminalization movement in the SF Bay Area; Ian dedicates his time to churches, non-profits, and public benefit corporations to bring scientific insights from the growing entheogen space to the public through his writings, podcast, and outreach Tomás is the head of operations for Hyphae Labs. His background is in analytical chemistry that began with food and drug testing in Wisconsin. He moved to California in 2018 and began pesticide and solvent testing for the cannabis industry. Over the past few years he has become intertwined like mycelium with the vibrant Oakland psychedelic community. Formed by citizen scientists like these, Hyphae Labs works to connect cultivators and consumers to knowledge, data, and education that supports their community through harm reduction. They are currently engaged with research around Tryptamine content in entheogenic organisms, providing lab and analytical support for the Psilocybin Cup. I am excited to learn more about their collective, their vision and the upcoming Oakland Psychedelic Conference.
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| Ep. 95: Spiritual Impulses, the Ecological Self & a Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom (feat. Dr. Andy Letcher) | 12 Sep 2021 | 01:13:48 | |
Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we have the distinct privilege of being joined by Dr. Andy Letcher. Dr. Letcher is a writer, performer and scholar of religion who began life as an ecologist, completing his D.Phil in Ecology at Oxford University. After a spell as an environmental activist during the 90s, especially during the anti-roads protests, he moved across to the humanities, completing a PhD at King Alfred’s College Winchester. He is an expert on contemporary alternative spiritualities, especially modern Paganism, neo-shamanism and psychedelic spiritualities. He is especially interested in the tangled and sometimes tortuous relationship between science and spirituality, and in so-called dark green religion. He has written papers on: the distribution of mammals across continents; fairies; mysticism; and psychedelic spirituality. Andy is also the author of the comprehensive work “Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom” that examines enthnomycological research, legends and myths surrounding humanity’s relationship with psychoactive fungi.
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| Ep. 94: Medicinal Mushrooms - Boost Immunity, Improve Memory, Fight Cancer, Stop Infection & Expand Your Consciousness (feat. Dr. Christopher Hobbs) | 06 Sep 2021 | 01:33:01 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by internationally renowned herbalist Dr. Christopher Hobbs. Dr. Hobbs is a fourth-generation herbalist, licensed acupuncturist, herbal clinician, research scientist, consultant to the dietary supplement industry, expert witness, botanist and mycologist with over 35 years of experience. He is also a prolific writer and has authored or co-authored over 20 books, including the new “Christopher Hobbs’s Medicinal Mushrooms, the Essential Guide.” Christopher has lectured on herbal medicine world-wide. He earned his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley with research and publication in evolutionary biology, biogeography, phylogenetics, plant chemistry, and ethnobotany. Time to dive deep into medicinal mushrooms!
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| Ep. 93: Mycoviruses - Fungal Disease, Plant Resilience & Hypovirus Biocontrols (feat. Bryce Alex) | 30 Aug 2021 | 00:46:11 | |
Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are joined by Bryce Alex, Doctoral Student at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Bryce is originally from Utah and he spent time working as a graduate student and Masters Candidate in the legendary Dentinger Lab at the University of Utah. His mycological research work has involved important players when it comes to fungal ecology that are largely invisible and many of us may have never heard of. He has worked on projects involving metabarcoding fungal propagules carried on bird feathers and mining transcriptomic datasets for hidden mycoviruses. He began his PhD in Plant Pathology at University of Wisconsin Madison in Fall 2020. I am excited for him to share his expertise with the emerging field of mycoviruses and how they relate to fungal, plant and even animal populations.
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| Ep. 92: Fungal Diversity Survey - Championing Fungal Conservation, Together (feat. Bill Sheehan PhD & Gabriela D'Elia) | 22 Aug 2021 | 01:17:13 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we have are graced by the presence of Bill Sheehan PhD and Gabriela D’Elia of the Fungal Diversity Survey - also known as FunDiS. Bill Sheehan is the co-founder and president of FunDiS and Gabriela is currently FunDiS Deep Funga Blog Editor. FunDiS aims to increase scientific knowledge and public awareness of the critical role of fungi in the health of our ecosystems and to better utilize and protect them in a world of rapid climate change and habitat loss. They do this by equipping community scientists, working with professionals, with the reporting tools to document the diversity and distribution of fungi across North America. Bill spent most of his career starting and running two national environmental policy nonprofits. Around the time he was getting ready to retire he reconnected with his love of natural history through a fascination with fungi. Combining his experience running nonprofits with his scientific training and an appreciation for the power of grassroots action, FunDiS unites several mycelial strands of his life. Gabriela first noticed the marvelous mushrooms while she was walking around Seattle, WA. After studying fungal ecology at school there, Gabriela embraced a perspective of Holistic Mycology, which views fungi as ecology, medicine, language, ancestor, and philosophy. Gabriela is leader of the FunDiS local project, Northern Utah Funga Community Science; V.P. of the Mushroom Society of Utah; and founder of Moon Mushrooms, which focuses on mycology education and crafting tiny batch tinctures.
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| Ep. 91: Bioluminescent Fungi, Mysterious Endophytes & the Mushrooms of Vanuatu (feat. Brian Perry PhD) | 14 Aug 2021 | 01:49:01 | |
Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we have the privilege of speaking with Brian Perry PhD, Associate Professor of Biology at California State University, East Bay. He received his Master's Degree from San Francisco State University under the guidance of Dr. Dennis E. Desjardin, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University where he studied with Dr. Donald H. Pfister. Brian has been studying fungi since 1995, and has published over 45 papers in scientific journals. In addition to studying the evolution of fungal bioluminescence, he also conducts research on mushrooms and other fungi of Vanuatu, the assembly and biogeography of island fungal communities, endophytic fungi of Hawaiian plants, and the systematics of Mycena and allied genera. Brian teaches several mycology courses at Cal State East Bay and the Sierra Nevada Field Campus, and recently launched a Sierra Nevada Mycoflora project.
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| Ep. 90: Fungi Freights - Detroit's Urban Lab & Environmental Studio (feat. Tess Burzynski) | 06 Aug 2021 | 00:51:09 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour it is our great privilege to be joined by Tess Burzynski - founder, head educator and cultivator at Fungi Freights Urban Lab and Environmental Studio. A Science degree graduate from Wayne State University, she works as an Environmental Scientist and continues doing research with mycoremediation in the city of Detroit. Tess is a member of the Michigan Mushroom Hunters Club and the North American Mycological Association. Throughout her studies she has learned the role mycelium plays in the environment and how beneficial, tenacious and magical it truly is. Through Fungi Freights, her goal is to educate Detroit and its surrounding neighbors about the benefits fungi have on health, food security and the environment. Fungi Freights offers an array of educational workshops and events revolved around mushrooms and their never-ending abilities. From identification, foraging and fungi biology, to DIY cultivation and mushroom art, their events never get dull. Their goal is to enlighten the community on the fascinating world of fungi!
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| Ep. 89: Forage London - Urban Foraging & Emotional Connection to Green Spaces (feat. John Rensten) | 29 Jul 2021 | 01:43:25 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with John Rensten. John lived and worked and foraged in London for 20 years before finally escaping to Dorset, via Hampshire, in 2016 to concentrate on mushroom hunting and coastal foraging. He runs and organizes numerous urban foraging events, wild food walks and mushroom forays. On a daily basis, John studies wild food, picks wild food and really obsesses about wild food! He has a deep passion for sharing what he has learned, running city foraging walks and taking groups mushroom hunting in The New Forest or combing the seashore in Dorset. John founded Forage London to give city dwellers a chance to enjoy and discover some of the amazing wild foods that grow all around us.
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| Ep. 88: Amanita Dreamer - Piercing the Veil on Entheogenic Uses of Amanita muscaria (feat. Amanita Dreamer) | 17 Jul 2021 | 01:21:38 | |
*WARNING - This episode in no way condemns or condones the use of any substance. For educational and research purposes only*
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| Ep. 186: High-Impact Technology - Mobile Mushroom Farms, Electro-Chemical Fuel Cells (feat. Inventor Michael) | 29 Nov 2024 | 01:14:26 | |
GUEST: MENTIONS: MUSHROOM HOUR:
Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/
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| Ep. 87: Cryptic Fungi, Laboulbeniales & Pushing the Boundaries of Fungal Exploration (feat. Danny Haelewaters PhD) | 08 Jul 2021 | 01:15:47 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by adventurer and mycologist Danny Haelewaters PhD. Danny Haelewaters holds a Bachelor’s in Veterinary Sciences, a Master of Science in biology, and a PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. During his Masters program he developed a new technology to analyze forensic relevant fungi in casework at the Netherlands Forensic Institute. Between 2012 and 2018, he worked at the Farlow Herbarium of the Harvard University Herbaria (Cambridge, MA) as a PhD student. In 2018, he did a short postdoc at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, and from November 2018 until late 2020 he was a USDA-funded postdoctoral research assistant at Purdue University, where he worked on characterizing the fungal microbiota of Romaine lettuce. Currently he works at Ghent University as a junior postdoctoral fellow on a project dealing with Laboulbeniales associated with bat flies. In addition, he writes popular science articles for different sources. Since the very beginning of his student career at Ghent University (Belgium), he has has loved the interdisciplinary research in biology. It probably contributed to his choice to study the ecto-parasitic Laboulbeniales fungus. I’m excited to learn more about these unique organisms as well as the secrets of other little-known parasitic fungi.
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| Ep. 86: Fungi Foundation - The Future is Fungi (feat. Giuliana Furci & Nathalie Kelley) | 23 Jun 2021 | 00:56:14 | |
Get your tickets now for "THE FUTURE IS FUNGI" Event on 6/26/21: Nathalie Kelley was born in Peru and raised in Australia by her Indigenous mother and grandmother. After working with street children in São Paulo, Brazil and Aboriginal inner-city youth in Redfern, Australia - she began her degree in Social Science and Policy at the University of UNSW. Not long after she started to work as an actress in film and television US, with notable roles in shows like Unreal, Dynasty and most recently as the star of ABC’s The Baker and the Beauty. Despite this change of course she remained inwardly mindful of her privilege and responsibility to her indigenous heritage and people. She has become an advocate for Indigenous peoples, regenerative agriculture, the soil and the undervalued but invaluable role of fungi in our ecosystem. She is now committed to using her story telling skills to be a voice for the voiceless - creating narratives of hope around the power of nature to regenerate and heal and the integral part humans have to play in this process. Nathalie is on the board of Kiss the Ground and the Fungi Foundation.
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| Ep. 85: Fungal Plant Pathogens, Dimorphic Transformation & Lessons from Smut Fungi (feat. Dr. Michael Perlin) | 18 Jun 2021 | 01:35:19 | |
Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are joined by Dr. Michael Perlin, Professor in Biology at the University of Louisville. Dr. Perlin’s interests drew him to study host/pathogen interactions at the University of Chicago and his PhD work centered on the evolution of bacterial resistance to certain classes of antibiotics/antimicrobials. As he was near to completing his degree, a friend of his stopped by the lab and introduced him to a different microbial system: a fungal pathogen that infects flowering species in the Carnation family and replaces the pollen of the flower with fungal spores. From that point he was hooked. Over the years he has continued to work on bacterial resistance, but in the last 10 years, he has shifted the focus of his lab exclusively to that on fungal plant pathogens, with projects encompassing three different types of pathogens on different hosts and the use of the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as a model tool in the exploration of some questions more easily investigated in this well-developed system. Dr. Perlin has roughly 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles in reputable journals, including Nature; mBio; BMC Genomics; Genes, Genomes, Genetics (GGG); Fungal Genetics and Biology; Journal of Bacteriology; Eukaryotic Cell; and Molecular Microbiology. As a member of a number of scientific organizations and a prolific teacher and mentor, Dr. Perlin has a far-reaching influence on his field and has directly played a role in the careers of many PhD students. I’m excited to learn more about how fungal phytopathogens that have a massive impact on human culture.
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| Ep. 84: Darren Le Baron - Psychedelic Traditions in Africa, Mushroom Cultivation & Remembering Who We Are (feat. Darren Springer) | 10 Jun 2021 | 01:22:29 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with Darren Springer AKA Darren Le Barron. Darren Springer is an educator, researcher and event organizer based in the UK. Known around the world for his Shroomshop Master classes he is a keen mushroom cultivator and teacher and has been growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms for the last ten years. By day he is an Organic Horticulturist and Food Enterprise tutor and has translated his home growing experience into a social enterprise. Darren is the mycologist in residence at Somerset House, one of the largest communities of arts and creative enterprises in the UK. He is also a qualified Permaculture teacher and facilitator and supports businesses and communities to create sustainable working systems and environments. He is a member and presenter at the London Psychedelic Society, and is a chair and Breaking Convention committee member. Collectively his work aims to inform and empower individuals from diverse backgrounds to cope with social challenges and contribute to community development as well as self-improvement in an innovative, creative and culturally-aware style.
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| Ep. 83: Eat Weeds - Wild Plant Contemplations, Healing with Foraging & Perspectives in Ethnobotany (feat. Robin Harford) | 03 Jun 2021 | 01:20:44 | |
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.
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| Ep. 82: Zombie Cicadas, Fungivore Millipedes & Forest Pathology (feat. Dr. Matt Kasson) | 20 May 2021 | 01:39:18 | |
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.
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| Ep. 81: Fungi Magazine, Telluride Mushroom Festival & Our Future with Fungi (feat. Britt Bunyard) | 13 May 2021 | 01:30:54 | |
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.
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| Ep. 80: Finding the Mother Tree - Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest (feat. Prof. Suzanne Simard) | 04 May 2021 | 01:35:26 | |
Professor Simard's must-read first book "Finding the Mother Tree" is OUT NOW:
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| Ep. 79: Solutions in Soil Carbon, Fungal Inspiration & Creating New Value Systems (feat. Larry Evans) | 29 Apr 2021 | 01:31:00 | |
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.
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| Ep. 78: Oakland Hyphae - First Annual Psilocybin Cup & BIPOC Entheogen Empowerment (feat. Reggie of Oakland Hyphae) | 20 Apr 2021 | 00:59:40 | |
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.
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| Ep. 185: A New Soil Paradigm: "Kiss the Ground" and "Common Ground" (feat. Ryland Engelhart) | 10 Nov 2024 | 00:55:21 | |
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Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/
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| Ep. 77: Teaming with Microbes - The Organic Gardener’s Guide To The Soil Food Web (feat. Jeff Lowenfels) | 14 Apr 2021 | 01:22:16 | |
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.
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| Ep. 76: Mycorenewal - Ecological Restoration, Microbial Ecology & Bioremediation (feat. Mia Maltz PhD) | 08 Apr 2021 | 01:27:47 | |
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.
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| Ep. 75: "Growing Back to Nature", Power of Storytelling & How Bananas Changed the World (feat. Anthony Basil Rodriguez) | 24 Mar 2021 | 00:46:28 | |
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.
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| Ep. 74: Terrestrial Fungi - Cordyceps Genetics, Ganoderma Mysteries & Trusting Synchronicity (feat. Ryan Paul Gates) | 17 Mar 2021 | 01:24:27 | |
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.
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| Ep. 73: In Search of Mycotopia - Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics & the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms (feat. Doug Bierend) | 10 Mar 2021 | 01:32:58 | |
Today we have the honor of speaking with journalist and author Doug Bierend. His new book “In Search of Mycotopia” dives into the neglected mega-science of mycology and introduces readers to the weird and wonderful communities of citizen scientists and microbe devotees who are leading the modern mycological movement. Doug uncovers a diverse cadre of growers, independent researchers, ecologists, entrepreneurs, and amateur enthusiasts, exploring and advocating for fungi’s capacity to improve and heal contaminated landscapes, provide food and medicine, and demonstrate how humans might live better with nature—and one another. The book is told through Doug’s first-hand encounters from the perspective of an embedded reporter drawn to this wonderfully enticing myco-culture This is an exploration of the wild new frontiers of all things mushroom and an inspiring look at the people who are paying attention to what fungi can teach us about the potential for our future. “Mycotopia is already all around us - All we have to do is embrace it.”
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| Ep. 72: Porcini, Systematics of Family Boletaceae & Fungus Farming Ants (feat. Bryn Dentinger PhD) | 01 Mar 2021 | 01:02:12 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the distinguished Bryn Dentinger, Curator of Mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah and Associate Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Utah. Bryn hails from Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota for his PhD, where he studied the molecular systematics of clavarioid and porcini mushrooms. He has carried out fieldwork all over the world, including exciting collecting trips to Vietnam, Brazil, and Cameroon. He spent years in the UK as the Head of Mycology at the world-renowned Kew Gardens and since 2003 has published dozens of research papers in respected scientific journals around the world. Now running the Dentinger lab in Utah, he continues to pursue molecular systematics research on mushrooms and other fungi around the world, combining fieldwork, collections, and modern genomic tools, while maintaining a keen interest in home-brewing and whisky. Bryn’s work has overlapped with many other guests on the Mushroom Hour and has been one of the most recommended guests.
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| Ep. 71: Wild Food Girl - Wild Food Cultures, Indigenous Agro-ecology & Foraging in Colorado (feat. Erica Davis) | 22 Feb 2021 | 01:06:04 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we’re excited to speak with Erica Davis, founder of Wild Food Girl. Erica started writing her adventures with wild food back in 2009 at her blog, and later in a monthly magazine called “Wild Edible Notebook.” She teaches a course on useful plants at Colorado Mountain College and conducts plant walks around the state. She is also a regular presenter at the Midwest Wild Harvest Festival in Wisconsin. Erica’s educational background includes a BA in archaeology, an elementary school teaching credential, and an MA in technology-based education. Today she maintains an active Facebook community and is hard at work on her first book about edible wild plants in the West. Her incredible body of work is carefully compiled and she has worked diligently to provide accurate, useful, safe—and whenever possible, lesser known—information.
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| Ep. 70: Mycelium Coffins, Living Homes & Building with Bio-Materials (feat. Bob Hendrikx) | 15 Feb 2021 | 00:48:41 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of inventor & bio-designer Bob Hendrikx, coming to us all the way from the Netherlands. Through his work at Studio Hendrikx, Bob strives to restore the parasitic relationship between humanity and its environment by expanding the horizon of human imagination and exploring living materials. His Living Cocoon project has captured headlines around the world with a coffin made from mycelium that helps bodies decompose faster while improving the surrounding soil. Through all of his design endeavors Bob embraces the notion that current way we build and produce materials must change fundamentally. I’m excited to hear from this visionary designer how we may be able to shift humankind's 200,000-year model of parasitism and extraction by taking a cue from Mother Nature who has been leading the way for 3.8 billion years by growing materials in ecological harmony.
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| Ep. 69: Mushroom Mountain - Change the World with Fungi, Think Like a Mushroom (feat. Tradd Cotter) | 10 Feb 2021 | 01:18:23 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are graced by the presence of Tradd Cotter, coming to us from Mushroom Mountain. Tradd Cotter is a microbiologist, professional mycologist, and organic gardener, who has been tissue culturing, collecting native fungi in the Southeast, and cultivating both commercially and experimentally for more than twenty-five years. In 1996 he founded Mushroom Mountain, which he owns and operates with his wife, Olga, to explore applications for mushrooms in various industries and currently maintains over 200 species of fungi for food production, mycoremediation of environmental pollutants, and natural alternatives to chemical pesticides. His primary interest is in low-tech and no- tech cultivation strategies so that anyone can grow mushrooms on just about anything, anywhere in the world. Mushroom Mountain is currently expanding to 42,000 square feet of laboratory and research space near Greenville, South Carolina, to accommodate commercial production, as well as mycoremediation projects. His masterwork and must-own mycology reference - "Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation" had a huge impact on my own relationship with mycology.
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| Ep. 68: Learn Your Land - Connecting to Natural Spaces, Finding a Sense of Belonging (feat. Adam Haritan) | 01 Feb 2021 | 01:15:57 | |
Today we are blessed by the presence of Adam Haritan, founder of Learn Your Land. Adam started the famous Learn Your Land platform in 2014 out of a desire to connect naturalists with people who wanted to learn from naturalists. Learn Your Land is an advertisement-free media channel, helping people to improve their nature skills one species at a time. He spends most of my days either looking for mushrooms/plants/trees, researching mushrooms/plants/trees, filming mushrooms/plants/trees, or editing videos and content around mushrooms/plants/trees. Before his life became dedicated to this project, Adam studied classical piano and euphonium, toured as a drummer with a heavy metal band until his academic pursuits led him to study nutrition and dietetics at the University of Pittsburgh. I’m excited to probe the depths of a naturalist who has dedicated so much time and effort to help us all learn more about the land under our feet.
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| Ep. 184: Ergosterol, Ergothioneine and Mushrooms Supporting Pregnancy (feat. Dr. Anna Sitkoff) | 10 Nov 2024 | 00:56:04 | |
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Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/
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| Ep. 67: Tiger Mushroom Farms - Working to End Hunger, Growing A New Future (feat. Te'Lario Watkins II) | 27 Jan 2021 | 00:26:19 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to have a conversation with Te’Lario Watkins II, founder of Tiger Mushroom Farms. Te’Lario started his mushroom farm at the age of 7 on the heels of a Cub Scout Project. Now at age 12, Te’Lario is a speaker, author, Hunger Hero and nonprofit Founder. He grows shiitake mushrooms in his basement and oyster mushrooms in a spare bedroom. Te’Lario sells them at a farmers market and local restaurants. Te’Lario’s mission is to help end hunger and encourage kids to eat healthier. He has worked with No Kid Hungry to raise awareness and funds to end hunger. He volunteers with Food Rescue US and delivers unsold food from restaurants to food pantries. Te’Lario recently started his own nonprofit “The Garden Club Project” to help his mission to end hunger. This summer, Te’Lario’s nonprofit delivered over 2,000 pounds to a local food pantry in his community. Te’Lario was recently “gifted” a microgreen business and plans to donate some of the proceeds to his nonprofit to help his community even more.
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| Ep. 66: Madagascar's Marasmius & the Ecology of Monkeyflower Endophytes (feat. Jackie Shay) | 20 Jan 2021 | 01:03:53 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we have the pleasure of learning from Jackie Shay. Jackie is a fungal evolutionary biologist and microbial ecologist fascinated with the intimate history and future significance of symbiotic relationships between plant hosts and their microbial communities. Her goal is to use integrative techniques to explore these interactions in the natural world and learn how we can apply these partnerships to promote conservation and resilience through climate change. Jackie received a master's in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology from the Desjardin lab at San Francisco State University studying the evolution of wood decaying mushrooms (Marasmius) from Madagascar. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Sexton and Frank labs in the Quantitative and Systems Biology Program at the University of California, Merced. This interdisciplinary team has set out to uncover the mystery behind the Monkeyflower microbiome and discover whether these microbes influence their plant hosts across its range.
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| Ep. 65: Forage Colorado - Finding Wild Food & Connection in the Rocky Mountains (feat. Orion Aon) | 14 Jan 2021 | 01:07:44 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are privileged to get to speak with Orion Aon, founder of Forage Colorado. Orion is a Colorado transplant with a lifelong passion for the outdoors and anything there is to do in them. He loves to hunt, fish, forage, camp, wander and wonder, look at trees, you name it! Orion grew up in Santa Fe, NM where he first started mushroom hunting with his family looking for king boletes, chanterelles, and hawk's wings - like a treasure hunt in the woods that got him hooked. In 2008, he moved to Colorado to attend CSU where he would study Natural Resource Management and Fisheries Biology. In 2015 Orion started Forage Colorado as a place where he could share his passion for Colorado foraging with others. His first big project was writing a series about Colorado morels, which has helped a lot of people who didn’t even know there were morels in Colorado to find their first ones. He now offers private foraging classes and does talks, events, and leads forays for his local mycological society.
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| Ep. 64: Magdalena - Anthropology, Ethnobotany & Colombia's River of Dreams (feat. Wade Davis) | 06 Jan 2021 | 01:51:15 | |
Wade Davis is Professor of Anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. Between 2000 and 2013 he served as Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and was named by NGS as one of the Explorers for the Millennium. He has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” His work has taken him to unique biomes across the world including East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Australia, Colombia, Vanuatu, Mongolia and the high Arctic of Nunuvut and Greenland. An ethnographer, writer, photographer and filmmaker, Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6000 botanical collections. Davis is the author of 320 scientific and popular articles and 23 books and as a professional speaker for 30 years, has lectured at over 200 universities and 250 corporations and professional associations. One of only 20 Honorary Members of the Explorers Club, his incredible list of awards, medals and accolades would warrant its own podcast. We’ve connected here today to introduce our audience to this incredible explorer, give some of his background and dive into his newest work about one of the most biodiverse and culturally relevant countries in the world – Colombia and it’s great river the Magdalena.
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| Ep. 63: Marin Mushrooms - Macro Photography, Myxomycetes (Slime Molds) & Tiny Fungi (feat. Alison Pollack) | 02 Jan 2021 | 00:53:52 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are fortunate to be joined be Alison Pollack. Alison is a photographer specializing in making large the diminutive dwellers of the forest - Myxomycetes (commonly referred to as slime molds) and tiny fungi. Her passion is finding, photographing, identifying and sharing these miniature worlds to bring awareness to the fascinating organisms that exist right at our feet in the forest but are largely hidden to the naked eye. Alison has always had a casual interest in photography, but when she retired from the field of air quality consulting she upgraded to a DSLR and began shooting landscapes at home and while traveling - hiking with her husband throughout the world. It wasn’t until she found and photographed her first slime mold, however, that she got serious about mushroom and myxo photography. Alison’s photographs have been featured in numerous publications, including Colossal, Bored Panda, MyModernMet, the German National Geographic magazine GEO, Der Spiegel, and the Sunday New York Times Magazine. Known as “Marin Mushrooms” on Instagram, her widely shared posts have inspired people to slow down on their hikes to search for these tiny life forms that she loves.
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| Ep. 62: Myco Lyco - Fungal Frequencies, Biodata Sonification & the Music of Mushrooms (feat. Noah Kalos) | 28 Dec 2020 | 01:07:17 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of Noah Kalos, founder of the groundbreaking Youtube and social media channels “MycoLyco”. This work is a blend of his passions for nature, mycology and electronic music. He originally got hooked on electronic music production at the age of 17, but in the past 6 years Noah took that passion to the next level, getting deep into digital music hardware and electrical engineering. Noah majored in studio art at Oberlin College and then spent 5+ years living in the woods transitioning between outdoor roles as a camp counselor and nature therapist. During his time in the wild, he became familiar with all kinds of wild foods and has been a longtime mycology enthusiast. In the wake of the pandemic, Noah decided to focus on growing mushrooms. His plan was to convert his music studio into a mycology lab, but after a fateful connection between mycelium and synth electrodes, the studio and lab became one in the same. Now with his MycoLyco project, Noah has been giving us all a window into the incredible musical frequencies of fungi.
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| Ep. 61: Fly Agaric - A Compendium of History, Pharmacology, Mythology, & Exploration (feat. Kevin Feeney PhD) | 23 Dec 2020 | 01:40:13 | |
Today we have the privilege of speaking with Kevin Feeney, PhD, JD. Kevin is a cultural anthropologist and lawyer currently working as a Program Director and Instructor in Interdisciplinary Studies – Social Sciences at Central Washington University. His primary research interests include examining legal and regulatory issues surrounding the religious and cultural use of psychoactive substances, with an emphasis on peyote and ayahuasca, and exploring modern and traditional uses of Amanita muscaria, with a specific focus on medicinal use and preparation practices. His research has been published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Human Organization, and Curare, among other books and journals. He is a current board member of Cactus Conservation Institute, which is dedicated to the study and preservation of vulnerable cacti and is also a member of Chacruna’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants.
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| Ep. 60: Exploring the Endless Wonders of Truffle Fungi (feat. Dr. Matthew Smith) | 16 Dec 2020 | 01:17:50 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the distinguished Dr. Matthew Smith. Dr. Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Florida and the curator of the UF Fungal Herbarium (FLAS). He teaches the UF mycology course and takes on the responsibility of identifying unknown fungi for a variety of Florida stakeholders, including the UF Plant Disease Clinic, UF-IFAS Extension Service, and the UF Veterinary School. His broad range of interests spans fungal ecology, evolution, and systematics. Dr. Smith has worked extensively on the biology and systematics of hypogeous fungi (“truffles”) and the ecology of plant-symbiotic ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. However, he has also studied a variety of other fungal groups, including plant pathogens Armillaria mellea ("oak root fungus") and Claviceps purpurea (Ergot disease of grasses) as well as the nematode-destroying fungi (Orbiliales and other Ascomycota). Dr. Smith’s work combines the synergistic use of molecular, morphological, and culture-based methods in both laboratory and field settings.
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| Ep. 59: Mushroom Revelations & the Unseen World of Microbia (feat. Eugenia Bone) | 09 Dec 2020 | 01:22:49 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed to have the company of Eugenia Bone. Eugenia is a nature and food journalist, as well as an author and speaker, whose writing is primarily about the connections between food, sustainability and the natural sciences. Her work has appeared in many books, magazines, and newspapers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Saveur, Food & Wine, Gourmet, and The National Lampoon. A member of the American Society of Science Writers, founder of Slow Food Western Slope in Western Colorado, and former president of the New York Mycological Society, she has lectured widely in venues like the Denver Botanical Garden and the New York Public Library. Eugenia is the author of six books, including the mushroom lover must-have “Mycophilia” and her most recent work Microbia: A Journey into the Unseen World Around You. Eugenia has lectured widely in venues like the Denver Botanical Gardens, the New York Public Library, and the Stone Barns Center. She’s currently featured in “Fantastic Fungi”, a movie about the magical world of fungi and their power to heal, sustain and contribute to the regeneration of life on Earth.
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| Ep. 58: Unwinding Mushroom Mysteries, Decoding Fungal Genetics (feat. Todd Osmundson PhD) | 04 Dec 2020 | 01:10:41 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we have the pleasure of speaking with the distinguished Todd Osmundson PhD, Associate Professor of Biology at The University of Wisconsin Lacrosse. Todd is a faculty member in the Department of Biology and his research specialties include studying the ecology, genetic relationships, geographic distributions, and conservation biology of bacteria and especially fungi, using fieldwork, microscopy, and molecular genetic (DNA-based) tools. His professional mycology career really began during a fateful encounter with a local mushroom club in Montana. Todd has conducted mycological fieldwork in the U.S., French Polynesia, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Svalbard, Thailand, and Australia. His varied research projects have seen him span alpine, arctic, tropical, and temperate habitats in search of fungi. There are few people more familiar with the process of finding, observing, extracting DNA, and genetically sequencing fungi. Let's learn more about where “we” are in cataloging fungal populations, what that means for mycology and how citizen scientists can be a part of this process.
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| Ep. 183: Cheerful Apocalypse, Biological Abstraction & Creating Art from Within (feat. Stephanie Kilgast) | 18 Aug 2024 | 00:57:49 | |
GUEST: MENTIONS: MUSHROOM HOUR:
Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/
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| Ep. 57: Secondary Metabolites, Mycotoxins & Fungi in Food Systems (feat. Professor Tom Volk) | 04 Dec 2020 | 01:02:06 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we have the humbling privilege to speak with Tom Volk, Professor of Biology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Specializing in Mycology and Forest Pathology, Tom teaches courses on Mycology, Medical Mycology, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Food & Industrial Mycology, Advanced Mycology, Organismal Biology and Latin & Greek for Scientists. His website, Tom Volk's Fungi has a popular "Fungus of the Month" feature, and an extensive introduction to Queendom Fungi. Besides dabbling in mushroom cultivation, Tom has worked intimately with the genera Morchella, Cantharellus, Hydnellum, Armillaria and Laetiporus, a lineup of edible varieties that will make every forager’s mouth water. He has also embarked on several medical mycology projects, investigations into prairie mycorrhizae, mycoprospecting, and fungi that are involved in coal formation. He also has conducted fungal biodiversity studies in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska, and Israel. Having lectured in 35 states so far, Tom is a popular speaker at many amateur and professional mycological events throughout North America, including NAMA and NEMF forays. Not the least of his accolades, Tom was named President of the Mycology Society of America in 2017.
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| Ep. 56: Wood-Decomposer Fungi & Mycelium Network Architecture (feat. Professor Lynne Boddy) | 30 Nov 2020 | 01:19:23 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the distinguished Lynne Boddy, Professor of Microbial Ecology at Cardiff University. After undergraduate studies in Biology and Mathematical Statistics at the University of Exeter, she was interested in any and every type of ecology. A fortuitous position at the University of London led her to studying wood decay processes, which would turn out to be the subject of her PhD. That work snowballed into a 40-year exploration of wood decay processes with fungi at its core. As well as scientifically challenging and environmentally of massive consequences, mycelia and their interactions have a huge aesthetic appeal for Professor Boddy. There are so many burning questions when it comes to fungal biology, fungi’s relationships to food sources, fungi’s relationship to other fungi and other microorganisms that she, along with around 40 PhD students, post-docs and other co-workers, have striven and are striving to answer. Lynne’s passion for fungi laces out into studies of mycorrhizal fungi, the rising amateur mycologist community, and nearly every other aspect of how fungi will change human lives. There is an obvious joy in her communication of this information to both student audiences and to the public at large. We’re about to enter an exciting world of fungal battles, life and death struggles, epic hunts for food and the complexities of non-human intelligence.
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Directed, Recorded, Produced by: Mushroom Hour (@welcome_to_mushroom_hour) | |||
| Ep. 55: EcoAgric Uganda - Mushroom Farming, Empowering Women, Protecting the Vulnerable (feat. Josephine Nakakande) | 23 Nov 2020 | 01:29:37 | |
Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to travel to Uganda to speak with Josephine Nakakande. Josephine was a founding member of The Environmental Conservation & Agricultural Enhancement Uganda or “Eco-Agric Uganda” and has been the Executive Director of the organization since 2018. Eco-Agric Uganda is a Ugandan Community-based NGO. major focus was improving food security, nutrition, and income among critically vulnerable women through sustainable farming practices. However, over time, they have included interventions like HIV prevention and control, sanitation and environmental strategies that affect agriculture. They have explored a unique, holistic approach to supporting households with interventions like; training adolescent girls with vocational skills so they can support their children. The organization now has over 65,000 beneficiaries with well-established offices in Hoima Kibaale and Wakiso districts. It also started an international volunteers program and since 2017, Eco-Agric Uganda has hosted over 162 volunteers from all over the world. One of Eco-Agric’s biggest projects is their mushroom farming project in partnership with the Marr-Munning Trust. Farmers are trained on how to grow and manage mushrooms in their gardens and the materials needed in mushroom production.
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