The Mushroom Hour Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

GUEST:   

• https://www.stephaniekilgast.com/   
• https://www.instagram.com/petitplat

MENTIONS:   

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salicornia  

MUSHROOM HOUR:   

• https://welcometomushroomhour.com    
• https://instagram.com/welcome_to_mushroom_hour   
• https://tiktok.com/@welcome_to_mushroom_hour   

Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Human Impacts on Nature   
• Developing a Love of Nature Through Art    
• Coral and Mushrooms   
• Biological Abstraction   
• Scientific Reference Materials   
• Social Media Dissociation   
• Short Form Video is Bad for Humans   
• The Artist’s Dilemna   
• Finding Your Voice as an Artist   
• Inspiration from Within   
• Sanctity of the Sketchbook   
• Biotechnology and Regenerative Futures   

GUEST:   

• https://www.themushroomhunterskitchen.com/   
• https://www.amazon.com/Mushroom-Hunters-Kitchen-Chad-Hyatt/dp/1732757100   

MENTIONS:   

• https://www.amazon.com/Mushrooms-Demystified-David-Arora/dp/0898151694   
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalonia   
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula_brevipes   

MUSHROOM HOUR:   

• https://welcometomushroomhour.com    
• https://instagram.com/welcome_to_mushroom_hour   
• https://tiktok.com/@welcome_to_mushroom_hour   

Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Changing Careers, Culinary Arts & Fungi   
• Secret Spots   
• Eating the Weird Stuff   
• David Arora Events   
• The Mushroom Hunters Kitchen   
• Mushroom Careers   
• Bringing Mushroom Recipes out of the 1950s   
• Catalonia’s Culinary Mushroom Traditions   
• Black Trumpet Jam, Matsutake and Fig Jam   
• Catalon Culture   
• Regional Spanish Food Traditions   
• Chefs Influenced by Foraging   
• Connecting to Where Food Comes From   
• Mushroom Genetics   

GUEST:   

• BOOK: https://www.mariafinn.com/books   
• https://www.mariafinn.com/   
• https://www.instagram.com/maria_finn1/   

MENTIONS:   

• https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/The-pirates-of-Sausalito-17160156.php   

MUSHROOM HOUR:   

• https://welcometomushroomhour.com   
• https://instagram.com/welcome_to_mushroom_hour   
• https://tiktok.com/@welcome_to_mushroom_hour   

Show Music courtesy of the one and only Chris Peck: https://peckthetowncrier.bandcamp.com/   

TOPICS COVERED:    

• Explosion of Mushrooms into the Mainstream   
• Truffle Farms and Grape Vineyards    
• Reconnecting with Natural Cycles   
• Foraging Seasons in Northern California   
• Reclaiming the Term “Witch”   
• Nutritional Complexity of Wild Foods   
• Building Living Soil   
• Ecological Observation as the First Step in Foraging   
• Institute for Ecosystem-Based Living   
• Forage, Gather, Feast   
• Economics of Ecosystems & Ecosystem Services   
• Legality of Wild Mushrooms in California   
• Truffle Renaissance   
• Building a Wild Pantry   

 Today on Mushroom Hour we are graced by the presence of wild food expert and author Robin Harford. Robin is a plant-based forager, ethnobotanical researcher and wild food educator. He has published numerous foraging guidebooks and established his own wild food foraging school in 2008. His foraging courses were recently voted #1 in the UK by BBC Countryfile. Robin is the creator of Eatweeds which is listed in The Times Top 50 websites for food and drink. He has travelled extensively documenting and recording the traditional and local uses of wild food plants in indigenous cultures. His work has taken him to Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and the USA. Robin regularly appears on radio and occasionally on television. His work has been recommended in BBC Good Food magazine, Sainsbury’s magazine as well as in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph among others.     

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Childhood in the Wilds of the Devon Countryside   
• Finding Freedom, Questioning Big Brother   
• Reconnecting with Nature as Somatic Healing   
• Sensory Method of Plant Identification    
• Power of Contemplative Practice & Bio-Individualism   
• Developing Relationship with Wild Plants as a Form of Activism   
• Finding Perspectives on Anger and Love   
• Foraging as an Act of Reverence   
• Processing Trauma & Addiction Through Somatic Experience with Plants   
• Living Wild Food Tradition of the Roamer Communities in England   
• In Search of Nomadic Hunter Gatherer Communities   
• The Oceanic Moken People & Anthropological Diversity   
• Getting Started Foraging & Preparing Wild Plants   
• Joining the Eatweeds Community   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Eatweeds Website:  https://www.eatweeds.co.uk/   
• Eatweeds Facebook Community:  https://www.facebook.com/foragingcourses   
• Frank Cook (Inspiration):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_C._Cook_IV   
• Hildegard of Bingen (Inspiration):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen    
• Laurel Luddite Paper:  https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/laurel-luddite-this-is-anarcha-herbalism-thoughts-on-health-and-healing-for-the-revolution    
• Latcho Drom (Film):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latcho_Drom    
• Moken Culture:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moken    
• Against the Grain (Book):  https://www.amazon.com/Against-Grain-History-Earliest-States/dp/0300182910    
• Botanyeveryday:  http://www.botanyeveryday.com/  

Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Matt Kasson, Associate Professor of Forest Pathology and Mycology at West Virginia University. Dr. Kasson received his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the Pennsylvania State University where his research focused on using a native fungus, Verticillium nonalfalfae, as a biological control of the invasive tree, Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven). He also holds an A.A.S. from Paul Smiths College and a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Maine. His current research areas include fungal-arthropod interactions, biological control of invasive plants and pathogens, and the biology and ecology of historic and emerging diseases of forest trees. Dr. Kasson is currently the Director of the International Culture Collection of (Vesicular) Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (INVAM) and currently has research focused on the metabolites associated with interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their plant partners. Dr. Kasson teaches undergraduate courses on general plant pathology and forest pest management and offers special topics courses for graduate students including advanced plant disease diagnostics.  

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Origin as a Young Naturalist in Susquehanna  
• Overview of Forest Pathology and Fungal Pathogens  
• Chestnut Blight, Dutch Elm Disease, Laurel Vascular Wilt  
• Reproductive Strategies of Pathogenic Fungi  
• Fungal Pathogens as a Bio-control Agent  
• The Precautionary Principle  
• Changing Environments & the Emergence of Pathogenic Disease  
• Adaptive, Facultative Capacities of Fungi  
• Massospora Fungi & Zombie Cicadas  
• Discovery of Psilocybin & Amphetamine in Massospora-Infected Cicadas  
• Future Research into Massospora Effects on Cicadas  
• Fungus Feeding Millipedes as Biodiversity Hotspots  
• Meeting the Team in the Kasson Lab at West Virginia University  
• Sage Advice for Academic Pursuits into Mycology  

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Matt Kasson WVU Profile: https://www.davis.wvu.edu/faculty-staff/directory/matthew-kasson  
• Matt Kasson Twitter: https://twitter.com/kasson_wvu  
• Tree of Heaven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_altissima  
• Verticillium nonalfalfae (Fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verticillium_nonalfalfae  
• Colletotrichum (Fungi Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colletotrichum  
• Cryphonectria parasitica (Fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut_blight  
• Massospora cicadina (Fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massospora_cicadina  
• Brachycybe lecontii (Millipede): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachycybe_lecontii  
• Neonectria (Fungi Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonectria  

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by magnanimous mushroom mogul Britt Bunyard. Britt is the founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of the mycology journal Fungi. Britt received a Masters in Botany from Clemson University and a PhD in Plant Pathology from Penn State University. He has worked academically (and played very amateurishly) as a mycologist his entire career, writing scientifically for many research journals, popular science magazines, and books. He has served as an editor for mycological and entomological research journals, and mushroom guidebooks. A popular evangelizer on all things fungal, Britt has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, National Geographic Magazine, PBS’s NOVA television program, and in 2016 was made Executive Director of the Telluride Mushroom Festival. He’s given talks on mushrooms ranging across so many different subjects, I’m excited to learn what he’s focused on now and what he sees as the future of mycophile culture.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Childhood Foraging Morels in Ohio & Clutching an Audubon Guide  
• Dynamic Interplays of Entomology & Mycology  
• Insect & Macrofungi Symbioses  
• Flies, Yeasts & Mushrooms  
• The Birth of Fungi Magazine  
• Traveling the World Seeking Mushrooms & Stories  
• Most Popular FUNGI Magazine Issue about Genus Psilocybe  
• Explosion of Mycophilia Across the Western World  
• Promising Future of Mycoremediation Research  
• Revolution of Listening to Nature  
• Origins & Future of the Telluride Mushroom Festival  
• From Britt’s First Telluride to Becoming Executive Director of the Festival  
• Fungal Solutions Accommodating Human Population Growth  
• The Future for Britt & Fungi Magazine  

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Fungi Magazine Website: http://fungimag.com/   
• Fungi Magazine Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/43995545858/   
• Drosophila melanogaster flies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster   
• NAMA Website: https://namyco.org/   
• The Mycologist Journal (Inspiration): https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Mycologist-0269-915X   
• The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Mushrooms-Everything-Cultivating/dp/1631599119/   

Professor Simard's must-read first book "Finding the Mother Tree" is OUT NOW:
https://suzannesimard.com/finding-the-mother-tree-book/   
This book will change how you see forests and how you understand the relationships between trees and fungi.

Today we have the humbling opportunity to speak with the incomparable Professor Suzanne Simard. Suzanne is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been compared to Rachel Carson, hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is both dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers (think James Cameron’s Avatar) and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. We’ve had the chance to read an early copy of her first book “Finding the Mother Tree” and have been mesmerized by how Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates vital truths – that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks full of mycorrhizal fungi by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities and living communal lives not that different from our own.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Simard Family Origins and a Life-long Love with Old Growth Forests   
• “Free-to-Grow” Policies   
• Competition vs. Cooperation Views of Forest Ecology   
• Discovering the Mycorrhizal Network   
• PhD Research – Transfer of Carbon between Trees via Mycorrhizae   
• Groundbreaking Research Published in “Nature” in 1997   
• Women in Forestry   
• How Do Trees & Fungi Benefit from Their Mycorrhizal Relationships?   
• Mapping a Mycorrhizal Network   
• What is a Mother Tree?   
• Benefits of Uniting Anthropomorphic Epistemologies and Scientific Research   
• Aboriginal, First Nation & Indigenous Systems of Knowledge   
• An Intimate View of Suzanne’s Life to Humanize Scientific Endeavour   
• “The Mother Tree Project”, Future Plans & Future Research   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Suzanne Simard Website: https://suzannesimard.com/  
• "Finding the Mother Tree" (Book): https://suzannesimard.com/finding-the-mother-tree-book/  
• The Mother Tree Project: https://mothertreeproject.org/   
• Sir David Read (Inspiration): https://royalsociety.org/people/david-read-12152/   
• Dr. Teresa Ryan: https://indigenous.forestry.ubc.ca/profiles/teresa-ryan/   
• Prof. Susan Dudley: https://www.biology.mcmaster.ca/component/comprofiler/userprofile/sdudley.html?Itemid=1027

Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by mycophagy legend Larry Evans. Larry Evans is a mushroom hunter, teacher, cultivator, song writer, and cook. He has been instrumental in organizing forays, festivals, and workshops in Colorado, Montana, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Bolivia, and now Jamaica. He is a founder of the Western Montana Mycological Association, wrote a field guide to mushrooms of the Amazon, and appeared in Ron Mann’s come-documentary Know Your Mushrooms. His vast body of work includes detailed accounts of burn morel tracking throughout the Western US, explorations of jam-packed fungal jungles in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador and evangelizing audiences about means of fungal digestion, how fungi remediate contaminated soils, and what the process of mushroom making is all about. Time to laugh and learn with a real-life fungal pioneer.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• “Know Your Mushrooms”   
• Changes in Soil Carbon Throughout Earth’s History   
• Fungal Peroxidase Enzymes & the Carbon Cycle   
• When it Comes to Wood, Bury Not Burn!   
• Fossil Water, BCR & Soil Carbon Implications on Wildfires   
• Fire-following Fairy Cups   
• Understanding Soil Carbon in Land Management   
• Trophic Levels of Wood Resources   
• Mycoremediation & Fungal Adsorption   
• Protein Production in the Developing World   
• Mycofiltration   
• Demystifying Human Fictions of Money & Property   
• Creating New Value Systems   
• New Models of Human Organization Inspired by Self-Balancing Systems   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Larry Evans Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrMushroomlarry   
• Larry Evans IG: https://www.instagram.com/mushroomlarry/   
• Western Montana Mycological Association: http://wmma.wildsoil.com/   
• "Know Your Mushrooms" Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWf7fM5iLYc   
• Soil Carbon Cycle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_carbon   
• Daldinia concentrica (mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daldinia_concentrica   
• Geopyxi carbonaria (mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geopyxis_carbonaria 

Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of Reggie, activist, mycologist and founder of Oakland Hyphae. Reggie studied political science at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and now has over a decade of political campaign experience ranging from local and state-level races to 3 Presidential races to working with the New York State Democrats, the DCCC, and the DNC. On the West Coast Reggie worked on a local level to replace police in schools with guidance counselors for the Black Organizing Project in Oakland. Inspired by early-life transformative experiences with psilocybin-containing mushrooms, Reggie has had a lifelong passion for mycology and now consults with the largest mushroom cultivators in the world. He has worked with the largest cultivators in The Netherlands and is currently advising in the establishment of the largest commercial mushroom farm and state of the art testing lab in Jamaica. He also has over 10 years of domestic experience in the US cannabis industry. Reggie is a member of the Advisory Board for Decriminalize Nature and an avid activist for police reform and an ally of The Movement for Black Lives.

TOPICS COVERED:  

• Reggie’s Introduction to Psilocybin & Travels to Europe  
• Activist Work for Political Change & Racial Equality  
• Psilocybin Mushrooms as an Ancient Spiritual Technology  
• Formation of Oakland Hyphae  
• The First “Psilocybin Cup” April 2021  
• Combining Passions for Mushroom Cultivation & Plant Medicine BIPOC Activism   
• Process of Testing Compounds in Psilocybin Mushrooms  
• Importance of BIPOC Leadership in Psychedelic Spaces  
• Future of Oakland Hyphae  
• Next Psilocybin Cup & Oakland Psychedelic Conference 9/20/21  
• Lessons Learned from the Cannabis Industry  
• Oakland as a Leader in Equity in Plant Medicine  
• Colonization of Psychedelics in Jamaica  
• Influence of Big Money on Emerging Psilocybin Mushroom Marketplace  

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Oakland Hyphae IG: https://www.instagram.com/oakland_hyphae/  
• Oakland Hyphae Website: https://www.oaklandhyphae510.com/  
• Spring 2021 Psilocybin Cup: https://oakland-hyphae.teachable.com/p/oakland-hyphae-psilocybin-cup-spring-21  
• The Ancestor Project: https://www.instagram.com/theancestorproject/   
• Negus in Nature: https://www.instagram.com/negusinnature/  
• Twisted Tree Nursery: https://www.instagram.com/twisted_tree_nursery/  
• Pacific Substrates: https://www.instagram.com/pacificsubstrates/  
• Diaspora Psychedelic Society: https://www.instagram.com/diasporapsychedelicsociety/  
• Kilindi Iyi: http://babakilindi.com/  
• Darron le Barron: https://www.instagram.com/darren_le_baron/  
• Decriminalize Nature: https://www.instagram.com/decriminalizenature/  
• SF Psychedelic Society: https://www.instagram.com/psychedelicsocietysf/

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with Jeff Lowenfels. Jeff is the author of the Award-winning books “Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide To The Soil Food Web”, “Teaming With Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition” and “Teaming With Fungi: The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae”. Jeff Lowenfels has become a leader in the organic gardening/sustainability movement because of these best-selling books. His “Guide to the soil food web” has been hailed as one of the most important gardening books in the last 25 years. His talks have converted tens of thousands of gardeners at venues throughout North and South America to follow the path of organic gardening. Jeff hosted Alaska public television’s most popular show, “Alaska Gardens with Jeff Lowenfels.” Most importantly for him, Jeff is the founder of the national program “Plant A Row for The Hungry.” This program is active all 50 states and Canada and has resulted in millions pounds of garden produce being donated to feed the hungry every year.    

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Transformation from “Chemical Head” to Organic Gardener   
• Discovering the Soil Food Web   
• Teaming with Microbes  
• Nematodes, Protozoa, Fungi and the Rhizosphere   
• Testing for Soil Health   
• Teaming with Nutrients   
• How do Plants Eat?   
• Biological Processes of Plant Cells   
• Roles of Mycorrhizal Fungi   
• Humans Controlled by Microorganisms   
• Spiritual Microbial Ecology   
• Chemical Agriculture & the Soil Food Web   
• Our Future Depends on Soil   
• Planting a Row for the Hungry   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Jeff Lowenfels' Column: https://www.adn.com/author/jeff-lowenfels/   
• "Teaming with Microbes": https://www.amazon.com/Teaming-Microbes-Organic-Gardeners-Revised/dp/1604691131   
• "Teaming with Nutrients": https://www.amazon.com/Teaming-Nutrients-Gardeners-Optimizing-Nutrition/dp/1604693142/   
• "Teaming with Fungi": https://www.amazon.com/Teaming-Fungi-Organic-Mycorrhizae-Gardeners/dp/1604697296/   
• Rudolf Steiner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner   
• Dr. Elaine Ingham: https://www.soilfoodweb.com/   
• Microbiometer (Test your soil biomass!): https://microbiometer.com/   
• Plant a Row for the Hungry: https://gardencomm.org/PAR