Become fanatical about fungi
I have curated my favourite videos and content about fungi so you can immerse yourself in a new and wonderful world. Click on each image below to be redirected to the content.
6 ways mushrooms can save the world
TED Talk video: Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu viruses.
Antimicrobial properties of fungi
TED Talk video: The mushroom biologist, Paul Stamets, talks about the antimicrobial properties of fungi, how they can be used as potent insecticides and how they may help boost the human immune system.
How trees talk to each other
TED Talk video: "A forest is much more than what you see," says ecologist Suzanne Simard. Her 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery -- trees talk, often and over vast distances. Learn more about the harmonious yet complicated social lives of trees and prepare to see the natural world with new eyes.
Entangled Life
Book: Entangled Life provides a window into the mind-boggling biology and fascinating cultures surrounding fungal life. Sheldrake asks us to consider a life-form that is radically alien to ours, yet vibrant and lively underfoot.
How slime mold designed the Tokyo railway system
YouTube video: Imagine if a single-celled organism, single handedly, designed the Tokyo Metro System? Well, this actually happened when a group of Japanese researchers at Hokkaido University put a slime mold on a map of Tokyo, to see how it would connect between urban hotspots.
Fantastic Fungi
Feature film: Fantastic Fungi, directed by Louie Schwartzberg, is a consciousness-shifting film that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet.
Are mushrooms the new plastic?
Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens and the environment.
Lessons from fungi on markets and economics
TED Talk video: Resource inequality is one of our greatest challenges, but it's not unique to humans. Like us, mycorrhizal fungi that live in plant and tree roots strategically trade, steal and withhold resources, displaying remarkable parallels to humans in their capacity to be opportunistic (and sometimes ruthless) - all in the absence of cognition. In a mind-blowing talk, evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers shares what fungi networks and relationships reveal about human economies, and what they can tell us about inequality.