Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by magnanimous mycological scholar Dr. Keith Seifert, adjunct professor in the biology department at Carleton University. Dr. Seifert has spent more than forty years studying fungi on five continents. At Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, he did research on microscopic fungi from farms, forests, food and the built environment to reduce toxins and diseases affecting plants and animals. He was president of the International Mycological Association, an executive editor of Mycologia, and associate editor of several other scientific journals. Dr. Seifert is here to dive into his debut book The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi – Exploring the Microscopic World in Our Forests, Homes and Bodies. In this marvelous book, he invites us to see our world as one full of microbial ecological succession, symbiotic interactions with fungi and maybe an understanding that this epoch could truly be considered the mycocene.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Descending into the Hidden Kingdom   
• Spectrum of Symbioses   
• The Lives of Endophytes    
• Holobionts   
• Fungi and Human Agriculture   
• Mycotoxins   
• Ancient History of Fungal Domestication – Beer, Bread & Cheese   
• Rot to Fermentation Continuum   
• Invasive Species, Biopiracy, Biocolonialism   
• Human Houses as Ecosystems   
• Mold Colonies in Our Homes   
• Dandruff, Candida & Fungi in the Human Microbiome   
• Amphibian Apocalypse   
• A World Powered by Fungi    

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• "The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi": https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-hidden-kingdom-of-fungi-exploring-the-microscopic-world-in-our-forests-homes-and-bodies-keith-seifert/17251543?ean=9781771646628   
• Keith Seifert iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/77976   
• Keith Seifert ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Keith-Seifert-2   
• "I Contain Multitudes": https://edyong.me/i-contain-multitudes   
• Phytophthora infestans (Irish Potato Famine Pathogen): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora_infestans   
• UG-99 Wheat Rust: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ug99   
• Escovopsis aspergilloides: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escovopsis_aspergilloides   
• "When Darwin Comes to Town": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34930832-darwin-comes-to-town   
• "The Song of the Dodo": https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12868099