Hope Dose

The Climate Solution Under Your Feet: Mapping Earth's Hidden Fungal Networks

Beneath every forest, grassland and farm is a living network most of us have never seen. Mycorrhizal fungi partner with about 90% of land plants. They trade nutrients for carbon in a relationship that is 450 million years old, and they pull a staggering amount of CO₂ into the soil every year.

Matt sits down with Jason Cremerius, Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer of SPUN (the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks). SPUN was co-founded by evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, who recently won both a MacArthur "genius" award and the Tyler Prize, often called the Nobel Prize for the environment. SPUN's mission is to map the world's underground fungal networks so that we stop making decisions based only on what we can see.

The conversation covers:

• How fungi bury carbon in the soil, mostly through their own dead bodies ("necromass")
• Why grasslands turned out to hold some of the densest fungal networks on Earth
• How SPUN built a global map at 1 km² resolution using machine learning
• The goal of eventually detecting fungal communities from space
• Why 80–90% of commercial fungal inoculants arrive dead
• Why monoculture tree planting so often fails

Jason also brings a venture lens. He started in venture studios and corporate VC, so he makes the investment case for:

• Microbial-scale biological sensing
• Nature credits that measure what actually matters
• Fungal startups like Funga
• Supply-chain biodiversity intelligence
• A hybrid philanthropic-venture model he calls "DARPA for the environment"

He closes on what gives him hope: standing in the rain in western Britain, watching researchers study the soil to bring back a lost temperate rainforest.

Fungi under our feet pull roughly 13 billion tons of CO₂ into the soil every year, and we've barely mapped them. Jason Cremerius of SPUN explains how fungal networks hold up the living world, why grasslands are a hidden carbon story, and where the investable opportunities are in "nature data." He also explains why the next frontier is down, not up.

• 00:00 — Welcome: Williamsburg vs. Greenpoint, and the dreaded G train
• 01:25 — Is there a mycelial network under Brooklyn? Sampling under-sampled cities
• 02:30 — What is SPUN? Founding story and Toby Kiers
• 03:09 — Mycorrhizal fungi 101: 90% of plants and a 450-million-year partnership
• 04:16 — Beyond the "wood wide web": the carbon story
• 05:48 — Carbon for nitrogen and phosphorus, and how trees learned roots from fungi
• 07:29 — Necromass: how fungi bury carbon as they live and die
• 08:25 — 13 billion tons a year, about a third of fossil emissions
• 09:37 — Do fungi help trees pull down more carbon? Biodiversity, turnover and a 64% productivity boost
• 11:37 — The grassland surprise
• 12:26 — California's grassland fires and how quickly grasslands can recover
• 13:51 — New species, globally rare fungi, and why so few fungi are on protected-species lists
• 15:38 — From data to products? Long-read DNA sequencing
• 16:50 — How the map is built: 25,000 samples, GlobalFungi, and machine learning at 1 km²
• 18:28 — Getting to 10–30 meters: seeing fungi from space with satellite data
• 20:36 — Mapping the underground like the deep ocean, including SPUN's deep-soil work
• 22:28 — Toby's lab: robotics and machine learning that track carbon inside individual fungal threads
• 23:20 — The investor lens: Jason's venture studio background
• 24:48 — Opportunity #1: biological sensing at the microbial level
• 25:42 — Opportunity #2: better incentives than today's carbon and biodiversity credits
• 27:15 — Why mycelium materials and food are the "blunt" plays
• 28:41 — Agriculture and restoration: why 80–90% of commercial inoculum is dead on arrival
• 31:17 — Monoculture tree planting, and why about half the trees die within five years
• 34:26 — Funga, the startup that (pun intended) spun out of this science
• 36:56 — Patient capital, hybrid philanthropic-venture funding, and "DARPA for the environment"
• 38:56 — Venture studios built on nature data
• 40:07 — Opportunity #3: supply-chain biodiversity risk and EU reporting
• 41:11 — How to support SPUN: donate, follow along, use the open data
• 42:47 — What gives Jason hope: bringing back Britain's temperate rainforest
• 44:39 — Wrap-up

Jason Cremerius is Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer of SPUN. He works with founder Toby Kiers and the board to build SPUN into a platform that can scale its impact.

For two decades, Jason has built mission-driven organizations that rewire legacy systems to benefit people and the natural world. That work includes:

• Designing platforms for global enterprises
• Working in corporate venture capital
• Advising startups and investors from day zero through exit
• Co-founding b.theory ventures, a venture studio that incubates climate startups
•  

He's not a scientist by training. He came to fungi five years ago and had to get up to speed fast. He lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, right off the G line.

About SPUN: SPUN is a science-based nonprofit founded in 2021 to map and protect Earth's mycorrhizal fungal networks. In 2025 it launched the Underground Atlas, published in Nature, the first high-resolution global map of underground fungal biodiversity. It found that more than 90% of fungal biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected areas.

• Mycorrhizal fungi partner with roughly 90% of land plants. Fungi deliver scarce nitrogen and phosphorus, and plants pay in carbon.
• About 13 billion tons of CO₂ flows from plants into these fungi each year, roughly a third of fossil fuel emissions. How long that carbon stays in the soil is an open research question SPUN is studying.
• More diverse fungal communities mean more nutrient trading. In some experiments, well-matched fungal partners made plants up to 64% more productive.
• Grasslands, not just forests, hold some of the densest fungal networks. They're vulnerable, but they also recover faster when restored.
• Fungal partnerships are hyper-local. Non-native inoculants, most of which are dead on arrival anyway, don't transfer well. That's a hard problem for markets that want one product to work everywhere.
• Jason's three investable themes: microbial-scale environmental sensing; nature-based credits that capture real complexity; biodiversity intelligence for corporate supply chains.
• SPUN's data is open. Entrepreneurs with novel use cases are invited to reach out.

• SPUN: spun.earth
• Underground Atlas: spun.earth/underground-atlas
• Toby Kiers: SPUN founder; 2025 MacArthur Fellow, 2026 Tyler Prize laureate
• GlobalFungi: the fungal DNA database behind SPUN's baseline model
• Funga (founder Colin Averill): fungal inoculants for Southeastern US pine forests
• Azolla Ventures: Funga investor
• Grantham Foundation and Quadrature Climate Foundation: hybrid philanthropic funders mentioned
• "Mycorrhizal mycelium as a global carbon pool" (Hawkins et al., Current Biology, 2023): the 13-billion-ton study
• The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole

We're not quite f*d

Dr. Staff (Stafford) Sheehan is an American scientist and serial entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of Project Omega, a nuclear recycling company rebuilding the US nuclear fuel cycle. Project Omega recycles spent nuclear fuel into long-duration, high-density power sources and critical materials for the advanced reactor industry, working with the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The company emerged from stealth in February 2026 with an oversubscribed $12M seed round led by Starship Ventures.

Previously, Staff co-founded Air Company, where as CTO he invented a carbon-dioxide-to-hydrocarbon catalysis process — first commercialized as vodka and perfume, then as sustainable aviation fuel, including powering a US Air Force drone on CO2-derived jet fuel. He holds a PhD in physical chemistry from Yale and is a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum.

We're not quite f*d

Fellow Hope Dealers, welcome to another episode of Hope Dose.

In this episode, we head to Paris to grab a drink with Mónica Larrazábal, Co-Founder and CEO of Norma.

Mónica walks us through Norma’s radically different approach to carbon capture — one that treats direct air capture not as an energy-consuming process, but an energy-storing one. We get into supercapacitors, sandwich-stacked cells, the “winter” in climate funding, and why she believes today is the best moment to invest in carbon removal. Plus: how to carry a baguette like a true Parisian.

📝 Show Notes Below👇

🎧 New podcast episode:

“Call me bold, but I think today is the best moment to invest in carbon removal.”

— Mónica Larrazábal, Co-Founder and CEO of Norma

Find Mónica on LinkedIn, and check out Norma’s website here.

🍸 Recorded across the Atlantic — Paris meets Hope Dose. 🥖

Enjoy the show!

📻 Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Substack 👉

Interested in sponsoring?

Please reach out to [email protected]

Companies/Startups mentioned during the show:

☁️ Norma

🔥 Avalanche Energy

🤝 Founders Pledge

💚 Milkywire

💸 Counteract

💸 Marble

People/places/things mentioned during the show:

🧑‍🔬 Dr. Silvia Pugliese — Co-Founder & CTO of Norma

📍 Paris, France

📍 Spain

📍 Venezuela

📍 Buenos Aires

📍 Amsterdam

📍 Château de Versailles

⚡️ Supercapacitor

🌍 Direct Air Capture (DAC)

🏭 Electrolyzer

🍝 Pasta alla Norma

📚 The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything — Peter Brannen

-TIMESTAMPS-

[00:00] Intro

[01:38] Learning Languages & Multilingual Hellos

[02:40] How to Be Parisian: The Baguette Technique

[05:11] Siestas, Hammocks & Managing Energy

[06:43] What Norma Is Building

[08:12] The Electrochemical Umbrella & DAC

[09:49] Supercapacitive Carbon Capture, Explained

[13:15] What Happens to the Carbon?

[14:51] Storing Energy as a Flexibility Asset

[16:13] Additional Revenue Streams & Use Cases

[19:15] Device Size, Prototypes & the “Sandwich” Design

[21:13] Why Modularity Matters

[23:35] The Roadmap: 2027 Pilot Facility & Beyond

[24:24] The 10 Gigaton Goal

[24:48] Matt’s Skepticism on DAC & the Energy Problem

[28:05] Avalanche Energy & Desktop-Size Fusion

[28:36] The Origin of the Norma Name

[30:44] The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything

[33:52] Intermediate Revenue Streams & Surviving the Downturn

[36:11] What’s Giving Monica Hope: Founders Pledge

[41:17] How You Can Help Norma

[44:46] Closing Thoughts & Le Grand Bal Masqué

[46:26] END

We're not quite f*d

☕ Climate Tech Coffee: Robin Langtry, CEO of Avalanche Energy

Fellow Climate Warriors, this is a replay of our Climate Tech Coffee episode with Robin Langtry of Avalanche Energy— this was the shorter, usually sober version of Climate Tech Cocktails.  

We are re-releasing a few coffee episodes as we prepare to evolve transition to Hope Dose.

🍾 This episode marked the announcement of FUSIONWERX, the first-of-it’s kind commercial-scale testing facility for advanced fusion technologies.  

📣 READ THE ANNOUNCEMENT HERE!

Avalanche Energy has since gone on to raise and addition $29m since posting this episode on Substack!

Join us as we sit down with Robin Langtry, CEO and Co-founder of Avalanche Energy, a fusion startup building micro-sized fusion reactors. We dive into how their “orbital fusion” technology works, why smaller might be better, and how this team of fusion rebels plans to electrify the future — one table-sized reactor at a time.

Grab your favorite form of caffeine, and hop on board.

📝 Show Notes Below 👇

🎧 New podcast episode:

“I just didn’t want to build software anymore — I wanted to build something that could change the physics of the planet.”

— Robin Langtry, CEO of Avalanche Energy

Enjoy the show!

🚀 Companies / Startups Mentioned

⚛️ Avalanche Energy

🛰️ DARPA

🚀 Anduril

⚡ Zap Energy

🔋 Helion

⚡ Oklo

🌎 People / Places / Things Mentioned

📍 Seattle

📍 Los Alamos

📍 Montana

📍 DOE (Department of Energy)

📍 Air Force

📍 Austin

🔬 Ion guns

🔋 High-voltage capacitors

🎮 Sci-fi inspired design

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

[00:00] Intro

[01:23] Meet Robin

[03:48] From Montana to Micronuclear

[07:15] Fusion in a Truck?!

[12:45] Avalanche's Breakthrough

[17:30] Competing with Big Fusion

[22:00] National Security + Energy

[28:49] The Road Ahead

[33:58] Outro

We're not quite f*d

🔋Batteries, ⛓️ Supply Chain Innovation, 🌍 Energy Transition, 🤺 Olympic Fencing, and More⚡

Fellow Climate Warriors, welcome to another episode of Climate Tech Cocktails!

Get ready for some shrewd global insights with Vivas Kumar, CEO of Mitra Chem, here today! Swapping cocktails for hydrogen water, Vivas shares his journey from Singapore & Tesla's supply chain to innovating iron-based cathodes. He and Matt cover Li-ion battery history (Korean War to Walkman!), the intense truth of entrepreneurship (what Stanford doesn't teach!), US funding's role, as well as fencing & travel tales from Tbilisi to South Africa. Drink up and enjoy this deep dive into tech, markets & climate drive!

We're not quite f*d

🌱Alternative Proteins, 🌱Fungi Powered Nutrition,⚡️Infrastructure, and 💥More

Fellow Climate Warriors, welcome to another episode of Climate Tech Cocktails!

Celebrating the poetic irony of sustainable protein rising from the ashes of Chicago's meatpacking past, Thomas Jonas, CEO and Co-founder of Nature's Fynd, joins Matt for today’s stop on the "Here We Are" tour. Together, they unveil the magic of fungi-powered nutrition cultivated from a resilient Yellowstone microbe, and how it can revolutionize our plates and heal the planet. So buckle up for a thoroughly enlightening journey into the future of food, where microbes are the unsung heroes of a sustainable tomorrow!

We're not quite f*d

🚲 E-Bikes, 🏭 Manufacturing, ♻️ Circular Economy, 📍Detroit, and  More

Fellow Climate Warriors, welcome to another episode of Climate Tech Cocktails!

Coffee, E-bikes, the resurgence of American Manufacturing in Detroit, and a deep dive into the circular economy are all on the menu today as Justin Kosmides, co-founder and CEO of Bloom joins Matt for a chat. A trailblazer in the electric mobility space, Bloom is building an operations-as-a-service platform to help e-mobility companies scale production and operate efficiently. Coming at you straight from Newlab Detroit, this is one electric ride!

We're not quite f*d

🪩Disco,⚡️Energy Efficiency, 🚗EV Grid, 🎤Karaoke, and 💡More

Fellow Climate Warriors, welcome to another episode of Climate Tech Cocktails!

Climate Tech Cocktails is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 

It’s all 🍸Bombay Sapphire,🍸Citadelle Gin, disco-balled cocktail shakers and Karaoke with Apoorv Bhargava, co-founder and CEO of WeaveGrid. A trailblazer in electrifying the future of EV grid integration, WeaveGrid is connecting automakers, utilities and drivers to tackle the challenges to and boost EV adoption across the industry. Featuring a stirring performance from Apoorv, this is one episode you’ll want to sit back, take a sip, and maybe even sing along to!

We're not quite f*d

🌱 Soil health,💡Agricultural innovation, 🤝Humanitarian Aid,🌱Carbon offset, and💥More

Fellow Climate Warriors, welcome to another episode of Climate Tech Cocktails!

Climate Tech Cocktails is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 

Today, Matt is joined by Chris Tolles, Co-founder and CEO of Yard Stick, an organization that is revolutionizing the way farmers measure their soil by making it accurate, instant, and affordable. While Chris sips on a Gangster Duck, and Matt quaffs both a Sparkle Pony and A Brew Hope, their discussion unearths the importance of soil health, its role as a carbon sink, and Chris’s fascinating journey from humanitarian relief worker to cutting-edge climate tech leader. So, go ahead, grab whatever beverage is calling your name right now, and let’s dig into the dirt together!

We're not quite f*d

🌱 Vertical Farming⚙️Construction Automation,💡Innovative Disruption  and 💥 More!

Joining Matt and his Athenaeum Whiskey today is the man, the myth, the legend - and Matt’s dear friend and mentor - Jack Oslan. This fantastically successful co-founder of the two blockbuster start-ups, Plenty and Diamond Age, comes armed with some Maker's Mark Reserve to discuss both his personal and professional life. From growing up next to a corn field in small town Illinois to being a two-time Silicon Valley tech founder to building shelters for war torn Ukraine, Jack leads a nobly purposeful existence helping out those most in need, and you get to share in his extensive experience and wisdom here today.

We're not quite f*d