Ep. 158: The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi - Exploring the Microscopic World in Our Forests, Homes & Bodies (feat. Dr. Keith Seifert)

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