The Mushroom Hour Podcast

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of being joined by the University of Victoria Emeritus Professor, Nancy Turner. Professor Turner is an ethnobotanist whose research integrates the fields of botany and ecology with anthropology, geography and linguistics, among others. She is interested in the traditional knowledge systems and traditional land and resource management systems of Indigenous Peoples, particularly in western Canada.

Nancy has worked with First Nations elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America for over 50 years, collaborating with Indigenous communities to help document, retain and promote their traditional knowledge of plants and habitats, including Indigenous foods, materials and medicines, as well as language and vocabulary relating to plants and environments. Her interests also include the roles of plants and animals in narratives, ceremonies, language and belief systems. 

Dr. Turner has authored, edited, co-authored or co-edited over 30 books. Her 2014 two-volume book, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America , represents an integration of her long-term research. She has received a number of awards for her work, including membership in Order of British Columbia and the Order of Canada, honorary degrees from Vancouver Island University, University of British Columbia, University of Northern British Columbia and Simon Fraser University; and the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ Canada Prize in the Social Sciences for Ancient Pathways.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• From Berkeley to Missoula to Vancouver   
• Kincentricity   
• Epistemologies & Living Language    
• Traditional Ecological Knowledge   
• Respecting our Non-Human Relatives   
• Residential Schools & the Suppression of Indigenous Ways   
• Traditional Territories & Living Traditions   
• First Nation Agroforestry Practices   
• Cottonwood Mushrooms & Hazlenuts   
• Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights & Title   
• Models of First Nation Land Access   
• Blending Western Scientific Knowledge & First Nation Knowledge Systems   
• 7 Generation Thinking   
• Society Suffused by Ecological Thinking   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Prof. Nancy Turner website: https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/environmental/people/faculty/emeritus/turnernancy.php   
• "Plants, People and Places" (book): https://www.mqup.ca/plants--people--and-places-products-9780228001836.php   
• "Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge" (book): https://www.mqup.ca/ancient-pathways--ancestral-knowledge-products-9780773543805.php   
• Tricholoma populinum (fungus): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237163157_The_cottonwood_mushroom_Tricholoma_populinum_A_food_resource_of_the_Interior_Salish_Indian_peoples_of_British_Columbia   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are host to the distinguished Dr. Kabir Peay – head of Stanford University’s Peay Lab. Dr. Peay completed a master’s degree at the Yale School of Forestry and Environment Science (F&ES) in 2003 and obtained a PhD in 2008 from UC Berkeley’s Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy and Management (ESPM) in Matteo Garbelotto's lab. He completed postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley in the Dept. of Plant & Microbial Biology with Tom Bruns, and at Stanford in the Dept. of Biology with Tadashi Fukami. He was an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota from 2011-2012 before coming to Stanford in 2012 to join the Dept. of Biology in his current position. The Peay lab studies the ecological processes that structure natural communities and the links between community structure and the cycling of nutrients and energy through ecosystems - focusing on fungi! Much of the research focuses on plant-fungal root associations, better known as mycorrhizas, which constitute one of the most pervasive mutualisms in terrestrial ecosystems. By integrating their lines of research, they hope to weave together a 'roots-to-biomes' understanding of plant-microbe symbiosis.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• A Love of Nature, Inspiration in the East   
• From Environmental Consulting into Ecological Understanding   
• Discovering Fungal Symbioses   
• Defining Ecology & Community Assembly   
• Understanding Scale in Community Ecology    
• Embracing Fungi in All of Their Ecological Roles   
• Facultative Capacities of Fungi   
• Mycorrhizal Lessons in Community Ecology    
• Broadening Ecological Perspectives Beyond Purely Competitive Frameworks   
• MISSPs & Mediating Mycorrhizal Interactions   
• Fungal Biogeography   
• Ecological Succession & Stages of Community Assembly   
• Future of Mycorrhizal Research   
• Mapping Fungal Genes to Ecological Functions   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Peay Lab Academic Website: https://mykophile.stanford.edu/   
• Dr. Peay Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=E6GRsP4AAAAJ&hl=en   
• Dipterocarpaceae - tree family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipterocarpaceae   
• Chytrids: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chytridiomycota   
• Pinus ponderosa (tree species): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_ponderosa   
• Suilllus pungens (fungus species): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suillus_pungens   

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the honor of being joined by Elan Hagens. Elan Hagens is a native Oregonian who has been playing in the woods, wildcrafting and going to outdoor education classes her entire life.  Her passion for everything animals and the outdoors led her to working with dogs in in her early 20s. Following that path landed her an opportunity to participate in a dog based reality show on CBS! Later work at an Iditarod sled dog kennel and training her dogs how to forage for native Oregon truffles further deepened her love for everything outdoors and led to her creating Temptress Truffles a decade ago.  Temptress Truffles is all about wild foraging, wildcrafting and connecting people to the outdoors. Elan loves watching people learn how to engage with nature in different ways besides technical outdoor sports and activities. She teaches classes in mushroom foraging, food Justice and nature crafting. In January 2021 she cofounded a new business called Fruiting Bodies Collective. Through an excellent podcast show, a growing facilitator training program and other projects, the Fruiting Bodies Collective hopes to destigmatize psychedelics and serve marginalized groups. All of Elan’s projects seem to stem from a deep-rooted passion for sharing her lifelong love of everything outdoors and helping everyone, no matter their background, to appreciate the natural environment as she does.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Nature-Loving Tagalong with a Mother Who Loves Fresh Food   
• Becoming a Reality TV Star   
• Intentional Choices of Sponsors and Partnerships   
• Truffle Fundamentals   
• The Secret to Truffle Hunting - Habitat    
• “Raked Truffles” vs Dog-Found Truffles   
• Running a Foraged-Goods Business    
• Indigenous Land Acknowledgement   
• BIPOC Representation in the Outdoors   
• Mycological Elitism   
• Harvesting Wild Clay, Building Community   
• Fruiting Bodies Collective    
• Engaging and Educating as Psilocybin Emerges into the Mainstream   
• Black and Indigenous Representation in Psychedelic Spaces   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Temptress Truffles IG: https://www.instagram.com/temptresstruffles/   
• Fruiting Bodies Collective IG: https://www.instagram.com/fruitingbodiesco/   
• Danner - Elan Hagens: https://vimeo.com/551545643   
• Sparassis crispa (fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparassis_crispa   

Today on the Mushroom Hour we are honored to be joined by Dr. Andrew Wilson - Assistant Curator of Mycology in the Sam Mitchel Herbarium of Fungi at Denver Botanic Gardens. For Dr. Wilson the discovery of mycology began back in the late 90’s at San Francisco State University in taking classes from world renown mushroom taxonomist, Dr. Dennis Desjardin. Working with Dennis, Andrew earned a Masters degree studying the mushroom genus Gymnopus from Java and Bali. He later went on to earn a PhD in the lab of Dr. David Hibbett at Clark University. His project took him back to Southeast Asia, this time to study the ecology and evolution enigmatic puffball genus Calostoma and their relatives. In 2009, Andrew graduated and began a postdoc with Dr. Gregory Mueller at the Chicago Botanic Garden where he explored the systematic evolution of the Cantharellales and the model ectomycorrhizal mushroom genus Laccaria. He also did a one-year postdoc at Purdue University, in the lab of Dr. Cathie Aime, teasing apart the complex evolution of plant pathogenic rust fungi. At Denver Botanic Gardens, Dr. Wilson is working on a regional contribution to the Fungal Diversity Survey (FunDiS) that encompasses the state of Colorado, with a focus on the Southern Rockies. In this effort he is training students on how to study biodiversity using natural history collection and DNA sequence analysis. He is also working on new tools in DNA sequencing to better sample and study fungal diversity.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Formed in a Family of Biologists   
• Intellectual Explorations at San Francisco State University   
• Genus Gymnopus   
• Expeditions to Southeast Asia   
• What are Systematics?   
• Genus Calostoma   
• Role of Isotopes in Understanding Fungal Ecologies   
• Biogeographic Histories of Fungi   
• Interpreting Ancestry and Evolution in Phylogenetic Data    
• Gondwana Supercontinent   
• Finding a Living, Ancient Ancestor on the Lacarria Family Tree    
• Denver Botanic Gardens & Sam Mitchell Fungi Herbarium   
• New Methods of High-Throughput DNA Sequencing    
• Biodiversity & Evolutionary History of Southern Rocky Mountain Fungi   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Dr. Andrew Wilson - Denver Botanic Gardens: https://www.botanicgardens.org/team/profile/andrew-w-wilson-phd   
• Dr. Dennis Desjardin (Mentor): https://biology.sfsu.edu/faculty/desjardin   
• Dr. David Hibbet (Mentor): https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?id=355   
• Gymnopus (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnopus   
• Calostoma (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calostoma   
• Laccaria (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laccaria   
• Calostoma cinnabarinum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calostoma_cinnabarinum   
• Colorado Mycological Society: https://cmsweb.org/   
• Colorado Mycoflora Project: https://coloradomycoflora.org/   

**Support the Kickstarter and be part of the sea change in understanding soil health!**   
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/regenerative-soil-microscopy-the-book-courses-and-database   
(Campaign ends 7/17/22)   

Today on Mushroom Hour we're grace by the presence of Matt Powers (M.Ed) - author, educator, citizen scientist, entrepreneur, and family guy who teaches people all over the world how to live more regeneratively. Personally driven by a deep desire to have the best food possible for his wife and cancer-survivor, Adriana, and their two boys. Matt, a former public high school teacher with a Masters degree in Education, is creator of over a dozen online courses and author of over 20 books on permaculture and regenerative soil science - The Permaculture Student series and the Regenerative Soil Trilogy are just a couple examples. Matt is also the host of A Regenerative Future, the podcast and Youtube show, where he interviews leaders in the regenerative space and shares his own work and insights. I'm excited to learn all about the soil ecosystem, regenerative soil microscopy and more!

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Searching for Health in the Soil   
• Horizontal Gene Transfer in Soil Microbes   
• Hallmarks of Soil Health   
• Importance of Bacterial & Fungal Endophytes   
• Critical Role of E. Coli in Soil Ecosystems   
• Rhizophagy   
• Microbes Shaped by and Shaping Their Surrounding Ecology   
• Developing an Open-Source Soil Health Database   
• Organic Matter in Soil and Nutrient Density in Plants   
• Advantages of Farms and Producers Sharing Markers of Soil Health   
• Process of Performing Soil Microscopy   
• Dark Field and Epifluorescence   
• Regenerative Soil Microscopy Kickstarter   
• Community-Based Tools, Knowledge and Solutions    
• Power Found in Understanding Soil   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Regenerative Soil Microscopy Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/regenerative-soil-microscopy-the-book-courses-and-database   
• Matt Powers Website: https://www.thepermaculturestudent.com/   
• Bill Mollison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison   
• Dr. James F. White: https://plantbiology.rutgers.edu/faculty/white/James-White.html   
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Yeast fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccharomyces_cerevisiae   
• Purple Sulfur Bacteria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_sulfur_bacteria   
• Bionutrient Meter: https://bionutrient.net/site/bionutrient-meter   
• Zach Bush: https://zachbushmd.com/   
• Arbuscular mycorrhiza: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuscular_mycorrhiza   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are humble hosts to the talented Sigrid Jakob, President of the New York Mycological Society. Sigrid only discovered fungi within the last several years, but her intense passion quickly catapulted her into the forefront of citizen mycology. She has played a leading role in rebooting the North American Mycoflora project and transforming the national organization into the Fungal Diversity Survey known as FunDiS. She is an accomplished citizen science facilitator, providing resources for at-home genetic sequencing to allow those with no background in biochemistry to successfully extract and amplify DNA. In her non-mushroom life, Sigrid is a 55 year old independent brand strategist who lives in Brooklyn, is mother to a 17 year old and holds degrees in philosophy, psychology and photography. A modern Renaissance woman who shares the tools with which to examine fungal diversity for the laymen, I am excited to learn about how we all can contribute to putting together the seemingly endless tree of fungal diversity.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Growing up with Hunters, Gardeners and Woodsy Folk   
• Fungal Diversity in NYC   
• Role of Community Mycology in Mapping Biodiversity   
• Fungal Diversity Survey   
• Observational Data Fueling Conservation   
• Conservation Framework Around Fungi in the US vs Europe   
• Getting Deeper into Fungal DNA   
• Developing Fungal DNA Sequencing Protocols   
• Sourcing Tools and Reagants for At-Home Sequencing   
• Impact of Amateur Sequencing Data    
• Greenwood Cemetery Fungal Diversity Project   
• Findings and Future of the Greenwood Cemetery Project   
• Presiding over the New York Mycological Society   
• Future Plans for NY Mycological Society   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Sigrid Jakob IG: https://www.instagram.com/greenwoodzombie/   
• Sigrid's Dung Fungi IG: https://www.instagram.com/dung_fungi/   
• Fungal Diversity Survey: https://fundis.org/   
• New York Mycological Society: https://newyorkmyc.org/   
• Green-Wood Cemetery: https://www.green-wood.com/   
• Youtube Series "Fungal PCR at Home": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyaNM6lJmGo   
• NY Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/style/greenwood-cemetery-mushrooms.html   
• Sporormiella (Genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporormiella

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with chef, forager, and biology geek Graham Steinruck. Graham has worked in the restaurant industry in with many of Colorado’s most talented chefs and was the former owner of a wild mushroom distribution company called Hunt & Gather that supplied wild harvested ingredients to chefs in the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. He was also the host of a podcast called ‘A Fermented Affair’ where he discussed fermented food and drink as well as mushrooms. He served as the 2012 editor of SporesAfield, the newsletter for the Colorado Mycological Society, as well as the vice president of the club in 2011. He is a presenter and chef for the Wild Mushroom Dinner at the Telluride Mushroom Festival. Recently his recipes were featured in the cookbook ‘Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide’ and will be featured in the new ‘Fantastic Fungi Cookbook’ scheduled to be published later this year. Graham is a Colorado Department of Health and Environment Wild Mushroom Identification Expert and continues to teach courses on mushroom identification and foraging, cooking, and cultivating various culinary and medicinal fungi.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Discovering Mycology in Denver, a Formative Moment with Porcini
• Balance Between Permissive & Prohibitive Philosophies Around Commercial Foraging   
• Forest Management Practices   
• Foraging Permits – the Good and the Bad   
• Wild Mushroom Licenses   
• Liability in Commercial Foraging    
• Legal Frameworks Around Foraging   
• Advice to Find Legal, Abundant Forage Grounds   
• Making Mushrooms the Star of the Culinary Show   
• Porcini Mushroom Bisque, Chanterelle Succotash   
• Underappreciated Hawk’s Wings and Snow Fungus    
• Mollusks and Mushrooms   
• The Genius of Simple Culinary Preparations   
• Mycouprrhizal Mushroom Farm   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Graham Steinruck IG: https://www.instagram.com/instantgrahamster/   
• Myco-Uprrhizal Mushroom Farm: https://www.instagram.com/myco_uprrhizal/   
• Wild Mushrooms Cookbook and Foraging Guide: https://islanderbookshop.com/products/wild-mushrooms-a-cookbook-and-foraging-guide-by-kristen-and-trent-blizzard    
• Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook: https://bookshop.org/books/fantastic-fungi-the-community-cookbook/9781647222956    
• Psilocybe azurescens (fungus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybe_azurescens   

Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to interview mushroom cultivation artist Sam Shoemaker. Sam is an interdisciplinary artist and mycologist based in Los Angeles, California. Sam's recent artistic work stems from an ongoing collaboration with rare, native, and medicinal fungi. After receiving his MFA from Yale University in 2020, Sam founded the urban mushroom farm Myco Myco from his underground laboratory in Los Angeles. His obsession with mushrooms led Sam to some unconventional cultivation projects. These projects produced interesting results which led him to ask questions about how mushrooms can be used and when nobody seemed to be able to answer his questions he just kept going - doing more experiments, taking the science as far as he could, and trying things for himself. Approaching mycology through the lens of an artist, Sam explores the tremendous amount of creative opportunity surrounding mycology right now. His aim is simple and beautiful: making mycology accessible to all and encouraging people to embrace the unknowable!   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Grandma's Artistic Influence   
• An Obsession with Mushrooms is Born   
• Mushrooms and Modern Art   
• Replacing Single-Use Plastics in Cultivation   
• Mushroom Chia Pets   
• Blending Boundaries of Art and Science   
• Public Reception to Sam’s Artwork   
• Practicality of Substrates from Waste Streams   
• Myco Myco Mushroom Farm   
• Advice for Making Mushroom Cultivation into a Living   
• Changes in Mycophile Culture as Mushrooms Go Mainstream   
• Future of Mushroom Cultivation   
• Leading with Reciprocity   
• Future Educational Projects   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• Sam Shoemaker Website: https://www.samkshoemaker.com/   
• Sam Shoemaker IG: https://www.instagram.com/samkshoemaker/   
• Myco Myco Farm Website: https://mycomyco.farm/   
• Myco Myco Farm IG: https://www.instagram.com/mycomycofarm/   
• Candace Lin: http://ghebaly.com/work/candicelin/   
• Ganoderma (genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganoderma   
• Fomitopsis (genus): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomitopsis   
• Marasmius plicatulus (species): https://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/species/Marasmius_plicatulus.html   

Today on Mushroom Hour we have the distinct pleasure of being joined by Professor Tadashi Fukami – head of Stanford University’s Fukami Lab. Professor Fukami is an expert on community ecology and along with supporting his students and lab members, his primary interest is to understand historical contingency in community assembly. He is broadly interested in how species interact with one another in ecosystems and enjoys working with other lab members on the variety of projects that they bring to the lab. He earned his PhD at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with Jim Drake and Dan Simberloff. He was then a postdoctoral fellow at Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research in New Zealand and Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa before joining the Stanford faculty in 2008. He sheds light on how communities assemble, even at microbe-sized ecologies, and has revealed amazing insights about fungal ecologies and interactions with other organisms that many of us have never even heard of.   

TOPICS COVERED:   

• Embracing Nature Outside Tokyo   
• Coming to America   
• Fundamentals of Community Assembly   
• Historical Contingency in Community Assembly   
• Isolating Ecological Islands   
• Microbial Community Ecology   
• Rules of Community Assembly?   
• Understanding Community Assembly in Restoring Ecosystems   
• Flowers, Fallen Logs and the Human Body as Ecological Communities   
• Yeast Fungi Living in Flower Nectar   
• Monkeyflower Nectar Biome   
• Plant Pollinator Mutualistic Interactions   
• Applied Agricultural Uses of Understanding Nectar Microbiome   
• Metacommunities   

EPISODE RESOURCES:    

• Prof Tadashi Fukami Staff Page: https://profiles.stanford.edu/tadashi-fukami    
• Fukami Lab Website: https://web.stanford.edu/~fukamit/   
• Prof. Tad Fukami Research: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tadashi-Fukami    
• Prof. James Drake Research: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/James-A-Drake-2044716847   

Today we are blessed by the presence of Ali McKernan, a self-professed Mycophile who is also known as 'The Fungi Guy' on Instagram and Youtube. Ali is a mushroom educator who uses humor and enthusiasm to get the message of the mushrooms to the masses. He was a member of the Education and Outreach Committee for the British Mycological Society and has helped to organize and promote UK Fungus Day among other outreach programs. Alongside his work with organizations like BMS, Ali makes “daft” Youtube and Instagram videos showcasing his fungal finds and organizes Fungi ID walks in his local area. I’m excited to learn how Ali became the Fungi guy and what it means to him to share his love of mushrooms.   
TOPICS COVERED:   

• Foraging Tutelage from Jesper Launder   
• Role as an Educator Supporting Emotional Needs of Children   
• UK Fungus Day   
• British Mycological Society   
• Navigating Social Media   
• Choosing Joy   
• Fungi & Wellbeing   
• Fungi a Lifelong Passion   
• Five Threads of Wellbeing   
• Accessibility of Fungi   
• Mushrooms in Urban Edgelands & Green Spaces   
• Advice to Share a Love of Fungi with Kids   
• Annual Stinkhorn Race   
• UK Myco Heroes   

EPISODE RESOURCES:   

• The Fungi Guy IG: https://www.instagram.com/the.fungi.guy/   
• The Fungi Guy YT: https://www.youtube.com/c/theFUNgiguy   
• British Mycological Society: https://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/   
• North West Fungus Group: https://northwestfungusgroup.com/    
• UK Fungus Day: https://www.ukfungusday.co.uk/   
• Jesper Launder: http://www.jesperlaunder.com/   
• Geoffrey Kibby: https://www.mykoweb.eu/catalog/geoffrey-kibby   
• Roger Phillips: https://rogersmushrooms.com/   
• Liz Holden: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Liz-Holden-2021164358   
• Prof. Lynne Boddy: https://fungalecologycardiff.com/the-team/professor-lynne-boddy/   
• Andy Overall: http://www.fungitobewith.org/   
• Brian Douglas: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brian-Douglas