Fungi: An Alien Encounter
Merlin Sheldrake's book Entangled Life has won the Royal Society Science book of the year so here's Matthew Sweet with him and others discussing the amazing life of mushrooms.
90% are unknown still but the species which have been studied have given us penicillin, ways of breaking down plastics, food and bio fuels but they can also be dangerous. Neither animal nor vegetable, they are both amongst us and within us, shaping our lives in ways it is difficult to imagine. Merlin Sheldrake's book about fungi, Entangled Life, has won the Royal Society Science book of the year and the Wainwright Conservation prize so here's Matthew Sweet with him and others discussing the amazing life of mushrooms.
Francesca Gavin curated an exhibition Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of the Fungi, which ran at Somerset House in London and is now available to view as an online tour. It features the work of 40 artists, musicians and designers from Cy Twombly to Beatrix Potter, John Cage to Hannah Collins.
Sam Gandy is an ecologist, writer and researcher who has collaborated with the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/psychedelic-research-centre/
Bego帽a Aguirre-Hudson is Curator and Mycologist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She helps look after the Kew Fungarium - the largest collection of fungi in the world.
https://www.kew.org/science/our-science/people/begona-aguirre-hudson
Producer: Alex Mansfield
You can find other discussions in the Free Thinking archives about food /programmes/b08wn51y
Cows, farming and our view of nature /programmes/m000n0g8
Humans, animals, ecologies: conversations with Anna Tsing and Joanna Bourke /programmes/m000sjmj
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Thu 30 Jan 2020 22:00成人快手 Radio 3
- Thu 16 Dec 2021 22:00成人快手 Radio 3
Featured in...
Arts
Creativity, performance, debate
Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019
Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival
Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life