2023-12-17
52 分钟Thinking about fungi makes the world look different and different in quite an exciting way.
Fungi have been busily evolving for over a billion years.
So much of recognizable life on earth has evolved together with fungi in ecosystems where fungi are playing vital roles, potentially in very close symbiosis with fungi, and certainly in an atmosphere maintained and conditioned by fungal activity, I think a world without fungi is really inconceivable.
The world we live in is so inextricably bound up with fungal life and the evolution of fungal possibility that I can't really conceive of a world without them.
So a question for you.
What do mushrooms, not the magic kind, have to do with a life well lived?
What about the bigger category of those things called fungi?
Have you ever noticed the fuzzy white mold on an old piece of bread?
Or the colorful mushrooms popping up after a rainstorm?
These seemingly mundane organisms are more astonishing than you might imagine.
Lurking below the surface of our manicured lawns, wooded parks, and even our own bodies is an alien kingdom that shapes our lives in profound ways.
My guest today, biologist and author Merlin Sheldrake, gives us an unprecedented glimpse into the hidden domain of fungi.
His New York Times bestseller, Entangled Life, in which he reveals a surreal microscopic cosmos that underpins the world we know is now a lavish visual journey into the hidden lives of fungi.
The new edition of Entangled Life.
The illustrated edition how fungi make our world a bridge from the original features over 100 full color images that bring the spectacular variety and strangeness and beauty of fungi to life as never before.
So prepare to have your mind really expanded and your perception shifted as Merlin illuminates one of the most influential yet overlooked forms of terrestrial life.
Though we rarely give fungi a second thought, they inhabit nearly every environment on earth, and they perform astounding chemical feats that provide the backbone for entire ecosystems, not to mention some of our favorite foods and medicines.
Fungi form this vast underground network, trading nutrients and communications and even actions and behaviors across miles.
Their sprawling bodies act as these reservoirs of chemical wisdom that we're only beginning to tap and that affect not only our environments, but us.
Our bodies, our health, our well being, our mind in so many different ways.