Fungi: An Alien Encounter

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2021

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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/

Begoña 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 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wn51y

Cows, farming and our view of nature https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n0g8

Humans, animals, ecologies: conversations with Anna Tsing and Joanna Bourke https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000sjmj

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can I just say?
0:01.5	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
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0:05.6	So nice.
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0:08.8	Different paces, different heights.
0:10.6	The roof is buckling.
0:11.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:14.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:16.7	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:21.6	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:25.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:26.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:29.7	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:35.8	BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.
0:39.4	This Arts and Ideas podcast celebrates success.
0:42.8	The Royal Society Science Book Prize was awarded this year to Merlin
0:47.0	Shell Drake's Entangled Life.
0:49.4	You'll hear him and our guests engaging with the science and culture of fungi and consuming some too after these
0:56.7	messages. My name's Matthew Sweet and tonight it's my turn to do the cooking.
1:01.5	Hiya, I'm Linton Stevens. I just wanted to tell you about the classical fixed podcast. It's a
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