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Recode Daily

The mushroom detectives of Facebook

Recode Daily

Recode

Science, Technology, Society & Culture

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a loved one eats a potentially deadly plant in the front yard, time is of the essence. A Facebook group is stepping in to help users get answers right away. Reporter Chia-Yi Hou (@chiayi_hou) explains. Read Chia-Yi’s story here: https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/22800793/mushroo… Today’s episode was produced by Alan Rodriguez Espinoza (@ardzes) and Tori Dominguez (@tori_as_always), engineered by Melissa Pons, and hosted by Adam Clark Estes (@adamclarkestes). =Support Recode Daily by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Darren Brown. I've made a career out of learning the inner workings of our brilliantly messed up brains.

0:08.0

So together with the help of powerful human stories, expert advice and the odd experiment will help you wrestle control over your life, fears and emotions.

0:22.0

The complete Darren Brown boot camp series, listen now on Audible.

0:25.0

Subscription required see audible.co.uk for terms.

0:36.0

It's Rico Daley. I'm Adam Clark Estes.

0:39.0

If you're a parent or a dog owner, you've probably found yourself in this next scenario.

0:44.0

It's a nice day out, so you let your kid or your pup play outside for a little while.

0:48.0

But when you look out the window, you see something suspicious. They're chewing.

0:53.0

And whatever it is in their mouth, it didn't come from you. It looks like something they picked up off the ground.

0:58.0

So you rush outside and take a closer look, and it's a white mushroom. You have no idea whether it's poisonous or not.

1:05.0

To scary feeling and unfortunately, the usual poison control hotlines don't always give you answers as soon as you need them.

1:11.0

You might leave you on hold for hours or just direct you to their email or website.

1:16.0

Luckily, there's an online group that's filling in those gaps.

1:23.0

Reporter Chiai Yi Ho has been talking with folks from that growing community.

1:27.0

They work day and night to identify plants and fungi that could be dangerous.

1:31.0

She's here to tell us about it. Chiai Yi, thanks for joining us.

1:34.0

Hi, thanks for having me.

1:36.0

So you've been talking to the members of this group Poisons Help for a little while. Can you describe them for us?

1:43.0

Sure. Similar to a lot of other interest groups, they gathered online because of their shared interest in plants and fungi.

1:52.0

They like to talk to each other about things that they've seen and their foraging experience when they go out and look for mushrooms.

2:01.0

So a lot of groups popped up on Facebook for the purpose of sharing things like photos and descriptions of specimens that they've seen.

2:12.0

And sometimes they may not know what the species is.

...

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