Thea Chesney is a lifelong Sierra Nevada foothill resident and naturalist. She has had an interest in mushrooms (and plants, and the rest of the natural world) since early childhood, which gradually became an obsession. She holds a B.S. in forestry from UC Berkeley, with an emphasis in botany and natural sciences. During her time at Berkeley, she spent plenty of time working and hanging out in the Berkeley mycology labs and continues to return to campus to provide specimens for and aid in teachi...
Sep 26, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Ep 97•Transcript available on Metacast Get Your Tickets for the 1st Oakland Psychedelic Conference: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oakland-psychedelic-conference-tickets-169188460239?ref=eios Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are beyond blessed to be joined by three members of Oakland’s own Hyphae Labs, Ian Bollinger, Tomás Garret and Reggie who has joined us on the podcast previously. Inspired by early-life transformative experiences with psilocybin-containing mushrooms, Reggie has had a lifelong passion for mycology and now consu...
Sep 17, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we have the distinct privilege of being joined by Dr. Andy Letcher. Dr. Letcher is a writer, performer and scholar of religion who began life as an ecologist, completing his D.Phil in Ecology at Oxford University. After a spell as an environmental activist during the 90s, especially during the anti-roads protests, he moved across to the humanities, completing a PhD at King Alfred’s College Winchester. He is an expert on contemporary alternative spiritualities, ...
Sep 12, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep 95•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by internationally renowned herbalist Dr. Christopher Hobbs. Dr. Hobbs is a fourth-generation herbalist, licensed acupuncturist, herbal clinician, research scientist, consultant to the dietary supplement industry, expert witness, botanist and mycologist with over 35 years of experience. He is also a prolific writer and has authored or co-authored over 20 books, including the new “Christopher Hobbs’s Medicinal Mushrooms, the Essential Guide.” Christopher has l...
Sep 06, 2021•2 hr 33 min•Ep 94•Transcript available on Metacast Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are joined by Bryce Alex, Doctoral Student at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Bryce is originally from Utah and he spent time working as a graduate student and Masters Candidate in the legendary Dentinger Lab at the University of Utah. His mycological research work has involved important players when it comes to fungal ecology that are largely invisible and many of us may have never heard of. He has worked on projects involving metabarcoding fungal prop...
Aug 30, 2021•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we have are graced by the presence of Bill Sheehan PhD and Gabriela D’Elia of the Fungal Diversity Survey - also known as FunDiS. Bill Sheehan is the co-founder and president of FunDiS and Gabriela is currently FunDiS Deep Funga Blog Editor. FunDiS aims to increase scientific knowledge and public awareness of the critical role of fungi in the health of our ecosystems and to better utilize and protect them in a world of rapid climate change and habitat loss. They do this by...
Aug 22, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep 92•Transcript available on Metacast Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we have the privilege of speaking with Brian Perry PhD, Associate Professor of Biology at California State University, East Bay. He received his Master's Degree from San Francisco State University under the guidance of Dr. Dennis E. Desjardin, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University where he studied with Dr. Donald H. Pfister. Brian has been studying fungi since 1995, and has published over 45 papers in scientific journals. In addition to studying the evolut...
Aug 14, 2021•2 hr 49 min•Ep 91•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour it is our great privilege to be joined by Tess Burzynski - founder, head educator and cultivator at Fungi Freights Urban Lab and Environmental Studio. A Science degree graduate from Wayne State University, she works as an Environmental Scientist and continues doing research with mycoremediation in the city of Detroit. Tess is a member of the Michigan Mushroom Hunters Club and the North American Mycological Association. Throughout her studies she has learned the role myceli...
Aug 06, 2021•51 min•Ep 90•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with John Rensten. John lived and worked and foraged in London for 20 years before finally escaping to Dorset, via Hampshire, in 2016 to concentrate on mushroom hunting and coastal foraging. He runs and organizes numerous urban foraging events, wild food walks and mushroom forays. On a daily basis, John studies wild food, picks wild food and really obsesses about wild food! He has a deep passion for sharing what he has learned, running cit...
Jul 29, 2021•2 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast *WARNING - This episode in no way condemns or condones the use of any substance. For educational and research purposes only* Today we are joined by entheogenic researcher Amanita Dreamer. In her former life, Amanita Dreamer was a scientist, an educator and a homesteading mother. Today she shares important information on that most famous of mushrooms, the Amanita muscaria. She looked for years for a natural alternative for help with chronic panic and anxiety and when she found this most iconic mu...
Jul 17, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep 88•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by adventurer and mycologist Danny Haelewaters PhD. Danny Haelewaters holds a Bachelor’s in Veterinary Sciences, a Master of Science in biology, and a PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. During his Masters program he developed a new technology to analyze forensic relevant fungi in casework at the Netherlands Forensic Institute. Between 2012 and 2018, he worked at the Farlow Herbarium of the Harvard University Herbaria (Cambridge, MA) as a PhD student....
Jul 08, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Get your tickets now for "THE FUTURE IS FUNGI" Event on 6/26/21: https://ffungi.org/eng/the-future-is-fungi/ Today we are joined be two powerful advocates for queendom fungi, Giuliana Furci and Nathalie Kelley. Giuliana’s journey began at the age of 19, looking for native foxes in a forest on the Island of Chiloé when she came across a fungus that changed her course. Giuliana believes that fungi choose you, and she heard that call. She did not find field guides on fungi in Chile, so sh...
Jun 23, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we are joined by Dr. Michael Perlin, Professor in Biology at the University of Louisville. Dr. Perlin’s interests drew him to study host/pathogen interactions at the University of Chicago and his PhD work centered on the evolution of bacterial resistance to certain classes of antibiotics/antimicrobials. As he was near to completing his degree, a friend of his stopped by the lab and introduced him to a different microbial system: a fungal pathogen that infects f...
Jun 18, 2021•2 hr 35 min•Ep 85•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with Darren Springer AKA Darren Le Barron. Darren Springer is an educator, researcher and event organizer based in the UK. Known around the world for his Shroomshop Master classes he is a keen mushroom cultivator and teacher and has been growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms for the last ten years. By day he is an Organic Horticulturist and Food Enterprise tutor and has translated his home growing experience into a social enterprise. Dar...
Jun 10, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Ep 84•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are graced by the presence of wild food expert and author Robin Harford. Robin is a plant-based forager, ethnobotanical researcher and wild food educator. He has published numerous foraging guidebooks and established his own wild food foraging school in 2008. His foraging courses were recently voted #1 in the UK by BBC Countryfile. Robin is the creator of Eatweeds which is listed in The Times Top 50 websites for food and drink. He has travelled extensively documenting a...
Jun 03, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep 83•Transcript available on Metacast Today on the Mushroom Hour Podcast we have the privilege of speaking with Dr. Matt Kasson, Associate Professor of Forest Pathology and Mycology at West Virginia University. Dr. Kasson received his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the Pennsylvania State University where his research focused on using a native fungus, Verticillium nonalfalfae, as a biological control of the invasive tree, Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven). He also holds an A.A.S. from Paul Smiths College and a B.S. and M.S. from th...
May 20, 2021•2 hr 39 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by magnanimous mushroom mogul Britt Bunyard. Britt is the founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of the mycology journal Fungi . Britt received a Masters in Botany from Clemson University and a PhD in Plant Pathology from Penn State University. He has worked academically (and played very amateurishly) as a mycologist his entire career, writing scientifically for many research journals, popular science magazines, and books. He has served as an editor for myco...
May 13, 2021•2 hr 31 min•Ep 81•Transcript available on Metacast Professor Simard's must-read first book "Finding the Mother Tree" is OUT NOW: https://suzannesimard.com/finding-the-mother-tree-book/ This book will change how you see forests and how you understand the relationships between trees and fungi. Today we have the humbling opportunity to speak with the incomparable Professor Suzanne Simard. Suzanne is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been compared to Rachel Carson, hailed as a scientist who conve...
May 04, 2021•2 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by mycophagy legend Larry Evans. Larry Evans is a mushroom hunter, teacher, cultivator, song writer, and cook. He has been instrumental in organizing forays, festivals, and workshops in Colorado, Montana, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, Bolivia, and now Jamaica. He is a founder of the Western Montana Mycological Association, wrote a field guide to mushrooms of the Amazon, and appeared in Ron Mann’s come-documentary Know Your Mushrooms. His vast body of ...
Apr 29, 2021•2 hr 31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of Reggie, activist, mycologist and founder of Oakland Hyphae. Reggie studied political science at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and now has over a decade of political campaign experience ranging from local and state-level races to 3 Presidential races to working with the New York State Democrats, the DCCC, and the DNC. On the West Coast Reggie worked on a local level to replace police in schools with guidance counselors for ...
Apr 20, 2021•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we have the privilege of speaking with Jeff Lowenfels. Jeff is the author of the Award-winning books “Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide To The Soil Food Web”, “Teaming With Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition” and “Teaming With Fungi: The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae” . Jeff Lowenfels has become a leader in the organic gardening/sustainability movement because of these best-selling books. His “Guide to the soil f...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the incredible myco-maven Mia Maltz PhD. As a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Biomedical Sciences at UC Riverside, her research focuses on fungal communities and functional ecology in novel ecosystems, including pumice plains, drying lakebeds, and the lung mycobiome. Mia studied at the University of California, Irvine where she received my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, with an emphasis on Ecological Restoration and Fungi....
Apr 08, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast Anthony Basil Rodriguez is a New York-born independent photographer and filmmaker. Since childhood he has been oriented toward a range of visual worlds. As a teenager, Anthony began to carry around an old film camera that his younger brother had lying around from a school project. Eventually taking his hobby more seriously, Anthony obtained a job pushing carts in order to buy his first digital camera. One day after a thunderstorm he was discovered by a local news station knee-deep in floodwaters...
Mar 24, 2021•46 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of Ryan Paul Gates, founder of Terrestrial Fungi. Ryan has spent the last ten+ years collecting and breeding fungal cultures from around the world. The strains he is probably most famous for propagating and breeding are cordyceps and ganoderma mushrooms. Ryan was really an early pioneer at popularizing cordyceps cultivation in the US, exposing us to techniques used from all over the globe. His team at Terrestrial Fungi are constantly hunting ...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we have the honor of speaking with journalist and author Doug Bierend. His new book “In Search of Mycotopia” dives into the neglected mega-science of mycology and introduces readers to the weird and wonderful communities of citizen scientists and microbe devotees who are leading the modern mycological movement. Doug uncovers a diverse cadre of growers, independent researchers, ecologists, entrepreneurs, and amateur enthusiasts, exploring and advocating for fungi’s capacity to improve and h...
Mar 10, 2021•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the distinguished Bryn Dentinger, Curator of Mycology at the Natural History Museum of Utah and Associate Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Utah. Bryn hails from Minnesota and attended the University of Minnesota for his PhD, where he studied the molecular systematics of clavarioid and porcini mushrooms. He has carried out fieldwork all over the world, including exciting collecting trips to Vietnam, Brazil, and Cameroon. He spent yea...
Mar 01, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we’re excited to speak with Erica Davis, founder of Wild Food Girl. Erica started writing her adventures with wild food back in 2009 at her blog, and later in a monthly magazine called “Wild Edible Notebook.” She teaches a course on useful plants at Colorado Mountain College and conducts plant walks around the state. She is also a regular presenter at the Midwest Wild Harvest Festival in Wisconsin. Erica’s educational background includes a BA in archaeology, an elementary ...
Feb 22, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are blessed by the presence of inventor & bio-designer Bob Hendrikx, coming to us all the way from the Netherlands. Through his work at Studio Hendrikx, Bob strives to restore the parasitic relationship between humanity and its environment by expanding the horizon of human imagination and exploring living materials. His Living Cocoon project has captured headlines around the world with a coffin made from mycelium that helps bodies decompose faster while improving th...
Feb 15, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on Mushroom Hour we are graced by the presence of Tradd Cotter, coming to us from Mushroom Mountain. Tradd Cotter is a microbiologist, professional mycologist, and organic gardener, who has been tissue culturing, collecting native fungi in the Southeast, and cultivating both commercially and experimentally for more than twenty-five years. In 1996 he founded Mushroom Mountain, which he owns and operates with his wife, Olga, to explore applications for mushrooms in various industries and cur...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are blessed by the presence of Adam Haritan, founder of Learn Your Land. Adam started the famous Learn Your Land platform in 2014 out of a desire to connect naturalists with people who wanted to learn from naturalists. Learn Your Land is an advertisement-free media channel, helping people to improve their nature skills one species at a time. He spends most of my days either looking for mushrooms/plants/trees, researching mushrooms/plants/trees, filming mushrooms/plants/trees, or editing...
Feb 01, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast 
