Fire Loving Fungi

The opioid epidemic continues to devastate families and communities across America, leaving researchers and clinicians desperately searching for new treatment approaches. What if a compound found in mushrooms could help break the cycle of addiction? In this riveting conversation, ...  Show more

Today we travel to Lithuania to explore Dzūkija National Park and experience nugrybauti which is a lithuanian word that means to get lost in the woods while looking for mushrooms. We sit down with Tomas Baltušis, an avid mushroom hunter to take us on a gastronomic and fungal dive ...  Show more

When you hear the word fungi, chances are mushrooms come to mind: button mushrooms, maybe portobellos, or chanterelles. But so much of the fungi kingdom is invisible — underground — and many say underappreciated. Fungi are vital to life on the planet, but scientists are just begi ...  Show more

Fungal infections don’t often make an appearance on this podcast, but when they do, you know you’re in for a wild ride. In this episode, we explore the rare but potentially deadly fungal infection blastomycosis. We trace the journey of Blastomyces spores as they depar ...

As regular listeners may recall, CrowdScience has delved into the strange world of fungi before, as we dug down into the forest floor to reveal how plants and trees are connected to the vast mycelial network known as the “wood wide web”. But what makes this network possible an ...

Do fungi breathe? That’s what listener Alice wants to know - and we’ll find out in our punniest episode yet! We visit the Fungarium - the largest and oldest collection of fungi in the world with curator Lee Davies, who describes himself as a “librarian” of mushrooms. We’ll explor ...  Show more