What If the Material of the Future Is Something We Grow? – Fungi Panel I Talks 21

What if you could grow a boat, sail it across the ocean, and then use the same material to clean poisoned soil?

In this episode of Talks 21, I sit down with three guests connected by one topic: fungi.

Danielle Stevenson is an environmental toxicologist who cleans polluted land and water using fungi and plants.

Andrew Carter has spent twenty years in mushroom production and indoor farming.

Sam Shoemaker is a Los Angeles-based sculptor who grew a boat from mycelium and paddled it 26 miles (42 kilometres) from Santa Catalina Island to Los Angeles.

In this episode, we discuss:
🔹 Why, according to Danielle, around 70 percent of land worldwide is degraded, and how fungi can clean it in place instead of digging it up and dumping it elsewhere.
🔹 How Sam grew and built his boat, what it was like to spend twelve hours crossing open ocean in it, and what potential he sees for fungi to replace materials we rely on today.
🔹 Why Andrew believes lesser-known mushrooms deserve a place in our diets, and what it takes to grow them at scale.
🔹 Why some of the most sought-after mushrooms have never been successfully cultivated, and what that says about how much remains unknown.

🔗 If you would like to learn more about the work of my guests, you can find Danielle Stevenson at danielle-stevenson.com. Sam Shoemaker's sculptural work and his open-source mycelium-building guide are available at samkshoemaker.com. Andrew Carter shares his work on mushroom production and indoor farming on LinkedIn.

Timestamps
0:00:00 Theme song
0:00:13 Introduction
0:02:58 How Mushrooms Can Pull Heavy Metals From Soil
0:06:52 How Indoor Farming Is Bringing More Mushrooms to Our Plates
0:10:00 Why Mushrooms Might Be the Building Material of the Future
0:14:37 How Fungi Secretly Connect the Whole Forest
0:25:08 What Is Mycoremediation, and Why Isn't It Scaling Up
0:34:09 Why Mushrooms Deserve a Place in Your Diet
0:40:38 Why Mushroom Materials Aren't as New as You Think
0:54:33 Where You Can Learn More From Our Guests

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