Marty speaks with Kaitlyn Kuehn (KK), creator and host of the Flora Funga Podcast, discussing recent developments in real world applications of fungi, and speculating about the possible roles fungi may play in our science fictional future. We discuss their use as recreational drugs, and the current regulatory and legalization landscape. We talk about creating new materials from fungi, from making bricks in space to creating new green materials for packaging, hats and shoes on earth. We consider fungi in water efficient vertical farming, using yeasts and molds as pesticides, and if they might be helpful in farming insects for as a source of protein. And finally, we do a bit of science fictional thinking about Fungi as a possible agent of panspermia for seeding life on new worlds, creating ecological footholds on dead planets, and as a catalyst for biodiversity.

https://www.florafungapodcast.com/

We touch on a couple FF episodes in this interview:
Ep 135 with Chris Pauli from Tryptomics:
https://www.florafungapodcast.com/florafungapodcast/135
Ep 77 with Adam Cobb from the Soil Food Web School
https://www.florafungapodcast.com/florafungapodcast/77

Buzzsprout (podcast host):
https://thescienceinthefiction.buzzsprout.com

Email:
thescienceinthefiction@gmail.com

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/743522660965257/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MartyK5463

We speak with M. R. Carey about his book 'The Girl With All The Gifts', where the zombie fungus Cordyceps plays a central role in bringing about the end of civilization. We talk about the appeal of a post-apocalyptic story and discuss some of the science in Merlin Sheldrake’s book 'Entangled Life': scientific revolutions and evolutions, gestalt shifts, the ancient evolutionary history of fungi, how they can be both parasitic and symbiotic, and how all of life is like a lichen. Mike tells us how he came to be a writer, and about his experience of benevolent presences on psilocybin – and the ineffability of the psychedelic experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Carey_(writer)

https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/contributor/m-r-carey-2/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17235026-the-girl-with-all-the-gifts

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547056/

Buzzsprout (podcast host):
https://thescienceinthefiction.buzzsprout.com

Email:
thescienceinthefiction@gmail.com

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/743522660965257/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MartyK5463

Beginning our highly anticipated new topic of Sci-Fi Fungi, we talk to science fiction author Benjamin Percy about the second book of his Comet Cycle, 'The Unfamiliar Garden'. We discuss Ben's writing career in comic books and novels and soon TV and film, the literary treatment that space fungus gets in this book, as well as the human and emotional stakes that make it a really good story. We discuss the goodies and the baddies of the fungal world, lichenification, symbiosis, collective intelligence, creating wonder and seeing the world with fresh eyes.

https://benjaminpercy.com/

https://benjaminpercy.com/novels/the-unfamiliar-garden/

Buzzsprout (podcast host):
https://thescienceinthefiction.buzzsprout.com

Email:
thescienceinthefiction@gmail.com

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/743522660965257/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MartyK5463