Unlocking the Potential of Fungi with Tradd Cotter

Unlocking the Potential of Fungi with Tradd Cotter

🍄Support this podcast by becoming a Mushroom Member [https://fungiacademy.com/mushroom-membership/] Tradd Cotter is the author of the best-selling book Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation (2014) and has won numerous awards for his work, including the prestigious 2013 Clemson University Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the 2011 EPA GRO-U Fellowship Award, and the 2021 Gary Lincoff Award at the Telluride Mushroom Festival. His ongoing research projects include bacterial interactions with fungi, mycopesticides, novel antibiotic discovery, and the isolation of native mycorrhizal species for bioregional-specific inoculants for plants. Tradd currently is co-owner of Blue Portal Wellness, a mycologically-focused company specializing in psychedelic therapy and cultivation, medicinal innovations, and industrial applications for fungi In this episode we get into disaster-relief mushroom cultivation: turning peanut hulls, lemongrass, coconut fiber, and other overlooked agricultural waste into fast-fruiting oyster mushroom substrates in places like Haiti and Jamaica, and why the right high-carbon substrate matters as much as the strain. Tradd tells the story of how his late mother sent him a dried, salt-soaked mushroom she found on a Key West beach that became the basis for his remediation work with living mycelium bricks, water filters, and even mosquito-repelling compounds. We talk about his journey from a 20-year-old growing portabellas in his parents' house to founding Mushroom Mountain, his upcoming second book, and where his thinking is headed next: bioregional mycorrhizae, food sovereignty, topsoil collapse, and rebuilding our relationship with the fungal kingdom. We close, appropriately, on morel season. 🪷Follow Tradd [https://www.instagram.com/traddcotter/] 🧪Check out HALO Extracts [https://www.blueportalretreat.com/halo-mushroom-extracts] 📖Get his book [https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/tradd-cotter/] 🌋Join our upcoming Psychedelic Cohort [https://fungiacademy.com/journeywork-cohort/]

Fungi: Creatures & Culture with Kit Ondaatje Rolls

🍄Support this podcast by becoming a Mushroom Member [https://fungiacademy.com/mushroom-membership/] Kit Ondaatje Rolls is a mycologist, artist, and writer whose debut book, Fungi, Creatures and Cultures, releases July 21st. With a background in social anthropology and a master's in biodesign, she has worked at Bristol Fungarium, a medicinal mushroom company, where she lived in a cabin in the woods immersed in cultivation, extraction, and fermentation. Her work braids together three threads — art, ecology, and culture — and her book reflects that: structured as a "compass" of seven chapters, it gathers thirty-two short stories, each built around an interview with a key figure in the mycological world, to explore how fungi can guide us into different parts of ourselves. In this episode we follow the winding, tangent-rich path that took Kit from a panel at COP26 to a five-year book project on fungi. We talk about her unconventional writing process, walking and speaking each chapter into voice memos before transcribing them, and the compass structure that maps fungi onto the underworld, the spiritual, the ecological, and the in-between. Kit shares her experience of the Wild Biome Project, eating only wild food for three months: shooting the deer that fed her the whole season, milling acorn-and-mushroom flour, and what it taught her about limitation as a creative force. We get into her London Native Fungi Library, the strange laws around foraging protected mushrooms, the blurry line between wild and feral, taboos around what we'll put in our bodies, and why fungi make such a perfect entry point into ecological thinking and interconnectedness. 🪷Follow Kit [https://www.instagram.com/kit.kat.fat/] 📝 [https://kitondaatjerolls.com/]Check out her work [https://kitondaatjerolls.com/] 📖Pre-order her book [https://watkinspublishinglinks.com/fungi-links] 🌋Join our upcoming Psychedelic Cohort [https://fungiacademy.com/journeywork-cohort/]

The Mushroom Renaissance with Eugenia Bone

🍄Support this podcast by becoming a Mushroom Member [https://fungiacademy.com/mushroom-membership/] Eugenia Bone is the award‑winning author or coauthor of nine books on biology and food, including the category staple Mycophilia, the Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook, and most recently Have a Good Trip: Exploring the Magic Mushroom Experience. Her work has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, Saveur, BBC Science, and The Wall Street Journal, and she has lectured widely at institutions including the New York Public Library, Denver Botanical Garden, and Telluride Mushroom Festival. A former president of the New York Mycological Society and faculty member at the New York Botanical Garden, she continues to teach and write on food, fungi, microbes, and psychedelics. In this episode we explore the evolution of mushroom culture and mycology over the past decade and a half. Eugenia reflects on how public interest in fungi has expanded, particularly during the pandemic, when outdoor foraging and curiosity about psychedelics converged. We talked about the growing diversity of mycological clubs, the tension between cultural enthusiasm and limited academic pathways, and the role of curiosity in driving both science and writing. Our conversation also touched on the challenges of science communication, the accessibility of amateur mycology, and how fungi serve as a gateway to ecological thinking and interconnectedness. 🪷Follow Eugenia [https://www.instagram.com/eugeniagbone/] 📝Check out her Substack [https://substack.com/@eugeniabone?] 🌋Join one of our Immersions [https://fungiacademy.com/in-person-mushroom-immersions/]

Fungal Intelligence with Taye Bright

Mycologist, artist, and scientist Tay Bright reflects on intelligence, truth, and the mysterious decision-making of fungi. From childhood curiosity in Florida swamps to discovering mycology after college, she shares how fungi reshaped her understanding of life and guided her path as a scientist and teacher. This episode explores how mycelial networks communicate, whether fungi “decide” through chemical signals, and how truth in biology is always shifting with new discoveries. The conversation weaves between the Gaia hypothesis, morphogenic fields, and the shimmering uncertainty of what is real — reminding us that science is both rigorous and endlessly open-ended. From the overlooked fungal kingdom to the possibility of bridging communication with mycelium, listeners are invited into a journey of curiosity, humility, and wonder at life’s interconnectedness. 🪷Follow Taye [https://www.instagram.com/symbiiotica/] https://www.instagram.com/hamiltonsmushrooms/ 🍄Support this podcast by becoming a Mushroom Member [https://fungiacademy.com/mushroom-membership/] 🌋Join one of our Immersions [https://fungiacademy.com/in-person-mushroom-immersions/]

Freedom, Fatherhood, and Fungi with Hamilton

Adventurer, filmmaker, and mushroom cultivator Hamilton reflects on the lessons of freedom, surrender, and responsibility. From hitchhiking across continents to farming in Nepal, this episode explores how openness to the generosity of strangers and the mystery of psychedelics can shape a life of purpose. From hitchhiking to cultivating food and medicine in Nepal, surviving earthquakes, and ultimately dedicating his life to mycology. Along the way, he reveals how surrender, intuition, and community have guided him from youthful exploration to fatherhood and entrepreneurship. 🪷Follow Hamilton [https://www.instagram.com/hamiltonsmushrooms/] 🍄Support this podcast by becoming a Mushroom Member [https://fungiacademy.com/mushroom-membership/] 🌋Join one of our Immersions [https://fungiacademy.com/in-person-mushroom-immersions/]