Cedar Falls Mycology Podcast

Episode #19 "Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless" Book Review Featuring Maria Pinto

Alright good people, welcome to episode #19 where we are going to discuss the book “Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless”  with the author Maria Pinto.  This book is not a textbook about fungi.. It’s more of a mycozooistic memoir about things Maria has learned from her interactions and her personal relationship with fungi throughout the years. Maria starts her book with a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson so we’re gonna start this episode by reading that. “Nature,  through all her kingdoms, ensures herself. Nobody cares for planting the poor fungus: so she shakes down from the gills of one of agaric countless spores. Any one of which, being preserved, transmits new billions of spores tomorrow or the next day... a fearless, sleepless, deathless progeny, which is not exposed to the accidents of the weary kingdom of time.” To say Maria Pinto is unique as a mycologist is an understatement.  First of all she was born in Jamaica and grew up in Florida.  The jacket of the book describes her as a black naturalist.  Her growing up as a Caribbean Native  has given here a different perspective on the world than your average mycologist. Her world view is unique or at least poorly documented,  this has lead to the creation of a book that unlike many other mushroom books would be best described as... Beautiful.  Early mycology authors often used huge words that would bury the reader in vocabulary words, making a complicated subject even more confusing and intangible.  A lot of other books are just a regurgitation of science published in other sources.  This book draws its unique inspiration  from art, poetry and the largely undocumented history of Africans living in the Caribbean. Which brings us into the realm of theoretical mycology which I know we all love. This unique take on the world makes this book fascinating and hard to put down.   Whether she is referring to Christopher Columbus as being, “the name we never speak”... or addressing  the Kingdom of Fungi as the Queendom of fungi, or her passion for eating dirt as a kid or her preferred “party go to move” of laying on the floor rubbing a   dogs belly.  Throughout this book you really get to know this likable woman and join her on here mycology adventures. Maria is joining us today so let’s ask her some questions.

Episode #18 Checking In With The PSMS Featuring Danny Miller and Wren Hudgins

On Today’s episode we are going to talk about the Puget Sound Mycological Society commonly called the PSMS.  We actually have two guests here today and they are co-chairs of the PSMS Education department. The first is Danny Miller.  Danny helps to design and teach the curriculum for the club’s mycology classes.  He is also the club Librarian, and ID Committee co-ordinator and he is an emergency poisoning point person for King County Poison Control. Our second guest is mycologist Wren Hudgins.  Wren has been a member of PSMS for 49 years. He teaches identification classes, trains foraging guides and takes new club members out on field trips.   We are podcasting from The Cedar Falls Tree house in beautiful North Bend Washington.  The Cedar Falls Treehouse is a mycology education facility available through Airbnb.  Come join us for a magical evening immersed in the fascinating world of Fungi.

Episode #17 "Hawaiian Fungi Diversity" Checking In With Graham Steinruck

Greetings everyone. This is Tim Leavitt from Cedar Falls Mycology,  We also have my co-host Dan Sullivan here today.   Welcome to Episode #17 of the  podcast where we ask ourselves not what the fungi can do for us... But what we can do  for the fungi.  Join us as we explore the world of Fungi... a world not more complex than you think but more complex than you can think.   Today’s guest is  the well rounded mycologist Graham Steinruck.   Graham is a renown mushroom chef and taxonomist.   He is the founder of the Biodiversity Collective a project focusing on the conservation of Fungi in Hawaii. He also regularly gives lectures on Fungi and Taxonomy across the country.   It took awhile to track him down but he is here now.   We are podcasting from The Cedar Falls Tree house in beautiful North Bend Washington.  The Cedar Falls Treehouse is a mycology education facility available through Airbnb.  Come join us for a magical evening immersed in the fascinating world of Fungi.

Episode #16 Boletatacae That Induce Hallucinations of Little People Featuring Colin Domnauer

Greetings everyone. This is Tim Leavitt from Cedar Falls Mycology,   Welcome to Episode #16 of the  podcast where we ask ourselves not what the fungi can do for us... But what we can do  for the fungi.  Join us as we explore the world of Fungi... a world not more complicated than you think but more complicated than you can think.   Todays episodes guest is Colin Domnauer.  Colin is a professor and phd student at The University of Utah and works with with the fungi esteemed Dentinger Lab and the  Natural History Museum of Utah .  Colin is a Bay Area California native whose research focuses on unravelling the ethnomycological mystery of psychoactive bolete mushrooms.  .  On today's episode we are going to discuss the fascinating topic of South East Asian Boletes that are known to consistently produce hallucinations of little people.   We are podcasting from The Cedar Falls Tree house in beautiful North Bend Washington.  The Cedar Falls Treehouse is a mycology education facility available through Airbnb.  Come join us for a magical evening immersed in the fascinating world of Fungi.   Please keep in mind while listening  to this that  some of what you are about to  hear is speculation or the opinion of the commentator and does not necessarily  reflect the opinion of... Jenn the producer.

Episode #15 Checking In With Cedar Falls Mycology Featuring Guest Host Dan Sullivan

Greetings everyone. This is Tim Leavitt from Cedar Falls Mycology,   Welcome to Episode #15 of the  podcast where we ask ourselves not what the fungi can do for us... But what we can do  for the fungi.  Join us as we explore the world of Fungi... A world not more complicated than you think but more complicated than you can think. Today's episode is going to be a little different.  It has been brought to my attention that everyone who listens to this has no idea who I am or what we are up to here at the  Cedar Falls Treehouse.  Jenn the producer is to mean to do the interview herself so she hired my mycophilic co-host Dan Sullivan  who was supposed to be my co-host the whole time... but she didn’t hire the first time so she hired him back  for todays episode.  Jen is not here today so the show may sound a little less professional.   We are podcasting from The Cedar Falls Tree house in beautiful North Bend Washington.  The Cedar falls treehouse is a mycology education facility available through Airbnb.  Come join us for a magical evening immersed in the fascinating world of Fungi.