February Reading; “Oh What Tangled Webs are Woven” (Patreon)

Hello,

February is here, and already more than half-gone. Short months are like that, and production months all the more so. Undersigned is making the rounds on the East Coast, so I’m all hands on deck in the ongoing experiment of figuring out how a piece like this “tours” (answer - joyfully, impactfully, haltingly, and with great difficulty). For this month, we’re covering an unexpected commission I received, and the something-stranger-than-a-rabbit hole I went down to chase it. It all starts with a book…

"The book was dampened and inoculated with Pleurotus (oyster mushroom) mycelium. The mycelium then digested the pages - and the words - of the book, and sprouted over the course of seven days. Pleurotus can digest many things - from crude oil to used cigarette butts - and is one of the fungal species that shows the most promise in mycoremediation. It is also delicious when fried lightly with garlic and will make it possible for the author to eat his words."

Photo Credit: DRK Videography. Shamelessly sourced from the Amazon posting for this book

“Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds”

by Merlin Sheldrake

I received a commission to help shape some experimental content for a Tu BiShvat observation this past January, and since the topic of the canopy above was already being thoroughly covered, I thought I’d chase the content of a half-remembered Radiolab and look at the canopies below us to explore the networks between us (more on all that later in the Archive Highlight).

And so, as is my general pattern, I started my research by attempting to ingest as much general information as possible at 1.5-3.5x speed in order to build an initial frame of reference, downloading essentially any podcast episode that came up for the search term “mycelial network” (which is not really that many on the platform I use). I was quite taken with one interview with Merlin Sheldrake, and as I had a vague recollection* of hearing good things about his book, I launched into it mostly trying to clarify my understanding of the science and terms. Instead I was totally blindsided by one of the most interesting, puzzling, thought-provoking and charming books I’ve encountered in a long while. It absolutely delivers on the target knowledge, but also unfurls to feel like a book about many things, and a collection of questions that have no easy answers.

*do I have any recollections that aren’t vague, half-remembered, or otherwise a sort of mess of “I’m pretty sure I once heard something about ….?”

I don’t know - I can’t remember

Related Reading

“From Tree to Shining Tree”

Radiolab, 2016
Produced by Annie McEwen and Brenna Farrell. Special Thanks to Latif Nasser, Stephanie Tam, Teresa Ryan, Marc Guttman, and Professor Nicholas P. Money at Miami University.

On hearing this episode way back in 2016, the force of reimaging my idea of trees, plants, and organisms as individuals or networks hit me like a brick. And while I know understand that this episode leans into a particular interpretation of the research that Sheldrake calls us to reexamine, it happens to be an interpretation I find to be a pretty useful image, and one that I think has a phenomenal capacity to inspire novel or radical visions for ways of being. Also, say what you will about the limitations of the “science, wonder and whimsy” factory, but when Radiolab hits, it hits.

“blackforager”

Content by Alexis Nikole

A very uncommon reading rec, but since I’m challenging myself to expand my ideas of useful mediums (translation - trying to not be a human that communicates solely by sharing podcast recommendations), here we are experimenting.

This is the instagram account of one of my favorite creators, a self described “foraging teacher/enviro sci enthusiast” with an absolutely infectious enthusiasm for nature, the outdoors, and the cornucopia of small pleasures that is regarding all the small things you find in an ecosystem as “charming little guys.” If you’ve ever enjoyed having a friend who can name all the trees you pass on your walk, Nikole is that friend, but also singing, and also hilarious. She has the rare quality among internet stars of feeling like she absolutely was doing all the same things before the flashlight of social-media-virality fell upon her, and one feels assured that her content essentially exists mostly as an irrepressible expression of just being so fucking jazzed about picking stuff off the ground and eating it. Through it all, she tries to underscores opportunities to be self-reliant, and to have an immediate connection to the natural world by way of a love of snacking.

Not about that Instagram life? Totally understand (and congratulations on making a nature preserve of your tiny, defended sliver of sanity). You can just go straight to her linktree for articles and other sources of interest here.