“As environmental crises have worsened, people have become aware of the many shimmering networks of connection that we’re bound up in,” Sheldrake explains. But the symbolic functions that fungi fulfill are perhaps what most capture our imaginations. As a result, they suddenly seem to be everywhere: sprouting from grow kits on our counters, inspiring haute couture collections, and starring in award-winning books and films.Īccording to Sheldrake, the burgeoning public interest in fungi-a kingdom that includes everything from yeast and varieties of mold to psychedelics and the shiitake in your fridge-coincides with a growing body of knowledge about them. Recently, they’ve been receiving a bit more recognition for the many crucial roles they play in our ecosystems. They are, as biologist Merlin Sheldrake likes to say, “worldmakers.” Though often overshadowed in the human imagination by animals and plants, fungi have altered the course of planetary history in dramatic ways, influencing everything from global climate and religion to food systems and evolutionary biology. When you start learning about everything fungi can do, it’s hard not to see them as protagonists in the story of life on Earth.
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