Fungi Academy Podcast

About Fungi Academy Podcast

The Fungi Academy Podcast dives into the world of fungi, psychedelics, and community weaving together cutting-edge science, ancestral wisdom, and inspiring stories. Join mycologists, cultivators, and visionaries as we explore how mushrooms can transform our minds, ecosystems, and the way we connect with each other.

Publisher

Fungi Academy

Category

education · science

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

22 Nov 2025

Latest episode

13 Jul 2026

Latest episodes

11 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Jul 2026

   The State of Fungal Innovation with Marc Violo

   🍄Support this podcast by becoming a Mushroom Member (https://fungiacademy.com/mushroom-membership/) Marc Violo is the founder of MycoStories, a global fungi innovation and conservation network he started in 2022 after 15 years working across four continents in tech and sustainability — including stints at Tencent, Ogilvy & Mather, and Terracycle. With no scientific background but a serious obsession sparked by reading Peter McCoy's Radical Mycology cover to cover, he spent six months in Asia and six months in Latin America collecting stories from mushroom growers in Bolivia, mycoremediation researchers in Japan, and fungal artists in Indonesia. Today MycoStories connects a community of over 80,000 people and works with startup founders, investors, research institutions, and industry — from Decathlon to Avans University in the Netherlands — to move fungal biotech forward. In this episode we get into where fungal innovation actually stands: why mycelium packaging never quite dethroned polystyrene despite the Dell and IKEA headlines, why mycoprotein and mushroom-based foods (like Ecovative's MyBacon) are the innovation most likely to land in your household in the next decade, and how AI is now mining fungal genomes to hunt for new therapeutic molecules. Marc walks us through the circular economy in practice — fermenting tomato waste into new food products, turning discarded textiles into materials — and the surfers and climbers building mycelium surfboards and climbing holds. We talk agricultural waste as food security, oyster mushrooms as protein in Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa, mycophobia as a colonial inheritance, mycelium bricks in Namibia, NASA's self-repairing space habitats, and why conservation deserves as loud a shout-out as any corporate innovation project. 🪷Follow Marc (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcviolo/) 🍄Explore MycoStories (https://www.mycostories.com/) 📬Read the MycoStories Substack (https://mycostories.substack.com/) 🌋Join our upcoming Psychedelic Cohort (https://fungiacademy.com/journeywork-cohort/)

2. 

   6 Jul 2026

   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/)

3. 

   22 Jun 2026

   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/)

4. 

   23 Mar 2026

   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/)

5. 

   16 Feb 2026

   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/)

6. 

   2 Feb 2026

   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/)

7. 

   19 Dec 2025

   The Future is Grown, not Extracted with Catherine Euale

   Multidisciplinary artist and innovator Catherine Euale joins us to explore the living frontier of materials and technology. From ancestral ceramics and mushroom membranes to algae‑based “electric skin” that breathes with humidity, this episode reveals how design can align with nature’s intelligence. Our conversation moves through speculative bio‑design, fungal computers, and slime mold circuits, highlighting why these organisms are more than replacements for plastics or leather. Expect insights on language, sustainability, and the profound ways fungi and microbes can reshape our relationship with technology, community, and the planet itself. 🎙️Support this podcast and get yourself some Fungi Merch (https://fungiacademy.shop/) Check out Catherine's work • 🌱 Slimy Futures (Instagram) (https://www.instagram.com/slimy_futures?igsh=MTk5ODM3ZDIxMHp4ZA%3D%3D) • 🍄 Fungal Matters (Instagram) (https://www.instagram.com/fungal.matters?igsh=MWp5bnA0OWY3dmY5dQ%3D%3D) • ⚡ Electric Skin (Instagram) (https://www.instagram.com/electric.skin?igsh=MWljMDRhaGYwMDN3eg%3D%3D) • 👗 Future Wardrobe Project (Instagram) (https://www.instagram.com/future.wardrobe.project?igsh=am03ZDhod2c4NXk1) • 🎥 Fungal Matters (YouTube Channel) (https://experiment.com/projects/exploring-self-powering-biomaterials-using-embedded-proteins/discussion) • 🔬 Exploring Self‑Powering Biomaterials (https://experiment.com/projects/exploring-self-powering-biomaterials-using-embedded-proteins/discussion) • 🌐 ElectricSkin.org (http://ElectricSkin.org) • 📹 Electric Skin Project Video (https://youtu.be/5wmdQV3dfHQ?si=8fx73NFnTxyj1e1u)

8. 

   12 Dec 2025

   Entangled Ecologies with Dr. Sam Gandy

   🎙️Support this Podcast by becoming a Mushroom Member (https://fungiacademy.com/mushroom-membership/) Ecologist and mushroom cultivator Dr. Sam Gandy dives into the hidden networks that shape life on Earth. From termites farming fungi for millions of years to the microbial multitudes inside our own bodies, this episode explores how nothing truly exists in isolation. Our conversation moves from cutting‑edge psilocybin research on nature connectedness to the cultural shifts around psychedelic mushrooms, highlighting why these organisms are more than just “psilocybin carriers.” Expect insights on ecology, community, and the profound ways fungi remind us we are part of a greater whole. 🔗 Learn more about Sam's work: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/samwisegandy/?hl=en) Research Gate (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sam-Gandy-4) Chemical Collective (https://chemical-collective.com/blog/sam-gandy/) Double Blind Magazine (doubleblindmag.com/author/sam-gandy/)

9. 

   8 Dec 2025

   Psychedelics, Ontological Shock, and the Future of Consciousness with Martijn Schirp

   Psychedelic entrepreneur Martijn Schirp explores the future of consciousness, capitalism, and community. From retreats in the Netherlands to Buddhist‑inspired practice, this episode dives into how psychedelics can help us navigate collapse and build new ways of living together. In this episode of the Fungi Academy Podcast, Martijn Schirp serial psychedelic entrepreneur, co‑founder of High Existence and Synthesis Institute, and now founder of Upaiosis, shares his journey from pioneering retreats in the Netherlands to training the first wave of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy facilitators in Oregon. His latest project fuses Buddhist wisdom with psychedelic practice, offering a year‑long cohort designed to explore consciousness in community. 🪷Check out Martijn's upcoming program: a Path Between Worlds (https://www.upayosis.com/path-between-worlds?ref=f16894) 🍄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/)

10. 

    28 Nov 2025

    Africa's Untold Fungal Story with Cullen Taylor Clark

    🎙️Support this Podcast by becoming a Mushroom Member (https://fungiacademy.com/mushroom-membership/) 🚀Get 60% OFF our Online Courses until December 3rd (https://fungiacademy.com/cyberspace-sale/) In this conversation, ethnomycologist Cullen Taylor Clark shares his journey of uncovering the rich traditions of mushroom use among tribes in South Africa. He reflects on the transformative power of psychedelics, the wisdom of traditional healers, and the urgent need to document indigenous knowledge. His research project, The Lost Muti, explores the indigenous use of fungi as medicines, foods, and entheogens among South Africa’s diverse tribal communities. It documents current uses, recipes, names, myths, and more, tracing these practices back to ancient hunter-gatherer societies. Ultimately, Cullen’s work reveals that reverence for fungi as sacred allies has been woven into Southern Africa’s cultural fabric since the dawn of time. 🔗 Learn more about Cullen’s work: Aether Apothecary (https://www.aetherapothecary.com/) Lost Muti (https://www.lostmuti.com/) Instagram: @cullentaylorclark (https://instagram.com/cullentaylorclark) Patreon: patreon.com/cullentaylorclark (http://patreon.com/cullentaylorclark)

11. 

    22 Nov 2025

    Mothering Community with Karena Beana

    🎙️ Episode 1 – The Fungi Academy Podcast: Mushrooms, Motherhood & Community In the very first episode of the Fungi Academy Podcast, Jasper Degenaars sits down with his sister from another mister, Fungal Partner in Crime, Karena Beana. For a heartfelt and expansive conversation about mushrooms, motherhood, and the power of community. 🌱 Together they explore: Karena’s journey from despising mushrooms to embracing them as profound teachers of healing and surrender How psychedelic and medicinal fungi shaped her path into leadership and motherhood The importance of rites of passage, initiation, and community support in modern life Reflections on leadership, conflict, and the balance between democracy and decision-making in intentional communities The evolving role of elders, role models, and intergenerational wisdom in raising the next generation This episode weaves personal stories, cultural insights, and philosophical reflections into a rich dialogue about growth, responsibility, and the lessons mushrooms continue to teach us. ✨ Whether you’re curious about fungi, community living, or the deeper initiations of life, this conversation offers inspiration and food for thought 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/)

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