Future of Psychedelics and Interview of Björk & Robin Wall Kimmerer
Plus a newly featured recap of our last Mycoverse discussion by Miranda Van Iderstine!
New way to spread the spores!
Welcome to the new newsletter platform, amidst the great mass migration from Mailchimp to elsewhere such as here in Substack. Having issues seeing my newsletter? Let me know, feedback is appreciated.
Please give a chance to read our new feature below in the newsletter this week from Miranda Van Iderstine with an incredibly thoughtful recap of our last Mycoverse discussion (thank you Miranda!!).
Next up in our Journey through the Mycoverse…
Right-Wing Psychedelia
Monday, April 10th, 7pm @ Arlington Garden Pasadena, CA
Why is the American right suddenly so interested in psychedelic drugs? Can psychedelics amplify authoritarian ideologies? How are psychedelics politically neutral amplifiers of set and setting?
Come along and join this important discussion on what the recent research has found.
Björk & Robin Wall Kimmerer + Fossora Listening Party Potluck
Monday, April 24th, 7pm @ Arlington Garden Pasadena, CA
To celebrate the release of Björk's recent album Fossora, we will be having a potluck to accompany our listening party of Fossora's fungi inspired songs. You are invited to bring a dish to share with the group (it doesn't have to be fungi related)!
We will also be discussing the inspiring interview between musician-artist Björk and author-scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer. They talk across subjects ranging from how language connects us to the natural world; the consequences—both personal and global—of living apart from nature; and what it means in our transient society to live in right relationship to the land.
Previously in the Mycoverse…
A recap by Miranda Van Iderstine!
The Last of Us, Mycophobia & Parasites
Monday, March 27, 2023
This meeting was lively with discussion about relating, naming, and making meaning. Are fungi that consume insects entomopathogenic (insect-killing) or entomogenous (insect-loving)?
What’s the difference between an infection and an infestation? Is The Last of Us about a fear of communism or human behavior amid desperate circumstances?
Definitions of parasites and pathogens through time (2022) by Patricia Kaishian, Maarten Lubbers, Michiel D. de Groot, et al. complicates prevalent-yet-reductive understandings of organisms that consume prey in units less than one or otherwise damage their hosts. We especially appreciated the insight into the Greek origin of the word “parasite” (as a social descriptor for obsequious people who exchange flattery for meals from the wealthy) and how the biological definition that followed retained a categorically negative connotation.
Where the The Last of Us’ interest in actual fungi is arguably non-existent (see: creative liberties taken with ophiocordyceps; underutilized penicillin cameo in episode 8), Don’t Fear Fungi Despite The Last of Us | Time (2023) by Giuliana Furci and Merlin Sheldrake offers an impressively comprehensive account of all we understand fungi to be. The concise language is perfect for challenging HBO series–induced mycophobia without reducing these more-than-humans to flat villains or saviors. Every organism is embedded in infinitely complex biological dependencies and becomes (at best) most legible when understood within a collective and across time.
Navigating a fictional apocalyptic landscape is cool but have you ever been thrilled and humbled by the extent to which so-called terrestrial dark matter makes worlds and resists definitive comprehension?
Recommendations: Ghost Music by An Yu; Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler; the search engine Duck Duck Go; Repair Café (Mycoverse community member Shelley’s mutual aid work)