It all started with rumours of an 800-meter underground organism hidden under the streets of Cambridge and a plate of mushrooms on toast. With cream. In this three-part series, Tim Hayward falls down a rabbit hole into kingdom (or as some call it queendom) Fungi. Along the way he starts to question pretty much everything he thought he knew about the world, discovering scientists doing pioneering research that’s changing how we understand life on Earth and offering solutions to some of our biggest challenges.

In this second episode Tim heads to the Kew Fungarium - the biggest collection of dried fungal specimens in the world, tries to get his head around fungal sex and peers into a world of zombies and snakes in the form of microscopic fungi. He gets a kind of vertigo as he learns more about the fungal world underneath our feet, in our own guts, and, basically - everywhere. He then learns a word that could help to save fungal biodiversity - and why this matters more than he ever could have realised... and finally there’s the possibility of fungal intelligence.

Features:
Giuliana Furci, founder of the Fungi Foundation
Merlin Sheldrake, biologist and writer
Justin Stewart, researcher into microbial networks
Kristin Aleklett Kadish, microbial ecologist
Lee Davies, curator at the Kew Fungarium.

Presenter: Tim Hayward
Producer and Sound Designer: Richard Ward
Executive Producer: Miranda Hinkley
Image courtesy of Carolina Magnasco
A Loftus Media production for Radio 4 Show less