Fungi: The New Frontier

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Fungi: The New Frontier: Down the rabbit hole

Down the rabbit hole

BBC Radio 4 - Fungi: The New Frontier, Down the rabbit hole

Tim Hayward falls down a rabbit hole and into the vast and largely hidden world of fungi.

Tim Hayward falls down a rabbit hole into the world of fungi, both ancient and largely hidden from view - and the research that’s changing how we understand life on Earth.

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 first episode, Tim forages, talks truffle sex appeal, travels back to long before the dinosaurs, discovers a 4000-year old mushroom culture in Japan, and heads into a restricted containment level one laboratory to witness an ancient and profound interaction between two very different species of life, all happening right in front of his eyes.


Featuring: 
Suzanne Simard, forest ecologist and author of Finding the Mother Tree
Eugenia Bone, writer and mycologist
Sebastian Schornack, microbe and plant researcher
Mark Williams, wild food teacher and forager
Toshimitsu Fukiharu, curator and mycological researcher
Merlin Sheldrake, biologist and author of Entangled Life

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

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Tim Hayward falls down a rabbit hole into the world of fungi, both ancient and largely hidden from view - and the research that's changing how we understand life on Earth.

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