Entangled Life

March 9, 2020
Scientist Sheldrake debuts with a revelatory look at fungi that proves their relevance to humans goes far beyond their uses in cooking. While fungi lack brains, they can process and share complicated information about food and the habitability of environments quickly and over great distances, influencing the “speed and direction of growth,” in ways not yet understood, prompting Sheldrake to ask, “Can we think of their behavior as intelligent?” By discussing how fungi come together with algae to form lichens, Sheldrake touches on another question, that of “where one organism stops and another begins” in symbiotic relationships. Elsewhere, he explains how fungi were essential for the original colonization of land by plants, as they effectively served as roots for the first rootless arrivals. Meanwhile, anthropologists have postulated that, via the fermentation process, fungi may have sparked one of humankind’s key transitions: “from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists.” Looking to the future, Sheldrake discusses developing uses of fungi in shipping, construction, and environmental remediation materials. In bringing all these diverse threads together, Sheldrake delivers a thoroughly enjoyable paean to a wholly different kingdom of life. Agent: Jessica Woollard, David Higham Assoc.

Author Merlin Sheldrake delivers his love letter to fungi in a smooth British-accented voice. He clearly admires the problem-solving behavior of slime mold and other life-forms without a central brain. Sheldrake explains how the study of fungal networks has applications for transportation systems and the World Wide Web. When he tells how Easter Islanders compared lichen to leprosy when cleaning the famed statues, his emphasis brings home his defense of tiny life forms. Sheldrake also takes a deep dive into his subject, participating in a scientific test of LSD, the famous fungal hallucinogen. At times, his descriptions of life in the "fungal fast lane" can be slow, losing his work's scientific points in the resulting haze. J.A.S. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine