An Evening of Mushroom Lore

Author and mycologist Lawrence Millman combines ecological, ethnographic, historical, and contemporary knowledge in his research and writings. His latest work, Fungipedia, takes us on a mycological journey—from John Cage and Terrence McKenna to mushroom sex and fairy rings.

His work explores the lives of individuals like African American scientist George Washington Carver, who specialized in crop diseases caused by fungi; Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit, who was prevented from becoming a professional mycologist because she was a woman; and Gordon Wasson, a J.P. Morgan vice-president who almost single-handedly introduced the world to magic mushrooms. In his work, Lawrence considers why fungi are among the most significant organisms on our planet and how they are currently being affected by destructive human behavior, including climate change.

Join Co-director of CoRenewal and mycologist Maya Elson for a conversation with Lawrence about his life and work exploring mycology and learn more about these amazing organisms. Discover how mushrooms are much more closely related to humans than to plants, how they engage in sex, how insects farm them, and how certain species happily dine on leftover radiation, cockroach antennae, and dung, in an evening of fungal lore.

This is talk does not promote, facilitate, or require the use of entheogens. This event and the views expressed by the presenter(s) are not a reflection of the views of California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), its Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research, or the individuals employed by CIIS.

Lawrence Millman is a mycologist and author of numerous books, including Our Like Will Not Be There Again, Last Places, Fascinating Fungi of New England, and At the End of the World. He has done mycological work in places as diverse as Greenland, Honduras, Iceland, Panama, the Canadian Arctic, Bermuda, and Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has documented 321 different species.

Maya Elson is a teacher, naturalist, mycologist, organizer and lover of the wild. Maya has been co-directing CoRenewal since 2016, where she is dedicated to enacting effective and just solutions to environmental and social crises by working in collaboration with fungi. As one of the founding members of the Radical Mycology network, Maya's worked on various fungal cultivation and educational projects in Olympia, Washington and the San Francisco Bay Area. Maya has worked as a campaign organizer with a number of climate justice and wilderness defense struggles over the years. Maya is also the founder of Wild Child Santa Cruz, a nature immersion program for homeschoolers. As an instructor of Mycopermaculture, Fungal Biology, Mycorenewal and Mushroom Identification for both adults and children, Maya has experience writing curriculum and giving mycology-related workshops. Maya is currently studying Ecopsychology, leading mushroom hunts with ForageSF, leading rites of passage programs with Gaia Girls Passages, and raising an enchanted toddler.