Today on Mushroom Hour we are excited to interview mushroom cultivation artist Sam Shoemaker. Sam is an interdisciplinary artist and mycologist based in Los Angeles, California. Sam's recent artistic work stems from an ongoing collaboration with rare, native, and medicinal fungi. After receiving his MFA from Yale University in 2020, Sam founded the urban mushroom farm Myco Myco from his underground laboratory in Los Angeles. His obsession with mushrooms led Sam to some unconventional cultivation projects. These projects produced interesting results which led him to ask questions about how mushrooms can be used and when nobody seemed to be able to answer his questions he just kept going - doing more experiments, taking the science as far as he could, and trying things for himself. Approaching mycology through the lens of an artist, Sam explores the tremendous amount of creative opportunity surrounding mycology right now. His aim is simple and beautiful: making mycology accessible to all and encouraging people to embrace the unknowable!
TOPICS COVERED:
EPISODE RESOURCES:
Ep. 118: Galloway Wild Foods - Wild Mushrooms, Coastal Foraging & Botanical Cocktails (feat. Mark Williams)
Ep. 117: Bolt Threads & Mylo™ Unleather - Inspired by Nature, Designing for the Future (feat. David Breslauer)
Ep. 116: Just Mushrooms Cookbook - Celebrating the Future of Food (feat. Michelle Russell & Camille DeGabrielle)
Ep. 115: Feral Fungi - Alchemycology, Astromycology & Spagyric Tinctures (feat. Jason Scott)
Ep. 114: Jamaica's Mushroom Queen & Wake Network (feat. Terri Smith)
Ep. 113: Mushrooms of the Rocky Mountains and Arctic Alpine Biome (feat. Dr. Cathy Cripps)
Ep. 112: Making Music with Mushrooms - Transcription of Bioelectric Action Potentials (Michael Allen Z Prime)
Ep. 111: Mushroom Safaris in Wales & Perspectives on Anglo-Saxon Foraging (feat. Daniel Butler)
Ep. 110: Melanated Fungi - Protecting from Radioactivity & Surviving Extreme Conditions (feat. Dr. Ekaterina Dadachova)
Ep. 109: Integrated Land Enhancement & Applied Mycology (feat. Leif Olson)
Ep. 108: Mushrooms of Cascadia, Mentoring Stamets & the Promise of Psilocybe (feat. Prof. Michael Beug)
Ep. 107: Lingzhi Girl - Uniting East & West, Nature & Modernity, Death & Immortality (feat. Xiaojing Yan)
Ep. 106: Truffle Hunting, Raising a Truffle Dog & Managing Truffle Forests (feat. Melissa Waddingham)
Ep. 105: Alchemi, Amycel & Monterey Mushrooms - Mushroom Medicine, Fungal Genetics & Agaricus Farming (feat. Amir Karian)
Ep. 104: Wild Food Year - Mushrooms, Herbalism, Plant Wisdom & the Inner Universe (feat. Monica Wilde)
Ep. 103: Exploring Fungal Taxonomy, Phylogeny & the Future of Conservation (feat. Else Vellinga)
Ep. 102: The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible & The Psilocybin Chef Cookbook (feat. Dr. K Mandrake & Virginia Haze)
Ep. 101: Queendom Fungi - Mycology as a Queer Discipline (feat. Dr. Patricia Kaishian)
Ep. 100: Mycoworks - Mycelium Leather, Reishi & the Future of Fashion (feat. Phil Ross)
Ep. 99: Fungi for the People - Understanding Bioremediation & Engaging Fungal Allies (feat. Ja Schindler)
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