Local Podcasts
Plant People: Decay Is an Ally
by
April 12, 2025
New to WCNY is Plant People from the New York Botanical Garden. NYBG’s CEO & President, Jennifer Bernstein, connects the dots between nature and humanity through lively conversations with plant scientists and curators, gardeners and naturalists, and other experts.
In this episode, we sit down with Merlin Sheldrake, biologist and author of Entangled Life: how Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, to talk fungi. Mushrooms are a culinary sensation, but they’re also lifeforms that we’re still trying to understand. Join in as we learn how the grim work of fungi—death, decay, and “the end” of organic life—is key to the survival of all living things, and far from a foraging fad, mycology is at the root of Earth’s ability to function.
NYBG’s Plant People is produced by PRX Productions and NYBG, including Senior Producer Genevieve Sponsler, who also works at WCNY.
