The Universe Beneath Our Feet: Mapping the Mycelial Web of Life

The Universe Beneath Our Feet: Mapping the Mycelial Web of Life

Author: Bioneers September 24, 2025 Duration: 33:05
Imagine an underground web of mind-boggling complexity, a bustling cosmopolis beneath your feet. Quadrillions of miles of tiny threads in the soil pulsate with real-time messages, trade vital nutrients, and form life-giving symbiotic partnerships. This is the mysterious realm of fungi. In this program, acclaimed visionary biologists Toby Kiers and Merlin Sheldrake will guide us through the intricate wonders of the mycorrhizal fungal networks that make life on Earth possible. This is an episode of Nature’s Genius, a Bioneers podcast series exploring how the sentient symphony of life holds the solutions we need to balance human civilization with living systems. Visit the series page to learn more. Featuring Toby Kiers, Ph.D., is the Executive Director and Chief Scientist of SPUN (the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks) and a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at VU, Amsterdam. Merlin Sheldrake, Ph.D., is a biologist and writer with a background in plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He is currently a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, works with the SPUN, and sits on the advisory board of the Fungi Foundation. Credits: Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel Written by: Cathy Edwards and Kenny Ausubel Produced by: Cathy Edwards Senior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie Welch Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey Program Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris Producer: Teo Grossman Merlin Sheldrake – How Fungi Make our Worlds | Bioneers 2024 Keynote Merlin Sheldrake and Toby Kiers – Mapping, Protecting and Harnessing the Mycorrhizal Networks that Sustain Life on Earth | Bioneers 2024 Panel Discussion Interview with Merlin Sheldrake, Author of Entangled Life Deep Dive: Intelligence in Nature Earthlings: Intelligence in Nature | Bioneers Newsletter SPUN (the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks) Fungi Foundation

There's a quiet revolution unfolding, one that draws its most profound ideas not from boardrooms or labs alone, but from the living world itself. Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature gives voice to that movement, presenting conversations that feel both urgent and deeply grounded. This award-winning podcast, curated by Bioneers, acts as a gathering place for some of the most compelling social and scientific thinkers of our era. Each episode explores how the genius of natural systems can inform our approach to modern crises. You’ll hear detailed discussions on topics ranging from practical biomimicry and ecological design to the interconnected realms of social justice, indigenous wisdom, and restorative psychology. The series refuses to silo these subjects, instead weaving them into a coherent vision for transformation. What emerges is a kaleidoscopic view of solutions that are as much about healing our communities as they are about restoring the planet. Tuning in, you encounter a rare depth of perspective, where the separation between ecological and social health dissolves. It’s a space where leading-edge ideas feel less like abstract concepts and more like a viable path forward, all explored through genuine dialogue and a celebration of human ingenuity working in concert with nature’s intelligence. This is a podcast for those looking to move beyond the headlines and into the heart of what it means to build a truly regenerative future.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature
Podcast Episodes
Nature’s Phoenix: Fire As Medicine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:15
Contemporary Western fire science is integrating what Indigenous Peoples discovered over thousands of years of observation, and trial and error: fire is key to optimizing forest vitality and biodiversity. The merging of…
3-D Ocean Farming: Making a Living on a Living Planet [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:15
What if there are ways to sustainably harvest protein and nutritious vegetables from the seas in ways that restore coastlines, local economies, produces abundant food, and sequesters vast amounts of carbon dioxide? Pathf…
Challenging American Patriarchy at Its Roots [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:15
Sociologist, storyteller, and best-selling author Anna Malaika Tubbs calls for dismantling the key system that has determined who actually gets to be considered human in the United States: The American patriarchy. She sa…
Backlash Moment: Converging at the Crossroads of Identity and Justice [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:15
When Donald Trump rode a wave of white anxiety into the White House, it was part of a backlash to the Obama presidency, one that revealed an increasingly explicit white nationalism and revived an overtly exclusionary age…
Vice to Virtue: From Carbon Crisis to Carbon Farming [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:15
How does a virtue become a vice? How does a basic building block of life turn into a threat to life? And how do you turn that vice back into a virtue? In this half-hour we visit with two unlikely pathfinders who are help…
Under the Skin We're All Kin: Reading the Minds of Animals [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:15
Calling someone an “animal” means they’re less than human – not worthy of respect, rights, or even of life itself. But in truth — and in biological fact — human beings ARE animals. Scientists continue to find that intell…
We’re a Culture Not a Costume: Fighting Racism in Schools [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:15
Native American students face racism throughout their education, from racist mascots to the historical erasure of the American genocide from textbooks. In this passionate conversation, Indigenous Rights Activists Dahkota…
Exploring the Mystery of Consciousness [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:15
The infinitely curious author and science writer Michael Pollan embraces the mystery at the heart of the great mystery of life: What is the nature of consciousness? And how can we understand consciousness when our only t…
Indigenous Rising: From Alcatraz to Standing Rock [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:15
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. From the historic Indigenous occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969 to the fossil fuel fights throughout Canada and the U.S. today, Indigenous resistance illuminates an activi…