Entangled Life - Merlin Sheldrake - 2020
How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
By: Merlin Sheldrake
Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 05-12-20
Language: English
Genre: Science & Engineering
Publisher: Random House Audio
Format: mp3 64/48 mono
Publisher's Summary
A mind-bending journey into the hidden universe of fungi, “[O]ne of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you.” (Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk)
“Dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing...a remarkable work by a remarkable writer, which succeeds in springing life into strangeness again.” (Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland)
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
In Entangled Life, the brilliant young biologist Merlin Sheldrake shows us the world from a fungal point of view, providing an exhilarating change of perspective. Sheldrake's vivid exploration takes us from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that range for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the "Wood Wide Web", to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision.
Fungi throw our concepts of individuality and even intelligence into question. They are metabolic masters, earth makers, and key players in most of life's processes. They can change our minds, heal our bodies, and even help us remediate environmental disaster. By examining fungi on their own terms, Sheldrake reveals how these extraordinary organisms - and our relationships with them - are changing our understanding of how life works.
Praise for Entangled Life:
"Entangled Life is a gorgeous book of literary nature writing in the tradition of [Robert] Macfarlane and John Fowles, ripe with insight and erudition...food for the soul." (Eugenia Bone, Wall Street Journal)
"[An] ebullient and ambitious exploration.... This book may not be a psychedelic - and unlike Sheldrake, I haven’t dared to consume my copy (yet) - but reading it left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do." (Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times)
©2020 Merlin Sheldrake (P)2020 Random House Audio
Critic Reviews
"Fungi are fascinating! Elegant life strategies meet with delicate omnipresence, driving global ecosystems. Sheldrake's book informs and offers new concepts. Looking through Sheldrake's lens, fungal biology integrates with art, philosophy, and human society. His voice is real and personal. His book educates and entertains." (Uta Paszkowski, professor of plant molecular genetics, University of Cambridge)
Editor's Pick
The fungus among us
Did you know that the earth used to be dotted with fungi more than two stories tall? That they were the largest living structures on dry land for millions of years? Fungi are the founders of new ecosystems and the equalizers of old ones, including the ecosystems inside us. They may regulate our brain function as closely as they regulate the life cycles of extreme radioactive environments. These are a few of the astounding facts that lace Merlin Sheldrake’s fascinating narrative in Entangled Life. His narration is so contemplative and rhythmic that it is hard to resist, making this quirky story of fungus surprisingly compelling and delightfully calming.
24/7 Seedbox Support
