707 - Returning To Earth (Fungus, Fermentation and Food)

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Episode #707 - Returning To Earth (Fungus, Fermentation and Food)

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⌚ Sat 21 February 2015  ☻Ivan Illich (reading), Paul Stamets, Sandor Katz, Dave Hamilton

Download Hour1 Download Hour2This time we leave Deep Politics for a change of pace, and focus instead on earthier matters. Beginning with a reading of Ivan Illich's "Declaration on Soil", we look closely at the source of our food, and the humble and often overlooked organisms without which larger life forms could not live or even digest their food. Philosophy and theory are not forgotten, but this a more practical show than usual, including advice on growing and fermenting food.

Our first show on growing food since the extremely popular episode 667 "Community Successes" back in 2013. We begin with the densest material on the show, a reading of Ivan Illich's single page "Declaration on Soil" from 1990. Next we hear an interview with Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running - How Mushrooms can save the world. After explaining how he got into mushrooms, he explains some of his discoveries about their remarkable ability, and he suggests, their remarkable intelligence - and their expertise at repairing damaged land and in building soil. After a short music break, we hear Sandor Katz speaking in 2012 on The Art of Fermentation. Sadly, the recording quality is very low and even after improvement, it remains variable. I wouldn't normally consider such a poor recording, but the talk is so interesting and practical that I decided to include it. We conclude the show with Dave Hamilton, a promoter of the self-sufficientish living - who gives down to earth advice on how to start producing food.
Music: The Micro Organism
Thanks to Meredith Medland of Living Green for the interview of Paul Stamets.
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