To try to reduce my fungi-blindness from a conservation perspective, I recently read Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. As someone that has studied pathogenic fungi for a number of years, it was nice to get a different perspective on these very alien-like lifeforms. In his book, Sheldrake sets out to reframe fungi not as small players (think mould on bread) but as a planetary force. He demonstrates that they are architects of soils, drivers of evolution, mediators of ecosystems and, increasingly, collaborators in technology, medicine and art. The book roams through mycorrhizal networks (‘wood-wide webs’), lichens, truffles, yeast, psilocybin mushrooms, and the astonishing metabolisms of decomposers. It’s part field narrative, part history of science, and part manifesto for paying attention to the non-human intelligences that knit living systems together. As many of your are probably aware, fungi can be notoriously hard to see and even harder to dramatise. Sheldrake solves this by weaving tactile vignettes (fermenting or foraging) with crisp explanations. You come away able to picture hyphae infiltrating leaf litter or a lichen as a bustling consortium rather than a single organism.
Entangled Life synthesises a great deal of information such as plant–fungus symbioses, horizontal gene transfer, neurochemistry of psychedelics, and biomaterials without slipping into textbook dryness. Sheldrake is sometimes careful about uncertainty, repeatedly flagging what’s debated (e.g. how information moves through mycorrhizal networks) versus what’s well supported (mutualistic nutrient exchange, defence signalling). A recurring philosophical thread asks what counts as an ‘individual’. Fungi blur boundaries: lichens are fungi plus algae or cyanobacteria, mycorrhizae merge plant roots with fungal networks, yeasts entangle human history through bread, wine, and beer. The book is persuasive that our organism-centric intuitions are too narrow. The prose throughout are nimble and playful, with just enough metaphor to keep complex ideas buoyant. When Sheldrake gets ecstatic (especially around decomposition or fermentation), it feels earned, grounded in experiment rather than hype. Climate and biodiversity crises are present, but the tone isn’t scolding. Instead, the argument is clear. The more we understand fungal entanglements, the better we can restore soils, manage forests, clean pollutants, or design low-carbon materials.
Discussions of ‘wood-wide webs’ sometimes skate close to implying a forest-scale ‘internet’ with intentional communication. Sheldrake does caveat this, yet a few passages let the metaphor run ahead of the evidence. Readers new to the topic might miss the distinction between resource flows shaped by evolution and purposeful signalling. The chapter on psilocybin is captivating and historically nuanced, however, it occupies a sizable share of narrative compared with other applications (e.g. fungal pathogens, agricultural losses, industrial enzymes). If you’re less interested in altered states, you might wish for a shorter detour. To my mind, it is very similar to how psychedelics seemed to unfortunately take up far too much time and somewhat be promoted in the 2019 documentary Fantastic Fungi. As the subject matter is so large with some short but fascinating threads such as myco-remediation of oil, fungal biocomposites, and ant-fungus agriculture that appear briefly and move on, specialists may crave deeper dives or further explanation in these areas.
There are some very important points that Sheldrake raises that everyone should make a note of when it comes to fungi. The first is that mycorrhizal symbioses are foundational as most plants are not just aided by fungi, they are built with them. This reframes agriculture and forestry to treat the soil as both a biome and infrastructure, not just dirt. The next is that decomposition is creative. Fungi don’t just rot, they release locked nutrients, invent new chemistries, and make ecosystems possible. This may not be as straightforward for some as it is other but they get there in the end, which is why some species are able to gain nutrients from extremely unusual sources, such as radioactive waste, jet fuel and used cigarette butts. Fungi also provide us with a number of solutions for the future, from low-energy materials (mycelium bricks, leather-like textiles) to carbon-smart farming and pollutant clean-up, fungal technologies feel less like sci-fi and more like under-funded prototypes.
If you read and liked Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees, this book sits comfortably alongside but is more molecular and more mischievous in tone. Sheldrake is less anthropological and anthropomorphising, more lab-and-field science, yet shares the fascination with multispecies worlds. Chapters are thematically organised and interleaved with both travelogue and experiment. The pacing is brisk, you can probably quite happily dip in out of order. The writing is accessible without diluting complexity. Jargon appears (as it would in most popular science books) but definitions are quick and examples concrete. Occasional diagrams or photos would have helped, with the prose carrying most of the weight sufficiently.
To summarise, Entangled Life is a rare popular science book that has the ability to change how you look at the world. It makes a compelling, evidence-aware case that fungi are not peripheral but infrastructural. It invites humility about human exceptionalism, and it sparks practical curiosity. What could we build, grow, or repair if we took fungal partnerships seriously? Minor overreach in network metaphors doesn’t blunt the achievement. After reading this book, you will reconsider your views of mushrooms, fungi and yeasts reflecting on why you felt so lowly of them before opening the pages and reading Sheldrake’s manifesto as to why we should take them more seriously. To say it helped to cure my fungi-blindness is an understatement. I wonder how long it will be until universities around the world start opening up Departments of Fungal Science?
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