Paul Stamets: 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World

Paul Stamets is the world's leading mushroom tinkerer. He's figured out ways to use mushrooms to break down toxicity, and believes that their effectiveness as a vaccine makes preserving old growth forests a matter of national security. In the labratory, he's derived fuel from their sugars, and has discovered how to use them as "the most destructive technology" many executives in the pesticide industry say they've ever seen in pest control. His book, Mycellium Running, paints a compellingly strange portrait of the planet in its early days, when the first living organisms on land were funghi, a kingdom of sentient beings who long predate plants, and who have more in common with humans than any other species. Stamets believes that, even though we humans are being voted off the planet, if we partner with their intelligence, we might stand a chance. If you're an apocalyptic thinker like me, or just a pessimist, you might find this book heartening.


Many great mushroom growing kits and strange gifts at Paul Stamets mail order company, Funghi Perfecti.

The Last Whole Earth Catalog, 1971

There's no one I'd rather spend the day with than The Last Whole Earth Catalog (1971). But inspired by it as I am, I'm too lazy to go out and hunt and forage for my own meal, so I've decided to instead, harness my energies by time traveling back to 1971, where I'll freely be able to order some of the catalog's intriguing books:

1. The Wilderness Cabin (Log construction, site selection, use of heavy timber tools)
2. The Dome Cookbook
3. Goat Husbandry
4. American Indian Medicine
5. How To Make Booze
6. The Israel Army Physical Fitness Handbook
7. Open Land: A Manifesto
8. The Human Use Of Human Beings
9. The Amateur Archaeologist's Handbook
10. Wood Heat Quarterly

Steve Jobs sees the Whole Earth Catalog as having been the precursor to the internet. Flipping through it, I can see why. Its oversized pages are a dense jumble of how-to diagrams, hippie manifestos, and homespun visions of self reliance that have me fantasizing about building a bark teepee in the woods.




Browse entire editions online, or, buy used copies of The Last Whole Earth Catalog Access to Tools at Amazon.