Mushrooms aren’t the threat The Last of Us shows. They’re our future

My hatred of mushrooms was a constant throughout my entire life. Mushrooms were something I hated to look at and even more to eat. Then, one documentary made my life better.

The reputation of mushrooms is not great. Other than the hesitation that people may feel about eating mushrooms, there are media outlets like Last of Us, Annihilation, The fungal horrors of mushrooms and others have succeeded in proving their terrifying nature by sprouting unexpectedly and at surprising locations. However, mushrooms can be more.

My partner and I purchased digital tickets for the Indie Memphis Film Festival in 2021. There were many films that we liked, and so did our watching. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair And It was a Simple Man (both on Polygon’s list of our favorite movies of 2022), and an incredibly funny documentary about a group of bus drivers who put on a stage production of AlienSo called Alien is on Stage (still waiting for the larger release)

But, I can’t deny that no other movie has had as profound an effect on me than “The Godfather.” Mushrooms Speak, Marion Neumann’s documentary on the healing powers of mushrooms for our world, and the importance of an alliance between humans and mushrooms for the long-term survival of our species on this planet.

Image: Intermezzo Films S.A.

This documentary features a range of individuals whose lives are centered around mushrooms. Some are explorers, some are scientists, some are activists — and some combine these roles. The matsutake mushroom is a Japanese delicacy that’s extremely rare, and one of the main characters of the movie. Human involvement is a benefit for the matsutake, as it grows in forest cohabitated with humans. Many believe it is the first thing that grew in Hiroshima since the United States dropped its 1945 atomic bomb, killing over 100,000 people.

Perhaps the most beautiful example of the amazing mystery of the mushroom world is the mycelial network. One thing we still don’t know is how it works. This network is made up of many underground roots, which connect fungi to other organisms. Even though we know some of its capabilities, it is still mysterious. We now know that it has a large communication network, not just for mushrooms. It can also be used by plants and trees. The latter can make use of the mycelium for warning other trees of potential dangers. It is capable of distributing nutrients and water to other organisms. We know mycelium can extend for thousands of miles (famously, the world’s largest organism is a mycelial network), and possess some intelligence. But there’s plenty we don’t know.

These are the mushrooms that make them easy to hate, and the cockroaches that rule the world of plants that will last longer than us. It is truly hard to fathom that such a vast and powerful network can exist and work in the magical ways it does, and when faced with something that’s hard to comprehend, an understandable impulse is to fear it. And as we’ve seen time and time again — long tendrils that stretch beyond our wildest imagination, growths in places we don’t want growths — it’s good stuff for horror fiction.

It makes sense, then that mycelial networks would be depicted in a frightening and existential threat. Last of UsPrologued by John Hannah, a scientist who tells horror stories about how fungi alter the mind. I get it, and we’ve seen this in the world of literature over the past few years. You can see the terrifying transformational powers of Mexican Gothic’s mushrooms to the blood-red mushrooms of What is the Death of the Living?, mushroom horror has been growing like… well, you know.

Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO

Often, like in Last of UsThe use of fungal horror to transmit a wide hive brain, mimic human body parts, like hair, or communicate via the bodies and minds of the deceased is called “fungal terror”. It’s pretty eerie, isn’t it? The truth is cooler than we could imagine.

Organic compounds can be decomposed by mushrooms and mycelium networks can eliminate them from the atmosphere. That’s right — mushrooms can literally remove chemicals from soil and water, and the process known as mycoremediation can decontaminate environments that have been polluted by heavy metals, petroleum fuels, pesticides, and other pollutants.

Also, fungi can also compost complex biomass and can produce alternatives to plastic via mycelium. And that’s just scratching the surface of their potential, and of our relationship to them as we attempt to rehabilitate our relationship to planet Earth. Mushrooms have been here longer than us — they’ve been here from the dawn of time as we know it, and may have come from space (mushroom spores can survive out there, too)! They’re the experts on this planet, and compared to them, we’re still newcomers. They are the experts on this planet, and we need to listen to them if we wish to keep living here.

As environmental disaster looms, it’s easy to assume that humans are only a problem in this world. The matsutake shows a different path — one of living together with the world around us, and creating a better relationship with the Earth. We don’t have to be the problem here; humans Can and should be a healthy part of this planet’s ecosystem.

Image: Intermezzo Films S.A.

Mushrooms SpeakIt encourages us to reflect on the importance of fungi in our ecosystem and to look at the potential ways they could inspire us to change the world. The world around mushrooms is constantly changing, so mushroom’s behavior can be changed. How about we approach our home in this same manner?

Let’s go back to the point of fungi “altering our mind.” What if it could do that, on a societal level, for the betterment of the planet and our relationship to it? What if “altering our mind” instead looked like “altering our behavior,” ceasing our destructive practices to create a better tomorrow for us, for our children, and for the billions of other organisms we share this planet with? Telling the worst-case-scenario version of these stories is intriguing and captivating, to be sure, and any one person’s discomfort at mushroom-related imagery is completely understandable. But it’s not difficult to imagine an alternate path for this narrative framework. Thankfully, among mushrooms’ many lovely qualities, they are admirably immune to the tides of discourse, so their frequent depictions as a threat is of no concern to them.

It’s easy to embrace doomerism when it comes to the future of our climate. I’m prone to it myself. When I first saw the video, I found myself in a vulnerable position about this topic. Mushroom TalksI was cautious about watching a film that might touch upon some of my worst fears. Instead I discovered hope and people who fight for it along with our fungal friends.

And that’s all from someone who only just recently began their journey into the world of mushrooms. You might be interested to learn more about mushrooms if you are also curious. Mushrooms Speak and reading books like Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s The Mushroom at End of the Earth.

The solution to a more harmonious relationship with our Earth is found in mushrooms and mycelium networks. It is possible to create a brighter tomorrow by getting to know them, working with them, as well as being mindful of the cost and what we are putting into this world. And it’s all through fungi. No matter how unnerving to look at or think about you might find them, they are even more invested in this world’s survival than you. And there’s no better ally than that.

Mushrooms Speak Available for digital rental dafilms.com.