Episode #19 "Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless" Book Review Featuring Maria Pinto

Alright good people, welcome to episode #19 where we are going to discuss the book “Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless”  with the author Maria Pinto.  This book is not a textbook about fungi.. It’s more of a mycozooistic memoir about things Maria has learned from her interactions and her personal relationship with fungi throughout the years. Maria starts her book with a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson so we’re gonna start this episode by reading that. “Nature,  through all her kingdoms, ensures herself. Nobody cares for planting the poor fungus: so she shakes down from the gills of one of agaric countless spores. Any one of which, being preserved, transmits new billions of spores tomorrow or the next day... a fearless, sleepless, deathless progeny, which is not exposed to the accidents of the weary kingdom of time.” To say Maria Pinto is unique as a mycologist is an understatement.  First of all she was born in Jamaica and grew up in Florida.  The jacket of the book describes her as a black naturalist.  Her growing up as a Caribbean Native  has given here a different perspective on the world than your average mycologist. Her world view is unique or at least poorly documented,  this has lead to the creation of a book that unlike many other mushroom books would be best described as... Beautiful.  Early mycology authors often used huge words that would bury the reader in vocabulary words, making a complicated subject even more confusing and intangible.  A lot of other books are just a regurgitation of science published in other sources.  This book draws its unique inspiration  from art, poetry and the largely undocumented history of Africans living in the Caribbean. Which brings us into the realm of theoretical mycology which I know we all love. This unique take on the world makes this book fascinating and hard to put down.   Whether she is referring to Christopher Columbus as being, “the name we never speak”... or addressing  the Kingdom of Fungi as the Queendom of fungi, or her passion for eating dirt as a kid or her preferred “party go to move” of laying on the floor rubbing a   dogs belly.  Throughout this book you really get to know this likable woman and join her on here mycology adventures. Maria is joining us today so let’s ask her some questions.