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We love the idea that everything is connected here. We advocate for permaculture eating, celebrating diversity and interdependencies, where ecology as the science of connections is never far away.
Health of one, health of others, health of our dear old planet, health of the soils beneath our feet, and why not the health of our solidarities.
Guest: Marc-André Sélosse
Marc-André Sélosse is a professor at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and at the universities of Gdansk (Poland) and Kunming (China).
His work focuses on ecology and symbiosis, particularly the mycorrhizal symbioses that unite soil fungi with roots. He is a mycologist who quotes Bossuet and a botanist who speaks better than anyone about our insides.
He recently published “Nature and Prejudices – Inviting Humanity into Natural History” with Actes Sud.
I will skip his many titles, he is an editor for four international scientific journals and the popularization magazine Espèce. He has published over 210 research articles and 250 popular articles. He is the author of popular science books on microbiomes (Never Alone, 2017), tannins (The Tastes and Colors of the World, 2019), and soil (The Origin of the World, 2021).
He co-authored a comic book on soil with Mathieu Burniat (Underground, 2021, Dargaud).
My questions
- May I ask you how you are doing?
- Can I return the question you recently posed in one of your posts: can we be blind to the world we see?
- How did you become interested in the microbial world, especially fungi, this fascinating kingdom of life?
- A word on the best mushrooms for our health?
- We say microbes make us sick, but aren’t they also responsible for our good health?
- We are holobionts: I believe you don’t like that word very much, but can you explain to us what it is?
- And what is symbiosis?
- How to take care of one’s inner community?
- Can we make a connection between the health of our inner landscape and that of the outer landscape (and particularly soils)?
- Interdisciplinarity is dear to your heart, why?
- You published a book titled “Never Alone”, what does it mean?
- Your next book proposes to invite humanity into natural history, what does that entail?
- I read that you are vice-president of the association “les Cépages Modestes,” could you mention a few?
- And finally, a recipe and a nutritional tip for the listeners?
Resources to learn more
- A video on soil
- Marc-André Sélosse’s latest book: Nature and Prejudices – Inviting Humanity into Natural History, at Actes Sud
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A podcast presented by Louise Browaeys with Matthieu Brillard on the technical side
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