Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change16 Jul 2025

How Fungi Shape Our World, From Carbon Sinks to Zombie TV: | Ep217: Merlin Sheldrake

What if the key to solving our climate crisis lies beneath our feet? Could tiny fungal networks be the unsung heroes of carbon sequestration? And how might reimagining our relationship with fungi transform our understanding of life on Earth?

This week on Cleaning Up, Bryony Worthington sits down with Merlin Sheldrake, author of the bestselling "Entangled Life," to explore the extraordinary world of fungi. Sheldrake reveals how these remarkable organisms are not just passive participants in our ecosystem, but active innovators that have been shaping our planet for a billion of years.

From their crucial role in carbon cycling and soil health to their potential in creating sustainable materials, fungi may be a powerful solution to some of our most pressing environmental challenges. Sheldrake takes us on a journey through fungal networks, discussing their intelligence, chemical capabilities, and symbiotic relationships that challenge our understanding of life.

Leadership Circle:

Cleaning Up is supported by the Leadership Circle, and its founding members: Actis, Alcazar Energy, Davidson Kempner, EcoPragma Capital, EDP of Portugal, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information on the Leadership Circle, please visit https://www.cleaningup.live.

Discover more:

Merlin’s Book, Entangled Life: https://www.merlinsheldrake.com/entangled-life
Fungi: Web of Life Trailer — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCf7YywIBZ8
Society for the Protection of Underground Networks: https://www.spun.earth

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(278)

Why Are We Electrifying So Slowly? The Electrification Staircase | Ep256: Adrian Hiel, Silvia Madeddu, William Drake & Thomas Butler

Every single scenario for the future that looks at a cleaner energy system has electrification growing to 60, 70, 80% or more, and yet we don't make rapid progress. Why? One of the reasons we don't ma...

6 Mai 55min

Europe Needs Clean Tech More Than Ever | Ep 255: Thomas Pellerin-Carlin

This week Cleaning Up is back in Brussels, with a deep dive into European energy policy as the continent grapples with the reality of ambitious climate targets, very high energy prices and the vulnera...

29 Apr 1h 15min

The Era Of Fossil Fuel Unreliability Has Begun | Ep 254: Jennifer Granholm

What happens when global energy supply chains can no longer be trusted? Has the U.S. given up its edge in the clean energy race to China? And can politics keep up with the speed of the energy transiti...

22 Apr 45min

The Mother of All Energy Crises | Ep253: Fatih Birol

The news agenda this year has been entirely dominated by energy related stories, whether it's the war in Europe being pursued by Russia — formerly Europe's most significant energy provider — the U.S. ...

15 Apr 27min

⁠Energy Shocks, Inflation & Risk: How a Central Bank Responds to Crisis | Ep252: Pierre Wunsch

How should a central bank respond to energy shocks? Will high oil and gas prices bolster the uptake of renewables? And what is the true cost of net zero 2050? This week on Cleaning Up, host Michael Li...

8 Apr 1h 7min

Can We Cool The Planet, And Should We Try? | Ep251: Ricken Patel

What happens if we’re underestimating the speed and scale of climate risk? This week on Cleaning Up, Bryony Worthington sits down with Ricken Patel, Principal at Climate Hub & Founder of activist netw...

1 Apr 1h 7min

Heavy Engineering Solutions for High-Emission Problems | Ep250: Emmanouil Kakaras

This week on Cleaning Up, Michael Liebreich is joined by Emmanouil Kakaras, engineer, academic, and Senior Advisor at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries EMEA, for a grounded, technical conversation about the...

25 Mar 1h 10min

Can We Stop Data Centres Breaking The Grid? Ep249: Varun Sivaram & Steve Smith

This week on Cleaning Up, host Michael Liebreich sits down with Varun Sivaram and Steve Smith to explore one of the most urgent, and overlooked, challenges of the AI revolution: how to power it withou...

19 Mar 1h 6min