Our reading ecosystem

Fungi as your Futurist is a playbook for imagining and designing symbiotic futures, via 12 regenerative design principles. Below is a glorious mycelial reading and viewing ecosystem that informed the work.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FUNGI FUTURES

📚 Support most of these books via Sporesight’s Bookshop.org store: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/sporesight 

// BOOKS

  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2013), by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Milkweed Editions.

  • Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (2018), by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Arsenal Pulp Press.

  • Designing Regenerative Cultures (2016), by Daniel Christian Wahl. Triarchy Press.

  • Designing Sustainable Futures: How to Imagine, Create, and Lead the Transition to a Better World (2024), by Joanna Press and Martina Celi. Routledge.

  • Earth for All: a survival guide for humanity: a report to the Club of Rome (2022), by Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Owen Gaffney, Jayati Ghosh, Johan Rockström, Per Espen Stoknes, Jørgen Randers

  • Entangled Life (2021), by Merlin Sheldrake. Bodley Head.

  • Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature (2025), by Patricia O. Kaishian. Spiegel & Grau.

  • In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms (2023), by Doug Bierend. Chelsea Green Publishing.

  • Let's Become Fungal!: Mycelium Teachings and the Arts (2023), by Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez. Valiz.

  • Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation (2021), by Paul Hawken. Penguin Books.

  • Shy Radicals: The Antisystemic Politics of the Militant Introvert (2021), by Hamja Ahsan. Pluto Press.

  • Stinkhorn: How Nature's Most Foul-Smelling Mushroom Can Change the Way We Listen (2024), by Siôn Parkinson. Sternberg Press.

  • The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World (2021), by Roman Krznaric. Penguin Books.

  • The Lost Muti (2025), by Cullen Taylor Clark. Available at: https://www.lostmuti.com/ 

  • The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (2015), by Anna Tsing. Princeton University Press.

  • The Pattern Book for Regenerative Design (2025), by Oliver Broadbent. Constructivist Ltd.

  • The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World (1996), by David Abram. Vintage Books.

  • Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008), by Donella H. Meadows. Edited by Diana Wright. Chelsea Green Publishing.

  • Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence (2024), by James Bridle. Penguin.

// OTHER

// ACADEMIC PAPERS

  • Adamatzky, A. (2022) ‘Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity’, Royal Society Open Science, 9(4). doi:10.1098/rsos.211926.

  • Djoulakian, Hasmik. (2020) ‘The Science Underground’, Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 6(2). doi:10.28968/cftt.v6i2.33523

  • Frank, A., Grinspoon, D. and Walker, S. (2022) ‘Intelligence as a planetary scale process’, International Journal of Astrobiology, 21(2), pp. 47–61. doi:10.1017/s147355042100029x

  • Microbial Biotechnology (2024) Article Title. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mmi.15118 

  • Nowakowski, Patryk. et al. (2020) ‘The two faces of coprinus comatus functional properties and potential hazards’, Phytotherapy Research, 34(11), pp. 2932–2944. doi:10.1002/ptr.6741

  • Gervais, N.C., Shapiro, R.S. Discovering the hidden function in fungal genomes. Nat Commun 15, 8219 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52568-z. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-52568-z  

  • Scott, J.A. et al. (2016) ‘Multilocus DNA sequencing of the whiskey fungus reveals a continental-scale speciation pattern’, Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi, 37(1), pp. 13–20. doi:10.3767/003158516x689576 

  • Smith, Gabriel .R. et al. (2018) ‘Competition–colonization tradeoffs structure fungal diversity’, The ISME Journal, 12(7), pp. 1758–1767. doi:10.1038/s41396-018-0086-0

  • Steinberg, G. et al. (2017) ‘Cell biology of hyphal growth’, Microbiology Spectrum, 5(2). doi:10.1128/microbiolspec.funk-0034-2016

  • Stepney, S. et al. (2005) ‘Journeys in non-classical computation I: A grand challenge for computing research’, International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems, 20(1), pp. 5–19. doi:10.1080/17445760500033291. 

  • Wäli, P.P. et al. (2013) ‘Is the pathogenic ergot fungus a conditional defensive mutualist for its host grass?’, PLoS ONE, 8(7). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069249

This list was last updated on 1st September 2025.

Methodology

The Fungi Principles emerged from Sporesight’s world mushroom tour, exploring how fungi are impacting our futures.

WORLD MUSHROOM TOUR

Since 2021, we’ve connected with 80+ pioneers (and counting!) in fungi innovation, mycology and mushroom culture; online and in-person across UK, Africa, Europe, Asia, and beyond.

Like mycelium, the journey was nonlinear: strange turns, sudden insight. Fungi became a guide, teacher, accomplice.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

  • Fungi x Futures Depth interviews: Conversations with n=13 multi-disciplinary professionals, exploring fungi principles, use cases and real-world applications [Mar-May 2025]

  • Fungi x Futures Online Qual: 15 min online tasks via Field Notes platform, exploring perception of fungi, foresight, futures, with n=11 professionals working in senior positions in brand marketing, strategic foresight, consumer insight, research, innovation.

  • Mushroom Curious Depth Interviews: 90 min conversations exploring perceptions of mushrooms, fungi, functional mushroom products, with n=6 British mushroom-curious consumers.

A core group of collaborators helped shape the final thinking, reviewing and feeding back on the near-final draft.

GEOGRAPHIES COVERED:

  • In-person - Kenya, The Netherlands, South Africa, Thailand, UK, Uganda, Vietnam

  • Online - All of the above plus Canada, Chile, Germany, India, Italy, Namibia, Nigeria, Nomadic, Spain, Sweden, USA