Mushrooms! Psilocybin! Humungous fungus! Black mold! Foraging! The incredibly charming and warm Dr. Tom Volk, world-renown mushroom expert, welcomes Alie into his office to dive deep into the underground world of fungal enthusiasts and touch on pathogens and medicinal therapies. Dr. Volk himself is a heart transplant patient, and shares how his life has been changed since a donor saved it. Also: Alie holds his old heart in her hands.

Dr. Tom Volk's awesome fungus website

This week's donations were made to DonateLife.net and The Mycological Society of America

More links up at www.alieward.com/ologies/mycology

Sponsors of Ologies

Transcripts and bleeped episodes

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth

Transcripts by Aveline Malek

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Classical Archaeologist and TV host Dr. Darius Arya joins us to dish about priceless garbage piles, pottery graveyards, tomb discoveries, what's under European cities, ancient spa days, ingenious construction methods, and unlikely laundry techniques. Plus, what did ancient romans use before toilet paper - and perhaps more importantly, WHY??

Dr. Darius Arya's website and Instagram

A donation was made to AncientRomeLive.org

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Classical Archaeology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Steven Ray Morris

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Jacob Chaffee, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fairy tales. Fables. Heroes’ journeys. Star Wars. Disney princesses. And yes, some ancient Greek and Roman myths. Professional mythologist and screenwriting consultant John Bucher spins some yarns and unravels some mysteries behind what makes a good story and why we need them. Also: why we are always re-booting old tales and what dreams have to do with mythology.

John Bucher's website and Instagram

Full-length (*not* G-rated) Mythology episode + tons of science links

More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!

Follow Ologies on Instagram and Bluesky

Follow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTok

Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Steven Ray Morris

Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Jacob Chaffee, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert

Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.