Person

Merlin Sheldrake

Acting

Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist, writer, and speaker with a background in plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), and sits on the advisory board of the Fungi Foundation. Merlin’s research ranges from fungal biology, to the history of Amazonian ethnobotany, to the relationship between sound and form in resonant systems. A keen brewer and fermenter, he is fascinated by the relationships that arise between humans and more-than-human organisms. He is a musician and performs on the piano and accordion.

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  Fungi: The Web of Life

  Presenter

• Soil Is Life: Weaving the Threads Between Soil, Farming, Food and Fibre

  2025

• Mycorrhizal Fungi: The Roots of Life on Land

  Narrator

• 2025Soil Is Life: Weaving the Threads Between Soil, Farming, Food and Fibre
• 2024Mycorrhizal Fungi: The Roots of Life on LandNarrator
• 2023Fungi: The Web of LifePresenter