Local dairy-free cheese artisan, Karen McAthy (of Blue Heron Cheese Co.) will present on how fungi are a part of their process. This meeting will be held at VanDusen Floral Hall on Tuesday April 12 at 7:30pm. Masks are strongly encouraged.   Note: This will be a BLENDED MEETING, meaning that we will be live-streaming from VanDusen. This is our first attempt at this process, but we hope that the audio and video will be of acceptable quality, wi-fi permitting. If you prefer to attend via Zoom, please log-in and use the meeting link here: https://www.vanmyco.org/zoom-webinar-access/

VMS member Michael J. Hathaway draws from his recently published book What a Mushroom Lives For, the second book in an academic trilogy that began with Anna L. Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World. Moving from fungi as an enigmatic kingdom that transformed the ancient Earth to the realm of the fascinating matsutake mushroom on the Tibetan Plateau, Hathaway reveals the ways these mushrooms are creating their own multispecies encounters, with and without humans. This book challenges a legacy of human exceptionalism and human supremacy that is dominant in Western thinking and offers ways to notice the creative liveliness of all organisms, from mammals to mushrooms. Members: Log-in to attend online via Zoom, or join us in person at VanDusen Floral Hall Tuesday May 10 @ 7:30 PM

Upcoming meeting: September 13 Members Night! Year after year, we are amazed to learn of the different experiences and relationships our members have with fungi. Returning after a four-year hiatus, Members Night is when 3-4 VMS members give short, 10-15 minute presentations showcasing a fungal topic of their choosing (instead of committing to a full length presentation). Join us in person at VanDusen Floral hall @ 7PM, or on Zoom.

We are honored to have Dr. Mary Berbee of the Berbee Lab join us for our next meeting on October 11th. Schedule of events: 7 pm: Doors and Mushroom Mingling Come at 7 pm to secure a good seat and chat about mushrooms with our experts who will identify specimens. Be sure to check out what fungal finds are on the table (and bring your own!) 7:30 - 9:30: Guest Talk Our guest speaker, Dr. Mary Berbee will talk about Mushrooms up! UBC's newest collaboration with the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, and BC fungal research. This would be a hybrid meeting, meaning those who cannot attend in person can join us live through Zoom and there will be a Zoom recording in our members' archive:

Of Maize and Men: How do fungal pathogens such as Ustilago maydis and Cryptococcus neoformans cause disease? Kabir Bhalla (he/him) is a graduate student in the Kronstad Lab at UBC. He is particularly interested in polyphosphate, a phosphorus biopolymer, and how it contributes to disease in the pathogenic basidiomycete yeast, Cryptococcus neoformans. 7 pm: Doors and Mushroom Mingling Come at 7 pm to secure a good seat and chat about mushrooms with our experts who will identify specimens. Be sure to check out what fungal finds are on the table (and bring your own!) 7:30 - 9:30: Guest Talk Bhalla will be presenting a broad overview of C. neoformans and U. maydis, their disease mechanisms, and some recent work from the Kronstad Lab at the University of British Columbia. Join us in person at VanDusen Gardens (Floral Hall). Members may attend the presentation via Zoom. This would be a hybrid meeting, meaning those who cannot attend in person can join us live through Zoom and there will be a Zoom recording in our members' archive.