A new independent biannual print magazine for lovers of mushrooms and fungi is being launched in the UK, US, and Europe this winter. Titled ‘The Mushroom’ the magazine will present a curated selection of the latest mycological research, essays, interviews and artworks, connected to the world of fungi, to curious readers from all walks of life.

With interest in mushrooms growing, and fungi now popping up everywhere from galleries to cosmetics to space travel research, The Mushroom aims to provide accessible, informative content to the passionate amateur, the inspired creative and the professional practitioner, in an elegant and contemporary print format. For the curious reader, the magazine will be a window onto a world they will be encountering with even greater frequency, as mushrooms find their way into almost all areas of our lives.

The first issue of The Mushroom features interviews with Roger Phillips, the grandfather of British foraging, and Chido Govera, founder of a charity using mushrooms growing and principles of circular economics to uplift communities in Zimbabwe. It also features photography from popular ‘mushroom influencer’ Sherrie Vogelmann; research on mushrooms in fertility treatment; and a round-up of the most promising academic research in digestible, accessible bites.

Edited by a team of practitioners, foragers, critics, and academics, The Mushroom was the brainchild of biochemist and Chinese herbalist Martin Powell, the author of two books on the uses of mushrooms in clinical healthcare and wellbeing: “In the same way that mushrooms connect plants, functioning as a network enabling the sharing of information, facilitating their growth, and even helping make the soil that anchors them, this magazine was conceived as a way to connect and support those working with mushrooms in different ways around the world.”

In keeping with these aims, all profit from sales of The Mushroom will go to people and projects who are working with fungi to address the multiple challenges facing the planet and its inhabitants.