Welcome to GR, etc. And, welcome to the six hundred and sixth installment of this ongoing series of, let's face it, achingly depressing accounts of social and global dysfunctionality. Week in and year out, Gorilla Radio features the disaster that is our times, seldom offering even the barest glimmer of light out of the gloom of what my first guest calls 6X, or the sixth great extinction on planet Earth. But perhaps there is a reason we big-brained, but often dim-witted, primates are here at this moment; maybe Gaia needs us. And, if that's true, perhaps the "Great Creator of Being [will] allow us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives."*

Paul Stamets is a world renowned mycologist whose decades of work with fungi, and especially mushrooms, have opened doors onto these largely unappreciated but essential life-forms that have a lot more in common with you than you may realize. He is the author of six books including: 'Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World,' 'MycoMedicinals: An Informational Treatise on Mushrooms,' and his latest, 'Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World.' Stamets is also the recipient of numerous awards, including: the 1998 "Bioneers Award" from The Collective Heritage Institute, and the 1999 "Founder of a New Northwest Award" from the Pacific Rim Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils, and he was named one of Utne Reader's 2008 "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World." Paul Stamets is also the founder of the company, Fungi Perfecti.  

Paul Stamets in the first half.

And; if Canadians need further evidence of the Kafkaesque direction this country is headed, the case of professor Hassan Diab offers excellent instruction. The former sociology professor's bail renewal was refused last week after an Ottawa judge OK's his extradition to France, even though that order was based on evidence the judge had already cited as "problematic," and the French authorities themselves had deemed inauthentic.

 

Regardless, Dr. Diab, a Canadian citizen, now faces being sent back to France, where his supporters say he faces unsubtantiated charges in a more than thirty year-old crime he insists he knows nothing about. It all points out the abysmal state of Canada's Extradition law, and the affront to justice it represents.

Don Pratt is with the Hassan Diab Support Committee and joins us in the second half.

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us news from the city's streets and beyond. But first, Paul Stamets and the mycelium that could save the world.

* Jim Morrison's Hour for Magic, from the album An American Prayer

 

Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, David Barsamian, Mark and Rhoda Berenson, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, William Bowles, Mordecai Briemberg, James J. Brittain, Vincent Bugliosi, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Juan Cole, David Cromwell, Ezili Danto, Murray Dobbin, Jon Elmer, Yves Engler, Reese Erlich, Anthony Fenton, Jim Fetzer, Laura Flanders, Chris Floyd, Connie Fogal, Glen Ford, Susan George, Stan Goff, Amy Goodman, Robert Greenwald, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Sander Hicks, Julia Butterfly Hill, Scott Horton, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Chalmers Johnson, Diana Johnstone, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Brewster Kneen, Betty Krawczyk, Anthony Lappe, Frances Moore Lappe, Jason Leopold, Jeff Leys, Dave Lindorff, Jim Lobe, Jennifer Loewenstein, Stephen Marshall, Linda McQuaig, George Monbiot, Loretta Napoleoni, John Nichols, Kurt Nimmo, Ken O'Keefe, David Orchard, Riki Ott, Greg Palast, Mike Palecek, Michael Parenti, Robert Parry, John Perkins, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, William Rivers Pitt, Justin Podur, Lila Rajiva, Jack Random, Sheldon Rampton, Paul Craig Roberts, David Robb, Paul de Rooij, John Ross, David Rovics, Danny Schechter, David Schindler, Vandana Shiva, Tim Shorrock, Norman Solomon, Jean Saint-Vil, Starhawk, Grant Wakefield, Harvey Wasserman, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Andy Worthington, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.