With the TV show The Last of Us currently all the rage, Sara and Casey talk the real-life zombie fungus. They discuss how zombie fungus works, what the show gets right and wrong, and whether we should be afraid of a zombie fungus pandemic. They also discuss the amazing diversity of fungi and some of the benefits we get from these often overlooked organisms.
Resources for this episode:
Discovery: The Largest Living Thing on Earth is a 3.5 sq mi Fungus
Smithsonian: The Real Zombie Fungus That Inspired HBO's The Last of Us
Vox: The “zombie” fungus in The Last of Us, explained by a biologist
PNAS: Three-dimensional visualization and a deep-learning model reveal complex fungal parasite networks in behaviorally manipulated ants
BMC Ecology: Behavioral mechanisms and morphological symptoms of zombie ants dying from fungal infection
National Geographic: Fungi Are Key to Our Survival, Are We Doing Enough to Protect Them?

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