Mushrooms are seriously underrated. They detoxify living animals, can restore ecosystems and could even terraform other planets, says mycologist Paul Stamets

“Future space pioneers should carry fungi for terraforming other worlds” Stuart Isett

Tell me about the hat you’re wearing.

It’s made from a birch polypore mushroom. Our ancestors realised that you could get this tough bracket fungus off birch trees, hollow it out and put fire in it and carry it for days. This enabled the portability of fire that is so critical for human survival. When the same mushroom is boiled and stretched, it produces a fabric. There are only a handful of people in Transylvania who are making these hats now. Because of deforestation and the difficulty of finding large-enough mushrooms, the hats …