Merlin Sheldrake

By examining fungi on their own terms, Merlin reveals how these extraordinary organisms – and our relationships with them – are changing our understanding of how life works. Entangled Life was described by The Wall Street Journal as “food for the soul”; by The Guardian as “brilliant” and “entrancing”; by The Observer as “wondrous,” and by The Spectator as “truly astounding.” 

Merlin’s research ranges from fungal biology to the history of Amazonian ethnobotany, to the relationship between sound and form in resonant systems. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), and sits on the advisory board of the Fungi Foundation. In 2025, together with Giuliana Furci and Toby Kiers he won a Climate Breakthrough Award to work with fungi to mitigate climate change.

A keen brewer and fermenter, Merlin is fascinated by the relationships that arise between humans and more-than-human organisms. He is a musician and performs on the piano and accordion. 

Merlin is available for keynote lectures, fireside chats, nature walks, and for a multimedia touch, screenings of his documentary The Secret Lives of Fungi.