What If Fungi Win?

Johns Hopkins Wavelengths

By: Arturo Casadevall

Narrated by: Ian Putnam

Could fungal pathogens outsmart us before we find ways to combat them?

Humans and fungi share nearly 50 percent of the same DNA. Because we're related, designing drugs to combat the varieties that attack us is a challenge. Meanwhile, in an ever hotter, wetter world, fungi may be finding new ways to thrive, queueing up global outbreak potentials for which no vaccine and woefully few medications exist; some fungi are already beginning to resist treatment. Among other lifeforms, bats, amphibians, and essential crops are also increasingly threatened by these pathogens.

Enter fungal kingdom frontiersman Dr. Arturo Casadevall, an epidemiologist, professor, and inventor. Casadevall shares how the 1990s AIDS epidemic's fungal complications drove his medical mycology work, how COVID-19's fungal incidences underscore the continuing threat to the immunocompromised, and how he and his Johns Hopkins University laboratory team are discovering ways to counter the threats posed by these cunning, hungry combatants.

What If Fungi Win? describes the beneficial roles of fungi along with their mischievous and deadly impacts and illustrates how committed experts like Casadevall are researching ways to save us and our food supplies.

The book is published Johns Hopkins University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2024 Arturo Casadevall (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A fascinating look at an incredible and terrifying life form." (Laura Sullivan, NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition; Correspondent, PBS's Frontline)

"A fascinating and timely review by a distinguished authority in the field of medical mycology." (H. Thorsten Lumbsch, Curator of Lichenized Fungi, Field Museum)

"An entertaining, informative, and thought-provoking narrative that explores both the beneficial and devastating impacts of fungi..." (Jennifer Lodge, Duke University)