Letter from the Editor | April 2024

In 2022, during my first week as National Geographic's editor in chief, I met Harvard associate and mycologist Giuliana Furci at the National Geographic Society's Explorers Festival in Washington, D.C. At this annual event, Explorers from all over the world gather to share their work and insights.

Furci, who had traveled from her home in Chile, is one of those incredible humans with whom, in the space of a few minutes, you can go from small talk to soulful conversation—in this case, about fungi and their unsung place in our ecosystems and lives.

At the time, I was in the process of moving to D.C. from Seattle, where I lived surrounded by a forest that had taught me to pay attention to fungi. The elegant white winglike ones extending from decaying logs. The crinkly ones that popped up in fairy circles. The bright blue ones and orange ones and black ones.

Perhaps because of that connection, my talk with Furci sparked the idea for this month's cover story. The piece shares the most fascinating aspects of these organisms, from making up the mycobiome in our bodies to their use in fashion to how they're affected by climate change.

I hope you enjoy the issue.

Nathan Lump, Editor in Chief, National Geographic

Read about fungi from National Geographic's April issue here:

Why 'funga' is just as important as flora and fauna

Fungi could be the key to major cancer research breakthroughs

This deadly fungus is hitchhiking its way across the world

Mushroom leather? The future of fashion is closer than you think