{"podcast":{"title":"Culture Bites","slug":"culture-bites-6616056","podcast_index_feed_id":6616056,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/culturebites/feed.xml","website_url":"https://culturebites.podbean.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/17186079/culture_bites_newbq4zo.jpg","author":"The National News","episode_count":100,"summary":"Join hosts Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews as they guide you through the arts and culture scene in the UAE, the Middle East and around the world. Culture Bites — a two-time award winner recognised in New York and London — brings you fresh perspectives every Thursday from The National News in Abu Dhabi.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-09T22:19:16.985365+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/culture-bites-6616056"},"episode":{"title":"Episode 94: The mighty mushroom - UAE’s desert-dwelling marvel","slug":"episode-94-the-mighty-mushroom-uae-s-desert-dwelling-marvel","published_at":"2025-10-16T01:55:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/culture-bites-6616056/episode-94-the-mighty-mushroom-uae-s-desert-dwelling-marvel","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/culture-bites-6616056","url":"https://culturebites.podbean.com/e/the-mighty-mushroom-uae-s-desert-dwelling-marvel/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/ehrg2sw6hduig3vv/CB_Ep_94_FINAL_mixdown6jxbg.mp3","summary":"This week on Culture Bites, Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews bring attention to an often neglected but worthy force of nature − the mushroom. Their guest in this episode, Georgina Pereira, is the species survival manager at Terra, Expo City Dubai where she works as a mushroom scientist. On the occasion of World Mushroom Day, she talks to Enas and Farah about the infinite ways that fungi shape our world: from cooking and medicinal properties, to fashion and culture, and environmental conservation. They discuss historical Emirati traditions of foraging mushrooms and the rootedness of the species in the UAE’s deserts. Georgina talks about a growing community of people in the country who are going out to explore and forage mushrooms for themselves, as ecologists draw more attention to their value. Pop culture also had its mushroom moment after the post-apocalyptic TV series, The Last of Us, unlocked new fears that a certain species could mean our demise. Are zombie fungi in fact real? Georgina tells the hosts, in a way, yes.","meta_description":"This week on Culture Bites, Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews bring attention to an often neglected but worthy force of nature − the mushroom. Their guest in…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1768,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/culture-bites-6616056/episodes/episode-94-the-mighty-mushroom-uae-s-desert-dwelling-marvel/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/culture-bites-6616056/episode-94-the-mighty-mushroom-uae-s-desert-dwelling-marvel.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}