What happens when we slow down enough to hear the forest speak?

In this conversation, Ali Banks, co-founder of Forest Folk Fungi, invites us into a world where reciprocity is alive beneath our feet. Together we explore the language of the trees and the fungi that connect them — the wood-wide web — and what they can teach us about integrity, motherhood, and belonging. We talk reishi’s gentle wisdom, the ethics of wildcrafting, and how slowing down lets us remember our place in the living world.

Expect to learn how to begin a sit-spot practice that deepens intuition; the clearest way to explain fungi versus mushrooms; what mycelial networks actually do underground; how reishi and chaga support the nervous system and immunity; the essentials of ethical wildcrafting; why forest-to-bottle medicine feels so different from lab-grown extracts; and one barefoot ritual that instantly grounds the body and quiets the mind.

-

Timestamps:

(00:09) Welcome & intention: reverence, rhythm, and the art of slowness

(01:54) The forest as teacher: from “sea of green” to seeing

(04:49) Sit spots & stillness: entering the liminal mind-heart space

(09:55) First brush with the Mystery: grief as a doorway back

(15:29) Fungi 101: fruiting bodies, mycelium, and the wood-wide web

(20:24) Collaboration > competition: how trees talk through hyphae

(21:04) “Life into life”: why fungi are the midwives of the forest

(22:17) Learning mushrooms safely: field guides, mentors, and reishi as ally

(28:25) Mycelial lessons for humans: trusting community again

(32:02) Forest-to-bottle integrity: why staying small matters

(36:46) Felt results: a customer’s week-one shift on mushroom blends

(38:34) Wild vs. lab: medicine, “songlines,” and environment-shaped compounds

(41:52) Ethical wildcrafting: permission, reciprocity, and taking less than you can

(45:09) Motherhood & the nervous system: herbs, reishi cacao, and sleep

(56:47) One tangible practice this week: barefoot on the earth

(57:39) Rapid-fire favorites & where to find Forest Folk Fungi

-

Links + Resources:

Forest Folk Fungi Website: https://forestfolkfungi.com

Forest Folk Fungi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forestfolkfungi

-

Get in Touch:

Honor Earth Apothecary Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honorearthapothecary

Honor Earth Apothecary Website: https://www.honorearthapothecary.com

Sara's Personal Substack: https://honoringtheslow.substack.com

Email: https://www.honorearthapothecary.com/pages/contact