About The Speakers

Speakers for the 2024 Quinault Rainforest Mushroom Festival. Check back periodically for changes to this list.

Speakers List

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Langdon Cook

Langdon Cook is a writer, instructor, and lecturer on wild foods and the outdoors. His books include
Upstream: Searching for Wild Salmon, from River to Table (Ballantine, May 2017), a finalist for the Washington

State Book Award, The Mushroom Hunters: A Hidden World of Food, Money, and (Mostly Legal) Adventure, winner of the 2014 Pacific Northwest Book Award, and Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager,

which The Seattle Times called “lyrical, practical and quixotic.” Cook’s work has been nominated for two James

Beard Awards, a Society of Environmental Journalists award, and a Pushcart Prize. He has been profiled in Bon Appetit, WSJ magazine, Whole Living, and Salon.com, and his writing appears in numerous magazines, newspapers, and online journals, including National Geographic Traveler, Eating Well, Outside,Gray’s Sporting Journal, and

Seattle Magazine, where he was a regular columnist for a decade. On-screen credits include the PBS TV series “Food Forward,” the Travel Channel’s “Trip Flip,” and the webcast “The Perennial Plate.” He has also been the recipient of grants and awards from Artist Trust, 4Culture, PEN Northwest, and the Bread Loaf Writing Conference. A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont (BA) and the University of Washington (MFA), Cook lives in Seattle with his wife, poet Martha Silano, and their two children.

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Matt Houghton

Matt has been guiding people outdoors for many decades. Foraging, birding, botanizing, tracking are all part of exploring the wilds with Matt. “My goal is to help people become more familiar with the outdoors so they can create their own wild adventures.” Matt has a Bachelor’s degree in natural history, and a Masters in adventure-based therapy. He has managed outdoor education programs for elementary students, adjudicated youth, university students, and retirees. He is a gardener at the Rhododondron Species Foundation, a volunteer for the UW Rare Care program, and an environmental monitor for the 10,000 Years Institute. Currently he runs Valley of Giants Rainforest Tours in Quinault Washington, and guides interpretive day-hikes in the Quinault Rainforest.

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