Author Archive
The Daily Show: How Psychedelics Can Improve Mental Health
Michael Pollan pulls back the curtain on how psychedelic mushrooms can be used to treat mental illnesses, makes the case for legalization, and shares his personal experiences on drugs. Watch the segment here.
Review: The Trip of a Lifetime
At the root of each case study is a pair of questions: the first asks why, as a species, we have gone to extraordinary lengths to propagate and disseminate these consciousness-changing molecules, and the second is why they are subject to paranoia and regulation in differing degrees.
The Intoxicating Garden
Every garden tells a story, a tale about nature written by our species and starring an obliging cast of plants. In our time, most of these stories are idylls of one kind or another, with the plants chosen for their beauty or fragrance or outward form, but always for their willingness to gratify human desire
This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan — drugs of choice
His descriptions of London’s coffee house culture and Honoré de Balzac’s barbarous habit of ingesting dry coffee grounds to fuel all-night scribbling sessions are worth the book’s price alone.
How Should We Do Drugs Now?
After a half century spent waging war on drugs, Americans seem ready to sue for peace. The 2020 elections brought plenty of proof that voters have leapt ahead of politicians in recognizing both the failures of the drug war and the potential of certain illicit drugs as powerful tools for healing.
The Power of Plants to Heal and Harm
Michael Pollan is a best-selling author. His latest work looks at three psychoactive plants and has left him making some bold claims. He says it wasn’t just coal that fueled the Industrial Revolution, but caffeine. Alongside opium and mescaline, caffeine features prominently in his new book, “This Is Your Mind on Plants.” This new work is a follow-up to
Michael Pollan is Back with Mind-Bending Thoughts on Drugs, Ego Death, and the Healing Power of Plants
GQ spoke with the author about his new book, This is Your Mind on Plants, and the rapidly evolving cultural status of mind-altering substances. On the first page of his new book, This is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan poses a seemingly simple question: what exactly is a drug? “All who try to construct a sturdy definition of drugs
After a Hard Day’s Writing, Michael Pollan Likes to Unwind With a Novel
“Getting to read fiction purely for pleasure is the carrot I hold out for myself as a reward for the work of reporting and writing,” says the author, whose new book is “This Is Your Mind on Plants.” What books are on your night stand? It’s a hodgepodge of titles, to be read, or skimmed,
Michael Pollan Explores the Mind-Altering Plants in His Garden
In his new book, “This Is Your Mind on Plants,” Michael Pollan wagers “that the decline of the drug war, with its brutally simplistic narratives … has opened a space in which we can tell some other, much more interesting stories about our ancient relationship with the mind-altering plants and fungi with which nature has blessed us.” Taking this as his cue, Pollan then turns to his own narratives of gardening and self-experimentation. As he does, he also masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways.
The Tim Ferriss Show — This is Your Mind on Plants
Michael Pollan — This Is Your Mind on Plants (#520)