Articles Published in Science Friday with Ira Flatow (NPR)
Consciousness, Chemically Altered
In his latest book, How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan writes of his own consciousness-expanding experiments with psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin, and he makes the case for why shaking up the brain’s old habits could be therapeutic for people facing addiction, depression, or death.
In this segment, Ira talks with Pollan and psychedelics researcher Robin Carhart-Harris about the neuroscience of consciousness, and how psychedelic drugs may alter the algorithms and habits our brains use to make sense of the world.
Can Plants Think?
Plants can hear, taste and feel, as Michael Pollan writes in his latest piece for The New Yorker. But is any of that evidence of intelligence? Click here to listen.
You Are What You Cook
In his new book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Michael Pollan takes a tour of the most time-tested cooking techniques, from southern whole-hog barbecue and slow-cooked ragus to sourdough baking and pickle making. Listen to Michael on NPR’s Science Friday or read the transcript here.
Author Comes to Natural Food’s ‘Defense’
Author Michael Pollan discusses his latest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. He boils his philosophy of nutrition down to seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Pollan suggests that people can improve their health by following relatively simple rules, such as: “Don’t eat anything that your great-grandmother would not recognize
Michael Pollan on The Omnivore’s Dilemma
In his new book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, journalist and writer Michael Pollan argues that many Americans suffer from a national eating disorder based on super-sized, corn-fed diets. Listen to the interview here.
Michael Pollan discusses his new book, The Botany of Desire
What do sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control have to do with plants? Well…everything according to Michael Pollan, the author of the best selling The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World. In this hour of Science Friday, we’ll take a look at the way people and plants–including apples and marijuana–interact with each other,