OPB’s Dave Miller spoke to Michael Pollan in front of an audience at the Newmark Theatre July 27 in Portland in an event put on by Powell’s Boons. This was one stop in Pollan’s West Coast leg of his paperback tour for This is Your Mind on Plants.
Four years prior to this recording, Michael Pollan published “How to Change Your Mind.” Like so many of Pollan’s books, it was a mixture of reporting, history, botany and experiential journalism. It focused on promising new research into the therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin. Pollen’s latest book goes deeper into that territory. It’s called “This is Your Mind On Plants,” and it focuses on three drugs derived from plants: opium, caffeine and mescaline.