Michael Pollan: This Is Your Mind on Plants

Michael Pollan: This Is Your Mind on Plants

When you start your day with a cup of tea or coffee you are ingesting a consciousness-altering drug, which you are quite likely to be addicted to. That drug of course is caffeine, the stimulant used by 90 per cent of people on earth, and it is one of three mind-altering molecules that bestselling author Michael Pollan has been investigating for his new book This Is Your Mind on Plants, alongside morphine, produced by the opium poppy, and mescaline, found in certain cacti. In conversation with the medical doctor and broadcaster Guddi Singh, Pollan explores humanity’s longstanding and powerful attraction to psychoactive plants. Why do we go to such lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and why do we then hedge this desire with laws, customs and fraught feelings? And why do we categorise these compounds so reductively – calling them either a licit or an illicit drug? For, as Pollan will argue, when we take these psychoactive plants into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways possible. Click here to get the Intelligence Squared discount on the book: https://www.primrosehillbooks.com/product/this-is-your-mind-on-plants-michael-pollan/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Avsnitt(1505)

How Tech Platforms Threaten Our Future, With Former White House Advisor Tim Wu (Part Two)

How Tech Platforms Threaten Our Future, With Former White House Advisor Tim Wu (Part Two)

Tim Wu, is one of America’s leading thinkers on technology, power, and the history of monopoly powers. A Columbia Law School professor and former special assistant to President Joe Biden for technolog...

2 Jan 44min

How Tech Platforms Threaten Our Future, With Former White House Advisor Tim Wu (Part One)

How Tech Platforms Threaten Our Future, With Former White House Advisor Tim Wu (Part One)

Tim Wu, is one of America’s leading thinkers on technology, power, and the history of monopoly powers. A Columbia Law School professor and former special assistant to President Joe Biden for technolog...

31 Dec 202535min

How Philosophy Explains Our World, with Julian Baggini (Part Two)

How Philosophy Explains Our World, with Julian Baggini (Part Two)

--- If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £...

29 Dec 202535min

How Philosophy Explains Our World, with Julian Baggini (Part One)

How Philosophy Explains Our World, with Julian Baggini (Part One)

What would Aristotle make of Keir Starmer? Would Plato be a Republican? And what can philosophy teach us about modern world? In October 2025 philosopher Julian Baggini came to Intelligence Squared t...

28 Dec 202538min

Michael Rosen on Hope, Happiness and Finding Joy in the Small Things (Part Two)

Michael Rosen on Hope, Happiness and Finding Joy in the Small Things (Part Two)

Michael Rosen has known – and given – great joy in his life. And he has suffered immense sorrow.  Rosen is an author, poet and former children’s laureate, much-loved for his playful humour. He has wr...

26 Dec 202542min

Michael Rosen on Hope, Happiness and Finding Joy in the Small Things (Part One)

Michael Rosen on Hope, Happiness and Finding Joy in the Small Things (Part One)

Michael Rosen has known – and given – great joy in his life. And he has suffered immense sorrow.  Rosen is an author, poet and former children’s laureate, much-loved for his playful humour. He has wr...

24 Dec 202534min

Women’s Prize-winner Rachel Clarke in conversation with Rob Delaney (Part Two)

Women’s Prize-winner Rachel Clarke in conversation with Rob Delaney (Part Two)

Dr Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor and author, who became widely known for her writing on the challenges facing the NHS from the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then she has also ...

22 Dec 202539min

Women’s Prize-winner Rachel Clarke in conversation with Rob Delaney (Part One)

Women’s Prize-winner Rachel Clarke in conversation with Rob Delaney (Part One)

Dr Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor and author, who became widely known for her writing on the challenges facing the NHS from the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then she has also ...

21 Dec 202537min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

p3-krim
svenska-fall
rss-krimstad
flashback-forever
motiv
rss-viva-fotboll
spar
rss-sanning-konsekvens
aftonbladet-daily
aftonbladet-krim
rss-krimreportrarna
olyckan-inifran
rss-frandfors-horna
rss-vad-fan-hande
fordomspodden
dagens-eko
rss-flodet
politiken
svd-ledarredaktionen
blenda-2