Are You Interested in Self Improvement?

Michael Pollan is a contributing writer for New York Times Magazine, the host of Netflix's How to Change Your Mind, and the author of nine books. The latest is This Is Your Mind On Plants.

“I have found myself at two distinct points in my history having this transition from being the journalist, learning at the feet of these people, to becoming an advocate. And it’s an awkward role for a journalist, but at a certain point it would be kind of false to pretend you didn't have points of view, that there weren't directions in which you think the world should go. And the great thing about doing narrative nonfiction is that editors cut you a fair amount of slack at the end of a 10,000–word piece to say what you think.”

Show notes:

• @michaelpollan
• michaelpollan.com
• Pollan on Longform
• Pollan on Longform Podcast
• Pollan’s New York Times archive
• Pollan’s Harper’s archive
• 01:00 How To Change Your Mind (Penguin Press • 2018)
• 01:00 How To Change Your Mind (Netflix • 2022)
• 06:00 "Channels of Communication Magazine"
• 09:00 "The Microdose Newsletter"
• 11:00 "The Future of Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy" (Rick Doblin • TED • April 2019)
• 15:00 Second Nature (Grove Press; Reprint Edition • 2003)
• 17:00 "Caffeine" (Audible • 2019)
• 17:00 "Opium, Made Easy" (Harper’s • April 1997)
• 20:00 The Botany of Desire (Random House • 2002)
• 20:00 "Trip Treatment" (New Yorker • Feb 2015)
• 21:00 The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Penguin Press • 2007)
• 22:00 Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser • Penguin Random House • 2001)
• 24:00 A Life On Our Planet (David Attenborough • Netflix • 2020)
• 27:00 "The Morning After" (Robert Stone • Harper’s • Nov 1996)
• 27:00 "In Darkest Hollywood" (Stanley Elkin • Harper’s • Dec 1989)
• 28:00 "Shipping Out" (David Foster Wallace • Harper’s • Jan 1996)
• 28:00 "Gravy Boat: My Week on the High Seas with Paula Deen and Friends" (Caity Weaver • Gawker • Feb 2014)
• 28:00 "Ticket to the fair" (David Foster Wallace • Harper’s • July 1994)
• 35:00 Food Rules (Penguin Press • 2009)
• 42:00 "The Rubber Hand Illusion" (Horizon • BBC • Oct 2010)

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