Michael Pollan writes for The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker and is the author of nine books. His latest is How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.

“I don’t like writing as an expert. I’m fine doing public speeches as an expert. Or writing op-ed pieces as an expert. But as a writer, it’s a killer. Nobody likes an expert. Nobody likes to be lectured at. And if you’ve read anything I’ve written, I’m kind of an idiot on page one. I am the naïve fish out of water. I’m learning though. The narrative that we always have as writers is our own education on the topic. We can recreate the process of learning that's behind the book.”

Thanks to Mailchimp and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.

@michaelpollan

michaelpollan.com

Pollan on Longform

[00:38] How to Change Your Mind (Penguin Press • 2018)

[00:46] Pollan's Harper’s archive

[02:58] ”The Trip Treatment” (New Yorker • 2015)

[03:30] The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Penguin Press • 2007)

[03:31] A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams (Penguin Press • 1997)

[03:35] Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (Penguin Press • 2014)

[04:35] Paper Lion (George Plimpton • Harper • 1966)

[06:18] "Power Steer” (New York Times • Oct 2002)

[06:58] National Lampoon's 1973 cover

[09:12] ”Gardening Means War” (New York Times • 1988)

[16:06] Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (Grove Press; Reprint Edition • 2003)

[16:15] The End of Nature (Bill McKibben • Random House • 1989)

[16:06] The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (Random House • 2002)

[28:53] "Town-Building is No Mickey Mouse Operation” (New York Times • 1997)

[31:34] "Some of My Best Friends Are Germs” (New York Times • 2013)

[31:50] "The Intelligent Plant” (New Yorker • 2013)

[32:09] The Overstory: A Novel (Richard Powers • W.W Norton & Company • 2018)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices