A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs, but the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both struggle and beauty, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.
Did we love this book? No. However, we did go down many a'rabbitholes during the discussion. Our biggest take away from the book was that we learned about very interesting people whose work may be far more intriguing than this one. Michael Pollan is famous for his books on food in America, and true to his materialist self, wrote a rather dry story about white men's explorations with psychedelics. We both think he could have done more to address the ancient use of plants as medicine, but he chose to spend most of his time focused on the 60's and 70's counterculture movement using LSD. It's was alright. But the episode is tee-hee-hee.
Goodreads
We'd love to have you join us in opining over on Goodreads. You can find this book here: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence and of course join our discussion group here.
Spotify Playlist
Ash mixes us up different playlists for our episodes so, you can check out this week's below or check out our Spotify profile for like, all of them.