For years, Michael Pollan's books have changed minds.
Pollan’s books, like The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto – and Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, the latter now also a successful Netflix series – have strongly influenced contemporary ideas about agriculture, nature, nutrition and ethics. He's sparked debates on genetically modified organisms, and even on the definition of 'food' … and he's done it with charm, imagination and gusto, bringing serious scientific heft and optimism to all his work.
Pollan’s latest investigation is more explicitly concerned than ever with changing minds. This time, he’s turned his attention to psychedelic drugs; their history and their potential. Pollan wants us to look beyond the myriad misconceptions and clichés to understand the groundbreaking new science around hallucinogens. In How To Change Your Mind, he discovers how they can help us learn more about human consciousness – as well as the benefits they may offer in the treatment of many illnesses.
A reviewer for the New York Times wrote that ‘[Pollan] makes losing your mind sound like the sanest thing a person could do’. Join this icon of science journalism, in conversation with Christine Kenneally, as he discusses his most personal work yet.
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Featuring

Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan has spent more than three decades exploring the intersection of humans and the natural world – especially through food, agriculture and the mind. He is the author of ten books, many of them New ...
Christine Kenneally
Christine Kenneally is an award-winning journalist and author who has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, Slate, Time, New Scientist, Scientific American, the Monthly, BuzzFeed and other publications. She writes about identity, culture, and science, and her stories have covered death in 20th century orphanages, brain surgery, emergency communications, and animal thought.
She was a senior contributor at Buzzfeed News for 4 years, working on an American orphanage story. Published in August 2018, the story was viewed more than six million times in six months and was nominated for a National Magazine Award and two Deadline Awards. Her books, The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures and The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language, are published by Penguin and Black Inc.
Before becoming a reporter, Kenneally received a Ph.D. in linguistics from Cambridge University and a B.A. (Hons) in English and Linguistics from Melbourne University. She was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, and has lived in England, Iowa, and Brooklyn.
