Michael Pollan is one of our most revelatory explorers of the interaction between the human and natural worlds — especially the plants with which we have, as he says, co-evolved — from food to caffeine to psychedelics. In this episode of our series, The Future of Hope, Wintering’s Katherine May draws him out on the burgeoning human inquiry and science to which he’s now given himself over — the transformative applications of altered states for healing trauma and depression, for end-of-life care — and the thrilling matter of grasping what consciousness is for. This is an informative, intriguing, utterly uncategorizable conversation.
You may know Katherine May from her On Being conversation with Krista about “wintering” as a season in the natural world — and a recurrent season in every human life. She too operates out of a deep curiosity about the human mind — the remarkable complexity of mental states and well-being — informed in part by her own welcome mid-life diagnosis of autism and her love of cold-water swimming. Her books of fiction and memoir include: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, The Electricity of Every Living Thing, and Burning Out. She is also the editor of an anthology of essays about motherhood, called The Best, Most Awful Job. Her podcast is The Wintering Sessions.
Michael Pollan is a professor at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. His many bestselling books include The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, and most recently, This Is Your Mind on Plants.
In 2020, he co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Katherine May is an author of both fiction and memoir, including: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, The Electricity of Every Living Thing, and Burning Out. She is also the editor of an anthology of essays about motherhood, called The Best, Most Awful Job. Her podcast is The Wintering Sessions.
Michael Pollan is a professor at the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. His many bestselling books include The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, and most recently, This Is Your Mind on Plants. In 2020, he co-founded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
Bessel van der Kolk – How Trauma Lodges in the Body, Revisited
[Unedited] Bessel van der Kolk with Krista Tippett
Bryan Stevenson – Finding the Courage for What's Redemptive
[Unedited] Bryan Stevenson with Krista Tippett
Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marilyn Nelson – “So let us pick up the stones over which we stumble, friends, and build altars”
[Unedited] Pádraig Ó Tuama and Marilyn Nelson with Krista Tippett
Katharine Hayhoe – "Our future is still in our hands"
[Unedited] Katharine Hayhoe with Krista Tippett
Darnell Moore and dream hampton — The Future of Hope 2
Mike Rose – The Deepest Meanings of Intelligence and Vocation
[Unedited] Mike Rose with Krista Tippett
Priya Parker — Remaking Gathering: Entering the Mess, Crossing the Thresholds
[Unedited] Priya Parker with Krista Tippett
Stephen Batchelor – Finding Ease in Aloneness
[Unedited] Stephen Batchelor with Krista Tippett
Kate Bowler and Wajahat Ali — The Future of Hope
Suzanne Simard — Forests Are Wired For Wisdom
[Unedited] Suzanne Simard with Krista Tippett
Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn – Truth, Beauty, Banjo
[Unedited] Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn with Krista Tippett
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