#127 — Freedom from the Known

Making Sense with Sam Harris

Waking Up with Sam Harris

Samharris, Currentevents, Politics, Ethics, Religion, Neuroscience, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 29.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2018

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Harris speaks with Michael Pollan about his new book “How to Change Your Mind.” They cover the the resurgence of interest in psychedelics in clinical practice and end-of-life care, the “betterment of well people,” the relationship between thinking and mental suffering, the differences between psychedelics and meditation, the non-duality of consciousness, the brain’s “default mode network,” their experiences with various psychedelics, and other topics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're
0:12.1	hearing this, you are not currently on our subscriber feed and will only be hearing
0:16.2	the first part of this conversation. In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense
0:20.7	Podcast, you'll need to subscribe at samharis.org. There you'll find our private RSS feed
0:26.1	to add to your favorite pod catcher, along with other subscriber-only content. We don't run ads
0:31.2	on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support of our subscribers.
0:35.8	So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming one.
0:46.9	My guest today is Michael Pollan. Michael's the author of seven previous books,
0:52.3	which include Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivores Dilemma, and The Botany of
0:58.8	Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers, and he's a longtime contributor to the New York
1:04.3	Times magazine. He also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California in Berkeley,
1:10.0	and in 2010, Time Magazine named him to its list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
1:16.4	Today we're speaking about his new book, which is titled How to Change Your Mind,
1:21.6	What the New Science of Psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression,
1:27.0	and transcendence. And as I say in the outset of this conversation,
1:31.7	many of us have been waiting for somebody to write this book, and it was really perfect that
1:36.8	Michael was that person. Anyway, I could have spoken to Michael for many hours about this,
1:41.6	but he was in the middle of a punishing book tour, so I got about an hour and 20 minutes or so
1:48.5	of his time, and I hope you think we put it a good use. And now I bring you, Michael Pollan.
2:01.2	I'm here with Michael Pollan. Michael, thanks for coming on the podcast.
2:04.8	Oh, great to be here, Sam.
2:06.4	I am so grateful that you wrote this book. I think this must be a sentiment that has been
	...

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