Michael Pollan and Katherine May - The Future of Hope 4

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Society, Spirituality, Society & Culture, Sociology, Culture, Science, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Social Sciences, On Being, Arts

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On being is brought to you by the John Templeton Foundation, harnessing the power of the sciences
0:05.6	to explore the deepest and most perplexing questions facing humankind. Learn about the latest
0:11.5	discoveries in the study of hope and optimism, intellectual humility, and free will at Templeton.org.
0:19.6	I like this description I found on Michael Pollan's website about the arc and the core of his
0:25.6	body of work. For more than 30 years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about
0:31.5	the places where the human and natural worlds intersect on our plates, in our farms and gardens,
0:38.4	and in our minds. He has undeniably changed the culture of food, and more recently he opened
0:46.0	wide a thoughtful cultural dialogue with his book, How to Change Your Mind, What the New Science of
0:52.4	Psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence.
0:59.1	And his newest book, This Is Your Mind on Plants, delves into the ordinary ways in which we have
1:04.6	integrated a relationship with mind-altering plants, caffeine being exhibit A, into our basic
1:12.4	lives and our social functioning. And Michael Pollan is the person Catherine May, immediately
1:18.4	proposed she'd like to draw out in conversation for our series The Future of Hope.
1:23.6	You may know her from her gorgeous book and her on-being episode on wintering,
1:28.8	wintering as a season in the natural world and her current season in every human life.
1:35.2	She too operates out of a deep curiosity about the human mind, the remarkable complexity of
1:42.0	mental states and well-being, informed in part by her own welcome midlife diagnosis of autism,
1:49.5	and her love of cold water swimming. She finds hope for our common future, in the world of human
1:56.8	inquiry and science to which Michael Pollan is contributing so richly. The healing potentials
2:03.2	of altered states, with transformative applications for trauma and depression and end of life care,
2:09.7	and for the thrilling matter of grasping what consciousness is and is for.
2:22.0	I'm Christa Tippett and this is on being. I am delighted to plunge you now into the rich,
	...

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