Michael Pollan Explores Labyrinth of Consciousness in 'A World Appears'

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KQED

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4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

What is consciousness for, and why did it evolve? Can we change our “default” consciousness? These are some of the questions that Michael Pollan says began to preoccupy him after his first psychedelic experience, which altered his ordinary consciousness so profoundly that he wanted to learn everything he could about the mysteries of sentience, thought and selfhood. We talk to him about what he uncovered and challenges of studying a phenomenon that he says we’ll never understand completely. Pollan’s new book is “A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness.” Guests: Michael Pollan, author, "A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness" - professor emeritus, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism; his other books include "In Defense of Food," "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "How to Change Your Mind." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:33.9	From KQED.
0:36.8	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
0:39.7	Michael Pollan, best known for his landmark books on food and eating like the omnivore's dilemma
0:44.4	and on psychedelics with 2018's How to Change Your Mind,
0:48.5	has delved into examining consciousness for his latest work or our subjective experience of the world.
0:55.5	And if that sounds like a big and complicated undertaking,
0:58.4	Paulin is the first to tell you that he underestimated what he'd gotten himself into,
1:02.5	but also that it's been valuable and fascinating and has convinced him with the rise of AI
1:07.6	that human consciousness needs to be defended.
1:12.3	Michael Pollan is also a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, a professor emeritus at the Berkeley Graduate
1:16.3	School of Journalism, and co-founder of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
1:22.2	Hi, Michael. It's great to have you on Forum. Oh, thank you, Mina. It's great to be here.
1:26.5	So it was your examination and
1:28.6	experience of psychedelics that ignited your curiosity about consciousness? Yeah, I mean, I'm not the
1:34.2	first person who had a psychedelic experience that made them wonder about the nature of consciousness.
1:40.0	Psychedelics have a way of kind of smudging the windshield through which we experience reality.
	...

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