Michael Pollan on Food, Psychedelics and His Next Book

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Education, Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week, we hosted a members-only Q&A with Michael Pollan. We covered food and diet, his writing process, psychedelics, and dreams. We also got into the microbiome, which happens to be the subject of Michael's new book (and a topic he thinks will fundamentally change how we understand health). The conversation was so good that we thought, Why keep this to ourselves? The episodes we mentioned about the origins of life with Sara Imari Walker? You can listen to them here and here. And if you can’t get enough of Michael — and who can? — here’s our last interview with him. Watch The Next Big Idea on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠podcast@nextbigideaclub.com⁠. We love getting fan mail. Sponsored By: Bitdefender — Get 30% off your plan at ⁠⁠bitdefender.com/idea⁠⁠ Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at ⁠⁠meetfabric.com/nbi⁠⁠ Factor — Head to ⁠⁠⁠factormeals.com/idea50off⁠⁠⁠ and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at ⁠⁠granola.ai/idea⁠⁠ Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shopify.com/nbi⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Rufus Criscom and I'm Caleb Bissinger and this is the next big idea.
0:05.9	Today, Michael Pollan on psychedel book, A World Appears.
0:39.1	So what does that mean exactly? Okay, it means that our members got a copy of Michael's book.
0:44.0	They actually got that copy before the book was published.
0:46.8	The week before, that was so cool, Caleb. We were delighted to make that happen.
0:50.5	And it went on to hit number two on the New York Times bestseller list.
0:55.6	Members also received a text and audio reading guide. They had the opportunity to chat with
1:02.0	each other and with us on WhatsApp and on Zoom calls. And I think best of all, they got to attend
1:07.9	a members-only Q&A with Michael Pollan.
1:11.5	Thank you for your interest in the book and for actually reading it.
1:15.2	I haven't talked to too many readers yet.
1:17.5	Now, of course, we had Michael on the podcast to talk about this book, and that was a great
1:21.6	conversation.
1:22.1	You really know that one, Rufus.
1:23.5	Thanks, Caleb.
1:24.4	I so enjoyed it.
1:25.6	But this conversation with our members really surprised us.
1:29.6	Listening back to it, it was so interesting.
1:32.0	We covered so much new ground that didn't come up in your conversation with Michael
1:35.3	that we said to each other like, what the heck?
1:37.9	We should put that on the podcast.
1:39.3	Yep.
	...

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