I'm Alan Alda, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

I spent a lot of my life not thinking much about consciousness. It's kind of the water we swim in. On the other hand,

it's this precious gift that we have this interior space that nobody can touch if we don't want

them to. We have these voices in our head. It's an interesting place to go. The thing that has really changed is my recognition of what a precious gift this is,

and that we are less conscious than we can be. Because of technology, because of the whole superstructure of civilization,

we can really check out and be mindless. And we are a lot of the time.

So I came out of it thinking that consciousness is something that deserves to be defended and

protected and that we need some consciousness hygiene. That's Michael Pollan. He's best known for his

writing on food

and for his crisp summation of advice for healthy eating.

Eat food, not too much, mainly plants.

Now he's taken a deep and very personal dive

into the mystery of consciousness.

In his new book, A World Appears.

Well, I'm almost afraid to have this conversation with you, because I'm afraid you're going to

ignite my curiosity and send me down a hole that I'll never come out of trying to answer a simple

question. And that question that you pose is, what is consciousness?

Do we really have to know?

No, you can go through life not knowing.

But it's much more interesting when you do know, I think.

And I spent a lot of my life not thinking much about consciousness.

It's kind of the water we swim in exactly on the other

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