Michael Pollan

Highly influential author, activist and journalist Michael Pollan talks about his latest investigation into one of the greatest mysteries of nature – our consciousness – and explains how science may not be able to explain everything about our inner lives.

Pollan looks at consciousness from different perspectives, including the scientific, philosophical, spiritual, historical and psychedelic, and asks what each has to teach us about this fundamental aspect of our lives. He looks at plant neurobiologists studying nature’s complex intelligence, neuroscientists and neurobiologists trying to engineer feeling into AI and novelists recreating our stream of consciousness. Pollan says his exploration uncovers a world far deeper than everyday reality, and it should empower us and improve our awareness of consciousness.

Pollan was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. He is a US journalist and author of bestselling books about the way we live today, including How to Change Your Mind, This Is Your Mind on Plants, In Defence of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. His investigations range widely across science, anthropology, philosophy, culture, health and natural history. He is a co-founder of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelic, which uses psychedelics to research cognition, perception and emotion. Pollan has also presented two Netflix series based on his books, Cooked and How to Change your Mind.