This Is Your Mind on Plants
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This Is Your Mind on Plants
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Narrated by:
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Michael Pollan
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Written by:
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Michael Pollan
About this listen
The instant New York Times best seller | A Washington Post Notable Book | One of NPR's Best Books of the Year
“Expert storytelling.... [Pollan] masterfully elevates a series of big questions about drugs, plants and humans that are likely to leave readers thinking in new ways.” (New York Times Book Review)
From number one New York Times best-selling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants - and the equally powerful taboos.
Of all the things humans rely on plants for - sustenance, beauty, medicine, fragrance, flavor, fiber - surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Take coffee and tea: People around the world rely on caffeine to sharpen their minds. But we do not usually think of caffeine as a drug, or our daily use as an addiction, because it is legal and socially acceptable. So, then, what is a “drug”? And why, for example, is making tea from the leaves of a tea plant acceptable, but making tea from a seed head of an opium poppy a federal crime?
In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs - opium, caffeine, and mescaline - and throws the fundamental strangeness, and arbitrariness, of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs while consuming (or, in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants. Why do we go to such great lengths to seek these shifts in consciousness, and then why do we fence that universal desire with laws and customs and fraught feelings?
In this unique blend of history, science, and memoir, as well as participatory journalism, Pollan examines and experiences these plants from several very different angles and contexts, and shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively - as a drug, whether licit or illicit. But that is one of the least interesting things you can say about these plants, Pollan shows, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. Based in part on an essay published almost twenty-five years ago, this groundbreaking and singular consideration of psychoactive plants, and our attraction to them through time, holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds, and our entanglement with the natural world.
©2021 Michael Pollan (P)2021 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,513
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 132
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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What the critics say
“Delightful...[This Is Your Mind on Plants] aims to collapse the distinctions between legal and illegal, medical and recreational, exotic and everyday, by appealing to the principle that unites the three: the affinities between plant biochemistry and the human mind.” (New York Review of Books)
“[A] thoughtful study.... As the U.S.’s drug policies become less punitive, [Pollan] argues, we should think more clearly about substances we’ve come to depend on.” (The New Yorker)
“[A] wonderful and compelling read that will leave you thinking long after you set it down.... Pollan is an astonishingly good writer, at times intimate and vulnerable, at times curious and expository, always compelling and credible. Reading his writing can be kind of like taking a psychedelic - a literary onomatopoeia.” (Washington Post)
What listeners say about This Is Your Mind on Plants
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bruce Joseph
- 2023-02-05
Awesome
Loved it as usual
pollen delivers a masterpiece in depth and a unique perspective 5star.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ryan
- 2024-06-21
Great story but over too fast
I wish it was twice as long, a little deeper in places. Excellent narration by Michael Pollan as always.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mendoza family
- 2021-07-16
Revolutionary
One simple word can sum up the message of this wonderful and eye opening book - Revolutionary
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Joe Harris
- 2021-11-04
Great listen
This book was a fun listen, and very informative. The portion on caffeine was especially good. It certainly changed my perspective on the drug. I highly recommend it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-10-14
Enlightening
Really appreciated this book. Especially since I am in south america and about to try San Pedro. Illuminating and reassuring. Thanks Michael.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amanda
- 2021-09-22
May I Suggest a great book?
it's a simple & easy listen, that definitely leaves you wanting more, specifically the poppy plants, I feel like I have so man unanswered questions that I never had before reading the book, lol. Although I do love Coffee, I found this a little our of my range of interest. But painless easy listening still. The last chapters it picks back up again in the Usual Michael Polland way. His quirky humor, is a definite bonus.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Some Witch
- 2022-11-04
Entrancing Book!
I understand that Michael Pollan's style isn't for everyone, but I'm a huge fan. His writing manages to blend science, history, reflection and personal experience. The result is contemplative and, at times, deeply poetic. Bonus: Pollan has been blessed with a smooth speaking voice. Here you have a great book being read by the author himself.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 2021-07-23
Loved it!
Michael Pollan's narration is wonderfully engaging.
He puts his mind, body, spirit into this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Ashley
- 2021-12-07
Great book, even better to buy with $FJB
So everyone should definitely checkout $FJB
It's the only coin donating to charity $50k already
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2022-08-01
Excellent listen
Another great work from Michael Pollan! Top quality narration and enjoyable from start to finish
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