This Is Your Mind on Plants cover art

This Is Your Mind on Plants

Opium - Caffeine - Mescaline

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This Is Your Mind on Plants

By: Michael Pollan
Narrated by: Michael Pollan
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Of all the many things humans rely on plants for, surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate, calm, or completely alter the qualities of our mental experience. In This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan explores three very different drugs - opium, caffeine and mescaline - and throws the fundamental strangeness 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 and the equally powerful taboos.

In a unique blend of history, science, memoir and reportage, Pollan shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively. In doing so, he proves that there is much more to say about these plants than simply debating their regulation, 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. This groundbreaking and singular book 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 Audio
Botany & Plants Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Mental Health

What listeners say about This Is Your Mind on Plants

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a story that needs to be told

I loved this book, and I feel the time is right for all to read this.

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Remarkable Insights in to plants

Thoroughly enjoyed the story telling and facts about plants. Caffeine was especially great. Definitely worth a listen!

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Bad sound quality

Great book, love Michael Pollan's work as always but the sound quality is pretty bad. Tried on multiple devices and speakers, there's a bad echo due to what must be had audio. Otherwise would have been 5 stars.

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Fantastic

Beautifully written and read. I wish more authors read their own works - few narrators have the same passion for the words as the one who wrote them.

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!!!!

another outstanding book from Michael pollan every easy to listen and intriguing as always

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Good but not what was expected.

Love Michaels writing but the content of this book does not match the title. This book seemed to be more a diary than ‘your mind on plants’.

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couldn't stop listening

Beautifully written and fascinating, I couldn't stop listening! The author's narration is great, even funny at times, and he handles sensitive subjects with care/compassion. The plants themselves are fascinating, but learning about our relationship with them, including the author's, was such an unexpected joy.

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Quite engaging

I’m generally not a fan of authors reading their own works, particularly American authors but for this book I think it’s necessary. Michael Pollan’s narration is very much like his writing - an informal style that carries the story along without being self-indulgent. Very engaging.

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Informative and Enlightening

Michael Pollan is as captivating a narrator as he is an author. Highly recommended this fantastic read.

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Interesting, personal, risky.

Loved how honest and open the author was with his DIY experiments. Also loved the stories backed-up by good science and cultural research.

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