This Is Your Mind On Plants

Opium—Caffeine—Mescaline

By: Michael Pollan

Narrated by: Michael Pollan

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 ground-breaking 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.

© Michael Pollan 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critic reviews

Pollan is always an entertaining writer, and a deep thinker with a light touch ... it's a trip - engrossing, eye-opening, mind altering. (Sophie McBain)

This fascinating insight into our relationship with mind-altering plants weaves personal experimentation with cultural history ... Pollan is the perfect guide through this sometimes controversial territory; curious, careful and, as his book progresses, increasingly open minded. (Tim Adams)

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. (Rob Dunn)

Brilliant, compulsively readable ... Pollan's storytelling is deft, forthright and fascinating. (Charles Foster)

Like it or not, we are undergoing a drugs revolution ... thankfully Pollan is here to guide us through this putative challenge ... [this] relatable, middle class New York plant fancier might be the ideal standard bearer for today's calmer, more scientific approach to the subject. (Josh Glancy)

Pollan's intertwining of reportage, citizen science and historical scholarship is a delightful and informative read ... [he] has a rational optimism that might tempt even the most sober and sceptical to try to broaden their horizons. (AJ Lees)

Pollan is a gentle, generous writer. (David Aaronovitch)

Michael Pollan weaves tales of drug experimentation into a historical account of our long relationship with them. (Simon Ings)

This Is Your Mind on Plants is witty, entertaining and polite, but it is not trivial. Subtly but assuredly, Pollan argues that which plants (and fungi) we are allowed and how depends, consciously or otherwise, on the interests of power. (Josh Raymond)

The descriptions of London's coffee house culture and Honoré de Balzac's barbarous habit of ingesting dry coffee grounds to fuel all-night scribbling sessions are worth the book's price alone ... The book is really about the relation between each plant and the humans who consume it, tackled in a non-judgmental and objective way that seeks to dispel the ignorance, prejudice and demonisation they attract.

A wonderful book, once again.

I really enjoy Pollan's style and how he intertwines various plants into a narrative.

This is a fascinating look at the criminal war on drugs, the amazing power of caffine and gave me a beautiful new perspective on peyote.

INTERESTING, WELL READ BUT LACKING

I really enjoyed the author's last book "how to change your mind" and was looking forward to another trip into the fascinating world of psychoactive plants. This book is very interesting and does have a lot of eye-opening information. However, I felt it fell short of its predecessor. Possibly due to the pandemics travel restrictions etc, which are mentioned many times as causes for the author's plans being changed/abandoned. I feel the book would have benefited from waiting out the restrictions and continuing a little deeper into the rabbit hole. Also releasing the coffee section early and free for audible members, took a big chunk out of the finished book.