Zeitgeisters

MICHAEL POLLAN

Journalist

Michael Pollan (pronounced POH-lun not ‘Pollen’) is a celebrated American journalist and author of nine non-fiction books, several of which have become bestsellers.

For many years, his main focus was the socio-cultural impact of food in books such as The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001), The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), and In Defence of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008). It was in this that he coined perhaps his most famous quote: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

More recently in How to Change Your Mind (2018), and This Is Your Mind on Plants (2021), he has explored the history and importance of mind-altering drugs and plants, often reporting in memorable detail on his own first-hand experiments.

He is one of the great explainers in American journalism, working in a tradition that includes Annie Dillard, John McPhee, and Eric Schlosser: a warm, graceful, and empathetic writer whose work has helped to move the public discussion significantly forwards on the issues of processed food, factory farming, the impact of climate change, and the transformational value of psychedelics.