The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

Um, okay, at risk of derailing us more, I just wanna throw this out 'cause I've been thinking about it too.

I, um, have been reading The Botany of Desire, which, uh, actually came out in 2002.

It's an older book.

I think that's right.

And, um, I don't think they get nearly enough credit for their intelligence and, uh, and also their ability to manipulate us.

I wrote a whole book about that called Botany of Desire.

Um, you know, plants are, are very clever in, in lots of ways.

Um, in a way, it was the animals, writing about animals that was the departure for me.

But there's William Kerrigan, who's basically the leading modern historian of Chapman.

He's a professor at Muskingum University in Ohio and spent something like 15 years combing archives, county courthouses, and Swiborgian church records for his 2012 book, Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard.

So Kerrigan is... admirably blunt about this he says outright that most of the details of chapman's early life simply escape us jeez

uh which is i think the responsible way to put it right and also the way almost nobody else puts it because a blank is an unbearable thing for a legend

In fact, a lot of dedicated cider apples are apples you would never drink.

ever want to bite into raw.

And Michael Pollan makes exactly this case in his book, The Botany of Desire.

He's got this whole opening chapter on Chapman where he argues essentially that Chapman was in effect bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier and calls him memorably, I love this line, the American Dionysus.

I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.

My guest today is Michael Pollan, author of landmark books, including How to Change Your Mind, which is about psychedelics, The Botany of Desire, which is about how humans and plants co-evolved and collaborated to thrive, and The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is an incredible book about food and nutrition, and most recently, the book A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness.

Michael Pollan is considered by many, including me, to be one of the most learned and thoughtful people on topics that matter to all humans, and the things that we can do to improve the human experience.

Today we talk about many topics, but mostly we focus on consciousness, and Michael brings forward a new perspective that integrates the best science on this topic, as well as philosophy and beyond.

And it felt very... fortuitous um

who was it oh man it was uh not thorough but the other one i have his book the botany of desire

hemingway

no um

It was just like a cabin, a one-room cabin.

Let's see.

Botany of Desire.

Great book, by the way, if you want to learn all about...

He's written so many other phenomenal books on food and policy.

He wrote The Botany of Desire.

Recently, he's been getting more into consciousness.

His recent book is called A World Appears, A Journey Into Consciousness.