How to understand your own consciousness (w/ Michael Pollan)

How to understand your own consciousness (w/ Michael Pollan)

From How to Be a Better Human by TED

March 23, 2026 · 39 min

About this episode

Michael Pollan joins Chris to explore the nature of consciousness and its implications for humans and other beings.

What is consciousness? Humans and animals have it, but do plants have sentience? These are the questions journalist Michael Pollan studies. Michael is the author of ten books on the relationship between food, consciousness, and psychedelics. Michael joins Chris to discuss why humans ruminate, how people should get comfortable with boredom, and whether we can really trust our own memories? Featured guest Follow Michael Pollan on Instagram and at michaelpollan.com/ Connect with the team Follow Chris on Instagram and at chrisduffycomedy.com Buy Chris’ book, Humor Me   Watch How to Be a Better Human videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective Follow TED on X , Instagram , Facebook , LinkedIn , and TikTok For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at  attend.ted.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Chris

Guest: Michael Pollan

Topics covered

  • consciousness
  • sentience
  • memory
  • boredom
  • psychedelics
  • food

Keywords

  • consciousness
  • sentience
  • memory
  • boredom
  • psychedelics
  • food
  • Michael Pollan

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: TED, Acast, TEDAudioCollective, michaelpollan.com, go.ted.com/BHTranscripts, attend.ted.com/podcast

Books & works: Humor Me

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