Do Plants Think, and Other Mysteries (with Michael Pollan)
From Stay Tuned with Preet by Preet Bharara
April 2, 2026 · 1h 8m
About this episode
Preet Bharara interviews Michael Pollan about consciousness, the sentience of plants, and the implications of artificial intelligence.
Author Michael Pollan joins Preet to discuss his new book, A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness, the “problem” of studying consciousness, psychedelics in therapy, and whether plants are sentient. They also break down whether artificial intelligence can be conscious and why we shouldn’t want it to be. Then, Preet answers listener questions on possible insider trading ahead of Trump’s Iran announcements. Also, a surprising influence on Brandi Carlile’s songwriting. Spoiler Alert: it’s Thomas Jefferson. In the bonus for Insiders, Preet and Pollan discuss why you can’t have life without death. Plus, whether it’s possible to control our own thoughts. Join the Insider community for access to bonus content from Stay Tuned and weekly episodes of the Insider podcast hosted by Preet and Joyce Vance. Head to cafe.com/insider to sign up. Thank you for supporting our work. Show notes and a transcript of the episode are available on our website. You can now watch this episode! Head to CAFE’s Youtube channel and subscribe. Shop Stay Tuned merch and featured books by our guests in our Amazon storefront. Have a question for Preet? Ask @PreetBharara on BlueSky, or Twitter with the hashtag…
People in this episode
Host: Preet Bharara
Guest: Michael Pollan
Topics covered
- consciousness
- psychedelics
- plants
- artificial intelligence
- insider trading
- songwriting
- death
Keywords
- consciousness
- psychedelics
- plants
- artificial intelligence
- insider trading
- Brandi Carlile
- Thomas Jefferson
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: CAFE, Vox Media Podcast Network
Books & works: A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness
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