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

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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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How to understand your own consciousness (w/ Michael Pollan) is an episode from How to Be a Better Human by TED.

This episode is 38:52 long.

This episode was published on Mar 23, 2026.

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