Stay Tuned with Preet Do Plants Think, and Other Mysteries (with Michael Pollan)
Apr 2, 2026
Michael Pollan, author known for books on food, plants, and psychedelics, discusses his new book A World Appears. He explores why consciousness is a hard problem and surveys competing theories. He describes psychedelics revealing perception, surprising evidence of plant sentience, and why current AI likely won’t be truly conscious.
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Beeper Study Shows Many People Lack Inner Monologues
- Michael Pollan participated in Russell Hurlburt's beeper experiment and discovered many thoughts are banal and not always verbal.
- Hurlburt's long study shows only a minority think in words; others think in images or unsymbolized thought.
Modern Media Is Colonizing Our Heads
- Pollan warns modern forces are 'colonizing' consciousness by filling minds with unwanted content, threatening private freedom of thought.
- He cites social media algorithms and constant presidential attention as examples that hijack headspace.
Psychedelic Trips Sparked Hypothesis That Plants Are Conscious
- Pollan recounts psychedelic 'research trips' that defamiliarized perception and made him wonder whether plants are conscious.
- He treated those drug-occasioned insights as hypotheses to test against scientific evidence rather than mere hallucinations.
