Michael Pollan

Michael Kevin Pollan (; born February 6, 1955) is an American journalist, specializing in food, who is a professor and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Concurrently, he is the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism and the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where in 2020 he cofounded the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, in which he leads the public-education program. Pollan is best known for his books that explore the sociocultural effects of food, such as The Botany of Desire (2001) and The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006), as well as books that explore the effect of drugs on society and consciousness, such as How to Change Your Mind (2018) and This Is Your Mind On Plants (2021). The popularity of his books has led to widespread awareness about various parts of the food system, including the local food movement, understanding the connections between climate change and food, and problems with industrial food. Recent books have made Pollan a popular part of the modern education around psychedelics and other mind-altering foods and plants. His 2018 book How to Change Your Mind, in particular, is considered a cultural turning point for how it contributed to the revival of positive and accepting attitudes toward the potential benefits of psychedelics.