author
Contributing writer to the New York Times; Professor of Journalismat the University of California, Berkeley; author of several books on food, including How To Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence; The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World and Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
How LSD and mushrooms can treat mental illness and addiction In 1971, Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs, and the Controlled Substances Act outlawed the use of LSD and psilocybin, or magic mushrooms. Before then, psychiatrists used those drugs to treat patients for depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more. Now there’s a resurgence in interest around psychedelic drugs. Author Michael Pollan has taken stock of the latest developments, and even taken a few trips himself. Author Michael Pollan. Credit: Jeannette Montgomery Barron.
Food Versus Edible Food-like Substances After reading Michel Pollan's vastly successful book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma , the Wall Street Journal's reviewer said, "Eating is no longer a simple pleasure." Beyond that, and despite nutritional science, the industrialized products we call "food" aren't food any more, and they've given America "a national eating disorder." Today, Pollan's latest book is being released. It's called In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto.
Farm Bill's Distorted Economics and the Quality of Our Food Supply The Farm Bill dates back to the Depression and World War II, and it still reflects the priorities of those bygone days. The result is that $25 billion in subsidies have gone mostly to corporations and wealthy investors, many of whom are paid to grow nothing at all. Small farmers are driven out of business. Today, the House passed a new Farm Bill , worth $286 billion over the next five years, that includes $25 billion in crop subsidies. Yesterday, the House defeated an amendment that would have cut those subsidies and invest the money in conservation, nutrition, rural development and deficit reduction. What happened to promised reforms? To what extent does the Farm Bill determine what food Americans eat?
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
