In Conversation with Peter Coyote, moderated by Rebecca Solnit

Please Note: This event is currently sold out. Patrons who still wish to attend will be able to view the event on monitors around the store. Signed copies of How to Change Your Mind are available for order below or for sale at the event. Thank you!

One of the New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2018, a New York Times Notable Book, and a #1 New York Times bestseller, How to Change Your Mind is a brilliant and brave investigation into the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs, and the spellbinding story of Michael Pollan's own life-changing psychedelic experiences 

When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research.

A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both suffering and joy, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.

Michael Pollan is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.

A celebrated actor and writer, Peter Coyote appeared in E.T, Erin Brockovich, and Law & Order. He played a pivotal role in the 1960s counterculture movement.

Rebecca Solnit is an incisive voice on topics ranging from feminism to the environment, and from hope and disaster to popular power and social change. Her most recent work is Call Them By Their True Names.

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Please note: Tickets are non-refundable

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*Click on the link below to purchase a copy of How to Change Your Mind. (Please note this link is for buying the book only. Tickets for the event are sold out.)