A World Appears Appears!
February 24, 2026
Dear Friends and Readers,
At last: A World Appears goes on sale today!
If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll order a copy:
https://michaelpollan.com/books/a-world-appears/
The last few weeks, I’ve had some fascinating conversations—on podcasts, public radio and television—about the mysteries of consciousness, feelings, and the self. I’ve talked about how we might protect the space of our conscious minds from the corporations and politicians seeking to colonize, and monetize, not only our attention, but now, with AI, our deepest emotional attachments. I’ve described the pollution of our consciousness and how we might practice “consciousness hygiene.”
If you want to get a taste of these conversations, you can watch my podcast appearance with the New York Times’ David Marchese here.
Jay Shetty here.
Fresh Air here.
And The Late Show with Stephen Colbert here.
There have already been a couple of nice reviews, including the Financial Times, which said “A World Appears is a big, generous, illuminating and beautifully written inquiry into the essence of our being-in-the-world, of being, simply, alive…Now more than ever, in this age of untruth, we need to have our attention directed back to the fundamental questions—however hard they may be—as to the essential nature of our existence on this ailing planet. And as Michael Pollan richly demonstrates, questions are every bit as important as answers.”
And Science called it “charming, witty, insightful, and eccentric . . . The book’s most moving descriptions of conscious experience can be found in Pollan’s accounts of losing his sense of self, first during a psychedelic mushroom trip and later during a Zen meditation in a cave . . . A wonderful phenomenological travelog.”
You can still purchase tickets to some of my tour events, beginning in New York City, Cambridge and Washington D.C. this coming week. Visit my website to learn more:
https://michaelpollan.com/appearances/
Hope to see you on the road!
Enjoyed the opening chapter on my commute from Nashville to Murfreesboro this morning. Excellent! And may I offer a much-belated thanks, Michael, for your having taken the time back in '99 to respond with constructive comments to the unsolicited draft chapter of my Vanderbilt dissertation on William James and consciousness. It was such a generous act on your part, and came for me at the most opportune moment. And now I'm president of the William James Society (wjsociety.org) - thanks in no small part to your kind encouragement.
So looking forward to reading A World Appears! Love all your books and how you are so calm and reasonable. Thank you!! I really thought after In Defense of Food, everything would suddenly change with the food industry, but a lot changed around my own actions, so maybe that's a good thing!