How We Build This

Michael Pollan: Reclaiming Our Attention in the MAGA Era

Episode Summary

Host May Boeve sits down with NY Times Bestselling Author and journalist Michael Pollan.

Episode Notes

May Boeve talks with author Michael Pollan about the surprising ways writers can help spark movements. Pollan reflects on how his work on food systems and psychedelics moved him from journalist to reluctant advocate, and what it means to use storytelling to make vast systems feel human, urgent, and changeable. Together, May and Michael explore the food movement’s cultural impact, the power and limits of “voting with your fork,” unlikely cross-partisan openings around pesticides and ultra-processed food, and the emerging politics of attention in an era of social media, AI, and Trump’s command of our consciousness. Along the way, Pollan makes the case for pleasure as an underrated political force.

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

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