Episode · The Book Review · 2026-05-22
Books mentioned on The Ezra Klein Show: Michael Pollan’s Journey to the Borderlands of Consciousness
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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A World Appears
A World Appears by Michael Pollan is a non-fiction book that investigates human consciousness through the lenses of neuroscience, meditation, and psychedelic exploration.
Discussed“In his new book, A World Appears, A Journey Into Consciousness, the science writer Michael Pollan takes a tour of those efforts, of those theories, of those experiments, of those psychedelic trips and meditation retreats”
Where to get it
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The Varieties of Religious Experience
The Varieties of Religious Experience is a foundational 1902 work of psychology and philosophy by William James, based on his Gifford Lectures and exploring the personal, psychological dimensions of faith, mysticism, and spiritual phenomena.
Discussed“I first got acquainted with him when I was working on how to change your mind cuz he'd written the varieties of religious experience, and there's a fantastic chapter there on mystical experience.”
Where to get it
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What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
What Is It Like to Be a Bat? by Thomas Nagel is a seminal philosophical essay that examines the limits of reductionist science in explaining subjective conscious experience through the famous metaphor of chiropteran perception.
Discussed“You know, there's the famous definition of Thomas Nagel, who wrote this great essay called What Is It Like to Be a Bat? And he his test for consciousness is if it is like anything to be a creature, that creature then is conscious.”
Where to get it
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The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness
The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness by Mark Solms is a work of neuroscientific exploration that bridges psychoanalysis and modern brain science to propose a novel theory regarding subjective experience.
Discussed“And he's written a really interesting book called The Hidden Spring. And his theory is that consciousness arises when you can't automate things.”
Where to get it
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Descartes' Error
Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio is a foundational neuroscience book that investigates the neurological interplay between reason, emotion, and decision-making.
Discussed“And in a way, this is the lesson of Antonio Damasio's first book in 1994, Descartes' Error it was called. And he was basically showing that feelings and emotions should be admitted into the decision-making process.”
Where to get it
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The doors of perception
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley is a classic philosophical and psychological exploration of visionary experiences induced by psychedelics, famously framing human consciousness through the metaphor of a reducing valve.
Discussed“This is a term that comes from Aldous Huxley in The Doors of Perception, that consciousness was outside of his brain.”
Where to get it
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Ducks, Newburyport
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann is an ambitious, experimental stream-of-consciousness novel structured around a single, massive sentence spanning over a thousand pages.
Recommended“Another book that was really influential as I was working on the stream of consciousness is a stream of consciousness novel by Lucy Ellmann called Ducks, Newburyport. It's a thousand pages, one sentence, and that sounds really daunting”
Where to get it
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Being You
Being You by Anil Seth is an illuminating exploration of consciousness and the self written by an English neuroscientist.
Recommended“There were several books on consciousness I like, but the one I want to recommend is Being You by Anil Seth. He's an English neuroscientist, and it's a book about the self, and he treats the self as a perception.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“He has written several best-selling books including The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and How to Change Your Mind.”
“He has written several best-selling books including The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and How to Change Your Mind.”
“He has written several best-selling books including The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and How to Change Your Mind.”
“His latest book came out earlier this year and it's called A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness.”