Top all-time · #1107
Michael Pollan
Personal blog · michaelpollan.comhealthculturewriting
Michael Pollan's personal blog at michaelpollan.com covers health, culture and writing. Since 2008, 65 different Hacker News readers have linked it 78 times, most often “How to Eat”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-04-18, and you can follow it by feed.
Michael Pollan writes about the places where nature and culture intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in the built environment.
Most-linked posts?
- /books/how-to-change-your-mind/6 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2018-11-30
- How to Eat5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2018-07-30
- Opium Made Easy (1997)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-11-10
- Unhappy Meals (2007)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-09-19
- /books/a-place-of-my-own/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-01-02
- Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (2007)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-03-04
- /books/in-defense-of-food/3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-08-07
- Power Steer: Long form essay on feedlot beef (2002)2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-03-16
- /resources/psychedelics-resources/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-01-02
- /books/in-defense-of-food/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-03-30
What Hacker News says?
As a Chinese person born in America, you're absolutely right. If you don't cook, it's difficult to eat reasonably / "normally" in this country, even if you have money. You kind of have to pick your poison: salt, sugar, unnatural fats, etc. At least I grew up on the east coast and my parents cooked. Anecdotally, I'm shocked by what my acquaintances from the midwest eat, and the consequences really start to show up wh…
Comment linking /books/
on “Biohacking Lite”Submitted Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (2007) as a story · 214 points
HN discussionOr the subsidies that hide the facts. Beef is very expensive in the sense of TCO, but not that expensive at the grocery store. See: http://michaelpollan.com/profiles/the-high-price-of-cheap-fo... for a good read on the matter. a snip: "The industrial food chain does produce food more cheaply, in terms of the price you pay at McDonald’s or the supermarket,” replies Pollan, “but the real cost of cheap food is not refl…
Comment linking /profiles/the-high-price-of-cheap-food-mealpolitik-over-lunch-with-michael-pollan/
on “Bloody Plant Burger Smells, Tastes and Sizzles Like Meat”Submitted An Animal’s Place (2002) as a story · 71 points
HN discussionCalories in, calories out is not the golden rule, and this has been scientifically proven false. It's not exactly correct, but it's a pretty good first approximation. As simplified heuristics go, it's much better than: It is not how many calories you eat, it is where they come from. If only because we don't actually understand the where & mechanisms very rigorously (notwithstanding all the violent handwaving surroun…
Comment linking /articles-archive/unhappy-meals/
on “Ask HN: What is the biggest untapped opportunity for startups?”Submitted Unhappy Meals (2007) as a story · 61 points
HN discussionThe Michael Pollan quote is actually: "Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. (Sorry, but at this point Moms are as confused as the rest of us, which is why we have to go back a couple of generations, to a time before the advent of modern food products.) There are a great many foodlike items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn’t recognize as food (Go-Gurt? Breakfast-cereal b…
Comment linking /articles-archive/unhappy-meals/
on “Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie”Submitted An Animal’s Place (2002) as a story · 28 points
HN discussionWhen this topic comes up on HN I'm always sure to mention the book: "How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan There's also a Netflix doc series based on the book. https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/
Comment linking /books/how-to-change-your-mind/
on “Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison”Submitted Opium Made Easy (1997) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionBut that half of their lifetime accounts for more than half of their weight. Good article by Michael Pollan about how cows are raised: https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/power-steer/
Comment linking /articles-archive/power-steer/
on “Lab-grown meat may never be cost-competitive enough to displace traditional meat”Submitted Michael Pollan on human microbiome as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere's tons of evidence available online, but a big problem is a lack of agreement on what constitutes "credible evidence". There is a fairly significant amount of clinical evidence available (despite it being effectively banned from study for decades), but the vast majority of evidence available is anecdotal reports from users. It should be noted that while it's true that this class of evidence lacks a "proper" (s…
Comment linking /resources/psychedelics-resources/
on “LSD Chemist William Pickard to Be Released from Prison”Submitted The Way We Live Now: The (Agri)Cultural Contradictions of Obesity as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThis is a fantastic book. If anyone is interested in exploring the therapeutic uses of psilocybin in a safe, controlled setting, one of my best friends runs the Atman Retreat (recommended here by Pollan: https://michaelpollan.com/resources/psychedelics-resources/ ) Edit to add link: https://atmanretreat.com/
Comment linking /resources/psychedelics-resources/
on “Psilocybin found safe for consumption in largest ever controlled study”Submitted Michael Pollan on Defending Our Consciousness as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> I wrote up my experience building a backyard office because I wish I had come across more articles like this when planning my build. I hope this post helps you on your journey. I don't recall how technical it is[^1] because I read it years ago, but Michael Pollan wrote an entire book about building himself a writing room: https://michaelpollan.com/books/a-place-of-my-own/ [^1]: Being familiar with Pollan's writing…
Comment linking /books/a-place-of-my-own/
on “Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown”Submitted Unhappy Meals, by Michael Pollan (2007) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt's unfortunate that the article doesn't mention the great villain of sleep debt, caffeine. The substance we use to wake up is the one taking away our deep sleep. https://michaelpollan.com/books/caffeine-how-coffee-and-tea-...
Comment linking /books/caffeine-how-coffee-and-tea-created-the-modern-world/
on “The effects of sleep debt”Submitted How to Eat as a story · 2 points
HN discussionFascinating 2002 article that goes into a great deal of detail about CAFOs: https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/power-steer/
Comment linking /articles-archive/power-steer/
on “CowToilet, a Toilet for Cows”Submitted How Pot Has Grown (1995) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionMinor correction, the name is Michael Pollan If you'd like an introduction to his work I'd recommend his post on planting the opium poppy, I really enjoyed it. https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/opium-made-easy/
Comment linking /articles-archive/opium-made-easy/
on “Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study”Submitted The Great Yellow Hype (2001) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSoylent and Juicero Rather surprised that nobody, as yet, has made a connection between Soylent and Juicero. * 1st: Juicing & Nutrition - There’s very little evidence that liquid food / juicing has any benefits for most adults. Most nutritionists worth their salt will advise against juicing. Juicero (and other juice makers) take perfectly good,healthy, nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables and make them less healthy .…
Comment linking /books/
on “Soylent Closes $50M Series B Round Led by GV”Submitted When a Crop Becomes King as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThe dose makes the poison with sugar as with anything else. That being said, I think most people encounter sugar at doses that are clearly poisonous to their bodies: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/is-sugar-really-bad... (see the section: Why is it a problem to have too much sugar?) However, I get your point. I think the conflicting (and often industry driven) public health messages we've gotten at least ov…
Comment linking /reviews/how-to-eat/
on “A Month Without Sugar”Submitted When a Crop Becomes King (2002) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionMichael Pollan wrote a book about the office that he built for himself. https://michaelpollan.com/books/a-place-of-my-own/
Comment linking /books/a-place-of-my-own/
on “I Built a Shed (2020)”Submitted Michael Pollan: Against Nativism in the Garden (1994) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
