258. Michael Pollan with Jon Mooallem: A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Release Date: 05/14/2026
264. Steve Brusatte with David B. Williams: A New History of Birds: From Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Try to imagine a world without birds. It’s quite a challenge, given that we share the planet with tens of billions of birds spanning an astonishing 14,000 species. Birds find homes nearly everywhere that people do – and many places we do not – and their prowess and plumage have captivated human imagination throughout the ages. But impressive aerial feats and collective choirs of song aside, part of our fascination with birds is rooted in the awe of something so delicate and strange. How did such seemingly fragile creatures made of hollow bones and downy feathers break the mold of...
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263. Psychedelic Salon: Psychedelics & Disordered Eating With Dr. Amanda Downey and April Pride
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
A conversation about the emerging potential of psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, in addressing eating disorders—a psychiatric area marked by persistent treatment challenges. This Salon dives into groundbreaking research showing how psychedelics disrupt entrenched thought patterns, ease cognitive rigidity, and foster self-compassion and emotional reconnection. April Pride and invited experts will discuss the limitations of current treatments and how psychedelic therapies could offer new hope. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how psychedelic-assisted therapy might...
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262. Suzanne Simard with Lynda Mapes: When the Forest Breathes
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard has long been fascinated by the sharing of natural knowledge. From the interconnected root systems she studied in her book Finding the Mother Tree to her ongoing work as an educator, Simard has learned to see the importance of cooperative efforts to share resources and knowledge. Joined in conversation by Seattle-based nature journalist Lynda Mapes, Simard expands these connections into a considerate exploration of the elaborate cycles of forest ecosystems, the challenges they currently face, and the intergenerational value they can provide through...
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261. Cate Osborn: Wildly Unprepared
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Comedian, historian, and bestselling author Cate Osborn brings a special program derived from her live touring show, Wildly Unprepared. This evening features a curated portion of the performance, exploring the strange and surprising history of magic, spectacle, and belief, along with storytelling and conversation about curiosity, culture, and the stories we inherit. While this program draws from the larger theatrical show, it is designed as a standalone event created especially for Town Hall audiences. The show will be followed by a Q&A with Cate. About the Book Just shy of her thirtieth...
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260. ReWilding Seattle Gardens With Dave Hunter, Jessi Bloom, Bill Thorness, Kim M. Camara, and Swil Kanim
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Local beekeepers, gardeners, and native plant experts join in a conversation about turning your own backyard into a native ecosystem oasis. Learn about the benefits of mason bees, the importance of best-gardening practices to protect Puget Sound salmon, and how you can make a difference in keeping our city climate change resilient. Featuring Dave Hunter, author of Mason Bee Revolution: How the Hardest Working Bee Can Save the World One Backyard at a Time, along with panelists Jessi Bloom, Bill Thorness, Kim M. Camara, and Swil Kanim, this event hopes to empower everyone to...
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259. Psychedelic Salon: Psychedelics & Substance Use With Dr. Nathan Sackett and April Pride
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Psychedelic therapy is rapidly gaining traction as a promising approach for addressing substance use disorders—from alcohol and opioids to nicotine and beyond. This session will explore how psychedelic compounds like ibogaine, ketamine, and psilocybin may help interrupt compulsive cycles, uncover root causes of addiction, and support sustained recovery. Featuring Dr. Nathan Sackett of the UW Center for Novel Therapeutics in Addiction Psychiatry, this conversation will examine how pairing psychedelic compounds with evidence-based behavioral interventions could transform the treatment of...
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258. Michael Pollan with Jon Mooallem: A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
When it comes to the phenomenon that is consciousness, there is one point on which scientists, philosophers, and artists all agree: it feels like something to be us. Yet the fact that we have a subjective experience of the world remains one of nature’s greatest mysteries. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts, and a sense of self? What would a scientific investigation of our inner life look like when we have as little distance and perspective on it as fish do of the sea? In A World Appears, Michael Pollan traces the unmapped continent that...
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257. Dr. Nicole McNichols with Dr. Julie Gottman: You Could Be Having Better Sex
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Whether you’re married, dating, or flying solo, Dr. Nicole McNichols has some sex advice for you. And you may want to pay attention because McNichols is not only the professor of University of Washington’s most sought-after class in its history, she’s one of social media’s most popular educators on the topic of sex. Pulling from her book, You Could Be Having Better Sex, McNichols shares the latest data that shows good sex is one of the most powerful and effective sources of joy. Good sex, McNichols argues, is a gateway to better health, stronger relationships, and the diverse...
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256. Psychedelic Salon: Psychedelics & Seniors: With Scott Wright, Abbie Rosner, Dr. Emily Whinkin, and April Pride
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
As life expectancy increases, so does the need for mental, emotional, and spiritual support in later years. This Salon delves into the ways older adults are exploring psychedelics for healing, spiritual deepening, meaning-making, joyful intimacy and making peace with mortality. With insights from geriatric practitioners, researchers, and individuals with lived experience, we’ll examine how today’s older psychonauts are rewriting the narrative around aging. Scott Paul Wright is a filmmaker and screenwriter based in Paris and New Orleans. His adventures in film followed previous...
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255. Blaise Agüera y Arcas: What Is Intelligence?
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
What intelligence really is, and how AI’s emergence is a natural consequence of evolution. It has come as a shock to some AI researchers that a large neural net that predicts next words seems to produce a system with general intelligence. Yet this is consistent with a long-held view among some neuroscientists that the brain evolved precisely to predict the future—the “predictive brain” hypothesis. In What Is Intelligence?, Blaise Agüera y Arcas takes up this idea—that prediction is fundamental not only to intelligence and the brain but to life itself—and explores the wide-ranging...
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When it comes to the phenomenon that is consciousness, there is one point on which scientists, philosophers, and artists all agree: it feels like something to be us. Yet the fact that we have a subjective experience of the world remains one of nature’s greatest mysteries. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts, and a sense of self? What would a scientific investigation of our inner life look like when we have as little distance and perspective on it as fish do of the sea? In A World Appears, Michael Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness, bringing radically different perspectives—scientific, philosophical, literary, spiritual, and psychedelic—to see what each can teach us about this central fact of life.
When neuroscientists began studying consciousness in the early 1990s, they sought to explain how and why three pounds of spongy gray matter could generate a subjective point of view — assuming that the brain is the source of our perceived reality. Pollan takes us to the cutting edge of the field, where scientists are entertaining more radical (and less materialist) theories of consciousness. He introduces us to “plant neurobiologists” searching for the first flicker of consciousness in plants, scientists striving to engineer feelings into AI, and psychologists and novelists seeking to capture the felt experience of our slippery stream of consciousness.
In Pollan’s exploration of consciousness, he discovers a world far deeper and stranger than our everyday reality. Eye-opening and mind-expanding, A World Appears takes us into the laboratories of our own minds, ultimately showing us how we might make better use of the gift of awareness to more meaningfully connect with our deepest selves.
Michael Pollan is the author of ten books, including This Is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. He is also the author of the audiobook Caffeine. A Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellow, Pollan has taught writing at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Harvard University. In 2010, Time named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.
Jon Mooallem is the author of three books, Wild Ones, This is Chance! and the essay collection Serious Face. He lives on Bainbridge Island.
