Michael Pollan

Offers insight into food consumption in the twenty-first century, explaining how an abundance of unlimited food varieties reveals the responsibilities of consumers to protect their health and the environment.

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan, a radical challenge to how we think about drugs, and an exploration into the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants -- and the equally powerful taboos Of all the things humans rely on plants for--sustenance, beauty, fragrance, flavor, fiber--surely the most curious is our use of them is to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities...

"Fire, water, air, earth--our most trusted food expert recounts the story of his culinary education In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements--fire, water, air, and earth--to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with...

A cookbook and kitchen manual filled with photos and drawings offers basic techniques and essential recipes that transform standard ingredients--including eggs, beans, and pasta--into simple, elegant dishes.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pomological Watercolor Collection contains 7,584 watercolor paintings of cultivated fruit and nut varieties, alongside speciments gathered around the world and introduced by USDA plant explorers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These remarkable, botanically accurate watercolors were painted by twenty-one professional artists (including ten women) employed by the USDA between 1886 and 1942. Produced...

Celebrity guests are put on the spot in the "Not My Job" segment of the NPR/Chicago Public Radio show Wait, wait-- don't tell me!, a news quiz show in which guests answer questions on a topic totally outside their area of expertise.