The Botany of Desire: With Michael Pollan

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Featuring author, journalist, activist, and professor Michael Pollan, and based on his best-selling book, this program takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration of the human relationship with the plant world - seen from the plants' point of view. Narrated by Frances McDormand, the program shows how four familiar species - the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato - evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control
Four Plants that Satisfy Human Desire (1:50)
Sponsors: The Botany of Desire, with Michael Pollan (0:35)
Relationship of Humans and Plants (2:21)
Apple - Sweetness (3:34)
Apple - Genetic Home (1:58)
Apple - Johnny Appleseed (3:37)
Apple - Curious Biology (2:53)
Apple - Hard Cider (2:21)
Apple - Race for Sweet Varieties (2:00)
Apple - Monoculture (1:16)
Apple - Kazakhstan Recreated (3:22)
Apple - Increasing Disease Resistance (1:19)
Apple - New Varieties (2:17)
Apple - The Future (1:48)
Tulip - Beauty (1:33)
Tulip - Famous Garden (2:01)
Tulip - Photography (1:17)
Tulip - Rise of the Angiosperms (1:38)
Tulip - Wild Origins (1:51)
Tulip - Tulip Mania (5:10)
Tulip - Virus (2:53)
Tulip - Breeding New Varieties (3:26)
Tulip - Big Business (3:49)
Tulip - Exquisitely Useless (1:01)
Cannabis - Intoxication (1:31)
Cannabis - Human Drive to Experience Other States of Consciousness (2:16)
Cannabis - Horticultural Challenges (1:28)
Cannabis - Tradition (2:12)
Cannabis - Marijuana in the United States (2:24)
Cannabis - Operation Intercept (2:19)
Cannabis - Shrinking to Survive (3:10)
Cannabis - Increased Potency (1:44)
Cannabis - THC (2:13)
Cannabis - Anandamide (2:16)
Cannabis - Treating PTSD (1:47)
Cannabis - Amsterdam (3:12)
Cannabis - Final Thoughts (0:49)
Potato - Control (2:01)
Potato - South American Origins (3:01)
Potato - Inca Civilization (1:43)
Potato - Feast and Famine in Europe (3:08)
Potato - McDonald's (2:53)
Potato - Risky Business (3:44)
Potato - Genetic Engineering (2:34)
Potato - GMO Movement (3:47)
Potato - The Future (2:45)
Potato - Organic Farming (2:11)
Potato - Getting Away from Monoculture (1:09)
Epilogue: Michael Pollan on Nature (2:06)

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