Caffeine Audiobook By Michael Pollan cover art

Caffeine

How Caffeine Created the Modern World

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Caffeine

By: Michael Pollan
Narrated by: Michael Pollan
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Michael Pollan, known for his best-selling nonfiction audio, including The Omnivores Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, conceived and wrote Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World as an Audible Original. In this controversial and exciting listen, Pollan explores caffeine’s power as the most-used drug in the world - and the only one we give to children (in soda pop) as a treat.

Pollan takes us on a journey through the history of the drug, which was first discovered in a small part of East Africa and within a century became an addiction affecting most of the human species. Caffeine, it turns out, has changed the course of human history - won and lost wars, changed politics, dominated economies. What’s more, the author shows that the Industrial Revolution would have been impossible without it. The science of how the drug has evolved to addict us is no less fascinating. And caffeine has done all these things while hiding in plain sight! Percolated with Michael Pollan’s unique ability to entertain, inform, and perform, Caffeine is essential listening in a world where an estimated two billion cups of coffee are consumed every day.

©2019 Michael Pollan (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC. Food & Wine Social Sciences Inspiring Funny Witty Thought-Provoking Suspenseful Modern Fiction

Interview with author Michael Pollan

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Our favorite moments from Caffeine

Caffeine
Caffeine withdrawal
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Alertness, focus, and stamina
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Caffeine in sodas
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  • Caffeine
  • Caffeine withdrawal
  • Caffeine
  • Alertness, focus, and stamina
  • Caffeine
  • Caffeine in sodas

About the Creator and Performer

Michael Pollan is the author of many books on food, cuisine, and addiction, including 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. A longtime contributor to The New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In addition to his reporting and writing, he has garnered praise for his narration; Audible listeners have hailed Pollan’s audiobooks as "especially marvelous [to hear] in his own voice."

Photographed by Jeannette Montgomery Barron

Engaging Storytelling • Multifaceted Exploration • Accessible Scientific Content • Personal Experimentation
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I found this book insightful, entertaining, thought provoking, intelligent, personal & well researched. Loved it!

A worthwhile listen

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Enjoyed it. About the right length. Sort of 🍿 for the mind. But it left a lot of questions unanswered, like about the relative amounts of caffeine in different kinds of drinks, whether a cup of tea in the morning would interfere with sleep, etc. Michael is really good reader. Very conversational.

Good information, well written

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Too many references, and too little of the coffee-story itself.
What also annoyed me, is the constant repetition of "quote", "quote", "quote" for the information that was taken from different sources.
It's OK as a freeby, but not really worth buying.

Not inspiring at all

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Enjoyable. Some fascinating stories from history about humans drinking coffee (and tea). a relaxing coffee table sort of book:-)

Lighthearted, yet informative history of caffeine

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Quick and witty, informative and javafilic, this is one of my personal favorite audible originals.

Read at 2x speed to fully experience caffeine joys.

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I expected to hear more about the pharmacology and physiological effects of caffeine. It was still an interesting listen but a better title would be something along the lines of "the history of tea and coffee and my experience". I would have preferred a more objective approach.

Not quite what I expected

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This is the insightful and clever history of the most used drug in the world, caffeine. It is my drug of choice; I swear by both major players, coffee and tea. This history is well worth the time invested. Listen, do yourself the favor.

The most used drug in the world

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the idea was good, interesting tidbits, but lacked true 'making the modern world' in the story.

could use some coffee

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I liked the history of Caffeine, but the demonizing of it at certain points only to return to caffeine at the end of the story seems silly. Does the author not remember everything he went through and what he wrote in the rest of the book? It seems silly to go back after the experience he went through. Oh well, I did still enjoy the story and the audio book.

Caffeine, is it really that bad?

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an entertaining tale of how the genetic fiends of the coffee and tea plants have managed to have their way with us over the centuries.

a comeuppance

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