# How to Change Your Mind (2022)

> Michael Pollan guides viewers through the history, science, and therapeutic uses of psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and mescaline.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/127157

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 54 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary
- Created by: Michael Pollan
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Michael Pollan, Ann Shulgin, Alexander Shulgin, Rick Doblin, Paul F. Daley
- TMDB rating: 7.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21062540/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: curious, measured, reflective, searching, intimate

## What critics say

Audiences rated the docuseries positively for its accessible, carefully researched exploration of psychedelic history and therapeutic uses.

## Synopsis

How to Change Your Mind (2022) is an American documentary miniseries created by Michael Pollan for Netflix. Across four episodes of roughly fifty-four minutes each, Pollan serves as host and guide, traveling through the history and uses of psychedelic substances including LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and mescaline. Rather than a dry survey, the series is built around conversations with people who have worked closely with these drugs, among them author and guide therapist Ann Shulgin, MAPS founder Rick Doblin, and the chemist Alexander Shulgin, whose archive footage anchors the story of early research. Each episode moves from the mid-twentieth-century laboratory and clinic into the present-day push to study these compounds as treatment for depression, addiction, and end-of-life anxiety. The tone is curious, measured, and searching, with a documentary intimacy that lets the interviewees speak in their own voices. Pollan's own reflective narration keeps the tension between scientific promise and cultural suspicion front and center. Viewers who enjoyed the investigative curiosity of Heroic Dose and the personal, reflective style of The Trip will find a similar pull. It is a limited series of four episodes that suits thoughtful viewers wanting a grounded, accessible look at a contested frontier of medicine.

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