Really interesting! My favorite section was on caffeine. I didn't expect a book about plants to dive into how during the Industrial Revolution the increased consumption of coffee, tea, and the sugar used to sweeten them both led to an increase in the slave trade to produce more and more sugar cane and coffee/tea production. And how caffeine helped fuel the rise and spread of capitalism.

I only have one critique - in the mescaline section, Pollan talks about how indigenous peoples don't want mescaline to become popular amongst non-indigenous people since it is a sacred plant, which is part of which they don't discuss it with outsiders and want it removed from popular culture in many ways. And yet he doesn't discuss what it means for him, a white man, to describe in depth the plant, the rituals, and his attendance of a ceremony. I would've liked to read about his decision making with his intentions in including this plant in the book, how he feels his work might contribute to mescaline's popularization (and what he has done, if anything, to mitigate this), and how he is profiting off a very important sacred plant to indigenous peoples who have been persecuted for using it.

He does a great job of calling out how these three plants highlight the many racist systems we have in place and how it has (usually negatively) impacted various populations across the world.

All in all, a great read, I definitely recommend.