Michael Pollan: It does, it all comes together, I mean, I think that’s the point.
Liz Stratman: It never gets old. It is divine and I crave it all the time.
Pollan: And it’s invisible to us. It’s the same phenomenon.
Stratman: Oh, man. You will delete most of your early drafts.
Pollan: In part, I think that’s right. And that’s capitalist, too.
•••
Stratman: I miss convincing someone to give something new a try.
Pollan: Right, right. It’s not the only cause of death.
Stratman: Especially in Brooklyn, and especially in Bay Ridge. It takes a long time.
Pollan: Yes, and so why couldn’t you devise machines that could pick, say, the three sisters—corn, beans and squash—a complex polyculture, robotically?
Stratman: Gosh, this is such a great question.
•••
Pollan: Abolition, women’s suffrage, environmentalism, all of them were tagged with the same charge, and all succeeded in bringing substantial positive change.
Stratman: I think this advice is key to having solidarity with other writers and with your own work.
Pollan: Sure. Nice point. Access definitely is an issue.
Stratman: I’m fascinated by other people and constantly eavesdropping, and without that and with no attention span for reading, I was at a loss for where to draw inspiration.
Pollan: But simply by showing that something is possible, that’s very powerful.