Dr. Mark Plotkin on Coffee, the World’s Favorite Stimulant — Chemistry, History, and More (#698)

Welcome to The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is usually my job to deconstruct world-class performers to tease out their routines, habits, et cetera that you can apply to your own life. 

This time around, we have a very special edition featuring Dr. Mark Plotkin. 

Mark takes over my duties as host and shares an episode of the Plants of the Gods podcast. You, my dear listeners, are hearing the audio before anyone else, even before his podcast subscribers, so this is a Tim Ferriss Show exclusive. 

So, who is Dr. Mark Plotkin? Mark (@DocMarkPlotkin) is an ethnobotanist who serves as president of the Amazon Conservation Team, which has partnered with ~80 tribes to map and improve management and protection of ~100 million acres of ancestral rainforests. He is best known to the general public as the author of the book Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice, one of the most popular books ever written about the rainforest. His most recent book is The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know. You can find my interview with Mark at tim.blog/markplotkin. 

This tightly-packed episode explores all things coffee—the most widely consumed mind-altering plant product in the world.

Please enjoy! 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

This episode is brought to you by my very own COCKPUNCH Coffee!

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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This episode is brought to you by my very own COCKPUNCH Coffee! This year, one way I’ve scratched my own itch is by creating COCKPUNCH Coffee—the first coffee I’ve ever produced myself, which I now drink every morning. It’s a tie-in to a fictional world I created, but that’s another story for another time. I enlisted the help of world-class experts and tested dozens of variations over many months. As longtime listeners know, I have very high standards when it comes to coffee. After dialing in the sourcing, roasting, and more, this is the combo that finally made me say, “This is the one!”

100% of my COCKPUNCH-related proceeds to date—now $2.5M+—including those from COCKPUNCH Coffee, go to my non-profit foundation, the Saisei Foundation, which focuses on cutting-edge, scientific research and other uncrowded bets.

To learn more about the latest projects that I’m working on, check out SaiseiFoundation.org. And if you’d like some of the best coffee in the US, at least in my humble opinion, check out cockpunchcoffee.com. I think you’ll love it as much as I do. Grab a bag—or two or three—at cockpunchcoffee.com.

If you’d like to hear the last time we featured a Plants of the Gods conversation on this show, listen to Mark’s interview with Brian C. Muraresku, author of New York Times bestseller The Immortality Key here. In it, they discussed the Eleusinian mysteries, stoned apes vs. drunk monkeys, changing attitudes at the Vatican, the role of beer and wine in the foundation of civilization, doing good in the world based on the otherworldly, the strange places where ethnobotanists find friends, and much more.

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with Dr. Mark Plotkin:

Website | Plants of the Gods Podcast

Amazon Conservation Team | Twitter | Facebook

• The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know by Mark J. Plotkin | Amazon
• Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest by Mark J. Plotkin | Amazon
• Dr. Mark Plotkin on Ethnobotany, Real vs. Fake Shamans, Hallucinogens, and the Dalai Lamas of South America | The Tim Ferriss Show #469
• Plants of the Gods — Dr. Mark Plotkin on Ayahuasca, Shamanic Knowledge, the Curse and Blessing of Coca, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #508
• The Hidden Knowledge of Animals — Mark Plotkin on Nature’s Medicine Cabinet | The Tim Ferriss Show #537
• Hamilton Morris and Dr. Mark Plotkin — Exploring the History of Psychoactive Substances, Synthetic vs. Natural Options, Microdosing, 5-MeO-DMT, The “Drunken Monkey” Hypothesis, Timothy Leary’s Legacy, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #605
• Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin — The Eleusinian Mysteries, Discovering the Divine, The Immortality Key, The Pagan Continuity Hypothesis, Lessons from Scholar Karen Armstrong, and Much More | The Tim Ferriss Show #646
• The Life and Times of Richard Evans Schultes | Plants of the Gods S1E10
• Magic Mushrooms and the Roots (Actually, the Mycelia) of the Psychedelic Renaissance | Plants of the Gods S2E4
• Absinthe as Ideogen in Art and Literature | Plants of the Gods S3E3
• Absinthe, New Orleans, and the Birth of Rock and Roll | Plants of the Gods S3E4
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl | Prime Video
• Official Movie Site | Barbie
• How New Orleans Made Chicory Coffee Its Own | Epicurious
• The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse by Brian Cowan | Amazon
• In ‘Stoned Ape’ Theory, Consciousness Has Roots in Psilocybin | Inverse
• How the Drunken Monkey Hypothesis Explains Our Taste for Liquor | The Atlantic
• Coffee: A Dark History by Antony Wild | Amazon
• Java Man | Wikipedia
• How Humans Discovered Coffee But Were Unable to Control It | Forklore
• Caffeine | The Vaults of Erowid
• Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast | Amazon
• The World Before Starbucks | The New York Times
• What Is a Whirling Dervish and Why Is It Called That? | Istanbul Dervish Ceremony
• Mocha | Merriam-Webster
• Plants and Society by Estelle Levetin and Karen McMahon | Amazon
• Coffee and Qahwa: How a Drink for Arab Mystics Went Global | BBC News
• Coffee: A Global History by Jonathan Morris | Amazon
• Coffea Arabica | Wikipedia
• Bruce’s Abyssinian Plants in the Leith Walk Garden | Botanics Stories
• Coffee’s History Blooms at Amsterdam’s Hortus Botanical Garden | Sprudge
• Jardin des Plantes in Paris | Go Guides
• Seeds of Change: Six Plants That Transformed Mankind by Henry Hobhouse | Amazon
• Beyond the Cup: Who Was Gabriel Mathieu De Clieu? | The Golden Lamb
• Old Time Farm Crime: The Coffee Spies of the 1700s | Modern Farmer
• Slavery in Brazil | Wilson Center
• Coffee Production in Haiti | Wikipedia
• Coffeeland: One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug by Augustine Sedgewick | Amazon
• German Guatemalan | Wikipedia
• Coffee in Colombia: A Long Story | FARO Roasting Houses
• The Story of Costa Rican Coffee: From the Central Valley to Your Mug | Insight Guides Blog
• Johann Sebastian Bach: “Coffee Cantata” BWV 211 (English Subtitles) | Vesteel
• The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee by Honoré de Balzac | Urbigenous Library
• Voltaire’s Coffee Obsession in the 18th Century | Geri Walton
• The High, Oxford: Angel Inn | Oxford History
• Ode to Café Pamplona | Cambridge Local First
• Café Algiers: A Hidden Gem with a Long History | History Cambridge
• 150-Year-Old Cambridge Book Store Set to Close | NBC Boston
• Grolier Poetry Book Shop
• A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage | Amazon
• Coffee and Pope Clement VIII: The Devil’s Drink | Catholic Coffee
• How Coffee Forever Changed Britain | BBC Travel
• Coffee Houses | The Engines of Our Ingenuity
• Women’s Petition Against Coffee | Wikisource
• “Penny Universities”: How Coffeehouses Changed the World | Big Think
• Promoting Excellence in Science for the Benefit of Humanity | The Royal Society
• St. Paul’s Cathedral
• The Principia: The Authoritative Translation and Guide: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Sir Isaac Newton | Amazon
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith | Amazon
• Where J.K. Rowling Wrote Harry Potter in Edinburgh | Independent Travel Cats
• Harry Potter Complete Boxed Set by J.K. Rowling | Amazon
• Goodbye, Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land by Jacob Mikanowski | Amazon
• Nechezol | Wikipedia
• Coffee and Commerce 1652-1811 | Lloyd’s
• Jonathan’s Coffee-House | Wikipedia
• Forget Garages, Coffee Shops Are Where Businesses Get Started | The Guardian
• How Coffee Fueled Revolutions — And Revolutionary Ideas | History
• Fonde En 1686 | Procope
• Coffea | Wikipedia
• Peaberry | Wikipedia
• Kopi Luwak | Wikipedia
• Jacu Bird Coffee | Gastro Obscura
• The World’s Rarest Coffee. Naturally Refined By Elephants | Black Ivory Coffee Company
• Coffea Charrieriana | Wikipedia
• Coffee Consumption by Country 2023 | World Population Review
• McMurdo Station | National Science Foundation
• ISSpresso | Wikipedia
• The Mystery of the Green Dragon Tavern and the Boston Tea Party | Boston Tea Party Historical Society
• The Green Dragon Tavern
• All About Coffee by William H. Ukers | Amazon
• How Hot Coffee Helped William McKinley Become President | Tasting Table
• William McKinley Coffee Break Monument | Roadside America
• “Way Out” Coffeehouses | Restaurant-ing Through History
• World-Renowned San Francisco Saloon | Vesuvio Cafe
• Since 1927 | Caffè Reggio
• Listen. Experience. Engage. | Passim
• Third Wave Coffee & Specialty Coffee: What Are They? | Methodical Coffee
• The Original Craft Coffee | Peet’s Coffee
• Our Original Store | Starbucks Archive
• What the Death of Coffee Shops Tells Us about Silicon Valley | Financial Times

SHOW NOTES

• [04:35] Plants of the Gods: the story so far.
• [05:28] Coffee is the most widely consumed mind-altering plant in the world.
• [06:35] Why they drink coffee with chicory in New Orleans and Vietnam.
• [08:41] An acquired taste.
• [09:18] Is coffee responsible for human consciousness?
• [12:08] The origin story of coffee.
• [13:10] The motivational power of caffeine.
• [14:30] How coffee spread through the Arab world.
• [16:07] Why such a “troublemaking social brew” persisted despite resistance from authorities.
• [19:55] Intrigue brings coffee to Europe and the New World.
• [28:26] How coffee shaped Brazil’s society and economy.
• [31:19] Slave revolts, rainforest depletion, and income inequality in tropical America.
• [33:20] Guatemalan Nazis.
• [34:31] Colombia’s Jesuit java.
• [35:21] Costa Rican egalitarianism.
• [36:09] How coffee fueled European arts.
• [38:25] Why coffee’s impact was magnified in Europe.
• [42:34] “The combination between coffee drinking and coffee thinking is a real one.”
• [44:21] Why coffee houses made Kings and clergy nervous.
• [47:42] The Age of Reason’s internet.
• [50:53] Harry Potter’s debt to the modern coffee house.
• [52:07] The role of coffee in communist Romania.
• [54:02] How coffee houses seeded some of today’s most vaunted institutions in England.
• [55:27] French coffee house culture’s impact on the French and American revolutions.
• [57:28] Coffee talk for botany nerds.
• [59:01] Peaberry.
• [59:27] Civets, turkeys, and elephants (oh, my).
• [1:00:18] Robusta.
• [1:01:27] Caffeine-free abominations.
• [1:01:54] The global economic value of coffee.
• [1:03:02] Coffee’s role in US history.
• [1:07:45] A shift toward convenience as a priority and its inevitable backlash.
• [1:09:20] The Beatnik-boosted specialty coffee movement.
• [1:10:32] Why did this movement originate in the Western US?
• [1:12:04] Thank you, coffee.

PEOPLE MENTIONED

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