Caffeine cover art

Caffeine

How Caffeine Created the Modern World

 Preview
Free with 30-day trial
A 30-day trial plus your first audiobook free.
1 credit/month after trial—to buy any title you like, yours to keep.
Listen all you want to a selection of thousands of Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.

Caffeine

By: Michael Pollan
Narrated by: Michael Pollan
Free with 30-day trial

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $12.99

Buy Now for $12.99

About this listen

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 Wine & Beverages Thought-Provoking Modern Fiction
All stars
Most relevant  
A must listen if you are a regular caffeine consumer ! I really enjoyed listening. I won’t be given up caffeine just yet but I will ensure I drink less and perhaps start to use it in a micro dose format or just drink more consciously.

An excellent listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As with all of Michael Pollan’s books, this short study is well written and so interesting. The author makes a great narrator too.

Well written, lively and interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A short story of caffeine's journey through the ages and the relationship it has had with the humans species and continually has with us...

Short and almost Sweet

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I can’t put my finger on it, but I found this short Audible original disappointing.

Tom Standage’s account on coffee in A History of the World in Six Glasses (heavily cited here) was much more entertaining and informative for me.

As disappointing as coffee served in foam cups

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is one of the best things I listened to for a while. Micheal tells the story of coffee, combining his personal experience using it along with a rich and interesting history of it.

Great summary of everything about coffee

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very short and to the point book. It is a non fictional book with after taste a fictional book, like a cup of coffee itself.

Great short book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is my second book by Michael Pollan.
I very much like his writing style as well as his narration.
Being an ex caffeine addict, now a decaf drinker, this book explained for me my behaviour on my long coffee journey.
My next audible book is also by Michael.
If you drink tea or coffee, or if you don’t, you will enjoy this story.

A fascinating look at the world’s favourite drug.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed this book, the information was well presented and fun, though the history was very eurocentric, I would have loved to seen more about traditional uses of caffine.

An interesting look at caffine

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
brilliance as always from Michael Pollan absolutely loved this one, will definitely listen again

brilliance as always from Michael Pollan,

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read and listened to by Michael Pollan, and again, this short work didn’t disappoint.

Michael Pollan - How can you go wrong!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.