Uncle Tungsten

This book by Oliver Sacks was genuinely recommended once in the episodes we index, on Tim Ferriss. The people who vouched for it on air: Hamilton Morris. It comes up in conversations about addiction & recovery, consciousness, psychedelics. Every quote below is verbatim, attributed, and linked to the exact second it was said. Sourced expert opinion, not medical advice.

"From his earliest days, Oliver Sacks - the distinguished neurologist who is also one of the most remarkable storytellers of our time - was irresistibly drawn to understanding the natural world. Born into a large family of doctors, metallurgists, chemists, physicists, and teachers, his curiosity was encouraged and abetted by aunts, uncles, parents, and older brothers. But soon after his sixth birthday, the Second World War broke out and he was evacuated from London - as were hundreds of thousands of children - to escape the bombing.

• “uncle tungsten the man who mistook his wife for a hat these are really beautifully written books”

  Why it counts as a recommendation: “he's an amazing writer i think he's one of the greatest science writers that has ever lived; these are really beautifully written books”
  Hamilton Morris · The Tim Ferriss Show · May 202100:21:44

  Said during "Hamilton Morris on Iboga, 5-MeO-DMT, the Power of Ritual, New Frontiers in Psychedelics, and More". The episode features Hamilton Morris: Chemist, science journalist, and filmmaker who writes and directs the documentary series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia. He researches the chemistry, anthropology, and culture of psychoactive drugs and has studied them in more than 30 countries. Hamilton Morris and Tim Ferriss explore iboga ritual, 5-MeO-DMT toad sustainability, xenon anesthesia, and the ethics of the psychedelic boom.