Short Yet Thoroughly Documented Clarion Call Inspired By Pollan’s In Defense Of Food. In this text, Jacobsen explicitly sets out to do for sunlight what Michael Pollan once did for “real food” several years ago… and largely nails it. The writing here is engaging and explains the science at a level that most will be able to understand it yet doesn’t shy away from the more complex areas of the science either. At just under 300 pages with just over a quarter of even that being documentation, this is an easy one day read for many people… and yet will also be one that many readers will want to sip and savor and perhaps spread out over a much longer reading period.
Perhaps, even, via reading it for a few minutes per day as the sun rises or sets… which is a particular period Jacobsen shows does quite a bit for the human body.
In all honesty, I read this book when I did – days before the dreaded “Spring Forward” of “Daylight Saving Time” – hoping for a much stronger anti-DST argument here, which isn’t as present as I had hoped… but that actually points to the actual strengths of the text, as Jacobsen is more concerned that you get outside at all than *when* you get outside, though he does indeed go into detail about what the sun’s light at different times of the day can do for you and does in fact make at least some case for the earlier sunrises of so-called “Standard” time, while also pointing out the science of living on the eastern vs western edges of a time zone, among many other topics.
Overall a very thorough text covering all aspects of the science of the interaction of the sun and the human body, this is absolutely one book everyone needs to read and make their own calls about… and perhaps even recommend it to your medical providers. I know I’ll be recommending my own docs read this.
Very much recommended.
This review of In Defense Of Sunlight by Rowan Jacobsen was originally written on February 27, 2026.