diff --git a/etc/conf.org b/etc/conf.org
index 54ecd34..e28a6f8 100644
--- a/etc/conf.org
+++ b/etc/conf.org
@@ -3097,8 +3097,11 @@ Since mu4e is an external program, need to check that it is installed before loa
            (html (and msg (plist-get msg :body-html)))
            ;; oops, mu4e screwed up
            (mu4e-html2text-command
-            (if (executable-find "html2text")
-                "html2text --ignore-emphasis --images-to-alt --body-width=0"
+            (if (executable-find "pandoc")
+                ;; use printf here to insert a newline in front of pandoc's output
+                ;; note that for some reason there needs to be a space in front
+                ;; of the newline or else it is stripped
+                "printf \" \\n%s\" \"$(pandoc -f html -t plain --reference-links)\""
               'mu4e-shr2text)))
       (when (and html mu4e-view-prefer-html (member compose-type '(reply forward)))
         ;; hackity hack, since the normal mu4e-message-body-text function