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  • Eve

  • How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
  • Written by: Cat Bohannon
  • Narrated by: Cat Bohannon
  • Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (17 ratings)

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Eve

Written by: Cat Bohannon
Narrated by: Cat Bohannon
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Publisher's Summary

“A page-turning whistle-stop tour of mammalian development that begins in the Jurassic Era, Eve recasts the traditional story of evolutionary biology by placing women at its center…. The book is engaging, playful, erudite, discursive and rich with detail." —The New York Times

“A smart, funny, scientific deep-dive into the power of a woman’s body,
Eve surprises, educates, and emboldens.”—Bonnie Garmus, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Lessons in Chemistry

An ambitious, eye-opening, myth-busting and groundbreaking history of the evolution of the female body, by a brilliant new researcher and writer


Why do women live longer than men? Why do women have menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? And does the female brain really exist?

In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon’s findings, including everything from the way C-sections in the industrialized world are rearranging women’s pelvic shape to the surprising similarities between pus and breast milk, will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens have become such a successful and dominant species, from tool use to city building to the development of language.

A 21st-century update of Our Bodies, Ourselves, Eve offers a true paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is and why it matters.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Cat Bohannon (P)2024 Random House Canada

What the critics say

“The high-velocity, high-impact Eve, part owner’s manual for the female body . . . part sweeping saga of mammalian history; and part clapback against the tendency of much evolutionary thought to place men, and their furry mancestors, at the center of the action. . . . Bohannon has a poet’s voice and a reporter’s eye. . . . Eve makes a powerful argument for the pivotal role female Homo sapiens have played in making us ‘human.’. . . A love letter to the ancient, creaking wonder that is evolution.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A vast and revolutionary history of female evolution. . . . It is a gripping, lyrical tale of female suffering, of remarkable resilience, of the lengths we will go to to survive and to protect our young. It makes being a woman seem truly extraordinary.” —The Times

“[Cat Bohannon] talk[s] about science but it’s like beat poetry.” —Sarah Silverman, comedian and actor, on The Daily Show

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What listeners say about Eve

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Great non-fiction read

This was a fantastic book with a great flow and dynamic. Cat is a fantastic storyteller. This is the history that we have been waiting to be told for a long time. I really enjoyed listening to it.

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Outstanding Content and So well Narrated!

I really enjoyed a podcast that Cat Bohanan was on and promptly ordered her book Eve, on Audible.

I was deeply engrossed in it right away and found it to be well narrated to boot!

The connections to our ‘ancestral Eves’ gave so much context to the wild world we live in today and some of what I learned, has continued to swirl around in my brain, since finishing the book.

Thanks to Cat for her wit, intelligence and I assume, pure tenacity, to finish a book like this. It means a lot and I’m telling anyone I think would listen about it.

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Everyone needs to read this book - especially men

Thank you, Cat, for crafting this must-read masterpiece. It has provided as many fun facts as it has fuelled moments of reflection and a to drive to create change. Thank you, thank you, thank you

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a must read

sooo interesting and informative the whole listen through! a stark but hopeful picture of humanity is painted. recommend for anyone!

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FASCINATING AND SUPERBLY INFORMATIVE

All I can say is WOW. It was sooo interesting I binge listened to the whole book!!
Great job Cat - your delivery was spot on. I can only imagine that the vast amount of time and energy this topic garnished probably, at times, felt like you were researching for a doctoral thesis !! Very well written and kudos to you for choosing to narrate, that was the icing on the cake for me !

10 stars !!

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Everyone should read this book!

Sincerely, one of the best books I have ever read! Cat is a great narrator, and her writing is incredibly interesting. I learned so much about human evolution and cultural development—I was mind blown every other paragraph. If you want an educational, funny, fascinating and science-backed read, try this one.

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Anthropology is fascinating.

I loved this book. I learned so much! It made me re-examine some of my beliefs about being a woman.

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Fascinating

Subject matter was so interesting; I learned a ton and really appreciated the way the author wove in her personal experiences and contemporary issues with ancient history. The author’s voice was lovely - both engaging and mellow, great if you’re looking for a bedtime read. Dozed off easily when listening at night, but ALWAYS went back to relisten because you wouldn’t want to miss a page of this!

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It’s good, but also deeply flawed.

It is thoroughly researched and follows a formula of identifying different “eves” (earliest female ancestors marking certain traits) and linking them to things like milk production, or female voice ect.

The thing is there is also an ideological drive that the author slips in there. She’s definitely 100% an American democrat, not that she explicitly says this but she ticks all the boxes and it’s littered all throughout the book. I kept thinking when these things would come up “does this add to the book or does she just have this urge to insert her political ideas and smuggle them in a package with other researched “facts”.

For example she buys into the gender ideology of our time, at one point saying that genetalia is not a major indicator of sex or gender, which is absurd because the whole book is about what is unique to females. Then in the chapter about voice she says that the biggest thing holding Hillary Clinton back in the 2016 election cycle was her voice… seriously? Insinuating that bill clinton just had an easier time merely because of his voice. She also plays the sexism and racism card a lot, at one point saying that Hollywood is racist because it portrays stereotypes sometimes (realistically there are some traces of racism and sexism in any industry but portraying stereotypes almost seems instrinsic to dramatic portrayals) honestly I could almost write a book just on this ladies ideological bend and how she uses a PhD as a license to saddle up facts and opinions in a way that she probably feels vindicates her politics.

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