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  • Drunk

  • How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization
  • Written by: Edward Slingerland
  • Narrated by: Tom Parks
  • Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (27 ratings)

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Drunk cover art

Drunk

Written by: Edward Slingerland
Narrated by: Tom Parks
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Publisher's Summary

A "entertaining and enlightening" deep dive into the alcohol-soaked origins of civilization—and the evolutionary roots of humanity’s appetite for intoxication. (Daniel E. Lieberman, author of Exercised)

While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history of alcohol and other intoxicants, none have offered a comprehensive, convincing answer to the basic question of why humans want to get high in the first place.

Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically grounded explanation for our love of alcohol. Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Slingerland shows that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges: enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers. Our desire to get drunk, along with the individual and social benefits provided by drunkenness, played a crucial role in sparking the rise of the first large-scale societies. We would not have civilization without intoxication.

From marauding Vikings and bacchanalian orgies to sex-starved fruit flies, blind cave fish, and problem-solving crows, Drunk is packed with fascinating case studies and engaging science, as well as practical takeaways for individuals and communities. The result is a captivating and long overdue investigation into humanity's oldest indulgence—one that explains not only why we want to get drunk, but also how it might actually be good for us to tie one on now and then.

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

©2021 by Edward Slingerland. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

What the critics say

"Absorbing...Slingerland makes a compelling case that human societies have been positively shaped by alcohol.”―The Wall Street Journal

“A spirited look at drinking”―Kirkus

“A witty and well-informed narrator, Slingerland ranges across a wide range of academic fields to make his case. Readers will toast this praiseworthy study.”―Publishers Weekly

What listeners say about Drunk

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  • JMS
  • 2021-09-26

Wonderfully entertaining and informative listen

Tom Park’s narration is good, but a bit slow, so I listened to this audiobook on a slightly increased speed. That said, I appreciate the extensive PDF included with my Audible purchase, which includes many helpful photos and charts for illustration. Slingerland’s delight in his subject makes this an entertaining and informative listen, and you’ll be sure to score a few fascinating tidbits to spark conversation at your next trip to the pub or dinner party!

Listen to my extended review on the Audiobook Reviews in Five podcastto on Apple, Anchor, Breaker, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, and Spotify.

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Great book

Easy listening and well presented arguments that cover a wide array of topics while using layman terms to make it easier to grasp some of the concepts that are unfamiliar.

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...And Tripped Our Way To Civilization

January 2022 | 4/5
Way more talk about psychedelic drugs in this book than I expected - the tag line, ' How We Sipped, Danced And Stumbled Our Way To Civilization' had me assuming a deep history on alcohol and our relation to it, but of course we had to talk about other mind altering aubstances, and all the beers (read, herbal concoctions) that we consumed for the majority of our time with fermented sugars. For most of human history we've had access to fermented fruit sugars augmented with botanicals (or psychoactives) but at ABV of maybe 8-10%. Eventually we figured out freeze distillation that can net 20% ABV, and finally a few hundred years ago we learned to distill with heat. The lower ABV drinks fueled social gathering through disinhibition with few draw backs or risks. As we moved to hard spirit things changed and we are now faces with the negative consequences of alcohol. We also have a chapter dedicated to our use in antiquity and a biology lesson on how we process it.

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