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The Book of Humans
- A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War, and the Evolution of Us
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
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The Book of Humans
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Buy it with
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A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
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- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 156
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In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away - until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
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Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
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Racist pseudoscience is on the rise - fueling hatred, feeding nationalism, and seeping into our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Even the well-intentioned repeat stereotypes based on "science", because cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp - and all too easy to distort. Paradoxically, misconceptions are multiplying amid today's unprecedented surge of research on human genetics. We've never had a clearer picture of who we are and where we come from, and the science, when accurately understood, is a powerful and definitive ally against racism.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent!
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In Kindred, Neanderthal expert Becky Wragg Sykes shoves aside the cliché of the shivering ragged figure in an icy wasteland and reveals the Neanderthal you don’t know, who lived across vast and diverse tracts of Eurasia and survived through hundreds of thousands of years of massive climate change. Using a thematic rather than chronological approach, this book will shed new light on where they lived, what they ate and the increasingly complex Neanderthal culture that is being discovered.
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Fifty thousand years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter's ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham. In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements.
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Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
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Maybe angels are transgender...
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A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
- The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
- Written by: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 178
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 156
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 155
In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex. But those stories have always been locked away - until now. Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Absolutely brilliant
- By Paul Rivard on 2018-10-12
Written by: Adam Rutherford
-
The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- Written by: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 8
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 8
Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The curious detectives strike again
- By Amazon Customer on 2023-04-09
Written by: Adam Rutherford, and others
-
How to Argue with a Racist
- What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference
- Written by: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Adam Rutherford
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
Racist pseudoscience is on the rise - fueling hatred, feeding nationalism, and seeping into our discourse on everything from sports to intelligence. Even the well-intentioned repeat stereotypes based on "science", because cutting-edge genetics are hard to grasp - and all too easy to distort. Paradoxically, misconceptions are multiplying amid today's unprecedented surge of research on human genetics. We've never had a clearer picture of who we are and where we come from, and the science, when accurately understood, is a powerful and definitive ally against racism.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent!
- By Lenka Chvatal on 2021-02-01
Written by: Adam Rutherford
-
Kindred
- Written by: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Narrated by: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 17
In Kindred, Neanderthal expert Becky Wragg Sykes shoves aside the cliché of the shivering ragged figure in an icy wasteland and reveals the Neanderthal you don’t know, who lived across vast and diverse tracts of Eurasia and survived through hundreds of thousands of years of massive climate change. Using a thematic rather than chronological approach, this book will shed new light on where they lived, what they ate and the increasingly complex Neanderthal culture that is being discovered.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought-provoking, riveting book
- By cellarpat on 2021-01-09
Written by: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
-
The World Before Us
- How Science Is Revealing a New Story of Our Human Origins
- Written by: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 11
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 11
Fifty thousand years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter's ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham. In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements.
Written by: Tom Higham
-
The Big Picture
- On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
- Written by: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 91
Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
-
2 out of 5 stars
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Maybe angels are transgender...
- By Count Erklock on 2019-10-12
Written by: Sean Carroll
Publisher's Summary
The best-selling author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived investigates what it means to be human - and animal.
Evolutionary theory has long established that humans are animals: Modern Homo sapiens are primates who share an ancestor with monkeys and other great apes. Our genome is 98 percent identical to a chimpanzee's. And yet we think of ourselves as exceptional. Are we?
In this original and entertaining tour of life on Earth, Adam Rutherford explores the profound paradox of the "human animal". Looking for answers across the animal kingdom, he finds that many things once considered exclusively human are not: In Australia, raptors have been observed starting fires to scatter prey; in Zambia, a chimp named Julie even started a "fashion" of wearing grass in one ear. We aren't the only species that communicates, makes tools, or has sex for reasons other than procreation. But we have developed a culture far more complex than any other we've observed. Why has that happened, and what does it say about us?
The Book of Humans is a new evolutionary history - a synthesis of the latest research on genetics, sex, migration, and much more. It reveals what unequivocally makes us animals - and also why we are truly extraordinary.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
What the critics say
"A smooth, expert, and often startling history that emphasizes that no behavior separates us from other animals, but we remain an utterly unique species." (Kirkus)
What listeners say about The Book of Humans
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Fred271
- 2019-09-29
Scattered and anecdotal
Adam Rutherford is expert and intelligent, and writes, and narrates, in an entertaining way. But halfway through Humanimal (which I've just given up on), I'm really not finding anything to hold onto. Occasionally he injects an interesting story,but there isn't much structure to the book as a whole -- it's like finding raisins scattered around in the dough for Irish soda bread.. So you walk away with a few factoids to work into a cocktail party conversation, but not much else, as far as I can see.
To clarify, a "factoid" was originally a false statement presented as true, though it's also come to mean a small, entertaining piece of information. Factoids in the latter sense are very often simply wrong, for example because they're misinterpretations, or,speculation dressed up as fact, or research claims that didn't stand up. Adam Rutherford clearly has good sense, and has presumably seen the primary sources, but,here, and in the print edition, he doesn't tell you what those sources are -- you just have to take his word for it, just as he's taken their word for it,. Together with the overall lack of focus, that kills the book for me.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- N. Rogers
- 2020-02-12
This is Worth a Second Listen
I wasn't certain that a book of this length could adequately organize and condense the natural history of our species into a meaningful narrative. Truthfully, having read far longer, more detailed accounts of human development, I was skeptical. However, Adam Rutherford presented this survey clearly and provided a broad context for closer examination of various human evolutionary topics. It takes skill to remain focused on a complex subject and render it down to the most relevant points so that it makes sense to laymen.
The material presented is dense; it might not be as clear to me without previous background knowledge on the topic. Much was familiar, but I found it valuable to view the simplified parts as they make up the complex development of our species. Using a familiar analogy or cliche, this book viewed the "forest" from a distance rather than focusing on each individual "tree or leaf." There is value in doing that. I am impressed with Rutherford's ability to distill this complex subject into an understandable, very accessible book. For me, a second reading would be worthwhile...
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Robert W. Tippin
- 2019-05-26
Too Short
I find Dr. Rutherford a very good read and an even better listen to. I can't imagine anyone else reading his works that would give one the feeling of talking to you from across a cafe table. He is writing about things he has come to believe and he is not afraid to say when he disagrees.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Jonathan Hiers
- 2021-03-07
Misleading Title
For a book called "The Book of Humans" the author spends about 70% of it talking, at great length, about other species. Not primates, mind you. Literally every other species. Half of the book is an excruciating, painstaking discussion of the sexual habits of various nonhuman animals. He has a bad habit of belaboring a point ad nauseam. It could be excused if these discussions could occasionally be turned back to an analysis of humanity, but the author invariably says, to the effect, "we must be careful not to draw conclusions from other animals to our own behavior." So, then why bring it up? If you are interested in a five hour lecture on the way various animals indulge in self-gratification, by all means, this is an excellent book. If you want a book that delves into actually researching human biology and evolution, I would take a pass.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anthony I. Jack
- 2020-02-03
good but not great
Good review of current science of how we evolved, but lacked compelling quality of Harrari's Sapiens. The author's voice is that of a fun but slightly smug and preachy professor directing his cute jokes and slightly patronizing admonishments at undergraduates
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- deanna taylor
- 2020-03-19
Amazing Story!
What an amazing book! I found it not only extremely accurate but also captivating. This book covers a lot of history, a lot of archeology, tons of biology. If your interested in learning about how humans compare to the world around us and how we got to where we are today this is definitely the perfect book for that.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Edd Huetteman
- 2020-01-13
This was a rambling narrative.
I kept on waiting for the other shoe to drop in this book I failed to see any significant points that he made. He seemed to dwell on the nonreproductive sex acts of a variety of animals. The narrative had some interesting scientific points throughout the narrative. But they were few and far between. Essentially a waste of my time.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ailin Boghouspour
- 2023-08-31
Enjoyed every second of this book
Amazing book
Well written and well narrated
I enjoyed every second of this amazing book
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Zach Brunson
- 2023-06-19
A Nice Quick and Interesting Read
If you're a fan of Adam Rutherford, or biology, or anthropology, or evolution, or simply science and scientific discoveries and discussion, then you'll enjoy this quick and interesting read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nicole Fowler
- 2021-06-16
loved it!
Great listen. The author as the narrator was amazing.
Very interesting, packed full of information!
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