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  • The Comfort Crisis

  • Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self
  • Written by: Michael Easter
  • Narrated by: Michael Easter
  • Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (366 ratings)

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The Comfort Crisis cover art

The Comfort Crisis

Written by: Michael Easter
Narrated by: Michael Easter
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Publisher's Summary

“If you've been looking for something different to level up your health, fitness, and personal growth, this is it.” (Melissa Urban, Whole30 CEO and New York Times best-selling author)

Discover the evolutionary mind and body benefits of living at the edges of your comfort zone and reconnecting with the wild.

In many ways, we’re more comfortable than ever before. But could our sheltered, temperature-controlled, overfed, underchallenged lives actually be the leading cause of many our most urgent physical and mental health issues? In this gripping investigation, award-winning journalist Michael Easter seeks out off-the-grid visionaries, disruptive genius researchers, and mind-body conditioning trailblazers who are unlocking the life-enhancing secrets of a counterintuitive solution: discomfort.

Easter’s journey to understand our evolutionary need to be challenged takes him to meet the NBA’s top exercise scientist, who uses an ancient Japanese practice to build championship athletes; to the mystical country of Bhutan, where an Oxford economist and Buddhist leader are showing the world what death can teach us about happiness; to the outdoor lab of a young neuroscientist who’s found that nature tests our physical and mental endurance in ways that expand creativity while taming burnout and anxiety; to the remote Alaskan backcountry on a demanding 33-day hunting expedition to experience the rewilding secrets of one of the last rugged places on Earth; and more.

Along the way, Easter uncovers a blueprint for leveraging the power of discomfort that will dramatically improve our health and happiness, and perhaps even help us understand what it means to be human. The Comfort Crisis is a bold call to break out of your comfort zone and explore the wild within yourself.

©2021 Michael Easter (P)2021 Random House Audio

What the critics say

“Changes the way we think about the modern world and how everyday conveniences are eroding our understanding of what it mean to be human.” (Richard Dorment, editor in chief, Men’s Health

“I read The Comfort Crisis in three straight sittings and was so motivated and inspired that I immediately made changes to my daily routines. Two months later, I've never been fitter, more self-confident, or happier. If you've been looking for something different to level up your health, fitness, and personal growth, THIS IS IT.” (Melissa Urban, Whole30 CEO and six-time New York Times best-selling author) 

“Entertaining and enlightening, Easter’s quest for a ‘rewilded’ diet, creative boredom, and other sensation - restoring discomforts is chock-full of solid science as well as a rollicking adventure.” (Dan Fagin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation)  

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What listeners say about The Comfort Crisis

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting

He switches between telling a story, and giving information on a variety of interesting health related topics. Keeps it interesting. He also has an easy voice to listen to. We enjoyed this audiobook.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Concept is compelling, but…

The book is overall poorly executed. I have heard the author talk about the concept of comfort crisis on podcasts, where he presented a comprehensive and nuanced discussion of the concept. The book does not. The author demonstrates a disregard or ignorance of the concept of ‘correlation is not causation’ and pulls facts from research in a seemingly desperate defense of the concept. The book has a general feel of being rushed and poorly executed.

The section on diet/weight loss is off topic (or at best, tangential) and I feel the content in that section should be avoided for younger or impressionable readers. I would have vastly preferred a discussion on the psychology of hunger.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ty
  • 2021-06-19

READ this immediately

I have read many self-help books regarding topics covered in this book. This covers essentially everything you need to know to increase the quality and length of your life and presented in a clever story mode with every event backed by scientific proof.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible.

I have added this book to my list of the top 5 most important books I have ever read. This book should be required reading for everyone. It’s shifted so many of my own thought processes and has forced me out of my comfort zone in so many areas of my life. Simply an outstanding piece of work.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

it opens your eyes to your addictions of comfort

made me realize how wrong I was to choose comfort over difficulty that causes improvements

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    5 out of 5 stars
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incredible book!

I really enjoyed the this book. I listened to it twice already and will listen again to it in the future.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Lit a fire under me to get UN comfortable.

Loved it. I've been having a hard time getting going. Michael gives all the reasons in the world to do just that. In the meantime, he takes a wild trek in Alaska chasing caribou.
Read his next book too...Scarcity Brain. It's equally good.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting theories about building on discomfort.

Interesting theories but it’s a mix of the author’s memoir of his trip in the very wild north. I get the correlation but it’s unlikely most of us will throw ourselves to do the same kind of wild expedition. I would say there should be 2 books. One on his memoir of the adventure and a second on his theories of building resilience and discomfort.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Refreshing!

Very meticulous documentation of events and data. Alot of useful info. Marvelous depiction skill. Natural writer.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Pretty good

It's pretty good and has valuable takeaways, but I feel it could be better read and the stories a bit better written.

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