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  • The Story of the Human Body

  • Evolution, Health, and Disease
  • Written by: Daniel Lieberman
  • Narrated by: Sean Runnette
  • Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (66 ratings)

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The Story of the Human Body

Written by: Daniel Lieberman
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
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Publisher's Summary

In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. Lieberman - chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a leader in the field - gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years, even as it shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is occasioning this paradox: greater longevity but increased chronic disease.

The Story of the Human Body brilliantly illuminates as never before the major transformations that contributed key adaptations to the body: the rise of bipedalism; the shift to a non-fruit-based diet; the advent of hunting and gathering, leading to our superlative endurance athleticism; the development of a very large brain; and the incipience of cultural proficiencies. Lieberman also elucidates how cultural evolution differs from biological evolution, and how our bodies were further transformed during the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions.

While these ongoing changes have brought about many benefits, they have also created conditions to which our bodies are not entirely adapted, Lieberman argues, resulting in the growing incidence of obesity and new but avoidable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Lieberman proposes that many of these chronic illnesses persist and in some cases are intensifying because of "dysevolution," a pernicious dynamic whereby only the symptoms rather than the causes of these maladies are treated. And finally - provocatively - he advocates the use of evolutionary information to help nudge, push, and sometimes even compel us to create a more salubrious environment.

©2013 Daniel Lieberman (P)2013 Random House Audio

What the critics say

"No one understands the human body like Daniel Lieberman or tells its story more eloquently. He's found a tale inside our skin that's riveting, enlightening, and more than a little frightening." (Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run)
"Monumental: The Story of the Human Body, by one of our leading experts, takes us on an epic voyage that reveals how the past six million years shaped every part of us - our heads, limbs, and even our metabolism. Through Lieberman's eyes, evolutionary history not only comes alive, it becomes the means to understand, and ultimately influence, our body's future." (Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish)
"A lucid, engaging account of how the human body evolved and the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and the modern world." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Story of the Human Body

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

For all humans

if you have a body, you will benefit from owning this book. Every nook has things you can learn from our ancestors about how to better care for the bodies we've inherited

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great information but narrator is too dire and depressing

This book sounds well written and I may end up actually reading this book as opposed to listening. The narrator unfortunately makes everything sound dire and depressing. This book compliments the book “Breath” I’m reading right now.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

This should be required for every one. To have the facts behind the story of how the human body developed would go along way to prevent mismatched diseases and misinformation.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Throw away your shoes

I'm rethinking nearly everything I do in my daily life now... Food, exercise, chairs, shoes, glasses.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Awe-inspiring.

The scope of this book, its central thesis, and the solutions provided, may spur a foundation of philosophy within our species that will be required to begin undoing modern, mis-matched diseases and their consequential suffering...

Thank you Mr. Lieberman for your deeply human insights.

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    5 out of 5 stars

this book was a real eye-opener,

great iopener into how the human body works and has evolved. will make you think about your diet in Behavior.

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