-
The Creative Spark
- How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional
- Narrated by: Agustín Fuentes
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You
- Busting Myths About Human Nature
- By: Agustín Fuentes
- Narrated by: Korey Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Presenting scientific evidence from diverse fields, including anthropology, biology, and psychology, Fuentes devises a myth-busting toolkit to dismantle persistent fallacies about the validity of biological races, the innateness of aggression and violence, and the nature of monogamy, sex, and gender. This revised and expanded edition provides up-to-date references, data, and analyses, and addresses new topics, including the popularity of home DNA testing kits and the lies behind ‘"incel" culture.
-
-
talks about monogamy
- By Nika on 06-02-24
By: Agustín Fuentes
-
Masters of the Planet
- The Search for Our Human Origins
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifty thousand years ago - merely a blip in evolutionary time - our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special.
-
-
Great Book, Some Sloppy Editing
- By DB on 11-23-20
By: Ian Tattersall
-
The World Before Us
- The New Science Behind Our Human Origins
- By: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fascinating investigation of the origin of humans based on incredible new discoveries and advanced scientific technology.
-
-
Wonderfully Accessible
- By Deborah N on 11-02-21
By: Tom Higham
-
First Steps
- How Upright Walking Made Us Human
- By: Jeremy DeSilva
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Blending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging evolutionary story exploring how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species.
-
-
Mammalian Bipedalism's Many Layers
- By Sarah C. on 06-07-22
By: Jeremy DeSilva
-
Emperor of Rome
- Ruling the Ancient World
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Mary Beard
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Emperor of Rome is not your usual chronological account of Roman rulers, one after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
-
-
Wasn't sure but won me over
- By John S. on 01-26-24
By: Mary Beard
-
The Mushroom at the End of the World
- On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
- By: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world - and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?
-
-
An interesting book full of great ideas but lacking clarity.
- By Amazon Customer on 06-29-21
-
Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You
- Busting Myths About Human Nature
- By: Agustín Fuentes
- Narrated by: Korey Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Presenting scientific evidence from diverse fields, including anthropology, biology, and psychology, Fuentes devises a myth-busting toolkit to dismantle persistent fallacies about the validity of biological races, the innateness of aggression and violence, and the nature of monogamy, sex, and gender. This revised and expanded edition provides up-to-date references, data, and analyses, and addresses new topics, including the popularity of home DNA testing kits and the lies behind ‘"incel" culture.
-
-
talks about monogamy
- By Nika on 06-02-24
By: Agustín Fuentes
-
Masters of the Planet
- The Search for Our Human Origins
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifty thousand years ago - merely a blip in evolutionary time - our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special.
-
-
Great Book, Some Sloppy Editing
- By DB on 11-23-20
By: Ian Tattersall
-
The World Before Us
- The New Science Behind Our Human Origins
- By: Tom Higham
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fascinating investigation of the origin of humans based on incredible new discoveries and advanced scientific technology.
-
-
Wonderfully Accessible
- By Deborah N on 11-02-21
By: Tom Higham
-
First Steps
- How Upright Walking Made Us Human
- By: Jeremy DeSilva
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Blending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging evolutionary story exploring how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species.
-
-
Mammalian Bipedalism's Many Layers
- By Sarah C. on 06-07-22
By: Jeremy DeSilva
-
Emperor of Rome
- Ruling the Ancient World
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Mary Beard
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Emperor of Rome is not your usual chronological account of Roman rulers, one after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
-
-
Wasn't sure but won me over
- By John S. on 01-26-24
By: Mary Beard
-
The Mushroom at the End of the World
- On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
- By: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world - and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?
-
-
An interesting book full of great ideas but lacking clarity.
- By Amazon Customer on 06-29-21
-
Otherlands
- A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
- By: Thomas Halliday
- Narrated by: Adetomiwa Edun
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The past is past, but it does leave clues, and Thomas Halliday has used cutting-edge science to decipher them more completely than ever before. In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites burst to life.
-
-
Great book brilliantly read
- By Dipam on 04-06-22
By: Thomas Halliday
-
Kindred
- By: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Narrated by: Rebecca Wragg Sykes
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Horrible Recording/Sound Quality
- By Howard Houchen on 11-24-20
-
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain
- By: Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Narrated by: Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered why you have a brain? Let renowned neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett demystify that big gray blob between your ears. In seven short essays (plus a bite-sized story about how brains evolved), this slim, entertaining, and accessible collection reveals mind-expanding lessons from the front lines of neuroscience research. You'll learn where brains came from, how they're structured (and why it matters), and how yours works in tandem with other brains to create everything you experience.
-
-
slow reader & little bit of a Wokie
- By darren on 06-01-21
-
A Story of Us
- A New Look at Human Evolution
- By: Lesley Newson, Pete Richerson
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In A Story of Us, they present this rich narrative and explain how the evolution of our genes relates to the evolution of our cultures. Newson and Richerson take listeners through seven stages of human evolution, beginning seven million years ago with the apes that were the ancestors of humans and today's chimps and bonobos. The story ends in the present day and offers a glimpse into the future.
-
-
A glimpse into the lives of our ancestors.
- By Casey B. on 07-22-22
By: Lesley Newson, and others
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
-
exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
The Tangled Tree
- A Radical New History of Life
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.
-
-
Very Enjoyable and Readable
- By Dennis on 08-18-18
By: David Quammen
-
The Sediments of Time
- My Lifelong Search for the Past
- By: Meave Leakey, Samira Leakey
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Preeminent paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey brings us along on her remarkable journey to reveal the diversity of our early pre-human ancestors and how past climate change drove their evolution. She offers a fresh account of our past, as recent breakthroughs have allowed new analysis of her team’s fossil findings and vastly expanded our understanding of our ancestors. Meave’s own personal story is replete with drama, from thrilling discoveries on the shores of Lake Turkana to run-ins with armed herders and every manner of wildlife, to raising her children....
-
-
Brilliant!
- By tess koffler on 04-07-21
By: Meave Leakey, and others
-
The Third Chimpanzee
- The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet - having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art - while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins?
-
-
Up to the usual high standard
- By Mark on 09-04-12
By: Jared Diamond
-
The Laws of Human Nature
- By: Robert Greene
- Narrated by: Paul Michael, Robert Greene
- Length: 28 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Greene is a master guide for millions of listeners, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding, and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all - understanding people's drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves. Whether at work, in relationships, or in shaping the world around you, The Laws of Human Nature offers brilliant tactics for success, self-improvement, and self-defense.
-
-
Tempo is key! (1.25X)
- By James Hawkins on 11-12-18
By: Robert Greene
-
Sapiens
- A Brief History of Humankind
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.
-
-
Should be required reading
- By Blue Zion on 12-22-18
-
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today's most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.
-
-
Disappointing
- By Noah Lugeons on 09-11-18
-
Maps of Meaning
- By: Jordan B. Peterson
- Narrated by: Jordan B. Peterson
- Length: 30 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos comes a provocative hypothesis that explores the connection between what modern neuropsychology tells us about the brain and what rituals, myths, and religious stories have long narrated. A cutting-edge work that brings together neuropsychology, cognitive science, and Freudian and Jungian approaches to mythology and narrative, Maps of Meaning presents a rich theory that makes the wisdom and meaning of myth accessible to the critical modern mind.
-
-
This is NOT an easy book
- By AutismPhotoshop on 06-19-18
Publisher's summary
In the tradition of Jared Diamond's million-copy-selling classic Guns, Germs, and Steel, a bold new synthesis of paleontology, archaeology, genetics, and anthropology that overturns misconceptions about race, war and peace, and human nature itself, answering an age-old question: What made humans so exceptional among all the species on Earth?
Creativity. It is the secret of what makes humans special, hiding in plain sight. Agustín Fuentes argues that your child's finger painting comes essentially from the same place as creativity in hunting and gathering millions of years ago and throughout history in making war and peace, in intimate relationships, in shaping the planet, in our communities, and in all of art, religion, and even science. It requires imagination and collaboration. Every poet has her muse; every engineer, an architect; every politician, a constituency. The manner of the collaborations varies widely, but successful collaboration is inseparable from imagination, and it brought us everything from knives and hot meals to iPhones and interstellar spacecraft.
Weaving fascinating stories of our ancient ancestors' creativity, Fuentes finds the patterns that match modern behavior in humans and animals. This key quality has propelled the evolutionary development of our bodies, minds, and cultures, both for good and for bad. It's not the drive to reproduce, nor competition for mates or resources or power, nor our propensity for caring for one another that has separated us out from all other creatures.
As Fuentes concludes, to make something lasting and useful today you need to understand the nature of your collaboration with others, what imagination can and can't accomplish, and, finally, just how completely our creativity is responsible for the world we live in. Agustín Fuentes' resounding multimillion-year perspective will inspire listeners - and spark all kinds of creativity.
Critic reviews
"Persuasive, entertaining, informative... Fuentes has done a fine job of summarizing recent research in anthropology and primatology... pointing to numerous examples in which problems such as the finding of food, the avoidance of predators, the transfer of information and the manipulation of the physical environment are solved by way of imaginative collaboration.” (Wall Street Journal)
“The Creative Spark is strong on man’s imaginative accomplishments and offers an important corrective to the skewed debate on human nature. A species that, uniquely, ponders its own exceptionality will surely be fascinated by it.” (The Economist)
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Masters of the Planet
- The Search for Our Human Origins
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifty thousand years ago - merely a blip in evolutionary time - our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special.
-
-
Great Book, Some Sloppy Editing
- By DB on 11-23-20
By: Ian Tattersall
-
Blueprint
- The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
- By: Nicholas A. Christakis
- Narrated by: Nicholas A. Christakis
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions - our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations - we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society.
-
-
Many interesting thoughts
- By Jonas Blomberg Ghini on 06-01-19
-
Before the Dawn
- Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
- By: Nicholas Wade
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings, driven by revelations discovered in the human genome, has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors, the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization.
-
-
Amazing information
- By Albert on 06-15-07
By: Nicholas Wade
-
Transcendence
- How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
- By: Gaia Vince
- Narrated by: Gaia Vince
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How four tools enabled humanity to control its destiny What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Listeners of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution - a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones - caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time.
-
-
Far too much bias and unsupported conclusions
- By Kurt Leyendecker on 10-01-20
By: Gaia Vince
-
A Pocket History of Human Evolution
- How We Became Sapiens
- By: Silvana Condemi, Francois Savatier
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Pocket History of Human Evolution brings us up-to-date on the exploits of all our ancient relatives. Paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and science journalist François Savatier consider what accelerated our evolution: Was it tools, our "large" brains, language, empathy, or something else entirely? And why are we the sole survivors among many early bipedal humans? Their conclusions reveal the various ways ancient humans live on today - from gossip as modern "grooming" to our gendered division of labor - and what the future might hold for our strange and unique species.
-
-
Well presented and very informative.
- By Jim Griggs on 11-11-21
By: Silvana Condemi, and others
-
Genesis
- The Deep Origin of Societies
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry, Genesis demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human behavior is to study the evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these, Wilson demonstrates that at least 17 - among them the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp - have been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation.
-
-
Simply awful
- By Mike A Klotz on 02-07-20
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
Masters of the Planet
- The Search for Our Human Origins
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifty thousand years ago - merely a blip in evolutionary time - our Homo sapiens ancestors were competing for existence with several other human species, just as their precursors had done for millions of years. Yet something about our species distinguished it from the pack, and ultimately led to its survival while the rest became extinct. Just what was it that allowed Homo sapiens to become masters of the planet? Ian Tattersall, curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, takes us deep into the fossil record to uncover what made humans so special.
-
-
Great Book, Some Sloppy Editing
- By DB on 11-23-20
By: Ian Tattersall
-
Blueprint
- The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
- By: Nicholas A. Christakis
- Narrated by: Nicholas A. Christakis
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all our inventions - our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations - we carry with us innate proclivities to make a good society.
-
-
Many interesting thoughts
- By Jonas Blomberg Ghini on 06-01-19
-
Before the Dawn
- Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
- By: Nicholas Wade
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings, driven by revelations discovered in the human genome, has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors, the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization.
-
-
Amazing information
- By Albert on 06-15-07
By: Nicholas Wade
-
Transcendence
- How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
- By: Gaia Vince
- Narrated by: Gaia Vince
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How four tools enabled humanity to control its destiny What enabled us to go from simple stone tools to smartphones? How did bands of hunter-gatherers evolve into multinational empires? Listeners of Sapiens will say a cognitive revolution - a dramatic evolutionary change that altered our brains, turning primitive humans into modern ones - caused a cultural explosion. In Transcendence, Gaia Vince argues instead that modern humans are the product of a nuanced coevolution of our genes, environment, and culture that goes back into deep time.
-
-
Far too much bias and unsupported conclusions
- By Kurt Leyendecker on 10-01-20
By: Gaia Vince
-
A Pocket History of Human Evolution
- How We Became Sapiens
- By: Silvana Condemi, Francois Savatier
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Pocket History of Human Evolution brings us up-to-date on the exploits of all our ancient relatives. Paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and science journalist François Savatier consider what accelerated our evolution: Was it tools, our "large" brains, language, empathy, or something else entirely? And why are we the sole survivors among many early bipedal humans? Their conclusions reveal the various ways ancient humans live on today - from gossip as modern "grooming" to our gendered division of labor - and what the future might hold for our strange and unique species.
-
-
Well presented and very informative.
- By Jim Griggs on 11-11-21
By: Silvana Condemi, and others
-
Genesis
- The Deep Origin of Societies
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 3 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry, Genesis demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human behavior is to study the evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these, Wilson demonstrates that at least 17 - among them the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp - have been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation.
-
-
Simply awful
- By Mike A Klotz on 02-07-20
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
I, Mammal
- By: Liam Drew
- Narrated by: Neil Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A list of the attributes that define a mammal is a ragbag of things - fur, live birth, three bones in the middle ear, a brain whose two halves are robustly joined together.... But this curious collection of features contain the roots of all the biology that makes us what we are: monkeys with massive brains who parent extensively, enjoy sport and think lots. Which is to say, what makes us mammals makes us human.
-
-
Who knew?
- By Fitmen on 04-25-18
By: Liam Drew
-
The Neanderthals Rediscovered
- How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (Revised and Updated Edition)
- By: Dimitra Papagianni, Michael A. Morse
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent years, the common perception of the Neanderthals has been transformed, thanks to new discoveries and paradigm-shattering scientific innovations. It turns out that the Neanderthals' behavior was surprisingly modern: they buried the dead, cared for the sick, hunted large animals in their prime, harvested seafood, and communicated with spoken language. Meanwhile, advances in DNA technologies are compelling us to reassess the Neanderthals' place in our own past.
-
-
Fascinating Subject... Soporific Reader
- By Andrew E. Yarosh on 11-21-17
By: Dimitra Papagianni, and others
-
Unbound
- How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
- By: Richard L. Currier
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.
-
-
Good facts, not much else
- By Joel B. Gordon on 10-30-16
-
How to Build a Dinosaur
- Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever
- By: Jack Horner, James Gorman
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In movies, in novels, in comic strips, and on television, we've all seen dinosaurs - or at least somebody's educated guess of what they would look like. But what if it were possible to build, or grow, a real dinosaur without finding ancient DNA? Jack Horner, the scientist who advised Steven Spielberg on the blockbuster film Jurassic Park and a pioneer in bringing paleontology into the 21st century, teams up with the editor of the New York Times's Science Times section to reveal exactly what's in store.
-
-
Good book but misplaced title
- By Robert on 06-19-15
By: Jack Horner, and others
-
Pandora's Seed
- The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization
- By: Spencer Wells
- Narrated by: Spencer Wells
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.
-
-
Short and unfocused, but often quite interesting.
- By Alan on 06-23-10
By: Spencer Wells
-
How the Dog Became the Dog
- From Wolves to Our Best Friends
- By: Mark Derr
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
That the dog evolved from the wolf is an accepted fact of evolution and history, but the question of how wolf became dog has remained a mystery, obscured by myth and legend. How the Dog Became the Dog posits that dog was an evolutionary inevitability in the nature of the wolf and its human soul mate. The natural temperament and social structure of humans and wolves are so similar that as soon as they met on the trail they recognized themselves in each other.
-
-
Interesting and thorough, but not for everyone
- By N. Rogers on 12-12-11
By: Mark Derr
-
Domesticated
- Evolution in a Man-Made World
- By: Richard C. Francis
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Without our domesticated plants and animals, human civilization as we know it would not exist. We would still be living at subsistence level as hunter-gatherers if not for domestication. It is no accident that the cradle of civilization - the Middle East - is where sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, and cats commenced their fatefully intimate associations with humans.
-
-
Well, what did you expect?
- By Mark on 03-25-16
-
On Human Nature: Revised Edition
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This revised edition of Human Nature begins a new phase in the most important intellectual controversy of this generation: Is human behavior controlled by the species' biological heritage? Does this heritage limit human destiny?
With characteristic pungency and simplicity of style, the author of Sociobiology challenges old prejudices and current misconceptions about the nature-nurture debate.
-
-
A Heralding Voice...
- By Douglas on 07-22-14
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
Sex, Time, and Power
- How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution
- By: Leonard Shlain
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female's pelvis and the increasing size of infants' heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for reconfiguration of hormonal cycles, entraining women with the periodicity of the moon - and imbuing women with the concept of time.
-
-
Interesting conjecture
- By DJKPP on 10-15-20
By: Leonard Shlain
-
Paleontology
- A Brief History of Life
- By: Ian Tattersall
- Narrated by: Brett Barry
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ian Tattersall, a highly esteemed figure in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and paleontology, leads a fascinating tour of the history of life and the evolution of human beings. Starting at the very beginning, Tattersall examines patterns of change in the biosphere over time, and the correlations of biological events with physical changes in the Earth's environment.
-
-
great summary of where we are with understanding
- By david on 06-25-11
By: Ian Tattersall
-
Cannibalism
- By: Bill Schutt
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eating one's own kind is a completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons related to famine, burial rites, and medicine. Cannibalism has also been used as a form of terrorism and as the ultimate expression of filial piety. With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, exploring exciting new avenues of research and investigating questions like why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mothers' skin.
-
-
Strange Topic, Great Book, Loved It
- By Fenna on 06-15-17
By: Bill Schutt
-
The Tyrannosaur Chronicles
- By: David Hone
- Narrated by: Gavin Osborn
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adored by children and adults alike, tyrannosaurus is the most famous dinosaur in the world, one that pops up again and again in pop culture, often battling other beasts such as King Kong, triceratops, or velociraptors in Jurassic Park. But despite the hype, tyrannosaurus and the other tyrannosaurs are fascinating animals in their own right and are among the best-studied of all dinosaurs.
-
-
An Engaging Biography of the King
- By Erik on 08-06-18
By: David Hone
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Power of Meaning
- Crafting a Life That Matters
- By: Emily Esfahani Smith
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This wise, stirring book argues that the search for meaning can immeasurably deepen our lives and is far more fulfilling than the pursuit of personal happiness. There is a myth in our culture that the search for meaning is some esoteric pursuit - that you have to travel to a distant monastery or page through dusty volumes to figure out life's great secret. The truth is, there are untapped sources of meaning all around us - right here, right now.
-
-
Meandering
- By LS on 09-27-17
-
Mindshift
- Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential
- By: Barbara Oakley PhD
- Narrated by: Barbara Oakley PhD
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mindshift reveals how we can overcome stereotypes and preconceived ideas about what is possible for us to learn and become. At a time when we are constantly being asked to retrain and reinvent ourselves to adapt to new technologies and changing industries, this book shows us how we can uncover and develop talents we didn't realize we had - no matter what our age or background.
-
-
Learning by anecdote
- By Mark B. on 08-11-17
-
Meaningful Work
- A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul
- By: Shawn Askinosie, Lawren Askinosie
- Narrated by: Shawn Askinosie
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this inspiring guide to discovering a vocation that feeds your heart and soul, Askinosie describes his quest to discover more meaningful work - a search that led him to volunteering in the palliative care wing of a hospital, to a Trappist monastery where he became inspired by the monks' focus on "being" rather than "doing", and eventually traipsing through jungles across the globe in search of excellent cocoa bean farmers to make award-winning chocolate. Askinosie shares his hard-won insights into doing work that reflects one's values and purpose in life.
-
-
Savoring Chocolate
- By bbear on 12-23-22
By: Shawn Askinosie, and others
-
Creative Acts for Curious People
- How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways (Stanford d.school Library)
- By: Sarah Stein Greenberg, Stanford d.school, David M. Kelley - foreword
- Narrated by: Sarah Stein Greenberg, Scott Doorley
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an era of ambiguous, messy problems - as well as extraordinary opportunities for positive change - it’s vital to have both an inquisitive mind and the ability to act with intention. Creative Acts for Curious People is filled with ways to build those skills with resilience, care, and confidence.
-
-
Designing is a better learning moment!
- By Vesa Tuomela on 11-29-21
By: Sarah Stein Greenberg, and others
-
Everything Is Workable
- A Zen Approach to Conflict Resolution
- By: Diane Musho Hamilton
- Narrated by: Diane Musho Hamilton
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conflict is going to be part of your life - as long as you have relationships, hold down a job, or have dry cleaning to be picked up. Bracing yourself against it won't make it go away, but if you approach it consciously, you can navigate it in a way that not only honors everyone involved but makes it a source of deep insight as well. Seasoned mediator Diane Hamilton provides the skill set you need to engage conflict with wisdom and compassion, and even - sometimes - to be grateful for it.
-
-
A Treasure Trove
- By Bryony Schwan on 11-04-19
-
Losing Eden
- Our Fundamental Need for the Natural World and Its Ability to Heal Body and Soul
- By: Lucy Jones
- Narrated by: Lucy Jones
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet nature remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture, and consciousness. For centuries, we have acted on an intuitive sense that we need communion with the wild to feel well. Now, in our great migration away from the rest of nature, more and more scientific evidence is emerging to confirm its place at the heart of our psychological well-being. So what happens, asks acclaimed journalist Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world - might we also be losing part of ourselves?
-
-
Loved this Book
- By Cynthia M. Palm on 01-14-23
By: Lucy Jones
-
The Power of Meaning
- Crafting a Life That Matters
- By: Emily Esfahani Smith
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This wise, stirring book argues that the search for meaning can immeasurably deepen our lives and is far more fulfilling than the pursuit of personal happiness. There is a myth in our culture that the search for meaning is some esoteric pursuit - that you have to travel to a distant monastery or page through dusty volumes to figure out life's great secret. The truth is, there are untapped sources of meaning all around us - right here, right now.
-
-
Meandering
- By LS on 09-27-17
-
Mindshift
- Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential
- By: Barbara Oakley PhD
- Narrated by: Barbara Oakley PhD
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mindshift reveals how we can overcome stereotypes and preconceived ideas about what is possible for us to learn and become. At a time when we are constantly being asked to retrain and reinvent ourselves to adapt to new technologies and changing industries, this book shows us how we can uncover and develop talents we didn't realize we had - no matter what our age or background.
-
-
Learning by anecdote
- By Mark B. on 08-11-17
-
Meaningful Work
- A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul
- By: Shawn Askinosie, Lawren Askinosie
- Narrated by: Shawn Askinosie
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this inspiring guide to discovering a vocation that feeds your heart and soul, Askinosie describes his quest to discover more meaningful work - a search that led him to volunteering in the palliative care wing of a hospital, to a Trappist monastery where he became inspired by the monks' focus on "being" rather than "doing", and eventually traipsing through jungles across the globe in search of excellent cocoa bean farmers to make award-winning chocolate. Askinosie shares his hard-won insights into doing work that reflects one's values and purpose in life.
-
-
Savoring Chocolate
- By bbear on 12-23-22
By: Shawn Askinosie, and others
-
Creative Acts for Curious People
- How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways (Stanford d.school Library)
- By: Sarah Stein Greenberg, Stanford d.school, David M. Kelley - foreword
- Narrated by: Sarah Stein Greenberg, Scott Doorley
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an era of ambiguous, messy problems - as well as extraordinary opportunities for positive change - it’s vital to have both an inquisitive mind and the ability to act with intention. Creative Acts for Curious People is filled with ways to build those skills with resilience, care, and confidence.
-
-
Designing is a better learning moment!
- By Vesa Tuomela on 11-29-21
By: Sarah Stein Greenberg, and others
-
Everything Is Workable
- A Zen Approach to Conflict Resolution
- By: Diane Musho Hamilton
- Narrated by: Diane Musho Hamilton
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conflict is going to be part of your life - as long as you have relationships, hold down a job, or have dry cleaning to be picked up. Bracing yourself against it won't make it go away, but if you approach it consciously, you can navigate it in a way that not only honors everyone involved but makes it a source of deep insight as well. Seasoned mediator Diane Hamilton provides the skill set you need to engage conflict with wisdom and compassion, and even - sometimes - to be grateful for it.
-
-
A Treasure Trove
- By Bryony Schwan on 11-04-19
-
Losing Eden
- Our Fundamental Need for the Natural World and Its Ability to Heal Body and Soul
- By: Lucy Jones
- Narrated by: Lucy Jones
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet nature remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture, and consciousness. For centuries, we have acted on an intuitive sense that we need communion with the wild to feel well. Now, in our great migration away from the rest of nature, more and more scientific evidence is emerging to confirm its place at the heart of our psychological well-being. So what happens, asks acclaimed journalist Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world - might we also be losing part of ourselves?
-
-
Loved this Book
- By Cynthia M. Palm on 01-14-23
By: Lucy Jones
-
Smacked
- A Story of White-Collar Ambition, Addiction, and Tragedy
- By: Eilene Zimmerman
- Narrated by: Eilene Zimmerman
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Something was wrong with Peter. Eilene Zimmerman noticed that her ex-husband looked thin, seemed distracted, and was frequently absent from activities with their children. Yet in many ways, Peter seemed to have it all. So begins Smacked, a brilliant and moving memoir of Eilene’s shocking discovery, one that sets her on a journey to find out how a man she knew for nearly 30 years became a drug addict, hiding it so well that neither she nor anyone else in his life suspected what was happening.
-
-
Fantastic and captivating.
- By JV-Amazon Customer on 03-12-20
By: Eilene Zimmerman
-
Bliss More
- How to Succeed in Meditation Without Really Trying
- By: Light Watkins
- Narrated by: Light Watkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine you're sitting on a cushion with your legs crossed, ready to tap into unlimited joy. There's just one problem: You can't get comfortable (let alone still), and your head is full of way too many thoughts. The problem is not with meditation, or you, though - the issue may be with your approach. When properly understood and practiced, meditation should feel easy, calming, and comfortable. In Bliss More, maverick instructor Light Watkins provides the tools for making it E.A.S.Y. (Embrace, Accept, Surrender, Yield).
-
-
Changed my Meditation. 100% yes! Read it!
- By Chelsea on 06-01-18
By: Light Watkins
-
Everyday Sisu
- Tapping into Finnish Fortitude for a Happier, More Resilient Life
- By: Katja Pantzar
- Narrated by: Jade Wheeler
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sisu is a powerful mindset that makes Finland one of the happiest countries in the world, despite long winters, social isolation, and a history of challenging times. In Everyday Sisu, journalist Katja Pantzar explores the simple practices that make Finnish life so stable, sustainable, and healthy for body and mind, even when life doesn't go as planned. You'll discover ways to boost your mental and physical resilience to face life’s challenges head-on.
-
-
50% virtue signaling / 10% personal story / 24% filler / 1% SISU?
- By R Shore on 03-15-24
By: Katja Pantzar
-
Insight
- Why We're Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life
- By: Tasha Eurich
- Narrated by: Tasha Eurich
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Integrating hundreds of studies with her own research and work in the Fortune 500 world, organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich shatters conventional assumptions about what it takes to truly know ourselves - like why introspection isn't a bullet train to insight, how experience is the enemy of self-knowledge, and just how far others will go to avoid telling us the truth about ourselves. At a time when self-awareness matters more than ever, Insight is the essential playbook for surviving and thriving in an unaware world.
-
-
Chicken noodle soup for the faux-llectual
- By Peter Hudson on 08-29-17
By: Tasha Eurich
-
Wired for Story
- The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence
- By: Lisa Cron
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine knowing what the brain craves from every tale it encounters, what fuels the success of any great story, and what keeps readers transfixed. Wired for Story reveals these cognitive secrets—and it’s a game-changer for anyone who has ever set pen to paper.
-
-
Inspiring but boring
- By J. Hansen on 11-19-23
By: Lisa Cron
-
The Archetype Diet
- Reclaim Your Self-Worth and Change the Shape of Your Body
- By: Dana James
- Narrated by: Dana James
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In working with thousands of women who wanted to lose weight and change the shape of their bodies, leading nutritionist Dana James observed a striking trend: no matter how diligent they were in sticking to their diet and exercise plans, old behavioral patterns and self-doubt sabotaged their efforts. In The Archetype Diet, James helps listeners escape the seemingly endless psychological tug-of-war that is hampering their ability to care for themselves and explains which hormones cause you to store body fat on your belly, thighs and hips, and what to eat to change it.
-
-
Bought the book too!
- By MommaD on 09-30-18
By: Dana James
-
The Career Manifesto
- Discover Your Calling and Create an Extraordinary Life
- By: Mike Steib
- Narrated by: Mike Steib
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Career Manifesto presents an inspiring and refreshingly simple approach to finding your passion and purpose and then jump-starting a dream career to achieve those, by asking three essential questions: What do you want your impact to be? What are the potential pathways that move you toward your purpose? How can you hold yourself accountable for your goals?
-
-
Great review for people with options
- By C&C on 09-20-20
By: Mike Steib
-
Clean My Space
- The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day
- By: Melissa Maker
- Narrated by: Melissa Maker
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melissa Maker is beloved by fans all over the world for her completely reengineered approach to cleaning. As the dynamic new authority on home and living, Melissa knows that to invest any of our precious time in cleaning, we need to see big, long-lasting results. So, she developed her method to help us get the most out of our effort and keep our homes fresh and welcoming every day.
-
-
Buy the hard copy
- By kathleen buxton on 06-09-17
By: Melissa Maker
-
The Matter of Everything
- How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World
- By: Suzie Sheehy
- Narrated by: Suzie Sheehy
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Physics has always been engaged in the pursuit of expanding our knowledge of the nature of matter and the world around us. But how can you use experiments to further this quest? How do you measure the mass of a particle a trillion times smaller than a grain of sand? And, finally, why is all this important? In The Matter of Everything, accelerator physicist Suzie Sheehy introduces us to the people who, through a combination of genius, persistence and luck, staged the experiments that changed the course of history.
-
-
Outstanding History of Curiosity-Driven Science
- By Ryan on 04-29-23
By: Suzie Sheehy
-
Persuasion
- Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter
- By: Lee Hartley Carter
- Narrated by: Lee Hartley Carter
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So, how do you change someone's mind - or at least advance the conversation - when everyone is entrenched in their own points of view? Communication expert Lee Hartley Carter has spent nearly 20 years advising and helping the world's most well-known companies do just that. Filled with deeply researched insights into how we make up - and change - our minds, as well as colorful real-world examples and actionable recommendations, Persuasion will help you hone your message and craft your narrative in order to get heard and get results.
-
-
To Carter, Facts Don’t Matter
- By Timothy Rabb on 01-05-20
-
Happy Not Perfect
- Upgrade Your Mind, Challenge Your Thoughts, and Free Yourself from Anxiety
- By: Poppy Jamie
- Narrated by: Poppy Jamie
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Due to a culture that encourages perfection, hustle, and fictional life/work balance, many are burning out. Behind her Instagram-projected image of “happy wellness founder”, Poppy Jamie was also struggling mightily with perfectionism and life purpose. She began working with mental health experts and researchers to find practical tools to overcome her inner critic and rewire her mind.
-
-
I needed this book
- By Jenni Heller on 12-09-21
By: Poppy Jamie
-
The Finnish Way
- Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness Through the Power of Sisu
- By: Katja Pantzar
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forget hygge - it's time to blow out the candles and get out into the world! Journalist Katja Pantzar did just that, taking the huge leap to move to the remote Nordic country of Finland. What she discovered there transformed her body, mind, and spirit. In this engaging and practical guide, she shows listeners how to embrace the "keep it simple and sensible" daily practices that make Finns one of the happiest populations in the world, year after year. The Finns have a word for that, and this empowering book shows us how to achieve it.
-
-
Meh
- By Suzette on 12-08-18
By: Katja Pantzar
Love Books? You'll Love Audible.
Transform your day
Replace endless scrolling with endless listening. Chores can be fun.
Listen everywhere
Download titles to listen offline, wherever you are in the world.
Carry your entire Library
Your stories go where you go. Audiobooks don’t weigh a thing.
Listen and learn
Discover stories that can change your mind, your well-being, and your life.
Reach your reading goals
You can’t turn pages while you drive—but you can press play.
Find your niche
WIth thousands of titles to explore, there’s something for everyone.
What listeners say about The Creative Spark
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 05-28-23
Educative
Nicely describe the how we evolve and makes you more understand why thing are, as they are now from understanding what our ancestors were dealing with and how they were solving a problems
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 05-02-17
What's new?
I’ve probably listened to about 15 books dealing with the history of humanity. One thing they pretty much all have in common is that they generally have some kind of hypothesis, or central idea, that they are trying to support. Some kind of new angle or perspective to help us to think about humanity in a new way.
This book claims to do this, but I don’t think it succeeds. Its central idea is a ‘new synthesis’ upholding the idea that human creativity is the crucial factor defining who and what we are. But really, isn’t this just another way of saying that we are big-brained, clever, cooperative creatures who have exploited the ‘intelligence’ niche in the World? I think it is. We all know that this is what we’ve done, and this author doesn’t add anything new to our thinking on this.
It’s an enjoyable enough book, retelling the story of hominids and hominins and tool-making and becoming successful at hunting, despite our lack of any fearsome body parts such as sharp claws or fangs, and our mastery of fire. I’m pretty easy to please on this front. I love going back to the savanna and imagining how our ancestors used their wits to survive in a harsh unforgiving world.
But there is no new theory in this book. And the final chapter, in which the author dishes out a load of advice on how we should live our lives, based on his now-proven hypothesis, verges on the irritating. But go ahead and listen to it. It isn’t bad, and it’s educational and entertaining, it just doesn’t, in my opinion, contain the new theory which the author claims will better explain the human journey.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
21 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. B. Williams
- 10-27-17
Interesting book, irritating performance.
I enjoyed the substance of the book, and appreciated some ideas that had not previously been 'front and centre' in my thinking. Specifically, the idea that animals create 'niches' for themselves, modifying the environment in a way that feeds back as selection pressure on future generations, particularly as the human 'niche' expanded to include toolmaking, language, domestication of the food supply, and eventually cities. The narrator was extremely irritating - he often uses a staccato presentation that separates words into separate units, providing (often) unwarranted emphasis. In addition, he tends to commence sentences loudly, and then trail off at the end into a soft, muffled, poorly projected articulation of what is often the crux of the thought, leaving you struggling to understand the point of the sentence or paragraph. I often lost the thread of the story as I took time to realise he had said 'beads' and not 'bees', or 'Balinese' and not 'Bolognese', or 'forager' and not 'forger'. In the end I spent far too much time being irritated, trying to decipher the narrator's performance, and too little time concentrating on the author's thoughts.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tssh
- 05-18-23
Lovely
I’ve enjoyed listening to this book and this author, and I hope to read more in the future. Thank you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Federico
- 01-17-18
Wow. Accidental gem
I found this book by sheer accident and have enjoyed it so thoroughly that this will be the first review I ever took the time to write. The author tells an amazingly coherent and interesting story. He lays out the science in a very easy to understand way and gives supporting evidence in abundance. But it doesn’t read like a scientific book. It reads like a wonderful and entertaining history of humanity. Also, this is one of only a few books where the author does an excellent job of narrator. Very engaging.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- tom allen
- 04-16-23
Well done, logical
Reading this history of man’s development had infinite possibilities but this work explained it with sensitivity, not to offend faith based evolution. The creation processes has a science to it that gives reasonable observations. Worthy of the read time. Thanks
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anand Pareek
- 09-28-17
Not pure Antropology but still a very good read
The book talks in a very smooth way the creative self has impacted the creation of human society the way it is and how it is bound to take shape in the future. It is a very good read if you are keen on topic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Beth
- 07-20-18
Excellent
This book should be required reading for all humans! The narration was also just perfect.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 12-25-20
A great evolutionary investigation into the origins of hominid creativity
The author provides a thorough and optimistic perspective into human creativity and its origins. The author cites a wealth of existing literature in making claims pertaining to human creativity. The book is also very fair and objective, a great read for anybody interested in paleo anthropology!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- "ctung@csua.berkeley.edu"
- 06-02-21
excellent journey and scientific approach of modern anthropology
very thorough and deeply thoughtful book; can’t put it down. it is hard to capture all of human evolution in one book but Fuentes does pretty amazing job. it includes facts that dismisses the “roots” of science used to explain racism, sexism, misogyny, and religious fundamentalism - kudos to Fuentes for blowing these very modern structures of bias away so succinctly and elegantly. however, what i was hoping for the later chapters were sadly missing. where Fuentes immaculately directed the readers to the importance of creativity in solving humanities biggest challenges. he falls short in reality; his message felt inadequately and prohibitively positive. it misses points of danger as various groups are subverting “scientific analysis” to fit their biases, eg the small but vocal group perpetuating anti-vaccine “science” and significant impact in recovery from the COVID pandemic or climate-science deniers. and the part about addressing environmental catastrophe felt written off in his tone of let’s be creative, consider diversity, and let’s make mistakes. while these are good mantras as guidelines, we can’t afford to make mistakes given the agonizing adoption of climate policies. and diversity is important but until individuals and groups/corporations take accountability seriously, acknowledging diversity as important isn’t not going to get us anywhere - we need a way to really integrate it. while change takes time, what to do when we are really running out of time?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!