-
The Triumph of Seeds
- How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
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Publisher's summary
We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life, supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and the humble peppercorn drove the Age of Discovery, so did coffee beans help fuel the Enlightenment and cottonseed help spark the Industrial Revolution. And from the fall of Rome to the Arab Spring, the fate of nations continues to hinge on the seeds of a Middle Eastern grass known as wheat. In nature and in culture, seeds are fundamental - objects of beauty, evolutionary wonder, and simple fascination. How many times has a child dropped the winged pip of a maple, marveling as it spirals its way down to the ground, or relished the way a gust of wind(or a stout breath) can send a dandelion’s feathery flotilla skyward? Yet despite their importance, seeds are often seen as a commonplace, their extraordinary natural and human histories overlooked. Thanks to Thor Hanson and this stunning new book, they can be overlooked no more.
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- By: Hannah Nordhaus
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Hannah Nordhaus tells the remarkable story of John Miller, one of America's foremost migratory beekeepers, and the myriad and mysterious epidemics threatening American honeybee populations.
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From a beekeeper
- By Argos on 06-14-17
By: Hannah Nordhaus
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The Soil Will Save Us
- How Scientists, Farmers, and Ranchers Are Tending the Soil to Reverse Global Warming
- By: Kristin Ohlson
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
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In The Soil Will Save Us, journalist and bestselling author Kristin Ohlson makes an elegantly argued, passionate case for "our great green hope"—a way in which we can not only heal the land but also turn atmospheric carbon into beneficial soil carbon—and potentially reverse global warming. Her discoveries and vivid storytelling will revolutionize the way we think about our food, our landscapes, our plants, and our relationship to Earth.
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Rambling, mile wide, inch deep treatment of a subject
- By Charles Phillips on 10-17-18
By: Kristin Ohlson
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Gods, Wasps and Stranglers
- The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
- By: Mike Shanahan
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers, rain forest royalty, more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity in profound but little-known ways. Gods, Wasps and Stranglers tells their amazing story. Fig trees fed our prehuman ancestors, influenced diverse cultures, and played key roles in the dawn of civilization.
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Incredible research in a wonderful story
- By Alonsa Guevara on 11-24-22
By: Mike Shanahan
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The Reason for Flowers
- Their History, Culture, Biology, and How They Change Our Lives
- By: Stephen Buchmann
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Flowers, and the fruits that follow, feed, clothe, sustain, and inspire all humanity. Flowers are used to celebrate all-important occasions, to express love, and are also the basis of global industries. Americans buy 10 million flowers a day, and perfumes are a worldwide industry worth $30 billion annually. Stephen Buchmann takes us along on an exploratory journey of the roles flowers play in the production of our foods, spices, medicines, and perfumes while simultaneously bringing joy and health.
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Only for the Flower Lover
- By Anonymous User on 01-19-16
By: Stephen Buchmann
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The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
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Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
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The Book of General Ignorance
- By: John Mitchinson, John Lloyd
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Abridged
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Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British best seller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more, The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.
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Interesting.
- By A. Hawkbird on 12-07-08
By: John Mitchinson, and others
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Biomimicry
- Innovation Inspired by Nature
- By: Janine M. Benyus
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
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Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes listeners into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; and many more examples.
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Dated but good
- By stephen taylor on 09-05-21
By: Janine M. Benyus
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Silent Earth
- Averting the Insect Apocalypse
- By: Dave Goulson
- Narrated by: Dave Goulson
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
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In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental classic Silent Spring, an award-winning entomologist and conservationist explains the importance of insects to our survival and offers a clarion call to avoid a looming ecological disaster of our own making.
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If only Trump could read
- By Cletus on 02-28-24
By: Dave Goulson
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Farmacology
- Total Health from the Ground Up
- By: Daphne Miller MD
- Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
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Can urban farms reduce neighborhood crime? These may not sound like typical questions for a family physician to consider, but in Farmacology, Daphne Miller, MD, ventures out of her medical office and travels to seven innovative family farms around the country on a quest to discover the hidden connections between how we care for our bodies and how we grow our food. Miller also seeks out the perspectives of noted biomedical scientists and artfully weaves in their research, along with stories from her own practice. Farmacology offers a profound new approach to healing.
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Crystals and all - great book
- By Topherwayne on 02-22-20
By: Daphne Miller MD
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Tamed
- Ten Species That Changed Our World
- By: Alice Roberts
- Narrated by: Alice Roberts
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Random House presents the audiobook edition of Tamed, written and read by Alice Roberts. The extraordinary story of the species that became our allies. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors depended on wild plants and animals for survival. They were hunter-gatherers, consummate foraging experts, taking the world as they found it. Then a revolution occurred - our ancestors' interaction with other species changed.
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Please leave out the sermons.
- By Keith on 11-15-18
By: Alice Roberts
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Banana
- The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
- By: Dan Koeppel
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
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Banana combines a pop-science journey around the globe, a fascinating tale of an iconic American business enterprise, and a look into the alternately tragic and hilarious banana subculture (one does exist) - ultimately taking us to the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes, in a race to save the world's most beloved fruit.
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Very Good Book - History, Science, and Economics
- By Jose on 11-08-17
By: Dan Koeppel
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The Wonder of Birds
- What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
- By: Jim Robbins
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body.
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Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
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From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes to...Aliens?
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The Heartbeat of Trees
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In The Heartbeat of Trees, renowned forester Peter Wohlleben draws on new scientific discoveries to show how humans are deeply connected to the natural world. In an era of climate change, many of us fear we’ve lost our connection to nature - but Peter Wohlleben is convinced that age-old ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact. We just have to know where to look.
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More the Heartbeat of the author
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The Hidden Life of Trees
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Tree Hugger
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Soil Science for Gardeners
- Working with Nature to Build Soil Health (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)
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Robert Pavlis, a gardener for over four decades, debunks common soil myths, explores the rhizosphere, and provides a personalized soil fertility improvement program in this three-part popular science guidebook. Soil Science for Gardeners is an accessible, science-based guide to understanding soil fertility and, in particular, the rhizosphere - the thin layer of liquid and soil surrounding plant roots, so vital to plant health.
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Poorly sourced personal opinion
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What listeners say about The Triumph of Seeds
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Adrian
- 03-30-16
Delightfully simplistic!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This book looks at the history and evolution of seeds. That's it. Thor Hanson's appreciation of seeds and his passion for study are evident, yet he presented the topic in a lighthearted way that was easy for a layman to follow. I enjoyed this book very much.
What other book might you compare The Triumph of Seeds to and why?
I love books that have a small scope, but enlighten me in a big way. This book reminds me of "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" by Tom Standage, which I read a decade ago, but still keep on my desk.
What about Marc Vietor’s performance did you like?
I thought the content and the narrator were perfectly matched. Marc Vietor did excellent work of bringing this book to life.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I would have enjoyed listening to this in one sitting. I didn't, but I did listen to it while I walked, shopped, cooked and washed dishes.
Any additional comments?
I didn't know much or care much about seeds when I started this book. I can now confidently speak about seeds because I've enjoyed this wonderful lesson and learned a lot without being lectured to.
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63 people found this helpful
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- Ginger Maghran
- 02-25-17
This is an amazing book
This book is very interesting to read you get some history, biology, chemistry, physics and a whole lot of awesome BOTANY.
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35 people found this helpful
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- Rusty
- 03-06-17
a fantastic book and great narration
this is such an great book. it's so informative and yet feels like you are part of love story between the author and his passion for everything seeds.
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- S. A. Phillips
- 08-21-16
very insightful
I liked the narrator, but not for this book. He seems more suited to mystery or thriller, or even sci-fi, but somehow didn't work for me in this documentary or non fiction genre.
Great book though. I thought it seemed like a mildly interesting topic, but it turned out to be a massively interesting topic.
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- Richard Walker
- 03-10-16
Background for a seed lover
Dr Hanson gave me a look inside seeds, their behavior, and place in the context of history and modern life.
He kept the jargon to Botany 101 and infused each chapter with colorful images and metaphors.
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- Jeff Koeppen
- 09-12-18
Wonderful, Accessible Book About Little 'Ol Seeds
This was certainly better than I thought it would be. Based on the subject matter I thought this book would be a tad dry; but, on the contrary, it was really interesting and quite entertaining. The writing is very accessible and heavy scientific terms are left by the wayside for the most part. Hanson takes a common item that we take for granted and weaves interesting tales around them to make his point of how seeds shaped the world and influenced its history.
Hanson takes the story back to how seeds evolved to become so successful and the most common way of plant reproduction after spore reproduction was the method of choice during prehistory. Instead of reciting a history of seeds he divided the book in to sections which included information pertaining to how seeds defend themselves, how they travel, how they endure long periods of dormancy, and how the design of different types of seeds helps them flourish. The examples he uses to exemplify each section and chapter are relatable and narrative easy to follow.
Prior to reading the book, my wife and I were talking about fruits and wondered why apple trees, orange trees, peach trees, watermelons, etc., would wrap their seeds with such a large quantity of fruit. This is covered in the book. So are other interesting topics such as the design and function of the seeds of coconuts, coffee, chili peppers, and cotton. Cotton and coffee were given a lot of ink as their popularity basically changed the world, in good ways and bad.
My favorite parts were the discussion of how seeds travel and the chapter about the seed banks found throughout the world, the most famous of which is the Global Seed Vault in Norway. Also, fascinating was the chapter about the endurance of seeds. A 2,000 year old seed found by archaeologists in the ruins of a city in Israel started growing in 2005 and is still flourishing!
I would recommend this to anyone as the subject matter is really interesting and relatable to everyday life. The subject matter is presented more anecdotally than scholarly or technically, knowledge of botany is not necessary. Seeds are everywhere and almost everything we eat and drink every day either was processed from a seed or grew from one. How can you not love them? 4.5 stars
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- Mr
- 05-04-16
Inspiring
Concepts from many researchers work laid out and built up with a wealth of experimental findings with wonderful clarity. Enthralling side notes and stories into the part of seeds in history and ever pertinent philosophical paradigms. A core maintained throughout of the story of his own research into the Almendro tree woven perfectly within the wider subject and a sincere admiration of nature's core principles. Brilliant. Thank you Thor, thank you Nature.
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- Alison Willette
- 04-21-16
Useful history with a little physiology of seeds
I thought that the author did a good job of describing histories and interesting scientific discoveries without using too many scientific terms. I was hoping it would include more physiology of how seeds develop rather than the descriptions of physical characteristics of seeds. I was not crazy about the readers tone. it made me a little sleepy.
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- mandie
- 02-22-17
more than seeds
I loved the background told in the beginning. I am studying secondary metabolites in plants, and this book was a good compliment to the plant's functions and uses of them.
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- James
- 04-26-17
It's just so boring.
I generally love nonfiction on unusual or arcane topics. That said, aside from 15 somewhat interesting minutes about why spicy seeds are spicy, this is a 10 hour repetitive ramble of 'seeds are fascinating. You just can't imagine how great they are. Seeds are everywhere. Did I mention they are fascinating???'
There are only 25 minutes left but I just can't do it. I can't listen to another minute.
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15 people found this helpful