Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping - Now Revised and Updated

By: Robert Sapolsky

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Now in a third edition, Robert M. Sapolsky's acclaimed and successful Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers features new chapters on how stress affects sleep and addiction, as well as new insights into anxiety and personality disorder and the impact of spirituality on managing stress.

As Sapolsky explains, most of us do not lie awake at night worrying about whether we have leprosy or malaria. Instead, the diseases we fear - and the ones that plague us now - are illnesses brought on by the slow accumulation of damage, such as heart disease and cancer. When we worry or experience stress, our body turns on the same physiological responses that an animal's does, but we do not resolve conflict in the same way - through fighting or fleeing. Over time, this activation of a stress response makes us literally sick. Combining cutting-edge research with a healthy dose of good humor and practical advice, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers explains how prolonged stress causes or intensifies a range of physical and mental afflictions, including depression, ulcers, colitis, heart disease, and more. It also provides essential guidance to controlling our stress responses. This new edition promises to be the most comprehensive and engaging one yet.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2004 Robert M. Sapolsky (P)2012 Tantor

A real insightful read.

It's really long and some time dry but the narrator make it well worth it.
I highly recommend this book.

Content Good, Narrator Not So Much

The information in this book was helpful. But there were lots of "moreover"s, "whereas"s, "therefore"s....so, in other words, pretty technical rather than a book crafted by a wordsmith. Pretty redundant and tangential. I was simultaneously reading (the old fashioned way) The Body Keeps the Score, and I found it to be more succinct while presenting much of the same information. The most laborious aspect of getting through this audio-book was the narrator. I would not purchase another audio-book with this narrator. Passages that were meant to be clinical and objective sounded biased, sarcastic, or cynical due to the narrator's style of reading. His narrating style, in my opinion, was just plain annoying.

Mostly Enjoyable and Informative

What made the experience of listening to Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers the most enjoyable?

Robert Sapolsky writes with a light, cheeky, irreverent tone that makes even information about glucocorticoids and stress responses funny and interesting. The book contains a lot of new information about stress, some of which runs counter to popular wisdom (e.g. the link between stress and cancer), and was reassuring in some ways and disturbing in others.

Any additional comments?

I think that this book is best read as a regular book and not an audiobook. Sapolsky uses a lot of scientific terminology, and without being able to flip back to earlier sections or a glossary, I ended up missing out on some of what he wrote. Also, one thing that I did find off-putting about this book is Sapolsky's smug, dismissive attitude toward doctors. I get that classically-trained doctors may not always take enough of a holistic approach to medicine, but Sapolsky really makes them sound like a bunch of narrow-minded idiots who can't accept anything other than throwing drugs at their patients.

Enlightening!

The author puts it into layman's terms what happens in the body when we stress and why it is so bad for us.
A must read for anyone not living on a remote, tropical island.

Narrator does not enunciate

Narrator could enunciate better and hard to distinguish certain words if I was not reading along.

Fabulous Book / LOUSY Reader

What didn’t you like about Peter Berkrot’s performance?

Exaggerated emphasis, stagey inflection. Berkot's rollar coaster reading is highly distracting, injects ambiguity as to the meaning of some sentences and ruins the enjoyment of the text. Half David Biencouli, half 1950's William Shatner-- NOT an appropriate voice for scientific material.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Not if Peter Berkot were narrating it. I've already purchased a documentary, based on Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, and Sapolsky is a far better better, more engaging interpreter of his work than Berkot.

Any additional comments?

Unfortunately, this is a prime example of a wonderful book ruined by a bad reading.I had read this book years ago, love the author, had heard Sapolsk lecture in person, and was really looking forward to what I thought would be a fun review of great material. But Peter Berkot's reading of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers wrecked my happy anticipation. Many scientific and historical authors make the rounds on TV talk shows or radio interview programs, giving their audience the opportunity to hear them read and/or discuss their manuscript in their own voice. Not all are scintillating lecturers, but they have an engaging enthusiasm for the material which sustains the audience, and which no grade C actor or professional reader ever manages to capture. Whether or not the author is "professional" in reading their material aloud, matters less than hearing the author's own intended inflection, emphasis and enthusiasm. A stagey reading by a professional reader, destroys the mood and introduces ambiguity, causing uncertainty as to the author's meaning in some cases.

Good book, horrible production

I enjoy the content, yet it’s next to impossible to understand while I’m driving, and I have a great fancy car stereo …. The dynamics of the narrator are all over the place, certain phrases and sentences extremely loud , others swallows and quiet… this could have been fixed by a decent audio engineer or a minimal process of mastering , but apparently nobody at audible QCed this book, I’m very disappointed in this level of unprofessionalism, never encountered anything similar in the around 50 other audible books I have purchased and listened too…

overall ok but biased and not practical

the basic science at the beginning is fascinating and intrigued me. The book goes on to cherry pick studies that the author does not agree with, and his overall conclusion is that once you're an adult, you pretty much have no control over your stress response. His last chapter is a farce. His political and spiritual bias cause him to make childish statements or worse, throw out studies he does not like. If you are interested in basic stress physiology, the first half of the hook is worthwhile. Otherwise, skip this one.

Informative and entertaining

Each chapter provides a good overview of the relevant physiological systems, so you're never lost. Also, it's balanced and not over-reaching (acknowledging that not every disease is due to stress), which i appreciated. Slightly annoyed by the narration, but otherwise a very good listen.

Fantastic intro to the human stress response

I've been listening to Sapolsky's lectures and interviews for a while and still learned a great deal from this book. I've even changed up some of my habits in positive ways to avoid running into unncecessary stressors. Loved the overall message of the book which will shift your perspective on stress and stress relief. "We can prevent ulcers without having to give ulcers" is one line from the book but I feel it sums it up pretty well.