The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning

Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness

• UNABRIDGED (2 hrs and 36 mins)
• By Nicholas Humphrey
• Narrated By Howard Ellison

"Consciousness matters. Arguably it matters more than anything. The purpose of this book is to build towards an explanation of just what the matter is."

Nicholas Humphrey begins this compelling exploration of the biggest of big questions with a challenge to the reader, and himself. What's involved in "seeing red"? What is it like for us to see someone else seeing something red? Seeing a red screen tells us a fact about something in the world. But it also creates a new fact - a sensation in each of our minds, the feeling of redness.

Physics in Mind: A Quantum View of the Brain

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 46 mins)
• By Werner R. Loewenstein
• Narrated By Walter Dixon

No one can escape a sense of awe when reflecting on the workings of the mind: we see, we hear, we feel, we are aware of the world around us. But what is the mind? What do we mean when we say we are “aware” of something? What is this peculiar state in our heads, at once utterly familiar and bewilderingly mysterious, that we call awareness or consciousness? In Physics in Mind, eminent biophysicist Werner R. Loewenstein argues that to answer these questions, we must first understand the physical mechanisms that underlie the workings of the mind.

Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 48 mins)
• By Charles Wheelan
• Narrated By Jonathan Davis

From batting averages and political polls to game shows and medical research, the real-world application of statistics continues to grow by leaps and bounds. How can we catch schools that cheat on standardized tests? How does Netflix know which movies you'll like? What is causing the rising incidence of autism? As best-selling author Charles Wheelan shows us in Naked Statistics, the right data and a few well-chosen statistical tools can help us answer these questions and more.

Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 56 mins)
• By Patricia S. Churchland
• Narrated By Catherine Dyer

What is morality? Where does it come from? And why do most of us heed its call most of the time? In Braintrust, neurophilosophy pioneer Patricia Churchland argues that morality originates in the biology of the brain. She describes the "neurobiological platform of bonding" that, modified by evolutionary pressures and cultural values, has led to human styles of moral behavior. The result is a provocative genealogy of morals that asks us to reevaluate the priority given to religion, absolute rules, and pure reason in accounting for the basis of morality.

The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 13 mins)
• By Mario Livio
• Narrated By Mel Foster

Throughout history, thinkers from mathematicians to theologians have pondered the mysterious relationship between numbers and the nature of reality. In this fascinating book, Mario Livio tells the tale of a number at the heart of that mystery: phi, or 1.6180339887.... This curious mathematical relationship, widely known as "The Golden Ratio", was discovered by Euclid more than 2,000 years ago. Since then it has shown a propensity to appear in the most astonishing variety of places.