Breath

The New Science of a Lost Art

By: James Nestor

Narrated by: James Nestor

A New York Times Best Seller

A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020

Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR

“A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe - and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love)

No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.

There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: Take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.

Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

©2020 James Nestor (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Utterly fascinating

I have a bad back and learned from physical therapist how to breath properly and it actually helped. Then I go to a couple different group events around food and wellbeing and sure enough they teach us to breath where I also learned of anders Ollson and conscious breathing. Randomly found out about this book on NPR fresh air. It is utterly fascinating and reinforces everything i learned prior to this. I couldn’t stop listening. I have back, sleep and brain fog issues. I definitely plan to up my breathing game.

Waited 3 years for this, worth it!!!

Terrific read, it confirmed a lot of theories of mine on breath, training, yoga, and love.

Nestor owns the subject and communicates wisdom, insight, and healing through a sea of seemingly unrelated stories. Renegade scientists railing against the National Institute for Health's oversight blend into Swedish playboy scientists weave into eccentric British colonels who discover the secret to eternal life and youth as Ave Maria and Om Padme On echo against the walls of the readers riveted mind. Artists leave high society to live with tall, beautiful, orthodontically perfect native Americans who raise children better than homo modernis.

I want to read this book slowly enough to crawl through the bibliography; it is a novel containing multiple reads and practices that will heal it's readers. Enjoy!

Great reading, practical and applicable info.

Years of useful research and instructions on how to breathe. I recommend it to my friends and patients.

Great book - one issue

This is a great book, and the information will no doubt be very helpful to me. It was interesting and educational, and I was surprised to learn about the quality-of-life improvements possible by a few changes to my breathing patterns. For that, I am very grateful that James Nestor did the research and wrote this book. I will definitely be recommending it to others. Having said that, I have one minor issue - I usually disagree with reviewers that complain about authors that read their own books. I agree that if it's fiction, an actor should read the book—unless the author is a talented oral storyteller—because it's a better experience. But I don't think a non-fiction book needs an actor to read it if the author has a straightforward reading style. It even helps me to retain the information if I'm not distracted by a more dramatic read. But in this case, it wasn't a straightforward read and I found the author's impersonations of the people he was quoting to be anywhere from distracting to offputting. You already wrote a great book, you don't need to be an actor too. And a voice change isn't necessary to indicate that someone other than the author is saying the words being read. Many great audiobooks read by authors with a straighforward read have proven that. People listen to audiobooks for a lot of different reasons, but the reading should always be high-quality and not take away from the material.

Great Information, but a little repetitive

There are a few personal stories and experiments from the author that I really enjoy in this book. However, there are some part where it does seem a little repetitive. The big take away from this book is to always nose breath! Which sounds dumb but the evidence in this book is overwhelming.

Practical and interesting.

I listen to a lot of self improvement stuff, but a lot of it gets boring by the end. Not this book. I really looked forwards to listening each time.
I listen to audible while cleaning stalls and feeding horses. This book was extra awesome as I could easily be more aware of my breath and be more present. I’m now a nose breather (first time in my life!) and have the tools and knowledge to really conquer breath.

Delighted with this vital wisdom!

Saved me years of health research!
Excellent, useable conclusions.
Easy to understand and immediately apply.

Life changing book.

Wow wow wow. This book should be a must read in schools. I enjoyed the style, the information is incredibly useful and the narrator is great. Thank you for thus amazing book.

Helpful for everyone

If nothing else, you will be aware of your breath. And you will live better!

An enlightening read

If nothing else, this book will expose you to ideas you might never learn anywhere else. Breathing is one of those things we all do and seldom think about. Not anymore for me!