21 Lessons for the 21st Century

By: Yuval Noah Harari

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

The audiobook edition of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari, read by Derek Perkins. 

The No.1 best seller.

In 21 bite-sized lessons, Yuval Noah Harari explores what it means to be human in an age of bewilderment.

How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war, ecological cataclysms and technological disruptions? What can we do about the epidemic of fake news or the threat of terrorism? What should we teach our children?

Yuval Noah Harari takes us on a thrilling journey through today’s most urgent issues. The golden thread running through his exhilarating new book is the challenge of maintaining our collective and individual focus in the face of constant and disorienting change.

Are we still capable of understanding the world we have created?

©2018 Yuval Noah Harari (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Fascinating...compelling.... [Harari] has teed up a crucial global conversation about how to take on the problems of the 21st century." (Bill Gates, New York Times)

"Truly mind-expanding.... Ultra-topical." (Guardian)

"21 Lessons is, simply put, a crucial book." (Adam Kay)

Zealots beware!

To me, Sapiens was easily the best book I ever came across, and it marked the beginning of my journey through a lot of scientific books. I couldn't finish Homo Deus, I found it to be too speculative.
Now, the 21 Lessons are easily the best book I listened to in years. There's a lot to learn, not just about the 21st century.
Check it out!

A thought provoking read

Makes you reassess and rethink what you know and why you and others do what they do. Loved it and would highly recommend it to all

Amazon book

many moments of truth pop up in this book. probably one of the best book every written. If you have read the forst two, Homo sapiens and Homo Deus, you might find the start of this as remake of the first two. but it gets much more interesting afterwards

Progressive rant

Very disappointed by Mr Harari who produced two excellent books in sapiens and homo deus. 21 lessons turned out to be atleast 15 lessons in progressive leftism. Narrated nicely by Perkins but this work was sub.

Don't binge listen to Harari's books

I started this book right after finishing Homo Deus and Sapiens, so a lot of the information in this book was repetitive.

But still, jaw dropping information! The whole book is truly eye-opening. Also loved the narrators voice.

Significantly worse than expected

I had high hopes for this book. It turned out that author has completely exhausted his idea potential for creating the previous two titles. There wasn't much here to read that I hadn't already been provided in detail or hinted in Sapiens or Homo deus. And to add to the overall dissatisfaction, the author decided to put a great deal of personal beliefs and political views in this particular book. I have been enjoying the notorious neutrality of Sapiens and Homo deus, but in 21 Lessons I often had to filter out subjective bits. And the presence of said subjective bits might well be explained by marketing efforts of author's publisher.

The Possibilities of the Future by 2050

In 21 Lessons For The 21st Century, professor Yuval Noah Harari presents some the most important issues that mankind is facing in the near future – in particular by 2050. The book spams from the (upcoming) future of work, healthcare, information, immigration, environment and society, describing some of the possibilities that we are going to see in our world. On this manner, Harari specifically says that it is impossible to predict the future even by 2050 because there are so many different variants in how things might take shape. From the technological development, climate change environment, and society anything can change the outcome of the world in 2050.

This book is amazing. It gave me so much insights about our society. It explains to so many whys and pose some good questions about future. I know that this book does not predict the future but it lays some of most likely to happen possibilities. The chapter on work is my favorite but also the other chapters gave me some great ideas that helps me understand what is going on around me right now.

Good but biased

At least should’ve been a bit less biased towards religions, especially Islam. Other than that, it’s been wonderful.

yet another brilliant work by YNH

I have become a big fan of YNH... after the first two excellent books, this continues to educate, enthrall and makes one ponder and reflect deeply. it shakes many deeply held notions.. what an amazing synthesis of whatever is happening and transpiring... a must read for anyone who is Keen to know where the human race is headed. most importantly, this book points to how as an individual, we can get to the path of true Discovery...

Everyone should read this after Sapiens

I’ve not read Homo Deus but found this a perfect follow up to Sapiens. This is what we need to be studying and teaching. So much energy wasted on so much nonsense and these books enlighten although also frighten a bit. Now to work out where to from here for my generation but more importantly my children and then..... can I even contemplate their children?? Will I even have grandchildren?

Grow your mind

Yet another master class, after reading all three of his books “Sapiens”,” Homo Deus” and “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” I am left wondering how one man could possibly cover so much. To understand where we are, where we came from, and where we could possibly be heading, A true trilogy for the mind. Seekers you need look no further for enlightenment. For an inquiring mind, you have a feast on your hands here. I have yet to be educated in a more entertaining way. So many ideas to contemplate, you will never look at things in quite the same way. In a word enriching.

10/10

‘Sapiens’ will stand out in history as a clearly mapped out record of the evolution of human beings from apes to modern day.
Fuelled by passion and intellect,
organised and delivered for any curious human of under average intelligence to genius to absorb and understand.

‘Homo Deus’ is my favourite non fiction book in years, an all time favourite. I have uncountable positive comments I could make about the wisdom it shows and issues it raises. My only critique, was that I sensed a slightly biased hidden agenda from Harari, portrayed as an informative ‘on the fence’ summary of life in the modern age and what may follow.

This considered ‘21 Lessons’ is the perfect follow up, he clearly and honestly opens up to the audience, expressing his personal views amongst the pleather of facts.

I am very fond of the conclusion, where he voices the importance and value of practicing a daily non biased observation of the self without judgement or agenda.
It is amazing to me that clearly right now, human beings main problem is our relationship with our own feelings, a subject rarely considered or discussed.
I love how this man thinks and teaches by example.

Great book, good as the previous ones.

Recommend to everyone who seeks more true in their lifes. Recommend previous books as well.

This book will make you smarter.

Each 'lesson' makes you think. His purpose isn't to convince you or to enlighten you to his point of view. But to make you consider your point of view and to weigh it's validity.

Blown away!

Based on Yuval’s 2 previous books I pre-ordered this audiobook and couldn’t wait to start listening. As I expected it blew me away with the its clarity and Yuval’s outstanding ability to explain in simple language, what in his assessment are the important lessons of history. A must listen.

Hard and Necessary

Like homo deus, really tough to hear the well reasoned thoughts about the coming and present world. Not one to pick up when feeling fragile with the world but if you can handle the truth then you are entirely more likely to read it here than in a POTUS tweet ;-)

Disappointed

I really enjoyed sapiens and found a lot of useful and interesting ideas contained therein (though, towards the end of the book, I disagreed with quite a lot of Mr Harari's analysis of contemporary society). I heard the author interviewed on a podcast and thought he was interesting and intelligent. I saved this audiobook 'til I could give it due consideration. I found the writer's ideas vague and his reasoning unconvincing. He made massive assumptions and generalisations and produced a narrative that felt incompatible with my understanding of history. This was followed by what felt like an inane and poorly researched portrayal of emerging technologies that then turned into the most ridiculous and pointless waffle; i would have laughed had i not paid money for it. It felt like the worst sort of propaganda. Maybe if I had continued to listen I'd have found the golden nugget, but I decided i was just wasting my time. Maybe it's just me; other people seem to like it...

21 lessons

Another insightful audio book from Yuval. Fantastic narration. A concise and easy tone.
As with all his other audiobooks I will be listening again within a few months.
Highly recommended.
Keep up the fantastic work. Bravo

Speculation and nonsense

A historian should stick to what he knows, as opposed to launching into endless misinformed speculation about subjects ('infotech' and 'biotech', repeated ad nauseam...) that he doesn't really understand.

The book is just a bunch of speculation around today's buzzwords, playing on people's fears and ignorance to sell the book and make money. Ridiculous, really.

An clear look at the big questions of our time

Clearly structured, well written look at many important topics that define our global era. A part of me wishes there was a big solution at the end, but I guess that's the whole point - the solutions are yet to reveal themselves, and to see our challenges clearly and soberly is a the necessary first step.