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)

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

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!

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.

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.

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?

Excellent reading, wonderful narrator and very clear ideas

Similar to his other books, this one is a masterpiece, with his analytical view of the world and the matters around it, he manages to talk about the deepest questions with an creative look. I totally recomend this book.

no headline

it is not very usefull. not sure if i understand this book. should i listen it again?

We are not a story.

I think during this pandemic (which can have nice place as an example in this book too if happened earlier) we see even more that we are on the edge of big changes/transformations in the world and that liberalism and capitalism in the current version is not the answer (at least not to all problems..). Some are false causal believes etc. (I can recommend book Knowledge Illusion which is also mentioned in Harari's work), but overall we know more than ever that we don't know much, our narratives fall apart (but my perception is that those narratives was sort of illusions too, so we are maybe in sort of psychological/meaning crisis more than existential for now). What can we do? Yuval answers some actual themes (in some cases with more answers as it's his style...). I think for start that resting in "I don't know" and accepting it, using mindfulness for example as Yuval does could be a good start. In case of nonfiction books I usually wrote some ideas that were really interesting for me, but in this case I mention only two - Hararis books are steaming with ideas, questions, visions and answers. Despite this one focuses on more actual problems of humanity, its quite broad anyway and not that concrete for me - it serves ideas, not solutions. I feel some ideas was repeated (big data algorithms, liberalism and humanism crisis, AI and loss of jobs, free market and growth leading to ecological crisis) only in a little bit more granular way (still hugely interesting for me). Two ideas that I choose to mention here are both connected with what I know about Buddhism, which I think is helping Harari open his mind, this whole review circles about those thousand of years old ideas. Besides that Yuval's sexual orientation gives him another way to look at our society partly from outside, same as Focault had. Orthodox Jews in Israel with no civil work may be actually the new picture for people on earth - there can be more and more jobless people thanks to technology and more and more people could therefore turn to spiritual life (and surpass our biological "never satisfied" programming - which we could do already with our resources). Second idea goes with this diagram: Feelings = biological algorithms = evolutionary rationality (optimized for jungle since they evolve much slower than memes/algorithms). Liberalism is based on free will which is based on feelings. Find I way to manipulate feelings (which populists are doing effectively) and democracy becomes emotional puppet show (especially referendums). We have far less free will (if any) that we think we have - which Buddhism also taught thousands of years ago. Takeaway/reminder for myself is that we can help, through meditation for example, to be unattached by personal desires and stories, even from the biggest story called self/ego (and which is build today extensively through social platforms like Instagram) - you are not a story. There lots of great and sharp ideas in this book and it's always pleasure to read Harari's work for me.

a must must must read

Harari is one if the most brilliant authors of our times, who manages to translate the complex world of the human kind in a language which is accessible to most.

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.

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.

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 ;-)

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

Thinking well

His clarity and acknowledgment of bias reveals a number of truths. The performance by Perkins is also excellent.

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.

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.

Not for me

couldn't get into this. felt a bit dull and negative. Nit as good as previous Yuval books