Count Down

How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race

By: Shanna H. Swan

Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell

In the tradition of Silent Spring and The Sixth Extinction, an urgent, “disturbing, empowering, and essential” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) book about the ways in which chemicals in the modern environment are changing—and endangering—human sexuality and fertility on the grandest scale, from renowned epidemiologist Shanna Swan.

In 2017, author Shanna Swan and her team of researchers completed a major study. They found that over the past four decades, sperm levels among men in Western countries have dropped by more than 50 percent. They came to this conclusion after examining 185 studies involving close to 45,000 healthy men. The result sent shockwaves around the globe—but the story didn’t end there. It turns out our sexual development is changing in broader ways, for both men and women and even other species, and that the modern world is on pace to become an infertile one.

How and why could this happen? What is hijacking our fertility and our health? Count Down unpacks these questions, revealing what Swan and other researchers have learned about how both lifestyle and chemical exposures are affecting our fertility, sexual development—potentially including the increase in gender fluidity—and general health as a species. Engagingly explaining the science and repercussions of these worldwide threats and providing simple and practical guidelines for effectively avoiding chemical goods (from water bottles to shaving cream) both as individuals and societies, Count Down is “staggering in its findings” (Erin Brockovich, The Guardian) and “will serve as an awakening” (The New York Times Book Review).

Terrifying book.

About environmental toxins, especially ubiquitous endocrine disruptive compounds, which are progressively ending our reproductive ability.

Book is breathtakingly fascinating but the narration is appalling!

Please, please stop using these horrific narrators. I gave up on the audio and bought it in hard copy.

This book is so important!!!

Ok so there’s a ton of information in here and it’s not easy to hear but please do listen and share. I’ve already recommended it to a number of people. I thought I was reasonably knowledgeable on environmental hazards but there is so much more information here! And hold on till the end. It can feel really doom and gloom for a while but there are reasonable and helpful recommendations for what to DO about this crisis (other than panic.) Not just for people trying to conceive, but for everyone who cares about humanity and animal life on earth.

Another Example of How We Are Poisoning Ourselves

This was a very illuminating book, and shows how we continue to pump destructive chemicals into our environment ... long after we know the harm they are doing.

The only issue I have with the book is Dr. Swan's position that one result of this chemical onslaught -- the drop in fertility that is the focus of the book -- is a catastrophe. I'm one of those people she alludes to in the introduction who believe that on a planet with 7 billion people, headed to 9 or 10 billion, leaving destruction everywhere in our wake, a drop in human fertility ... and thus human numbers ... would be a long overdue and welcome correction to a population that is out of control.

I learned a lot about the science and physiology of human reproduction along the way, as well as how these chemicals can alter our genetic make-up, including gender expression. A very insightful book.

Amazing

This is one of the most eye opening books I’ve read in awhile. It’s a must read!