Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Runaway Species  By  cover art

The Runaway Species

By: David Eagleman, Anthony Brandt
Narrated by: Mauro Hantman
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.03

Buy for $14.03

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Our ability to remake our world is unique among all living things. But where does our creativity come from, how does it work, and how can we harness it to improve our lives, schools, businesses, and institutions?

The Runaway Species is a deep-dive into the creative mind, a celebration of the human spirit, and a vision of how we can improve our future by understanding and embracing our ability to innovate. Composer Anthony Brandt and neurologist David Eagleman seek to discover what lies at the heart of humanity's ability - and drive - to create.

Examining hundreds of examples of human creativity, Brandt and Eagleman draw out what creative acts have in common and view them through the lens of cutting-edge neuroscience, uncovering the essential elements of this critical human ability and encouraging a more creative future for all of us.

©2017 David Eagleman (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

What listeners say about The Runaway Species

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    103
  • 4 Stars
    44
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    101
  • 4 Stars
    31
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    92
  • 4 Stars
    32
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A wealth of insights

This book is astounding in its breadth and profundity of insights,
The data and stories alone provide a rich library of valuable research and event based dynamics
which propel a worthy investigation of the cosmology of innovation and experimental history.
Most of all though this book is another example fo Eagleman's unique style of bringing a synthesis of
brilliant and astoundingly practical stories. These are examples of how creativity and innovation makes it through the inception stage to the final integration in business commerce and invention

The comprehensive spectrum of examples from historical events and inventions , both successful and not successful provide a critical factual/historical foundation and not a mere digression into data.

this book is the work of true genius and is in itself a Renaissance of prodigious potentials.
Bravo!!

really looking froward to the new book coming..."LiveWired"

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible Perspective Shift

This book is one of the most incredible reads I’ve ever encountered. I’m going to re-read it again and again over my lifetime. Amazing work!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I found this book inspirational!

I'm a creative writer and poet. I found this book profoundly inspirational. Love love loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another Amazing Book by Eagleman

Cutting Edge Depiction Of The nature of and driving forces behind human mind and creativity.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

creativity: Breaking, Blending, Bending.

Elegantly simple thesis, deconstructing the human creative process into three discrete, interrelated processes. If you like Pinker, Gladwell, Dawkins, Harari, then Runaway Species is required reading.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great discovery, this app!

absolutely loved the voice of the narrator. perfect pitch, natural, fluid, clear, and yet expressive.

the story is great, the narrative well organized and easy to follow and to enjoy. the structure of the book is a bit repetitive and maybe a tad predictable (in spite of the title). I preferred "incognito" from the same author, but I don't know whether this is because I read it before this one. nonetheless, definitely worth reading and also listening!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

A Failed Hypothesis

Eagleman and Brandt began with a conclusion and then started looking for the facts. There is a well rehearsed rule in research that correlation is not causation. The book opens insisting that the NASA engineers who brought back the ill fated Apollo 13 crew were identical to Picasso.
What? Yeah, I should have stopped there.
This book catalogs famous inventions and then torturously shoehorns each of them into a simple minded reductionist “bending, breaking, or blending” of existing ideas or devices. This book goes nowhere and says nothing. I think the authors believe they have written the next “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” Not even close.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Letdown

Im a huge fan of Eagleman. This book was a lot of fluffy, empty talking about creativity ideas, but no research or depth. Incognito was great with the stories, research and facts for each claim. This book is missing all of it. The Narrator is rough to listen to, I thought it would have the same zest as Eagleman did with his book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Lets talk about creativity, for real

A fascinating journey through the evolution of human creativity, its different components, providing a wealth of examples.
The audiobook format allows for the possibility of breaking down one of Bach's compositions. Priceless.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

endless list of historical facts or items

Maybe there are some good points in the book but it is filled with very long lists of frivolous of items or historical facts. I am giving up trying to listen to it after the first few chapters. The percentage of irrelevant material is very high. So the book becomes major waste of time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful