Behave Audiobook By Robert M. Sapolsky cover art

Behave

The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

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Behave

By: Robert M. Sapolsky
Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
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Buy for $27.00

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New York Times bestseller • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize • One of the Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year

“It’s no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.” —David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal

"It has my vote for science book of the year.” —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times

"Immensely readable, often hilarious...Hands-down one of the best books I’ve read in years. I loved it." —Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post

From the bestselling author of A Primate's Memoir and Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will comes a landmark, genre-defining examination of human behavior and an answer to the question: Why do we do the things we do?

Behave is one of the most dazzling tours d’horizon of the science of human behavior ever attempted. Moving across a range of disciplines, Sapolsky—a neuroscientist and primatologist—uncovers the hidden story of our actions. Undertaking some of our thorniest questions relating to tribalism and xenophobia, hierarchy and competition, and war and peace, Behave is a towering achievement—a majestic synthesis of cutting-edge research and a heroic exploration of why we ultimately do the things we do . . . for good and for ill.

Accolades & Awards

Los Angeles Times Book Prize
2017
Human Brain Los Angeles Times Book Prize Biological Sciences Nervous System Thought-Provoking Psychology & Mental Health Psychology Biology Criminology Science Social Sciences Inspiring Crime Behavioral Psychology Evolutionary Biology

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Comprehensive Information • Interdisciplinary Approach • Excellent Narration • Accessible Explanations • Scientific Rigor

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4.5 stars. Sapolsky brings a truly epic amount of scientific research to bear in the entertaining, humane, and illuminating book. This book acts as a synethesis of a wide array of research into human behavior, incorporating work in evolutionary development, neurology, psychology, sociology, and the like. Sapolsky has looked at the various factors that influence human behavior, guiding the reader from the immediate influences that trigger a behavior in the preceding seconds, to the factors that lead to any given behavior in preceding days and weeks, to those that shaped us in the years before and in the womb, all the way back to the evolutionary factors that gave rise to homo sapiens. He manages to patiently lay out complex webs of influence, never giving in to oversimiplification and often finding ways to inject wit and humor into the text. He repeatedly offers up commonly held beliefs, pat explanations, and historical certainties and then explains why we now have evidence showing that we were wrong. And he does this not only with obsolete conclusions from yesteryear, but with some overly enthusiastic interpretations of recent data (often falling into the category of people overstating findings and failing to see nuance). The book discusses the full range of human behavior as promised in the subtitle - our behavior at its best and its worst. Having finished the book, a reader should walk away with mind broadened and an understanding that our behavior is not as simple as a gene or an environement or an event, but a complex tapestry of all those things interacting. This knowledge should both frighten and engender hope.

Complex subject, expertly explained

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Behave is an excellent collation and survey of studies regarding the underlying biology of human behavior and decision-making.

Top Notch Non-Fiction

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Work of the CENTURY. Sapolsky is a MASTER. This book is in its own class as far as application backed up by studies on aspects of the human/primate mind, There are not enough modern books on neuroscience that break down a behavior the way that Sapolsky can. Applicable to all humans, you will be better for having read this book. I have never read anything more original in this field. The way Sapolsky breaks this extremely difficult content down in easy to understand terms and examples is proof of his mastery of the human condition, mind, behavior, agrression and more. Looking forward to more work by Sapolsky. Thank you.

This book will open your eyes and blow your mind

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Pros: fabulous review of a wide breadth of the biology of human behavior, clever framing of the topic with time preceding an action rather than through systems, and excellent explanatory style making challenging material digestible.

Cons: over-reliance on some of the increasingly empirically suspect implicit bias and priming research literatures, and while I love Sapolsky, he remains a bit of a hippie, an eminently reasonable and brilliant hippie, but a hippie nonetheless; so there is a bit of that interpretive lens.

This narrator is the epitome of an excellent nonfiction narrator.

Dense but navigable; brilliant

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Best audiobook I've listened to in a long time. Perfect for commuting. Sapolsky covers several fields of study, and manages to tie a wide array of topics into a compelling and easily digestible narrative. Narration is solid too. Really glad I stumbled onto this one. Highly recommend!

Entertaining, Covers a lot of Ground

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