The Gene Audiobook By Siddhartha Mukherjee cover art

The Gene

An Intimate History

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The Gene

By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
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2017 Audie Award Finalist for Non-Fiction

The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller
The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle).

“Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself.” —Ken Burns

“Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.

“Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome.

“A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY). Evolution & Genetics Social Sciences Biological Sciences Nonfiction Thought-Provoking History & Commentary Science Genetics Mental Health Medicine Genetic disease Biography Technology Medicine & Health Care Industry Physical Illness & Disease Anthropology Inspiring World Civilization
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Featured Article: The Best Science Listens to Channel Your Inner Einstein


While you might listen in order to be entertained, there are also a host of works intended to be purely educational. We chose the best science titles on this list for the fact that they are both. These selections not only bring important perspectives on some of the most pressing scientific issues of our time—they’re also written and performed with a refreshing clarity that makes them easy to swallow and entertaining to the end.

Featured Article The Best Science Listens to Channel Your Inner Einstein
Comprehensive History • Accessible Science • Perfect Narration • Personal Storytelling • Thought-provoking Content

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Siddhartha Mukherjee draws a Delphic map outlining the boundaries of genetic science and Homo sapiens’ future. Predictions for Homo sapiens’ future are “Delphic” in the sense of being obscure. Ancient predictions of the Oracle of Delphi are noted to have been obscure and subject to interpretation. The predictive quality of a Delphic map of genes involves the morality and ethics of manipulating heritable characteristics of humankind.

Picture this: an average life span of 150 or more years, cure for all known diseases of mind and body, elimination of known genetic causes for debilitating mental and physical deformities. Now, picture this: loss of the ability to procreate, accidental creation of a new disease because of an unintended consequence of a manipulated gene, extinction of the human race caused by artificial enhancement of the genetic code.

Mukherjee notes that the science of genetics is rapidly reaching the point of modifying, and potentially creating, human life that has no known physical or mental handicaps. Mukherjee’s Delphic map is intimately drawn in vignettes about his family’s life, and particularly, a brother’s loss of life from mental dysfunction; i.e. a brother that takes his own life as a result of schizophrenia. Though family vignettes, and stories of children with inherited medical maladies, Mukherjee poignantly clarifies the seriousness of the subject.

“The Gene” is an important book. Its importance lies in the dangers inherent in sciences’ ability to tamper with a natural selection process discovered by Charles Darwin in the 19th century. Modern humans have evolved over 200,000 years through a process of adaptive genetic changes defined by Richard Dawkins as immortal genes. The caution one must recognize is that when humans make decisions for other humans, the consequence is inevitably different from what is expected.

Humans may become extinct because of our environmental mistakes wrought by natural selection and nurture. However, one is equally wary of becoming extinct because of what society decides about gene modification by humans; for humans.

A DELPHIC MAP

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After watching him on Charlie Rose wanted to read this book, but afraid I might not understand. Asked my son, who wrote papers and involved with this kind of research, because of my education and English. He was right when he told me " yes, read it, you will". So glad I did, I will be coming back to read again and again. Just imagine future, illness might progressively vanish and birth defects, psychological illness all in the past. This study isn't for creating perfect humans, but ending of useless suffering. This book also looks into author's family history. Also very important to remember, we all had one mother.

Perfect book to learn about Geno and Gene therapy.

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What made the experience of listening to The Gene the most enjoyable?

Once again Dr. Mukherjee has proven an excellent story weaver. His ability to weave complex scientific information into a relatable story in a way that suitably and effectively communicates to his wide range audience: non-scientific and scientific. As with his earlier work, I opened his book with fabric squares of information and upon closing the book I found myself holding an intricately and beautifully woven quilt with information I previously did not have, random pieces of information linked together, and new questions/ideas.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dr. Mukherjee weaves personal narrative with case studies and scientific information that makes it very much relatable. The writer is my

What does Dennis Boutsikaris bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His reading intonation and ability to distinguish various voices without sound "obnoxious" to my internal reading voice. Mr. Boutsikaris' voice give me the sense that I am reading the book myself; his reading voice sounds like my internal reading voice. =)

Any additional comments?

If you enjoy reading about scientific topics this is a must "read"

Brilliant Storyweaver!

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This is a wonderful book that I've recommended to friends. The author is very knowledgable and knows how to put all that into a good story. He incorporates genetic history along family stories into the latest genetic research. I was sorry when it finished and may go back an listen again.

Best Science Book 2016

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Great overview and in depth review of the gene. well written and up to date.

fascinating and wonderfully written

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