Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science

Human And Loving It!

What a joy Sapolsky is! This short course has it all: neurobiology, history, social commentary. And God does it have humor. The writing, the delivery, is top notch. Where else will you hear of a baboon being a tease and giving another, totally love-struck, baboon the cold "fur-covered" shoulder? This is a lesson on intermittent reinforcement, and with an image like that, the story that goes with it, seriously. The lesson will stick with me forever.
There's so much packed into so few hours, you won't even feel time flying by. Plus, perhaps you, as I, will find yourself drawing connections to your own experiences. Depression is covered, in certain ways. Did you know just forcing a smile makes a depressed person more likely to feel better? Or that meds targeting an empathy, an I-feel-the-pain-of-the-world type of depression is being developed?
True, Sapolsky does stray from science a lot, but eventually he gets back to the brain. And true, cockroaches get A LOT of air time (and tell me if you don't get squeamish in the parasite section!), but the section on metaphors? That just highlights how breathtakingly beautiful the whole book is written, how insightful and inspiring the text is.
This book is worth it.
I'm happy to be human today...

32 of 32 people found this review helpful

Good story telling without Jargon

A nicely presented lecture on the nexus between psychology and neuroscience and the author never loses the listener with obscure names of brain regions, hormone names, or body parts.

There is a theme the author presses through out the lecture and that is the conclusions are only as good as the data set the conclusions are based on.

If you ever watch a movie or TV show and they are trying to show how wise a professor of Psychology or Neuroscience is the character in the show will be relating one of the experiments that would have been covered in this lecture. (I'm thinking about the truly marvelous movie, "Boyhood" and the Psychology professor is relating a story that is covered within this lecture).

For me, most (if not all) the stories I have come across elsewhere in my readings, but this lecture series has all the stories in one place and without any jargon to confuse the listener and is given by a lecturer who really knows how to tell a story.

(I got this lecture on the "deal of the day" for $2.95 and at the price it is well worth it. I would imagine Audible will discount it from time to time and I would recommend it at that discounted price).

17 of 17 people found this review helpful

Interesting and inspiring

This book felt like being back at university sat there listening to a favorite teacher.
Being from an engineering background, I don't have much knowledge of neuroscience. The lectures were well delivered, I had no problem understanding the concepts being presented and found it incredibly interesting.

34 of 36 people found this review helpful

Enjoyable

Great teaching style with a very dry humor. very interesting subject matter. Enjoy learning about our species. Would recommend to all

23 of 25 people found this review helpful

A Collection of Oddities that Is Not for Everyone

This is a hard review to write because I completely recognize the quality of the production, the enthusiasm of the presenter and the interesting nature of the material. I do not want to downgrade the course just because it was not entirely to my personal tastes—I see where the right listener might find this course wonderful. Essentially, this is a collection of unusual, sometimes macabre and sometimes frightening, stories with a biological or psychological twist. Topics range from stories about body snatching to burial rituals to parasites to humanity's use of metaphors. There is little, if any, theme, but the professor admitted that this was intended to be a sample pack of topics so the lack of theme cannot be held against him. I found many of the topics at least mildly disturbing and was reminded somewhat of a collection of oddities from a circus sideshow. Again, this is likely more a reflection of my personal tastes than any fault of the professor. I decided to try this course even though it is outside of my usual areas of interest just to try something different. I cannot say that I disliked the course, but I can say that there are other courses much more to my liking such as history and business courses. If you are interested in scientific and medical oddities, then you may really enjoy this course.

13 of 14 people found this review helpful

Excellent

Comprehensive enough to be interesting and knowledgable but succinct enough not to bore. a++ highly recommend this intelligent course material!

25 of 28 people found this review helpful

Yes to anything of Robert Sapolsky's

Professor Robert Sapolsky is warm and engaging, and his lectures are full of insight and information that can shift how you understand yourself, others, and the world. He has made it on to my short list of people who I unquestionable trust to deliver contemporary, useful material about the brain and what we do with it.

22 of 25 people found this review helpful

Somewhat Interesting but not Quite as Advertised

What did you like best about Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science? What did you like least?

It isn't utterly horrible. There are some interesting tidbits "from the frontiers of science". However, that's all you get. The prof makes it sound like you are going to embark on a journey that will lead to a far greater understanding of what it means to be a human being. Title should read "Fun Facts from the Frontiers of Science."

52 of 61 people found this review helpful

Enjoyed the ideas, but wouldn't listen twice

What did you love best about Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science?

There were times where I felt I was hearing some interesting concepts, and looking at things from a perspective I hadn't previously explored.

Any additional comments?

Professor Sapolsky was certainly interested and well learned in his subject matter, however I felt like there was a little too basic an approach to these lectures. Between the title and length, I knew it wouldn't be comprehensive by any means, but I did expect a little more than just a few different ways to look at things.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Neuroscience for Poets

This selection is a series of college-level lectures by a well-known and well-regarded professor of neuroscience. Professor Sapolski is, as expected, an excellent lecturer.

If you have been following the rapid accumulation of knowledge in neuroscience since the arrival of functional brain imaging and other whiz-bang, you may find this lecture series a bit slow and simplified.

If you have not been following these developments, this would be as good a place as many to start. You need to know this stuff! If you are over 30 years old, the information you were given during your education and the assumptions you absorbed from the culture about your brain, your learning processes, and your emotions is dangerously out of date. The lectures are slow-paced; but then, its not easy stuff. No math and not much chemistry, but changing your mind about your mind is not for sissies.

The entire purchase price and the investment of time to listen to this series was worth it just for the wonderful lecture devoted to details of neurological parasitism. Yes, indeed, there are tiny parasites that compel their crab hosts to prepare the nesting site for the parasite's babies.These kinds of things are not at all rare and can be scary in a way science fiction and dystopian literature cannot match. I long ago overcame most of my squeamishness about biology and there is no doubt it's important knowledge; but consider this a trigger-warning.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful