Eve cover art

Eve

How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Eve

By: Cat Bohannon
Narrated by: Cat Bohannon
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Why do women live longer than men? Why do women have menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer's? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? And does the female brain really exist?

In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it's an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon's findings, including everything from the way C-sections in the industrialized world are rearranging women's pelvic shape to the surprising similarities between pus and breast milk, will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens have become such a successful and dominant species, from tool use to city building to the development of language.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Cat Bohannon (P)2023 Penguin Audio Biological Sciences Biology Evolution Evolution & Genetics Science Women's Voices

Critic Reviews

A smart, funny, scientific deep-dive into the power of a woman's body, Eve surprises, educates, and emboldens. Who runs the world? Girls! (Bonnie Garmus, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY)
Such a rare book: scholarly, funny, accessible and very important. A truly original history of humans that explains so much of who we are today (Chris van Tulleken, author of ULTRA-PROCESSED PEOPLE)
Utterly fascinating. This book should revolutionise our understanding of human life. It is set to become a classic (George Monbiot, author of REGENESIS)
All stars
Most relevant  
An eye opening revelation into the female body. Every woman should read this. It makes you proud to be female. Every sentence and chapter was loaded with incredible useful scientific information made easy to understand and digest. The language was non judgmental yet incredibly profound. This book should be taught in every high school!

A must read for every woman and man- a book that should be taught in every high school.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Author's manner was engaging, humorous at times and entertaining with a foundation of clear and courageous analysis

Quality of author's research and the way she created an easy to understand story in each chapter

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A brilliant read. Fascinating, captivating, shocking, humorous, philosophical, evidence based and beautifully written and narrated. I read the book, then listened to the audiobook, and I will listen again. So much to learn, so much to reflect on, so much to hope for. I highly recommend!

All of the Eve’s are worthy of our awe!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a man, Having read & listened to so many books on Our Evolution it was fantastic to hear this fresh perspective, freed from all the old outdated inaccurate male perspectives, evolution revealed the the most logical nuanced female gaze. So insightful
A must for everyone to understand what’s made us ourselves

Fresh revealing perspective

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thoroughly interesting and such a refreshing look at how we probably came to be who we are.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book clearly isnt meant for a crusty white male who knows a bit about evolution. I have lots of issues with this book, but will constrain myself to providing a comentary on the publishers claims.
1. "Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades". Such arrogance to declare that someone, anyone, knows what questions should be addressed. This air of certainty pervades the book and should immediately raise suspicion.
2. "Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it's an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long". The book is not a sweeping revision of anything, it is a repackaging of information that is relatively well known. The section that makes the claim that evolutionary biology has focused on the male body for too long is a spurious account of gender bias in scientific disciplines where there are incentives to utilise male subjects. Evolutionary biologists dont have the luxury of selecting the sex of their subjects, they just study what they dig up.
3. "Bohannon's findings...will completely change what you think you know about evolution." That kind of depends on where you start, perhaps if you believe the Earth is flat and Genesis is accurate. I am not at all confident that your new understanding will be a robust understanding of evolution as the book has chosen to start with a number of modern day female characteristics and describe some of their evolutionary changes and their potential causes or consequences.
The major issue is that there are three reasons we behave in particular ways: nature, culture and nurture. This complex interaction seems to be an inconvience to the author who attributes observations to evolution without testing ideas against the competing hypotheses. Evolution is NOT driven by the female body. Evolution is driven by variations among individuals who leave differing numbers of offspring to carry on the species. The signficance of these variations can only be assessed within the context of the environmental conditions that the individual needs to deal with. On many occasions, the author observes that we are social. It is therefore important that the social context within which variations are tested and the broader environment are considered. Too often, the book treats the topic in isolation or ignorance of the context, reducing the explanation to a just so story.
I am sure there are readers who will enjoy this book and may find it informative. Perhaps it is people who believe humans are special and that telling stories and love are two of the things that set us apart. For my part I will continue to be the self interested, fitness maximising curmudgeon that I have evolved into.

Curmudgeon's perspective

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.