A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
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A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
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Narrated by:
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Adam Rutherford
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Written by:
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Adam Rutherford
About this listen
A National Geographic Best Book of the Year
In our unique genomes, every one of us carries the story of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration, and a lot of sex.
But those stories have always been locked away - until now.
Who are our ancestors? Where did they come from? Geneticists have suddenly become historians, and the hard evidence in our DNA has completely upended what we thought we knew about ourselves. Acclaimed science writer Adam Rutherford explains exactly how genomics is completely rewriting the human story - from 100,000 years ago to the present.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2016 Adam Rutherford (P)2018 TantorYou may also enjoy...
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What listeners say about A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Akhil
- 2019-07-04
A foray onto pseudoscience
Adam Rutherford here in this book has managed to bring history, genetics and overall science of existence together to form a comprehensive treatise for every reader out there irrespective of their educational backgrounds. Moreover, the rational assault brought about on pseudoscience and incorrect interpretation of facts is dealt with clinical precision . In the times of alternative facts it is refreshing to see such clean demonstration of complete reliance on scientific knowledge.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marine
- 2022-07-04
Explaining science in a fun, simple way is a gift
..... and the author has that gift. It’s brilliant and will leave you wanting more on the topic as you reach the last paragraph.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Paul Rivard
- 2018-10-12
Absolutely brilliant
A concise and easy to understand history of humanity in the genetic and historical sense!
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Schvenn
- 2024-03-25
I highly recommend it.
This is a very interesting book that provides an easily understandable explanation of how genes do and do not impact our lives; how we evolve and how we do not evolve; how we've made mistaken assumptions and how we continue to learn and apply knowledge about our natures as a result of that knowledge.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Bram Blenk
- 2022-11-12
Great book, lots of excellent information
Rutherford does an excellent job of narrating his book, and the writing is also excellent. He explains a complex subject very well and makes it very understandable. As soon as I finished this book, I went looking for more from the same author.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Aimee Bailey
- 2025-02-05
Fabulous
This was an excellent book in both the writing and narration. Concepts are clearly explained, there is brilliant humour throughout!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- JohnS
- 2019-12-08
Wonderfully written and narrated
This is science writing at its best. The language is approachable and clear for the layman like me to follow and understand. This book held my interest from the start and I enjoyed it and learned much from it. We need more Adam Rutherfords to explain and demystify science when headlines are crowded with myths, lies and superficialities that can only lead to ignorance and know nothingness. Professor Rutherford, may we have some more, please?
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Elizabeth Gibson
- 2022-04-17
A most interesting topic
This is one of many books written with the interested non-scientist in mind. I recommend it over many others because it is clear and it stays on point.
The author will fly from the most minute, a single gene say, to all of us who breathe or who ever did or ever will breathe. And we are with him. We listen and follow and are engaged in understanding what was just said, anticipating the next story, the next shining piece of information. By the end there has been no traipsing into virtue signalling, maudlin pity for extinct beings. This book removes one’s mind from its perhaps tedious quotidien concerns into a few hours of wonder.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Chelsea Patterson
- 2022-09-08
Is Tremendous
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford
Is tremendous.
Dr Rutherford is possibly my favourite science communicator, with the exception of Dr Hannah Fry (but she’s more maths). A geneticist, author, former editor of Nature, and BBC presenter of many things, the best being The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry., Dr Rutherford is very good at what he does. This is my second book of Rutherford and it shall not be my last.
We follow the basics of genetics, debunk some false claims and mistakes learnt in schools, and the dumbing down of complicated science. The family tree and how closely everyone has a common ancestor (3k years), as well as our inbreeding was fascinating. As was the exploration of mutations.
There is a very good chapter about Charles Darwin. Exploring his notes, what Darwin meant, what was edited by his daughter and what was taken over by eugenic commentators, not the actual books of C Darwin.
Being Rutherford there is a very good level of anti-racism and lessons of the horrors and stupidity of eugenics. As a good communicator Rutherford explains a lot of the complex information in personal and simple terms without the science being lost. However, parts were reminiscent of his book How To Argue with a Racist, this is mostly overlapped with pop-science beliefs of DNA and racist theories; and using his own family tree to explain the oddity of thinking race (as scientific thing) even exists. Rutherford does not deny racism, or prejudice but that a human is a human is a human.
I highly recommend this book to those that enjoy science books in general, but even more so that would like to learn more about history eugenics and how science can be used for ill. As well as combating pretty basic genetics we were taught at school. DNA is not always as simple as Mendel and their pea plants would have us believe.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Sara Hicks
- 2022-11-26
Awesome.
Very accessible information! The narration was great & the author was very likeable!
I plan to purchase more of his works 👍
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