Epidemiologist Rivers offers a compelling reminder of how important it is to study epidemics and other threats to public health. Though government funding is minimal and rises and falls with politics, the work of public health scientists, practitioners, and policymakers has repeatedly saved millions of people from diseases and other threats to health. The author's conversational writing is served well by narrator Jaime Lamchick's comfortable connection with this material. Her flawless interpretations and appealing tone are easy to hear, modulating just enough to signal a change in the intensity of the subject matter. She never lets her outsized dramatic skills upstage the content. For anyone doubting the importance of funding the WHO and the CDC, this is an essential audiobook, narrated with conviction.
Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
Duration: 7 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593916544
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Dr. Plotkin is an ethnobotanist who recounts his experiences searching for new medications in the Amazon rain forest. He makes an impassioned plea for the world to stop destroying this irreplaceable resource. Since the author reads his own work, we can rely on the pronunciation of some unusual botanical terms; however, his voice (presumably not trained for performance) lacks the enthusiasm and fascination the words suggest. Furthermore, with no chapter references and few pauses between sections, transitions, such as the change of location from Ecuador to Massachusetts, are awkward.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
The more we know about the universe, the less certain it all seems.
In just under seven hours, this engaging and instructive audiobook answers, as best as anyone can, all the questions listeners might have about particles and dark matter and the fate of the universe. Beginning with the Babylonians, Genevieve Swallow offers a well-paced narration of this history of scientific advances through the centuries. Much of this is familiar, but the narrative excels in scope and clarity, and Swallow’s performance brings ease and precision. From subatomic paradoxes to the first probes into space, Swallow is a steadying presence for a heady tour of the awesome and the strange, the inconceivable and the barely imaginable.
The more we know about the universe, the less certain it all seems.Pub Date: May 5, 2026
Duration: 7 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780063476486
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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