Despite its off-putting title, this audiobook is worth listening to. Golden Voice Kevin R. Free delivers the urgent tone, informative style, and crisp pacing of this eye-opening work. Free gets Grunwald's sometimes snarky tone--for example, when the author shares his tasting notes on fake meat and other engineered foods. Free also embraces the factual reporting. The text is at once a jeremiad about ignoring the role land use plays in the climate crisis and an exploration of the many experiments that have taken place in food science, farming, and growing crops in alternative spaces. The author owes much to Princeton researcher--and often contrarian--Tim Searchinger, who was among the first to debunk biofuels, biomass, and regenerative ag (organic, too) as answers to global warming.
Pub Date: July 1, 2025
Duration: 14 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781797195407
Publisher: Simon & Schuster 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 prose and Athavale’s expertly restrained performance meld gracefully in this flawless audiobook.
Narrator Vidish Athavale's voice is softly indelible, like the snow that blankets the Himalayan landscape the author so beautifully describes. An Indian wildlife biologist, Suryawanshi has spent decades studying snow leopards and their ecosystem among the planet's highest mountain peaks. What differentiates the author's scientific work, and his enthralling narrative, is his goal to understand and protect rather than conquer. The author also achieves a near-perfect balance between insightful and entertaining personal observations of remote communities (both animal and human); his own growth as a scientist, husband, and father; and the difficult and dangerous scientific work he and his colleagues have undertaken.
The prose and Athavale’s expertly restrained performance meld gracefully in this flawless audiobook.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs, 9 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217336845
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2026
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