Henry Leyva is the perfect narrator for Sam Kean’s history of brain research and its reliance on accidents, diseases, and chronic conditions to reveal what we know now. In true Kean fashion, the academic approach is enlivened by anecdotes that illustrate the complexity and resilience of the human brain. Leyva’s enthusiastic and lively performance delivers all the gravity, empathy, wonder, and humanity the book requires. It’s crazy but true, fascinating and serious—a wondrous audio experience stuffed with Civil War soldiers with phantom limbs, Siamese twins that speak in stereo, people who believe their loved ones are imposters, and poor Phineas Gage, who lived for decades after an iron tamping rod went through his head—but with a different, coarser, personality.
Pub Date: 2014
Duration: 12 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781478953715
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
The author describes her efforts to implement a meaningful sustainability initiative for Wales and the world at large. An educator and minister of the environment, sustainability, and housing in her tiny country, she's a wonderful narrator who sounds at once relaxed and passionate, likable and dignified. Her voice is a perfect vehicle for amplifying her humanitarian intentions as well as the breadth of her methodical thinking. But what makes this audio so inspiring are the personal asides she shares throughout concerning her willingness to be vulnerable and her calm resolve to do something for the world's future generations. Davidson's descriptions of the laborious process of cultural transformation would have been dry listening without her pleasing UK speaking voice.
Pub Date: 2020
Duration: 6 hrs, 45 mins
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Narrator Lisa Flanagan has a wonderful vocal personality--lithe with a broad palette of pitch patterns and a range of believable emotional tones. Her friendly voice works well with this lighthearted overview of how dramatically the Internet has changed the world in the past 30 years. Though being digitally connected has improved life in many ways, the author says we've lost many of the interpersonal experiences that used to sustain us. We have less privacy, don't need all those reference books, and have largely forgotten how to have vocal conversations with other people. The audiobook is entertaining nostalgia for anyone who feels incompetent navigating the World Wide Web, and a soothing reminder that those of us who miss the simplicity of the pre-Internet era are not alone.
Pub Date: 2021
Duration: 5 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593418055
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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