With a velvety British voice, Adetomiwa Edun describes ecosystems as they may have been hundreds of millions of years ago. Listeners have the chance to get up close and personal with the Terrible Moon-Rat, the Akokan knobblehead, and other prehistoric animals and plants and learn how they may have interacted with their environments. Edun glides smoothly over the many scientific names and terms, never letting them disrupt the evocative pictures paleobiologist Halliday paints of ancient swamps, oceans, and grassy plains and their denizens. The final chapter addresses the climate changes we're facing now and how knowledge of the planet's past shifts between greenhouse world and "icehouse" world inform our situation today, and our future.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
Duration: 11 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780593556078
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
Once again, Pollan makes the unknown make sense.
Pollan is a favorite with listeners, and rightly so. He may not possess a silken or practiced voice, and he’d be nobody’s first choice to narrate Proust, but few author-narrators are as engaging or as effectively bonded to their narrative. Pollan here explores one of the most fundamental of questions: What is consciousness? This leads him to other questions. Where exactly is consciousness located? What other species possess it? Pollan takes his listener on a journey through theories and research sites, each rendered with his signature economy and precision. Some sections may require relistening, but the difficulties lie in the subject matter, not the prose. That couldn’t be clearer or more illuminating.
Once again, Pollan makes the unknown make sense.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217282159
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2026
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