Evolution

The Human Odyssey

By: Scientific American

Narrated by: Kate Mulligan

The complex story of human evolution is a tale seven million years in the making. Each new discovery adds to or revises our story and our understanding of how we came to be the way we are.

In this audiobook, The Human Odyssey, we explore the evolution of those characteristics that make us human. The first section looks at our family tree and why some branches survived and not others. Swings in climate are emerging as a factor in what traits succeeded and failed; meanwhile, DNA analyses show that Homo sapiens interbred with other human species, which played a key role in our survival.

Section two examines those traits that separate us from other primates. Recent data indicate that our hairless skin was important to the rise of other human features, and other research is getting closer to illuminating how humans became monogamous. In the final section we speculate on the future of human evolution in a world where advances in technology, medicine, and other areas protect us from harmful factors like disease, causing some scientists to claim that humans are no longer subject to natural selection and our evolution has ceased.

But, like us, our story will continue to evolve.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2017 by Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc. Scientific American is a registered trademark of Nature America, Inc. (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Lots of little stories all tied together

Very enjoyable… thought the ending on our future was very interesting …perfect podcast in my opinion

Interesting stuff here

Great little articles within
I loved the way things came together at the end like an old movie from the 80s

Enjoyable

I enjoyed this reading because it was fast paced and presented various authors and topics.

Great book on evolution

The reviewer that got bored and gave up should go back and listen to the last half of the book. I guess it did have a slow start, but it ended up being one of the best books on evolution out of the dozen or so I've listened to. There are many different authors, so some are going to be more interesting than others. There were so many interesting points about things all around us, such as: (without spoilers) what advantages does having curly hair give people that live in Africa? The answer makes you think about advantages for different types of hair then, for people in other areas of the world. We all started off black, so why did some people develop light-colored skin? How long does it take for skin, hair, and eyes to change color anyway? Why would something like malaria alter our genes, and why did the blood of people in different parts of the world evolve differently in reaction to malaria (this topic is more interesting than it sounds)? When did people start becoming lactose tolerant, and why? All these have good statistics in their answer. Also, if you like the study of chimpanzees and comparing them to us, you'll get plenty of that subject. Just how smart is a chimp compared to human babies? (This one makes you proud to be part of such a smart species). There's even interesting thoughts on the future of our race. I now have a better idea of the challenges we'll face when we live on Mars. Elon Musk is trying to get us there! If you have an archaeological spirit you'll appreciate this book.

Great selection of human evolution articles (2016)

This is a great selection of articles on human evolution. While they are written for the public, the science is up to date (as of 2016, since that's when this issue was published). It's rather like listening to a set of short lectures by different scientists (albeit all given in the same voice) on some of the current issues in paleoanthropology. Highly recommended for those who (like me) have exhausted most of Audible's works on paleoanthrpology and are looking for something new. If you're more of a beginner, I might suggest a few other titles first (e.g. The Rise of Humans by John Hawks). Kate Mulligan (narrator) does a nice job of reading the articles aloud and only makes a couple minor mispronunciations that aren't distracting or annoying. Her narration is easy to follow and at a good pace for following the information.

great material but

i suggest each chapter should have a different reader to better reflect the variety of authorship

Alexa, read me a book

The creepy, half-robotic narration has stripped one of the most compelling subjects in the world of all its excitement and wonder. There's great enunciation and the voice is quite pleasant, but it lacks any emotion whatsoever. It's like the aural version of the uncanny valley. It is especially creepy when the sentence is in first person, and we're expected to believe that AudibleAlexa is delivering an account of her totally-real-and-not-at-all-robotic human life. This book could be one of the most amazing books ever written but I'll never know because I can't make it through another paragraph of that eerie, soulless narration.

Tired of scientist dissing each other

Was hoping for an in-depth story with on how a newly discovered branch in our evolution was found and how it relates to the overall tree. Instead the author spends the first half of the book dissing.
Ugh

Meh...

Very boring and unengaging. I've listened to several books on the same subject, and this is the first one I've been unable to finish.

Interesting subject ruined by the narrator

Why can't these narrators do some research on proper pronunciation of scientific names before they take on these projects? It was beyond annoying to hear Australopithecus sediba pronounced wrong one minute then correctly the next. Actually, it was pronounced correctly only once. Are there no editors for these things? I finally gave up. Geeze Louise!