Robert M Sapolsky

Brought to you by Penguin. The audiobook edition of Behave by Robert Sapolsky, read by Michael Goldstrom.The New York Times best seller Winner of the 2017 LA Times Book PrizeWhy do human beings behave as they do? We are capable of savage acts of violence but also spectacular feats of kindness: is one side of our nature destined to win out over the other?Every act of human behaviour has multiple layers of causation, spiralling back seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, even centuries, right back to the dawn of time and the origins of our species. In the epic sweep of history, how does our biology affect the arc of war and peace, justice and persecution? How have our brains evolved alongside our cultures?This is the exhilarating story of human morality and the science underpinning the biggest question of all: what makes us human?(c) Robert M Sapolsky 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2018

Brought to you by Penguin. Discover this remarkable account of twenty-one years in remote Kenya with a troop of Savannah baboons from the New York Times bestselling author of Behave.Brooklyn-born Robert Sapolsky grew up wishing he could live in the primate diorama in the Museum of Natural History. At school he wrote fan letters to primatologists and even taught himself Swahili, all with the hope of one day joining his primate brethren in Africa. But when, at the age of twenty-one, Sapolky's dream finally comes true he discovers that the African bush bears little resemblance to the tranquillity of a museum.This is the story of the next twenty-one years as Sapolsky slowly infiltrates and befriends a troop of Savannah baboons. Alone in the middle of the Serengeti with no electricity, running water or telephone, and surviving countless scams, culinary atrocities and a surreal kidnapping, Sapolsky becomes ever more enamoured with his adopted baboon troop - unique and compelling characters in their own right - and he returns to them summer after summer, until tragedy finally prevails.Exhilarating, hilarious and poignant, A Primate's Memoir is a uniquely honest window into the coming-of-age of one of our greatest scientific minds.'One of the best scientist-writers of our time' Oliver Sacks'A Primate's Memoir is the closest the baboon is likely to come - and it's plenty close enough - to having its own Iliad' New York Times Review of Books(c) Robert M Sapolsky 2001 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Brought to you by Penguin.One of the world's greatest scientists of human behaviour, the bestselling author of Behave, shows that free will does not exist - and challenges us to rethink the notions of choice, identity, responsibility, justice, morality and how we live together.'One of the best scientist-writers of our time' OLIVER SACKS'A bravura performance, well worth reading for the pleasure of Sapolsky's deeply informed company' OLIVER BURKEMAN, ObserverBehind every thought, action and experience there lies a chain of biological and environmental causes, stretching back from the moment a neuron fires to the dawn of our species and beyond. Nowhere in this infinite sequence is there a place where free will could play a role.Without free will, it makes no more sense to punish people for antisocial behaviour than it does to scold a car for breaking down. It is no one's fault they are poor or overweight or unsuccessful, nor do people deserve praise for their talent or hard work; 'grit' is a myth. This mechanistic view of human behaviour challenges our most powerful instincts, but history suggests that we have already made great strides toward it: where once we saw demonic possession or cowardice, for example, now we diagnose illness or trauma and offer help.Determined confronts us with our true nature: who and what we are is biology and nothing more. Disturbing and liberating in equal measure, it explores the far-reaching implications for society of accepting this reality. Monumentally difficult as it may be, the reward will be a far more just and humane world.'Wonderfully readable ... humorous and warm and humane' Justin Webb, Today (BBC Radio 4)(c)2023 Robert M Sapolsky (P)2023 Penguin Audio