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Survival of the Sickest
- A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
- Narrated by: Eric Conger
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Survival of the Sickest reveals the answers to these and many other questions as it unravels the amazing connections between evolution, disease, and human health today.
Joining the ranks of modern myth busters, Dr. Sharon Moalem turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth, from plants and animals to insects and bacteria.
Survival of the Sickest is filled with fascinating insights and cutting-edge research, presented in a way that is both accessible and utterly absorbing. This is a book about the interconnectedness of all life on earth and, especially, what that means for us. Listen to it. You're already living it.
Critic Reviews
"A lively and enthusiastic treatise." (Kirkus Reviews)
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What listeners say about Survival of the Sickest
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- M. Kettell
- 02-02-08
An Eye Opener
Ah, evolution at its finest. If you don't like the theory of evolution, this book isn't for you. The author goes out on a limb on most of his theories, but then again, he isn't writing a scientific paper. He finds interesting connections that make the reader consider exactly what it means to be a human being. Eight percent of our genetic code comes from viruses, we all have epigenes that are influenced by our environment, did the 14th century plague affect our genetic heritage, what is the relationship between diabetes and climate change--these are only a few of the interesting things you will find in this book. This is such a good listen, and has so many interesting concepts, I think I will have to buy a hard copy of the book.
12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Kenneth
- 03-25-08
Amazing!
This book is not a rehashing of stale info. It takes an amazingly incitful view of some fundamental issues. The narration is great and the presentation is understandable even to laymen. I highly recommend it.
11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Dalton
- 05-17-07
Human evolution
I’m an undergraduate biophysics student, so I already have a wide base of information about genetics. And I still found this book enjoyable. It did two things for me:
1) It helped define what is meant by “fittest” in evolution. Corner a geneticist and ask him to define fittest and you’ll get a lot of hand ringing and not much else. Here are some really good examples of what survives and why.
2) Gives clear evidence of human evolution. Talking about human evolution really brings it all home. Understand the pressures that changed different human populations in a really fascinating part of our history.
All of this is done in a way that is entertaining and personal.
19 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Roy
- 12-14-09
Very Informative
Sharon Moalem has done each reader a great service with the book Survival of the Sickest. Each chapter is a self-contained discussion of an aspect of human health and vulnerability. Of particular interest to me were the discussion of how prenatal diet effects the unborn; males and females and how DNA from viruses comingle with out own. This is a wonderful book written to for a general audience. It is well writtten, well read, and well worth the listener's time.
8 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- colleen
- 05-27-12
5 stars
This book kept me interested from the first to the last. I'm in the medical field so it is where my interest lies but I think anyone would enjoy this one.
7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Stacy R
- 07-12-09
Very interesting and enlightening
Definitely worth reading, although there was one part where he got long-winded. However, it explained (potentially) several things about human evolution and how those things were impacting us today, that were very interesting and enlightening.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Jessie M.
- 03-14-07
Quite interesting
Having little previous exposure to genetics, I found this book to be a fascinating overview of many of the latest breakthroughs in the field. Many of his theories were also quite thought-provoking. I have recommended it to several people.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- RVT3
- 04-04-07
Fascinating and worth the listen.
Every month I try to listen to one fiction and one non-fiction book, from which I can learn something new. This book was fascinating and I found myself backing up to re-listen to a few parts, just to make sure I got it. Is it a long listen? Sure, a few points are repeated. But, overall the concepts and theories are very interesting and fresh (at least to me). My only complaint is the odd and unexpected pieces of music that are played during seemingly random times throughout the reading - the first time it happened, I thought a phone was ringing. I recommend this book, if you have a curiosity about science and are open to novel ideas.
5 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Anandha Krishnan
- 09-23-15
Exciting and entertaining to the finish
Relevant and complex medical content presented in a very interesting manner to a novice reader with a nicely present conclusion. Gripping to the end like a mystery fiction.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Kevin J Sullivan
- 05-30-15
Engaging Journey into Human Evolution and Science
This book offers an interesting journey into the science of human evolution and disease. It was engaging and easy to follow. Very thought provoking! I enjoyed the narrator's reading of the book!
1 person found this helpful
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Great book, terrible narrator
- By A. Uhrich on 07-20-18
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Follow Your Gut
- The Enormous Impact of Tiny Microbes
- By: Rob Knight
- Narrated by: Rob Knight
- Length: 2 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Allergies, asthma, obesity, stomachaches, acne: These are just a few of the conditions that may be caused - and cured - by the microscopic life inside us. Understand how to use groundbreaking science to improve your health, mood, and more.
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Great cutting edge information
- By Jeff on 04-29-15
By: Rob Knight
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Evolving Ourselves
- How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth
- By: Juan Enriquez, Steve Gullans
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Why are conditions like autism, asthma, obesity, and allergies exploding at unprecedented rates? Why are we living longer, getting smarter, having far fewer kids? If Darwin were alive today, how would he explain this new world?
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fascinating ideas and science
- By Joel on 07-04-15
By: Juan Enriquez, and others
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The Human Superorganism
- How the Microbiome Is Revolutionizing the Pursuit of a Healthy Life
- By: Rodney Dietert PhD
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The Human Superorganism makes a sweeping, paradigm-shifting argument. It demolishes two fundamental beliefs that have blinkered all medical thinking until very recently: 1) humans are better off as pure organisms free of foreign microbes; and 2) the human genome is the key to future medical advances. The microorganisms that we have sought to eliminate have been there for centuries, supporting our ancestors.
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Super Fascinating!
- By Leha Carpenter on 05-01-17
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I Contain Multitudes
- The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Charlie Anson
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Joining the ranks of popular science classics like The Botany of Desire and The Selfish Gene, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin - a "microbe's-eye view" of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on Earth.
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Fantastic Mix of Information & Description
- By Versh on 09-02-16
By: Ed Yong
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Cracking the Aging Code
- The New Science of Growing Old - and What It Means for Staying Young
- By: Josh Mitteldorf, Dorion Sagan
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In Cracking the Aging Code, theoretical biologist Josh Mitteldorf and award-winning writer and ecological philosopher Dorion Sagan reveal that evolution and aging are even more complex and breathtaking than we originally thought. Using meticulous multidisciplinary science as well as reviewing the history of our understanding about evolution, this book makes the case that aging is not something that "just happens", nor is it the result of wear and tear or a genetic inevitability.
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Not what I expected.
- By Doug Fischer on 03-05-17
By: Josh Mitteldorf, and others
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Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness
- By: Thomas Cowan MD
- Narrated by: Madison Niederhauser
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past 50 years, rates of autoimmunity and chronic disease have exploded. In this provocative book, Dr. Thomas Cowan argues for a direct causal relationship to a corresponding increase in the number of vaccines American children typically receive. The goal of these vaccines is precisely what we’re now seeing in such abundance among our chronically ill children: the provocation of immune response. Cowan looks at emerging evidence that certain childhood illnesses are actually protective of disease later in life.
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Hear both sides
- By SJ on 01-24-20
By: Thomas Cowan MD
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Welcome to the Microbiome
- Getting to Know the Trillions of Bacteria and Other Microbes In, On, and Around You
- By: Rob DeSalle, Susan L. Perkins
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Suddenly, research findings require a paradigm shift in our view of the microbial world. The Human Microbiome Project at the National Institutes of Health is well under way, and unprecedented scientific technology now allows the censusing of trillions of microbes inside and on our bodies as well as in the places where we live, work, and play. This intriguing, up-to-the-minute book for scientists and nonscientists alike explains what researchers are discovering about the microbe world and what the implications are for modern science and medicine.
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I learned so much from this book. I am happy.
- By Jonathan Miller on 09-08-18
By: Rob DeSalle, and others
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The Cancer Chronicles
- Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery
- By: George Johnson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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When the woman he loved was diagnosed with a metastatic cancer, science writer George Johnson embarked on a journey to learn everything he could about the disease and the people who dedicate their lives to understanding and combating it. What he discovered is a revolution under way - an explosion of new ideas about what cancer really is and where it comes from. In a provocative and intellectually vibrant exploration, he takes us on an adventure through the history and recent advances of cancer research that will challenge everything you thought you knew about the disease.
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A quick read - hard to put down
- By Digital Dilema on 09-06-13
By: George Johnson
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The Better Half
- On the Genetic Superiority of Women
- By: Dr. Sharon Moalem MD PhD
- Narrated by: Dr. Sharon Moalem MD PhD
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Here are some facts: Women live longer than men. They have stronger immune systems. They're better at fighting cancer and surviving famine, and even see the world in a wider variety of colors. They are simply stronger than men at every stage of life. Why is this? And why are we taught the opposite? To find out, Dr. Sharon Moalem drew on his own medical experiences - treating premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit; recruiting the elderly for neurogenetic studies; and more - and tried to understand why in every instance men were consistently less likely to thrive.
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Paradigm Shifting Material
- By Jake Rosser on 10-18-20