
Ends of the Earth
Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future
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Narrated by:
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Fred Berman
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By:
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Neil Shubin
About this listen
The bestselling author of Your Inner Fish takes listeners on an epic adventure to the North and South Poles to reveal the secrets locked in the ice about life, the cosmos, and our planet’s future.
“Urgent [and] prescient…The book captures Shubin’s reverence for both the beauty and the mysteries hidden in the cold, barren tundra.”—The New Yorker
Renowned scientist Neil Shubin has made extraordinary discoveries by leading scientific expeditions to the sweeping ice landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic. He’s survived polar storms, traveled in temperatures that can freeze flesh in seconds, and worked hundreds of miles from the nearest humans, all to deepen our understanding of our world.
Written with infectious enthusiasm and irresistible curiosity, Ends of the Earth blends travel writing, science, and history in a book brimming with surprising and wonderful discoveries. Shubin retraces his steps on a “dinosaur dance floor,” showing us where these beasts had populated the once tropical lands at the poles. He takes listeners meteor hunting, as meteorites preserved in the ice can be older than our planet and can tell us about our galaxy’s formation. Listeners also encounter insects and fish that develop their own anti-freeze, and aquatic life in ancient lakes hidden miles under the ice that haven’t seen the surface in centuries. It turns out that explorers and scientists have found these extreme environments as prime ground for making scientific breakthroughs across a vast range of knowledge.
Shubin shares unforgettable moments from centuries of expeditions to reveal just how far scientists will go to understand polar regions. In the end, what happens at the poles does not stay in the poles—the ends of the earth offer profound stories that will forever change our view of life and the entire planet.
©2025 Neil Shubin (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"In this comprehensive yet concise history of modern polar exploration, Shubin, a professor of evolutionary biology, mixes urgent scientific findings about glaciers and sea-level rise with prescient geopolitical histories of Arctic territorial disputes. Throughout, Shubin relates stories from his own field expeditions: a pilot lands a propeller plane in an icy valley; a crew member stumbles on kaleidoscopic hues of blue while spelunking in Antarctic crevasses; Shubin’s team discovers a field of dinosaur footprints that had been miraculously preserved under layers of ice. Such descriptions enliven the book, and capture Shubin’s reverence for both the beauty and the mysteries hidden in the cold, barren tundra."—The New Yorker
"Paleontologist Neil Shubin's Ends of the Earth offers readers a comprehensive overview of the geology, oceanography, glaciology, geopolitics, and climatology of the planet's polar regions: Antarctica and the Arctic. Shubin writes clearly and understandably about various complex topics, incorporating stories about his own fieldwork experiences in these places and arguing that polar science offers a "lens to see the natural world and the extraordinary ways we have come to know it.""—Science
"Written with infectious enthusiasm and irresistible curiosity, Ends of the Earth blends travel writing, science, and history in a book brimming with surprising and wonderful discoveries."—Daily Kos
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Story
Measles, once seemingly defeated, is resurgent around the globe. Why, at a time when biomedical science is so advanced, do parents turn away from vaccination, endangering their own children and the health of the wider population? Using a combination of patient narrative, historical analysis, and scientific research, Dr. Adam Ratner, pediatrician and infectious disease specialist, argues that the reawakening of measles and the subsequent coronavirus pandemic are bellwethers of forgotten knowledge—indicators of decaying trust in science and an underfunded public health infrastructure.
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A must listen
- By Frank Chervenak MD on 04-29-25
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Hope Dies Last
- Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future
- By: Alan Weisman
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Alan Weisman
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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A remedy to climate anxiety by one of the most important voices on humanity’s relationship with the Earth, Hope Dies Last fills a crucial gap in the global conversation: Having reached a point of no return in our climate confrontation, how do we feel, behave, act, plan, and dream as we approach a future decidedly different from what we had expected?
By: Alan Weisman
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American Oasis
- Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest
- By: Kyle Paoletta
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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An expansive and revelatory historical exploration of the multicultural, water-seeking, land-destroying settlers of the most arid corner of North America, arguing that in order to know where the United States is going in the era of mass migration and climate crisis we must understand where the Southwest has already been.
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Historical context for SW sprawl
- By Jesse P on 02-07-25
By: Kyle Paoletta
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Doctors by Nature
- How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves
- By: Jaap de Roode
- Narrated by: Anand Jagatia
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature's pharmacy to heal themselves. Doctors by Nature reveals what researchers are now learning about the medical wonders of the animal world. In this visionary book, Jaap de Roode argues that we have underestimated the healing potential of nature for too long and shows how the study of self-medicating animals could impact the practice of human medicine.
By: Jaap de Roode
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Paris Undercover
- A Wartime Story of Courage, Friendship, and Betrayal
- By: Matthew Goodman
- Narrated by: Kristi Burns
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Etta Shiber and Kate Bonnefous are the unlikeliest of heroines: two seemingly ordinary women, an American widow and an English divorcée, living quietly together in Paris. Yet during the Nazi occupation, these two friends find themselves unexpectedly plunged into the whirlwind of history. With the help of a French country priest and others, they set out to rescue British and French soldiers trapped behind enemy lines—some of whom they daringly smuggle through Nazi checkpoints hidden inside the trunk of their car.
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Great history marred by terrible reader
- By gail on 03-01-25
By: Matthew Goodman
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The Last Dynasty
- Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra
- By: Toby Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexander the Great and Cleopatra may be two of the most famous figures from the ancient world, but the Egyptian era bookended by their lives—the Ptolemaic period (305-30 BC)—is little known. In The Last Dynasty, Toby Wilkinson unravels the incredible story of this turbulent era.
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Interesting history of an oft overlooked period
- By Tom on 05-07-25
By: Toby Wilkinson
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Beneath the Surface of Things
- New and Selected Essays
- By: Wade Davis
- Narrated by: Wade Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The essays in this collection came about during the unhurried months when one who had traveled incessantly was obliged to stay still, even as events flared on all sides in a world that never stops moving. Wade Davis brings his unique cultural perspective to such varied topics as the demonization of coca, the sacred plant of the Inca; the Great War and the birth of modernity; the British conquest of Everest; the endless conflict in the Middle East; reaching beyond climate fear and trepidation; on the meaning of the sacred.
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A deep meditation on the issues of our time from a wise elder.
- By Robin L. Billings on 02-20-25
By: Wade Davis
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Land Power
- Who Has It, Who Doesn't, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies
- By: Michael Albertus
- Narrated by: Braden Wright
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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For millennia, land has been a symbol of wealth and privilege. But the true power of land ownership is even greater than we might think. In Land Power, political scientist Michael Albertus shows that who owns the land determines whether a society will be equal or unequal, whether it will develop or decline, and whether it will safeguard or sacrifice its environment.
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Great stories of what countries are doing that we never hear about. This is led by working with the people. Excellent…..
- By Hal on 02-24-25
By: Michael Albertus
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We Hold These "Truths"
- How to Spot the Myths That Are Holding America Back
- By: Casey Burgat
- Narrated by: Deanna Anthony, Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Former congressional staffer turned George Washington University grad school professor Casey Burgat leads a diverse team of officials, academics, and experts from both sides of the aisle to expose the lies at the heart of our political dysfunction. They debunk talking points about term limits, lobbyists, money in politics, and more—offering real-world insights into how our government actually works.
By: Casey Burgat
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Counterculture
- The Story of America from Bohemia to Hip-Hop
- By: Alex Zamalin
- Narrated by: Dan Levy
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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This entertaining, intellectual history fulfills the growing appetite for marginalized narratives. Counterculture brilliantly interrogates the diversity of counterculture and the interwoven relationship between each individual legacy. From Anarchism to the Harlem Renaissance, Alex Zamalin unveils the humanity behind these romanticized figures and popularized movements to capture revolutionary freedom in action.
By: Alex Zamalin
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The Sexual Evolution
- How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships
- By: Nathan H. Lents
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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An Immense World meets Sex at Dawn in this fascinating exploration of sexual behavior throughout the animal kingdom, as evolutionary biologist Nathan H. Lents argues persuasively that many of our supposedly modern ideas about gender and human sexuality are, in fact, deeply rooted in our animal ancestors.
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The surprising science of sexual and gender diversity
- By Jacob Brenner on 05-02-25
By: Nathan H. Lents
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Doctored
- Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's
- By: Charles Piller
- Narrated by: Lyle Blaker
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly seven million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease, a tragedy that is already projected to grow into a $1 trillion crisis by 2050. While families suffer and promises of pharmaceutical breakthroughs keep coming up short, investigative journalist Charles Piller’s Doctored shows that we’ve quite likely been walking the wrong path to finding a cure all along—led astray by a cabal of self-interested researchers, government accomplices, and corporate greed.
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Extremely thorough work
- By J. Piper on 04-22-25
By: Charles Piller
Excellent scientific view of the poles
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