-
Flights of Fancy
- Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $10.90
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The wonder of flight. The science of evolution. From both, Richard Dawkins weaves a fascinating account of how nature and humans have learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies.
Have you ever dreamt you could fly? Or imagined what it would be like to glide and swoop through the sky like a bird? Do you let your mind soar to unknown, magical spaces?
In Flights of Fancy, Richard Dawkins explains how nature and humans have learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies. From the mythical Icarus, to the sadly extinct but spectacular bird Argentavis magnificens, from the Wright flyer and the 747, to the Tinkerbella fairyfly and the Peregrine falcon. But it is also about flights of the mind, about escaping the everyday - through science, ideas and imagination.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
-
-
Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Books Do Furnish a Life
- An Electrifying Celebration of Science Writing
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Books Do Furnish a Life is divided by theme, including celebrating nature, exploring humanity, and interrogating faith. For the first time, it brings together Richard Dawkins's forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction. It is also a sparkling addition to Dawkins's own remarkable canon of work.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Rebekah on 11-03-23
By: Richard Dawkins
-
A Thousand Brains
- A New Theory of Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to build a model of the world - not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought.
-
-
Starts out good, ends up a train wreck
- By Warren on 03-15-21
By: Jeff Hawkins, and others
-
The Magic of Reality
- How We Know What's Really True
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, presents a gorgeously lucid, science book examining some of the nature’s most fundamental questions both from a mythical and scientific perspective. Science is our most precise and powerful tool for making sense of the world. Before we developed the scientific method, we created rich mythologies to explain the unknown. The pressing questions that primitive men and women asked are the same ones we ask as children. Who was the first person? What is the sun? Why is there night and day?
-
-
Audio version is superb for us grown-ups
- By Michael Dowd on 10-10-11
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Outgrowing God
- A Beginner's Guide
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 12 fiercely funny, mind-expanding chapters, Dawkins explains how the natural world arose without a designer - the improbability and beauty of the "bottom-up programming" that engineers an embryo or a flock of starlings - and challenges head-on some of the most basic assumptions made by the world’s religions: Do you believe in God? Which one? Is the Bible a "Good Book"? Is adhering to a religion necessary, or even likely, to make people good to one another? Outgrowing God is a concise, provocative guide to thinking for yourself.
-
-
No new ground is covered.
- By God(less) on 11-05-19
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
-
-
Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
-
-
Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Books Do Furnish a Life
- An Electrifying Celebration of Science Writing
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Books Do Furnish a Life is divided by theme, including celebrating nature, exploring humanity, and interrogating faith. For the first time, it brings together Richard Dawkins's forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction. It is also a sparkling addition to Dawkins's own remarkable canon of work.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Rebekah on 11-03-23
By: Richard Dawkins
-
A Thousand Brains
- A New Theory of Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to build a model of the world - not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought.
-
-
Starts out good, ends up a train wreck
- By Warren on 03-15-21
By: Jeff Hawkins, and others
-
The Magic of Reality
- How We Know What's Really True
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, presents a gorgeously lucid, science book examining some of the nature’s most fundamental questions both from a mythical and scientific perspective. Science is our most precise and powerful tool for making sense of the world. Before we developed the scientific method, we created rich mythologies to explain the unknown. The pressing questions that primitive men and women asked are the same ones we ask as children. Who was the first person? What is the sun? Why is there night and day?
-
-
Audio version is superb for us grown-ups
- By Michael Dowd on 10-10-11
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Outgrowing God
- A Beginner's Guide
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 12 fiercely funny, mind-expanding chapters, Dawkins explains how the natural world arose without a designer - the improbability and beauty of the "bottom-up programming" that engineers an embryo or a flock of starlings - and challenges head-on some of the most basic assumptions made by the world’s religions: Do you believe in God? Which one? Is the Bible a "Good Book"? Is adhering to a religion necessary, or even likely, to make people good to one another? Outgrowing God is a concise, provocative guide to thinking for yourself.
-
-
No new ground is covered.
- By God(less) on 11-05-19
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
-
-
Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Greatest Show on Earth
- The Evidence for Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument". Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics.
-
-
Back to His Strong Suit
- By Dalton on 09-23-09
By: Richard Dawkins
-
River out of Eden
- A Darwinian View of Life
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did the replication bomb we call "life" begin, and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as "[T]he sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius"), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.
-
-
Loved it
- By Jeff P on 09-19-20
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Selfish Gene
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.
-
-
Better than print!
- By J. D. May on 07-31-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Science in the Soul
- Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward, Gillian Somerscales
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades Richard Dawkins has been the world's most brilliant scientific communicator, consistently illuminating the wonders of nature and attacking faulty logic. Science in the Soul brings together 42 essays, polemics, and paeans - culled from personal papers, newspapers, lectures, and online salons - all written with Dawkins' characteristic erudition, remorseless wit, and unjaded awe of the natural world.
-
-
Great writing; distracting reading
- By Chris DeMuth Jr on 08-09-17
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Brief Candle in the Dark
- My Life in Science
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this hugely entertaining sequel to the New York Times best-selling memoir An Appetite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins delves deeply into his intellectual life spent kick-starting new conversations about science, culture, and religion and writing yet another of the most audacious and widely read books of the 20th century - The God Delusion.
-
-
I'm a Dawkins Groupie but...
- By Anne on 10-18-15
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The God Delusion
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.
-
-
Dangerous Religion
- By Rick Just on 12-21-06
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Four Horsemen
- The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution
- By: Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Sam Harris, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2007, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett filmed a landmark discussion about modern atheism. The video went viral. Now, the transcript of their conversation is illuminated by new essays from three of the original participants and an introduction by Stephen Fry.
-
-
Short
- By Cole Brandon Eckhardt on 03-22-19
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
-
The Meme Machine
- By: Susan Blackmore, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation. Susan Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive-making tools, for example, or using language - survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible.
-
-
memes are gut bacteria, not godlike puppet masters
- By Hans Thieme on 02-14-22
By: Susan Blackmore, and others
-
Starry Messenger
- Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science. After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched.
-
-
Optimistic
- By Anonymous on 09-23-22
-
Cosmos
- A Personal Voyage
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: LeVar Burton, Seth MacFarlane, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space.
-
-
Over-acting voice actors
- By John on 11-09-17
By: Carl Sagan
-
The Laws of Human Nature
- By: Robert Greene
- Narrated by: Paul Michael, Robert Greene
- Length: 28 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Greene is a master guide for millions of listeners, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding, and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all - understanding people's drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves. Whether at work, in relationships, or in shaping the world around you, The Laws of Human Nature offers brilliant tactics for success, self-improvement, and self-defense.
-
-
Tempo is key! (1.25X)
- By James Hawkins on 11-12-18
By: Robert Greene
-
Rationality
- What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
- By: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are an irrational species - cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions.
-
-
Steven Pinker's Frozen Worldview from the 90s
- By Ryan Booth on 11-12-21
By: Steven Pinker
Related to this topic
-
The Beak of the Finch
- A Story of Evolution in Our Time
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
-
-
Fascinating in-depth look at evolution in action
- By Philip on 05-15-11
By: Jonathan Weiner
-
Feathers
- The Evolution of a Natural Miracle
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Andy Ingalls
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: Aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers, and even art historians, Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us?
-
-
Fantastic Science and Fun
- By Chris Reich on 12-28-14
By: Thor Hanson
-
The Wonder of Birds
- What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
- By: Jim Robbins
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body.
-
-
Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
-
How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls
- Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future
- By: David Hu
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Insects walk on water, snakes slither, and fish swim. Animals move with astounding grace, speed, and versatility: how do they do it, and what can we learn from them? In How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls, David Hu takes listeners on an accessible, wondrous journey into the world of animal motion. From basement labs at MIT to the rain forests of Panama, Hu shows how animals have adapted and evolved to traverse their environments, taking advantage of physical laws with results that are startling and ingenious.
-
-
Fun, entertaining, hilarious, and informative
- By Susan T on 11-04-19
By: David Hu
-
The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
-
-
Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Galápagos
- A Natural History
- By: Henry Nicholls
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Galapagos were once known to the sailors and pirates who encountered them as Las Encantadas: the enchanted islands, home to exotic creatures and dramatic volcanic scenery. In The Galapagos, science writer Henry Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its evolution from deserted wilderness to scientific resource (made famous by Charles Darwin) and global ecotourism hot spot.
-
-
Thought-Provoking
- By Jean on 10-23-18
By: Henry Nicholls
-
The Beak of the Finch
- A Story of Evolution in Our Time
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
-
-
Fascinating in-depth look at evolution in action
- By Philip on 05-15-11
By: Jonathan Weiner
-
Feathers
- The Evolution of a Natural Miracle
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Andy Ingalls
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: Aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers, and even art historians, Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us?
-
-
Fantastic Science and Fun
- By Chris Reich on 12-28-14
By: Thor Hanson
-
The Wonder of Birds
- What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
- By: Jim Robbins
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body.
-
-
Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
-
How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls
- Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future
- By: David Hu
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Insects walk on water, snakes slither, and fish swim. Animals move with astounding grace, speed, and versatility: how do they do it, and what can we learn from them? In How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls, David Hu takes listeners on an accessible, wondrous journey into the world of animal motion. From basement labs at MIT to the rain forests of Panama, Hu shows how animals have adapted and evolved to traverse their environments, taking advantage of physical laws with results that are startling and ingenious.
-
-
Fun, entertaining, hilarious, and informative
- By Susan T on 11-04-19
By: David Hu
-
The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
-
-
Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Galápagos
- A Natural History
- By: Henry Nicholls
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Galapagos were once known to the sailors and pirates who encountered them as Las Encantadas: the enchanted islands, home to exotic creatures and dramatic volcanic scenery. In The Galapagos, science writer Henry Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its evolution from deserted wilderness to scientific resource (made famous by Charles Darwin) and global ecotourism hot spot.
-
-
Thought-Provoking
- By Jean on 10-23-18
By: Henry Nicholls
-
Superlative
- The Biology of Extremes
- By: Matthew D. LaPlante
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world's largest land mammal could help us end cancer. The fastest bird is showing us how to solve a century-old engineering mystery. The oldest tree is giving us insights into climate change. The loudest whale is offering clues about the impact of solar storms. For a long time, scientists ignored superlative life forms as outliers. Increasingly, though, researchers are coming to see great value in studying plants and animals that exist on the outermost edges of the bell curve.
-
-
Fascinating survey of amazing biology
- By Nerd's-eye view on 12-06-19
-
The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
-
-
Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- A New History of a Lost World
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
-
-
"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"
- By Daniel Powell on 09-16-18
By: Steve Brusatte
-
Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You
- A Lively Tour Through the Dark Side of the Natural World
- By: Dan Riskin
- Narrated by: Dan Riskin
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It may be a wonderful world, but as Dan Riskin explains, it's also a dangerous, disturbing, and disgusting one. At every turn, it seems, living things are trying to eat us, poison us, use our bodies as their homes, or have us spread their eggs. In Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You, Riskin is our guide through the natural world at its most gloriously ruthless. Using the seven deadly sins as a road map, Riskin offers dozens of jaw-dropping examples that illuminate how brutal nature can truly be.
-
-
Just a bunch of random animal behaviors.
- By Goddess on 05-18-23
By: Dan Riskin
-
The Most Perfect Thing
- By: Tim Birkhead
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How are eggs of different shapes made, and why are they the shapes they are? When does the shell of an egg harden? Why do some eggs contain two yolks? How are the colours and patterns of eggshells created, and why do they vary? And which end of an egg is laid first - the blunt end or the pointy end?
-
-
Great book about eggs!!
- By Timothy on 03-24-21
By: Tim Birkhead
-
A Naturalist at Large
- The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of the finest scientists and writers of our time comes an engaging record of a life spent in close observation of the natural world, one that has yielded marvelous, mind-altering insight and discoveries. In essays that span several decades, Bernd Heinrich finds himself at his beloved camp in Maine, plays host to annoying visitors from Europe (the cluster fly) and more helpful guests from Asia (ladybugs), and unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of elephants in Botswana bruising mopane trees.
-
-
Listen and See the World Anew!
- By Thoughtful Learner on 06-03-18
By: Bernd Heinrich
-
The Thing with Feathers
- The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
- By: Noah Strycker
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, and other mysteries.
-
-
Interesting book, terrible reader
- By MGM123 on 03-16-18
By: Noah Strycker
-
Animal Weapons
- The Evolution of Battle
- By: Douglas J. Emlen
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As singular and strange as some of the weapons are, we learn that similar factors set their evolution in motion. He looks at everything from our armor and camouflage to the evolution of the rifle and the structures human populations have built across different regions and eras to protect their homes and communities.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Susan on 07-17-15
By: Douglas J. Emlen
-
The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
-
-
Humour and understandability.
- By Chris B on 09-08-24
By: Adam Rutherford, and others
-
Gods, Wasps and Stranglers
- The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
- By: Mike Shanahan
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers, rain forest royalty, more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity in profound but little-known ways. Gods, Wasps and Stranglers tells their amazing story. Fig trees fed our prehuman ancestors, influenced diverse cultures, and played key roles in the dawn of civilization.
-
-
Incredible research in a wonderful story
- By Alonsa Guevara on 11-24-22
By: Mike Shanahan
-
Parasite Rex
- Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures
- By: Carl Zimmer
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For centuries, parasites have lived in nightmares, horror stories, and the darkest shadows of science. In Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer takes listeners on a fantastic voyage into the secret universe of these extraordinary life forms that are not only among the most highly evolved on Earth, but make up the majority of life's diversity. Traveling from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the parasite-riddled war zone of southern Sudan, Zimmer introduces an array of amazing creatures that invade their hosts, prey on them from within, and control their behavior.
-
-
Fascinating and Horrible
- By David A on 10-09-18
By: Carl Zimmer
-
How to Build a Dinosaur
- Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever
- By: Jack Horner, James Gorman
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In movies, in novels, in comic strips, and on television, we've all seen dinosaurs - or at least somebody's educated guess of what they would look like. But what if it were possible to build, or grow, a real dinosaur without finding ancient DNA? Jack Horner, the scientist who advised Steven Spielberg on the blockbuster film Jurassic Park and a pioneer in bringing paleontology into the 21st century, teams up with the editor of the New York Times's Science Times section to reveal exactly what's in store.
-
-
Good book but misplaced title
- By Robert on 06-19-15
By: Jack Horner, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
River out of Eden
- A Darwinian View of Life
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did the replication bomb we call "life" begin, and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as "[T]he sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius"), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.
-
-
Loved it
- By Jeff P on 09-19-20
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
-
-
Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Books Do Furnish a Life
- An Electrifying Celebration of Science Writing
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Books Do Furnish a Life is divided by theme, including celebrating nature, exploring humanity, and interrogating faith. For the first time, it brings together Richard Dawkins's forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction. It is also a sparkling addition to Dawkins's own remarkable canon of work.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Rebekah on 11-03-23
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The God Delusion
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.
-
-
Dangerous Religion
- By Rick Just on 12-21-06
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Meme Machine
- By: Susan Blackmore, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation. Susan Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive-making tools, for example, or using language - survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible.
-
-
memes are gut bacteria, not godlike puppet masters
- By Hans Thieme on 02-14-22
By: Susan Blackmore, and others
-
The Magic of Reality
- How We Know What's Really True
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, presents a gorgeously lucid, science book examining some of the nature’s most fundamental questions both from a mythical and scientific perspective. Science is our most precise and powerful tool for making sense of the world. Before we developed the scientific method, we created rich mythologies to explain the unknown. The pressing questions that primitive men and women asked are the same ones we ask as children. Who was the first person? What is the sun? Why is there night and day?
-
-
Audio version is superb for us grown-ups
- By Michael Dowd on 10-10-11
By: Richard Dawkins
-
River out of Eden
- A Darwinian View of Life
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did the replication bomb we call "life" begin, and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as "[T]he sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius"), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.
-
-
Loved it
- By Jeff P on 09-19-20
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
-
-
Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Books Do Furnish a Life
- An Electrifying Celebration of Science Writing
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Books Do Furnish a Life is divided by theme, including celebrating nature, exploring humanity, and interrogating faith. For the first time, it brings together Richard Dawkins's forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction. It is also a sparkling addition to Dawkins's own remarkable canon of work.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Rebekah on 11-03-23
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The God Delusion
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.
-
-
Dangerous Religion
- By Rick Just on 12-21-06
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Meme Machine
- By: Susan Blackmore, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation. Susan Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive-making tools, for example, or using language - survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible.
-
-
memes are gut bacteria, not godlike puppet masters
- By Hans Thieme on 02-14-22
By: Susan Blackmore, and others
-
The Magic of Reality
- How We Know What's Really True
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, presents a gorgeously lucid, science book examining some of the nature’s most fundamental questions both from a mythical and scientific perspective. Science is our most precise and powerful tool for making sense of the world. Before we developed the scientific method, we created rich mythologies to explain the unknown. The pressing questions that primitive men and women asked are the same ones we ask as children. Who was the first person? What is the sun? Why is there night and day?
-
-
Audio version is superb for us grown-ups
- By Michael Dowd on 10-10-11
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Greatest Show on Earth
- The Evidence for Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument". Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics.
-
-
Back to His Strong Suit
- By Dalton on 09-23-09
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
-
-
Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Outgrowing God
- A Beginner's Guide
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 12 fiercely funny, mind-expanding chapters, Dawkins explains how the natural world arose without a designer - the improbability and beauty of the "bottom-up programming" that engineers an embryo or a flock of starlings - and challenges head-on some of the most basic assumptions made by the world’s religions: Do you believe in God? Which one? Is the Bible a "Good Book"? Is adhering to a religion necessary, or even likely, to make people good to one another? Outgrowing God is a concise, provocative guide to thinking for yourself.
-
-
No new ground is covered.
- By God(less) on 11-05-19
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Brief Candle in the Dark
- My Life in Science
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this hugely entertaining sequel to the New York Times best-selling memoir An Appetite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins delves deeply into his intellectual life spent kick-starting new conversations about science, culture, and religion and writing yet another of the most audacious and widely read books of the 20th century - The God Delusion.
-
-
I'm a Dawkins Groupie but...
- By Anne on 10-18-15
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Science in the Soul
- Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward, Gillian Somerscales
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades Richard Dawkins has been the world's most brilliant scientific communicator, consistently illuminating the wonders of nature and attacking faulty logic. Science in the Soul brings together 42 essays, polemics, and paeans - culled from personal papers, newspapers, lectures, and online salons - all written with Dawkins' characteristic erudition, remorseless wit, and unjaded awe of the natural world.
-
-
Great writing; distracting reading
- By Chris DeMuth Jr on 08-09-17
By: Richard Dawkins
-
From Bacteria to Bach and Back
- The Evolution of Minds
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is human consciousness, and how is it possible? This question fascinates thinking people from poets and painters to physicists, psychologists, and philosophers. From Bacteria to Bach and Back is Daniel C. Dennett's brilliant answer, extending perspectives from his earlier work in surprising directions, exploring the deep interactions of evolution, brains, and human culture.
-
-
The only other review was so bad that I wrote this
- By Adam on 02-13-17
-
The Selfish Gene
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.
-
-
Better than print!
- By J. D. May on 07-31-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Four Horsemen
- The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution
- By: Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Sam Harris, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2007, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett filmed a landmark discussion about modern atheism. The video went viral. Now, the transcript of their conversation is illuminated by new essays from three of the original participants and an introduction by Stephen Fry.
-
-
Short
- By Cole Brandon Eckhardt on 03-22-19
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
-
Grand Transitions
- How the Modern World Was Made
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization - in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics - that have transformed the way we live.
-
-
Nihil novum sub soli
- By Sam J. on 08-29-22
By: Vaclav Smil
-
The Meaning of Human Existence
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called “the rainbow colors” around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Edward O. Wilson bridges science and philosophy to create a 21st century treatise on human existence. Once criticized for his over-reliance on genetics, Wilson unfurls here his most expansive and advanced theories on human behavior, recognizing that, even though the human and spider evolved similarly, the poet’s sonnet is wholly different than the spider’s web.
-
-
Pleasant Humble Simple Rationalism
- By Michael on 03-14-15
By: Edward O. Wilson
-
Godless
- How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists
- By: Dan Barker, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Dan Barker
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part 1 of Godless, "Rejecting God", tells the story of how I moved from devout preacher to atheist and beyond. Part 2, "Why I Am an Atheist", presents my philosophical reasons for unbelief. Part 3, "What's Wrong with Christianity", critiques the bible (its reliability as well as its morality) and the historical evidence for Jesus. Part 4, "Life Is Good!", comes back to my personal story, taking a case to the United States Supreme Court, dealing with personal trauma, and experiencing the excitement of Adventures in Atheism.
-
-
good writing, irritating narration
- By Amazon Customer on 03-23-16
By: Dan Barker, and others
-
Origins, Revised and Updated
- Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
- By: Donald Goldsmith, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our true origins are not only human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on recent scientific breakthroughs and cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, Origins illuminates the soul-stirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. This newly revised and updated edition features such startling discoveries as the more than 5,000 newly detected exoplanets that shed light on the origins of and possibilities for life in the cosmos.
-
-
There is nothing here
- By Hermanubis on 12-30-22
By: Donald Goldsmith, and others
What listeners say about Flights of Fancy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- William Tran
- 10-01-23
Another fantastic book by Richard Dawkins.
If you are already a Dawkins fan, you know how well he writes. If you haven’t been introduced to his work, this is as good a book many of his other masterpieces. He will walk you through, step-by-step, comparing human designed flights and the various forms of evolutionary developments of biological flights on our planet. Buy it. Listen to it. Enjoy it. And share the knowledge.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rebekah Hull
- 02-04-22
What a wonderful book
I'm well above the target age group, but was looking for something to listen to at work. This is exactly the type of book I would have LOVED to own as a young person. It explores the questions of how flight works, what it's for, and how it originates, giving just enough information on each topic to spark fascination without getting bogged down. Analogies and examples simplify complex topics and make them easy to understand. Dawkins is an exuberant narrator whose love of nature and science is clear and infectious. this is a great book and I will probably end up sending it as a gift to a few people.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Seth
- 03-20-23
Sparks interest and curiosity
Dawkins yet again, never fails to educate his topics so articulately to his readers. I also recommend reading along with the physical book to enjoy the amazing artwork along the way.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jan Valencia
- 12-17-21
5 Stars For a reason
I thought I was pretty well informed about flying but every few minute of listening I learned something new, we’ll written, well read by the author, I listened to it in one sitting and I’m starting over to absorb even more.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sam
- 09-15-22
Could Have Been Better
Seemed like most are from 'The Ancestors' Tale'. But a good combination of basic Physics of flight and evolution. But could have been better if it contained little more advanced topics and contents.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- aaron
- 12-19-21
Thank God for Richard Dawkins!
Dawkins excels at popular science books, and this is quite possibly his best effort to date. He explains very complex systems in ways that even an idiot like me can understand. He is truly a gift from God.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sage Man
- 09-14-22
Now my favorite Dawkins book
Richard Dawkins writes and speaks eloquently comparable to Carl Sagan. He’s able to convey complicated ideas in a way palpable to the average listener.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chad
- 03-19-24
It's alright.
It's ok.
It's a collection of fun facts related to biology, evolution, human history and the science of flight. I'm not 100% sold on "flight" being a suitably cohesive theme to make all this work together as a logical whole.
It's not bad, but wouldn't be the first Richard Dawkins book I recommend to people.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeff Koeppen
- 11-11-22
Fascinating History of Animal Flight
Flights of Fancy would be an excellent introduction to Dawkins to a first time reader. It's an excellent, succinct, and to-the-point book about the history of flight (and gliding) in the animal kingdom, including the relatively short history of human flight.
While relatively short by Dawkins' standards, less than five hours in audio divided in to short chapters, the book is packed with a ton of great biological information and interesting observations, all read to you by the world's preeminent evolutionary biologist. As always his prose is smooth and satisfying, and he manages to sprinkle some humor in here and there for good measure. When it comes right down to it, it's really amazing that animals can fly so efficiently considering the amount of energy required and physical traits needed to overcome the Earth's gravity.
After looking at the previews of the Kindle and print additions I regret not buying the physical version of the book. The illustrations are fantastic and numerous. I'll have to spend a lunch hour at Barnes and Noble with it to take them all in.
Richard is 81 now and I hope he has some more books in him. I've seen him speak in person twice, in Rochester MN and Dallas. My wife and I flew to Dallas in 2018 and bought the meet and greet passes for his appearance with the great Carolyn Porco. It was a thrill for me to chat with him and get a picture of the two of us. He is one of humanity's brightest minds.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jan D. Leslie
- 02-14-22
Dawkins at his best
Always love his insights, intellectual integrity, and no nonsense approach to telling the truth. All with almost childlike wonder
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!