
The Light Eaters
How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth
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
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $7.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Zoë Schlanger
-
By:
-
Zoë Schlanger
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An Audible Best Nonfiction Listen of 2024
TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 • A Best Book of the Year: Barnes & Noble and Publishers Weekly • An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
“A masterpiece of science writing.” –Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass
“Mesmerizing, world-expanding, and achingly beautiful.” –Ed Yong, author of An Immense World
“Rich, vital, and full of surprises. Read it!” –Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction
“A brilliant must-read. This book shook and changed me.” –David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken, The Songs of Trees, and The Forest Unseen
Award-winning Atlantic staff writer Zoë Schlanger delivers a groundbreaking work of popular science that probes the hidden world of the plant kingdom, “destabilizing not just how we see the green things of the world but also our place in the hierarchy of beings, and maybe the notion of that hierarchy itself.” (The New Yorker)
It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit, to name just a few remarkable talents.
The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.
What can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive, adapt, consume, and accommodate simultaneously? More important, what do we owe these life forms once we come to understand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how they influence our understanding of what a plant is.
We need plants to survive. But what do they need us for—if at all? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants—and our own place—in the natural world.
©2024 Zoë Schlanger (P)2024 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Entangled Life
- How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
- By: Merlin Sheldrake
- Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
-
-
Mycology for Everyone
- By Cephalopods Revenge on 05-12-20
By: Merlin Sheldrake
-
The Nature of Oaks
- The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. The Nature of Oaks will inspire you to treasure these trees and to act to nurture and protect them.
-
-
Inspirational
- By Kaysi12 on 07-22-22
-
The Sacred Balance (25th Anniversary Edition)
- Rediscovering Our Place in Nature
- By: David Suzuki, Robin Wall Kimmerer - foreword, Bill McKibben - afterword
- Narrated by: David Suzuki, Megan Tooley, Zack Sage
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world is changing at a relentless pace. How can we slow down and act from a place of respect for all living things? The Sacred Balance shows us how.
-
-
It’s Now or Never
- By Anonymous User on 08-30-24
By: David Suzuki, and others
-
The Serviceberry
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity.
-
-
Engaging and optimistic
- By Steve on 12-18-24
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
Is a River Alive?
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Robert Macfarlane
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes listeners on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada.
-
-
Love of language / Love of nature / Moral clarity
- By Michael McNulty on 05-21-25
-
Entangled Life
- How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
- By: Merlin Sheldrake
- Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
-
-
Mycology for Everyone
- By Cephalopods Revenge on 05-12-20
By: Merlin Sheldrake
-
The Nature of Oaks
- The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. The Nature of Oaks will inspire you to treasure these trees and to act to nurture and protect them.
-
-
Inspirational
- By Kaysi12 on 07-22-22
-
The Sacred Balance (25th Anniversary Edition)
- Rediscovering Our Place in Nature
- By: David Suzuki, Robin Wall Kimmerer - foreword, Bill McKibben - afterword
- Narrated by: David Suzuki, Megan Tooley, Zack Sage
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world is changing at a relentless pace. How can we slow down and act from a place of respect for all living things? The Sacred Balance shows us how.
-
-
It’s Now or Never
- By Anonymous User on 08-30-24
By: David Suzuki, and others
-
The Serviceberry
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity.
-
-
Engaging and optimistic
- By Steve on 12-18-24
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
Is a River Alive?
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Robert Macfarlane
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes listeners on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada.
-
-
Love of language / Love of nature / Moral clarity
- By Michael McNulty on 05-21-25
-
The Hidden Language of Cats
- How They Have Us at Meow
- By: Sarah Brown PhD
- Narrated by: Helen Keeley
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A renowned cat behavior scientist of over thirty years, Dr. Sarah Brown has been at the forefront of research in the field, discovering how cats use tail signals to interact with each other and their owners. Now, she reveals the previously unexplored secrets of cat communication in a book that is both scientifically grounded and utterly delightful.
-
-
get it
- By Jinks on 03-05-24
By: Sarah Brown PhD
-
Braiding Sweetgrass
- Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.
-
-
Finally, Words
- By Donovan P Malley on 06-30-19
-
Finding the Mother Tree
- Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
- By: Suzanne Simard
- Narrated by: Suzanne Simard
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Suzanne Simard is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. In this, her first book, now available in audio, Simard brings us into her world, the intimate world of the trees, in which she brilliantly illuminates the fascinating and vital truths—that trees are not simply the source of timber or pulp, but are a complicated, interdependent circle of life.
-
-
Couldn't finish, will try the hard copy
- By primrose on 07-22-21
By: Suzanne Simard
-
The Incredible Journey of Plants
- By: Stefano Mancuso, Gregory Conti - translator
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this accessible, absorbing overview, Mancuso considers how plants convince animals to transport them around the world, and how some plants need particular animals to spread; how they have been able to grow in places so inaccessible and inhospitable as to remain isolated; how they resisted the atomic bomb and the Chernobyl disaster; how they are able to bring life to sterile islands; how they can travel through the ages, as they sail around the world.
-
-
An incredible volume, incomparable & Astounding
- By Elan Sun Star on 07-03-20
By: Stefano Mancuso, and others
-
We Are Electric
- Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds
- By: Sally Adee
- Narrated by: Sally Adee
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Science journalist Sally Adee breaks open the field of bioelectricity—the electric currents that run through our bodies and every living thing—its misunderstood history, and why new discoveries will lead to new ways around antibiotic resistance, cleared arteries, and new ways to combat cancer.
-
-
Some of the best science writing I’ve experienced.
- By Jeffrey J. Santman on 03-11-23
By: Sally Adee
-
Secrets of the Octopus
- By: Sy Montgomery, Warren K. Carlyle IV - contributor, Alex Schnell - foreword
- Narrated by: Sy Montgomery
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Remarkable new discoveries affirm the octopus as one of nature’s most intelligent and complex animals. This new book brings us closer than ever to these elusive creatures. The companion to the highly anticipated National Geographic television special, this book explores the alluring underwater world of the octopus—a creature that resembles an alien lifeform, but whose behavior has earned it a reputation as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet.
-
-
Loved the narrative format
- By Kiana on 03-11-25
By: Sy Montgomery, and others
-
Rooted
- Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit
- By: Lyanda Lynn Haupt
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: Life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth? Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways.
-
-
Managed to get halfway through.
- By IcarusGen2 on 06-09-22
-
Sing Like Fish
- How Sound Rules Life Under Water
- By: Amorina Kingdon
- Narrated by: Angelina Rocca
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For centuries, humans ignored sound in the “silent world” of the ocean, assuming that what we couldn’t perceive, didn’t exist. But we couldn’t have been more wrong. Marine scientists now have the technology to record and study the complex interplay of the myriad sounds in the sea. Finally, we can trace how sounds travel with the currents, bounce from the seafloor and surface, bend with the temperature and even saltiness; how sounds help marine life survive; and how human noise can transform entire marine ecosystems.
-
-
Good solid science mixed with storytelling.
- By Hawaiian 54 on 10-04-24
By: Amorina Kingdon
-
Close to Home
- The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Stacy Carolan
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We all live on nature’s doorstep, but we often overlook it. From backyards to local parks, the natural places we see the most may well be the ones we know the least. In Close to Home, biologist Thor Hanson shows how retraining our eyes reveals hidden wonders just waiting to be discovered. Close to Home is a hands-on natural history for any local patch of Earth. It shows that we each can contribute to science and improve the health of our planet. And even more, it proves that the wonders of nature don’t lie in some far-off land: they await us, close to home.
By: Thor Hanson
-
The Language Puzzle
- Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved
- By: Steven Mithen
- Narrated by: Kerry Hutchinson
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Language Puzzle, renowned archaeologist Steven Mithen puts forward a groundbreaking new account of the origins of language. Scientists have gained new insights into the first humans of 2.8 million years ago, and how numerous species flourished but only one, Homo sapiens, survives today. Drawing from this work and synthesizing research across archaeology, psychology, linguistics, genetics, and more, Mithen details a step-by-step explanation of how our human ancestors transitioned from apelike calls to words, and from words to language as we use it today.
By: Steven Mithen
-
Integral Transformation
- What Works
- By: Ken Wilber
- Narrated by: Ken Wilber
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hosted by Sounds True publisher and founder Tami Simon, these three sessions cover the arc of understanding just what personal transformation means, applying the life practices needed to catalyze change, and embracing the grand implications of a universe in which self and Kosmos are one. Join Ken Wilber for an illuminating odyssey into yourself - a fantastic journey toward fulfilling your highest potential.
-
-
He finally answered the question!
- By Matthew Kreinheder on 06-25-18
By: Ken Wilber
-
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask
- Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings
- By: Mary Siisip Geniusz, Wendy Makoons Geniusz - editor
- Narrated by: Wendy Makoons Geniusz
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Siisip Geniusz has spent more than thirty years working with, living with, and using the Anishinaabe teachings, recipes, and botanical information, she shares in Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask. Geniusz gained much of the knowledge she writes about from her years as an oshkaabewis, a traditionally trained apprentice, and as friend to the late Keewaydinoquay, an Anishinaabe medicine woman from the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan and a scholar, teacher, and practitioner in the field of native ethnobotany.
-
-
Use of plants
- By Anita on 11-10-24
By: Mary Siisip Geniusz, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Sacred Balance (25th Anniversary Edition)
- Rediscovering Our Place in Nature
- By: David Suzuki, Robin Wall Kimmerer - foreword, Bill McKibben - afterword
- Narrated by: David Suzuki, Megan Tooley, Zack Sage
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world is changing at a relentless pace. How can we slow down and act from a place of respect for all living things? The Sacred Balance shows us how.
-
-
It’s Now or Never
- By Anonymous User on 08-30-24
By: David Suzuki, and others
-
Entangled Life
- How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
- By: Merlin Sheldrake
- Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
-
-
Mycology for Everyone
- By Cephalopods Revenge on 05-12-20
By: Merlin Sheldrake
-
The Serviceberry
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity.
-
-
Engaging and optimistic
- By Steve on 12-18-24
-
The Secret Life of Plants
- A Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man
- By: Peter Tompkins, Christopher Bird
- Narrated by: D. Michael Hope
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Explore the inner world of plants and its fascinating relation to mankind, as uncovered by the latest discoveries of science. A perennial best seller! In this truly revolutionary and beloved work, drawn from remarkable research, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird cast light on the rich psychic universe of plants. Now available in a new edition, The Secret Life of Plants explores plants' response to human care and nurturing, their ability to communicate with man, plants' surprising reaction to music, their lie-detection abilities, their creative powers, and much more.
-
-
Skeptics beware. Lots of psychobabble.
- By Aardvarkmikey on 03-08-21
By: Peter Tompkins, and others
-
The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings
- By: James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw
- Narrated by: James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover indigenous wisdom for a life well lived in "The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings." Based on ancient teachings from the Anishinaabe / Ojibwe people, this spiritual translation of the sacred laws guides us toward Mino-bimaadiziwin, "the good life" – a life of harmony, free from contradiction or conflict.
-
-
The culture and wisdom
- By Anonymous User on 06-01-25
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
The Sacred Balance (25th Anniversary Edition)
- Rediscovering Our Place in Nature
- By: David Suzuki, Robin Wall Kimmerer - foreword, Bill McKibben - afterword
- Narrated by: David Suzuki, Megan Tooley, Zack Sage
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world is changing at a relentless pace. How can we slow down and act from a place of respect for all living things? The Sacred Balance shows us how.
-
-
It’s Now or Never
- By Anonymous User on 08-30-24
By: David Suzuki, and others
-
Entangled Life
- How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
- By: Merlin Sheldrake
- Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
-
-
Mycology for Everyone
- By Cephalopods Revenge on 05-12-20
By: Merlin Sheldrake
-
The Serviceberry
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity.
-
-
Engaging and optimistic
- By Steve on 12-18-24
-
The Secret Life of Plants
- A Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man
- By: Peter Tompkins, Christopher Bird
- Narrated by: D. Michael Hope
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Explore the inner world of plants and its fascinating relation to mankind, as uncovered by the latest discoveries of science. A perennial best seller! In this truly revolutionary and beloved work, drawn from remarkable research, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird cast light on the rich psychic universe of plants. Now available in a new edition, The Secret Life of Plants explores plants' response to human care and nurturing, their ability to communicate with man, plants' surprising reaction to music, their lie-detection abilities, their creative powers, and much more.
-
-
Skeptics beware. Lots of psychobabble.
- By Aardvarkmikey on 03-08-21
By: Peter Tompkins, and others
-
The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings
- By: James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw
- Narrated by: James Vukelich Kaagegaabaw
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover indigenous wisdom for a life well lived in "The Seven Generations and the Seven Grandfather Teachings." Based on ancient teachings from the Anishinaabe / Ojibwe people, this spiritual translation of the sacred laws guides us toward Mino-bimaadiziwin, "the good life" – a life of harmony, free from contradiction or conflict.
-
-
The culture and wisdom
- By Anonymous User on 06-01-25
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
The Heartbeat of Trees
- Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Heartbeat of Trees, renowned forester Peter Wohlleben draws on new scientific discoveries to show how humans are deeply connected to the natural world. In an era of climate change, many of us fear we’ve lost our connection to nature - but Peter Wohlleben is convinced that age-old ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact. We just have to know where to look.
-
-
More the Heartbeat of the author
- By Woodworker on 11-17-21
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
When the Earth Was Green
- Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
- By: Riley Black
- Narrated by: Wren Mack
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Riley Black brings us back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Each chapter stars plants and animals alike, underscoring how the interactions between species have helped shape the world we call home. As the chapters move upwards in time, Black guides listeners along the burgeoning trunk of the Tree of Life, stopping to appreciate branches of an evolutionary story that links the world we know with one we can only just perceive now through the silent stone, from ancient roots to the present.
-
-
No argument
- By Anonymous User on 05-20-25
By: Riley Black
-
An Immense World
- How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Ed Yong
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.
-
-
If you’ve never read about the wonder of animal sensory capabilities this is for you
- By MediaBaron on 06-27-22
By: Ed Yong
-
The Power of Trees
- How Ancient Forests Can Save Us if We Let Them
- By: Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his beloved book The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben revealed astonishing discoveries about the social networks of trees and how they communicate. Now, in The Power of Trees, he turns to their future, with a searing critique of forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests. At the heart of The Power of Trees lies Wohlleben’s passionate plea: that our survival is dependent on trusting ancient forests, and allowing them to thrive.
-
-
Critical Urgency
- By Ya'at'eeh on 01-07-24
By: Peter Wohlleben, and others
-
The Nature of Oaks
- The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. The Nature of Oaks will inspire you to treasure these trees and to act to nurture and protect them.
-
-
Inspirational
- By Kaysi12 on 07-22-22
-
Forest Walking
- Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America
- By: Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst
- Narrated by: Sean Sonier
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When you walk in the woods, do you use all five senses to explore your surroundings? For most of us, the answer is no—but when we do, a walk in the woods can go from pleasant to immersive and restorative. Forest Walking teaches you how to engage with the forest by decoding nature’s signs and awakening to the ancient past and thrilling present of the ecosystem around you.
-
-
More than meets the eye
- By movinon on 01-30-23
By: Peter Wohlleben, and others
-
Is a River Alive?
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Robert Macfarlane
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes listeners on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada.
-
-
Love of language / Love of nature / Moral clarity
- By Michael McNulty on 05-21-25
-
Braiding Sweetgrass
- Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.
-
-
Finally, Words
- By Donovan P Malley on 06-30-19
-
Future Tense
- Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad)
- By: Tracy Dennis-Tiwary
- Narrated by: Eleanor Caudill
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We taught people that anxiety is dangerous and damaging, and that the solution to its pain is to eradicate it like we do any disease—prevent it, avoid it, and stamp it out at all costs. Yet cutting-edge therapies, hundreds of self-help books, and a panoply of medications have failed to keep debilitating anxiety at bay. A third of us will struggle with anxiety disorders in our lifetime and rates in children and adults continue to skyrocket.
-
-
Useful approach, but terrible reader
- By Anonymous User on 07-26-22
-
The Revolutionary Genius of Plants
- A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior
- By: Stefano Mancuso
- Narrated by: Gibson Frazier
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do plants have intelligence? Do they have memory? Are they better problem solvers than people? The Revolutionary Genius of Plants - a fascinating, paradigm-shifting work that upends everything you thought you knew about plants - makes a compelling scientific case that these and other astonishing ideas are all true.
-
-
Inaccurate book description
- By windelbo on 02-18-19
By: Stefano Mancuso
-
Planta Sapiens
- The New Science of Plant Intelligence
- By: Paco Calvo, Natalie Lawrence - contributor
- Narrated by: Christopher P. Brown
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Decades of research document plants' impressive abilities: they communicate with one another, manipulate other species, and move in sophisticated ways. Lesser known, however, is the new evidence that plants may actually be sentient. Although plants may not have brains, their microscopic commerce exposes a system not unlike the neuronal networks running through our own bodies. Paco Calvo offers an entirely new perspective on plant biology. In Planta Sapiens, he shows for the first time how we can use tools developed in animal cognition studies in a quest to deeply understand plant intelligence.
-
-
Eye Opener
- By Niki on 01-08-24
By: Paco Calvo, and others
-
The Idea of the Brain
- The Past and Future of Neuroscience
- By: Matthew Cobb
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An "elegant", "engrossing" (Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal) examination of what we think we know about the brain and why - despite technological advances - the workings of our most essential organ remain a mystery.
-
-
Informative and interesting but mispronunciation
- By Stephanie Romer on 05-16-22
By: Matthew Cobb
Glorious
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Science is awesome
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I Watch Alot Of Docos And DID KNOW All This!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Best Book I've Read In Years
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Perfection
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good stuff
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A symphony
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Second, half or more of the scientific breakthroughs mentioned were known to me or at least rumored in the past, but to hear the progress that’s been made and how intelligent (yes, intelligent) plants can be is astounding. The story reads well and I appreciate its factual nature. It’s worthy of 5 stars all-around on a general scale, but for audible and my scale of works, I have to give it a 4. But trust me, this is a very enjoyable book.
Another wonderful book to add to my collection
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The caring authenticity of the author
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Staggering, beautiful, engrossing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.