The Secret of Our Success cover art

The Secret of Our Success

How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter

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The Secret of Our Success

By: Joseph Henrich
Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
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About this listen

Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the wild, often failing to overcome even basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters, or avoiding predators. On the other hand, human groups have produced ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex institutions that have permitted us to successfully expand into a vast range of diverse environments.

What has enabled us to dominate the globe, more than any other species, while remaining virtually helpless as lone individuals? This book shows that the secret of our success lies not in our innate intelligence, but in our collective brains - on the ability of human groups to socially interconnect and learn from one another over generations.

Drawing insights from lost European explorers, clever chimpanzees, mobile hunter-gatherers, neuroscientific findings, ancient bones, and the human genome, Joseph Henrich demonstrates how our collective brains have propelled our species' genetic evolution and shaped our biology.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2015 Princeton University Press (P)2018 Tantor Anthropology Biological Sciences Biology Evolution Evolution & Genetics Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Social Psychology & Interactions Social Sciences Sociology Genetics Human Brain Success Humans

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All stars
Most relevant  
So many great insights in this book! I will be listening again in the hope I can retain more of it!

Second listen needed

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Interested in how and why we are the way we are? Then read this. I shall be reading it again ASAP. It’s that important.

A Must Read!

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fascinating and well-argued. well worth reading for insights into our evolutionary history and the vital role that culture has played

fascinating and well-argued

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The subject is interesting and seems well explained, but 17h of it were just too much for me a as a casual reader of the subject. At some point, I got the impression of being listening to the same idea over and over, with small differences in nuances and demonstrations. I didn't finish it.

I would have liked to come across a shorter version of the same content, perhaps max 6-7h

Too much detail for a casual reader of the subject

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Incredibly interesting, I'd definitely recommend if you're interested in the topic. I wouldn't recommend if you're looking for something a bit more casual; although interesting, I feel like the content could have been more concise and condensed, and would have still been effective below 12 hours. Narrator was great, do ignore any of the complains made here.

Great! Perhaps a tad long

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Loved it, good stories and robust scientific basis - but I'd expect that from someone who is one of the top experts in this topic. Great narrator too!

Amazing book on how humans have evolved

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The book certainly deserves to be a best seller and I'm very happy to have it in audiobook format. I just wish they had a bit less affected narrator...

Paradigm-shifting book, despite far-too-American..

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Why do publishers inflict this in audio? Especially on an audience like the UK, why not Jonathan Kebble, Simon Vance, Peter Noble, Derek Perkins, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Irons, Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson or any actor able to emote and speak in a clear variable intonation about a clearly interesting topic? For many books it's the same bottom line thought that it's cheaper to have one narrator so UK can just be shelled out the American one! But it makes it like getting through mud to me. The author speaking would be better even because normal people vary their voice which would be more interesting than Mr Roboto here and on other American 'academic' books such as How The Mind Works. Even in fiction, too, such as the Nabakov narrator for his stories is unbearable.

I'd prefer Paris Hilton narrating

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