How the Mind Changed, Joseph Jebelli
How the Mind Changed, Joseph Jebelli
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How the Mind Changed
A Human History of Our Evolving Brain

Author: Joseph Jebelli

Narrator: Joe Eyre

Unabridged: 8 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/12/2022


Synopsis

The extraordinary story of how the human brain evolved… and is still evolving. 
 
We’ve come a long way. The earliest human had a brain as small as a child’s fist; ours are four times bigger, with spectacular abilities and potential we are only just beginning to understand.
 
This is How the Mind Changed, a seven-million-year journey through our own heads, packed with vivid stories, groundbreaking science, and thrilling surprises. Discover how memory has almost nothing to do with the past; meditation rewires our synapses; magic mushroom use might be responsible for our intelligence; climate accounts for linguistic diversity; and how autism teaches us hugely positive lessons about our past and future.
 
Dr. Joseph Jebelli’s In Pursuit of Memory was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize and longlisted for the Wellcome. In this, his eagerly awaited second book, he draws on deep insights from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, psychology, and philosophy to guide us through the unexpected changes that shaped our brains. From genetic accidents and environmental forces to historical and cultural advances, he explores how our brain’s evolution turned us into Homo sapiens and beyond.
 
A single mutation is all it takes.

About Joseph Jebelli

Joseph Jebelli is a neuroscientist and a writer. He received a PhD in neuroscience from University College London for his work on the cell biology of neurodegenerative diseases, then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle. His much acclaimed first book, In Pursuit of Memory, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize and longlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize. He lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Stetson on July 04, 2022

How the Mind Changed: A Human History of Our Evolving Brain by Joseph Jebelli is billed as a pop-sci book on the evolution of the human brain. And Jebelli does initially make an effort to cover human brain evolution, but after a few chapters his focus wanes. Before even beginning to develop this com......more

Goodreads review by Emma Ann on June 28, 2022

One part neuroscience and one part paleoanthropology. The chapter on autism was especially good.......more

Goodreads review by Cav on April 02, 2025

"Our minds are changing. They have been changing for nearly 7 million years. What these changes were, how they affect us today, and where they may lead us in the future is the subject of this book..." How the Mind Changed was an interesting look into the workings of our most complex organ. As Bob Moa......more

Goodreads review by Ady on January 01, 2024

Evoluția minți este evoluția creierului, și Jebelli o expune prin optica antropologiei evoluționiste. O evoluție a creierului nici n-ar putea să fie expusă altfel. Antropologia evoluționistă este o disciplină ce cuprinde o serie de domenii în care poate fi analizată dezvoltarea omului printre care d......more

Goodreads review by Steve on April 06, 2022

I enjoyed this book. It is a fun, well-written story that was hard to put down. I found it easy to read, with its conversational tone and clearly-explained science. I also enjoyed the author’s anecdotes. Although the section wasn’t long, the discussion of consciousness is one of the best I’ve read.......more


Quotes

"How did humans develop such a runaway mind? Joseph Jebelli masterfully illuminates the neurobiological road by which we arrived, and where it might reach from here."—David Eagleman, bestselling author of Livewired and Incognito