Narrated by Tom Parks, The Molecule of More by Daniel Z. Lieberman MD has a runtime of 8 hrs 13 mins on Audible.
Publisher’s Summary
Why are we obsessed with the things we want and bored when we get them?
Why is addiction “perfectly logical” to an addict?
Why does love change so quickly from passion to disinterest?
Why are some people diehard liberals and others hardcore conservatives?
Why are we always hopeful for solutions even in the darkest times – and so good at figuring them out?
The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas – and progress itself.
Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more – more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it’s why we gamble and squander.
From dopamine’s point of view, it’s not the having that matters. It’s getting something – anything – that’s new. From this understanding – the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it – we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion – and we can even predict those behaviors in ourselves and others.
In The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—And will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, George Washington University professor and psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, and Georgetown University lecturer Michael E. Long present a potentially life-changing proposal: Much of human life has an unconsidered component that explains an array of behaviors previously thought to be unrelated, including why winners cheat, why geniuses often suffer with mental illness, why nearly all diets fail, and why the brains of liberals and conservatives really are different.
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 8 hrs 13 mins
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio
- Release year: 2018
- Audible category: Health & Wellness / Psychology & Mental Health / Psychology
Listener Ratings
The Molecule of More holds an average listener rating of 4.6/5 from 3033 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.7/5
- Story: 4.5/5
- 5-star ratings: 70% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
5/5 stars — “Interesting Perspective”
Interesting perspective on our bio-mechanisms, but (of necessity limiting itself to molecules – hormones and genetic predeterminism) limits its view to what drives lower animals (those under experiment) and unenlightened humans (which are all of them, currently, and sadly). It does not cover enlightened humans (who live by the Philosophy of Broader Survival), and who, knowing of such mechanisms, can sidestep them.— wbiro, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Great, in depth journey “
Took the superficial understanding I had from headlines and opened my eyes to the “why” things are the way they are.— qhcouple, Audible listener
4/5 stars — “If you like neuroscience this is the book for you “
If you have a particular interest in dopamine, or enjoy seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge, you would probably love this book. But as a clinician, I just kept thinking, “SO WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT” and it drove me a little crazy the entire time I was listening.— yatzee, Audible listener
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