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  • A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
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A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons Audio CD – Unabridged, Dec 10 2013

by Robert M Sapolsky (Author), Mike Chamberlain (Contributor, Reader)
4.7 out of 5 stars 1,109 ratings
4.4 on Goodreads
8,660 ratings

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"I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla," writes Robert Sapolsky in this witty and riveting chronicle of a scientist's coming-of-age in remote Africa. An exhilarating account of Sapolsky's twenty-one-year study of a troop of rambunctious baboons in Kenya, A Primate's Memoir interweaves serious scientific observations with wry commentary about the challenges and pleasures of living in the wilds of the Serengeti--for man and beast alike. Over two decades, Sapolsky survives culinary atrocities, gunpoint encounters, and a surreal kidnapping, while witnessing the encroachment of the tourist mentality on the farthest vestiges of unspoiled Africa. As he conducts unprecedented physiological research on wild primates, he becomes evermore enamored of his subjects--unique and compelling characters in their own right--and he returns to them summer after summer, until tragedy finally prevents him. By turns hilarious and poignant, A Primate's Memoir is a magnum opus from one of our foremost science writers.
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Tantor Audio
  3. Publication date
    Dec 10 2013
  4. Dimensions
    13.46 x 19.05 cm
  5. ISBN-13
    979-8200049974
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Product description

Review

Filled with cynicism and awe, passion and humor, this memoir is both an absorbing account of a young man's growing maturity and a tribute to the continent that, despite its troubles and extremes, held him in its thrall.-- "Publishers Weekly, Starred Review"

About the Author

Robert M. Sapolsky is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya. He is the author of A Primate's Memoir and The Trouble with Testosterone, which was a Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist. A regular contributor to Discover and The Sciences, and a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, he lives in San Francisco.

Mike Chamberlain is an actor and voice-over performer in Los Angeles whose audiobook narration has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards. His voice credits range from radio commercials and television narration to animation and video game characters. Stage trained at Boston College, he has performed works from Shakespeare and the classics to contemporary drama and comedy.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08XNDNP54
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tantor Audio
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ Dec 10 2013
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Unabridged
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8200049974
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.46 x 19.05 cm
  • 鶹 Rank: #8 in Apes & Monkeys
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 1,109 ratings

About the author

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Robert M. Sapolsky

Robert M. Sapolsky

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Robert M. Sapolsky is the author of several works of nonfiction, including A Primate's Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. He is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant. He lives in San Francisco.

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4.7 out of 5 stars
1,109 global ratings

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Top reviews from Canada

  • Theo Cage
    5.0 out of 5 stars Life changing!
    Reviewed in Canada on February 24, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Robert Sapolsky is a hard-working scientist and researcher with a poet's skill for telling a story. Loved this book. And many of his ideas about evolution and human behaviour have changed my views forever. Also check out his other more recent books. Read those as well. Very enjoyable reads.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Esme Hedrick-Wong
    5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely fascinating from beginning to end.
    Reviewed in Canada on July 13, 2024
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    Sapolsky has brilliant insights with both primate and human behaviour. His writing is a pleasure. It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time.
    One person found this helpful
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  • TJ
    4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book.
    Reviewed in Canada on June 1, 2019
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    A very good read. :)
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  • Tetris
    5.0 out of 5 stars Read it!
    Reviewed in Canada on December 24, 2019
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    I loved this book! I'm a big fan of Sapolskys other books and YouTube lectures and so I felt like I should give this book a look through. First of all, it's hilarious, and the life of the baboons he spent all those years observing was incredibly interesting. But it's not just about the baboons, it's about his adventures in Africa, the road trips, the people, the really gross food he would always eat, and the horrible consequences of human interference in the life of primates specifically. This book means alot to me and I'd recommend it to anyone!
    One person found this helpful
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  • MikeFromEnderby
    5.0 out of 5 stars This book is fantastic.
    Reviewed in Canada on November 30, 2023
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    It turns out, we are all just baboons at heart.
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  • Piero Della Francesca
    5.0 out of 5 stars Wow
    Reviewed in Canada on December 7, 2023
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    Book is like new and arrived promptly
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  • bg21
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on March 15, 2016
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    The best Sapolsky's book I have read to date.
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  • 鶹 Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Baboon bon mots
    Reviewed in Canada on May 27, 2001
    Anyone who begins a book by telling us that he "had never planned to become a savanna baboon when [he] grew up" deserves a read. Such an opening promises witticisms and wisdom and A PRIMATE'S MEMOIR doesn't disappoint. The story is captivating whether Mr Sapolsky is telling us about his experiences in Kenya or about the interesting life of...his extended family? The book is only part scientific study: the effect that stress has on primate social behavior; it is also a travelogue, a little bit of cultural anthropology, a comment on globalization and economic inequality, a memoir of course, and finally, a pure joy to read.
    Although it is now widely known that stress affects health, Mr Sapolsky's work has shown that this differs among individuals. He has also exploded the myth of the supremacy of the alpha male in primate groups. Among the baboons he shows complex social arrangements where important leadership functions are carried out by senior females; and what else but a complex social order would show - as his troop did - that lower ranking males suffer higher stress levels and greater ill health? After twenty years of on and off study Mr Sapolsky has naturally grown fond of the baboons. He gives them Old Testament names not from affection, but simply because they exhibit individual personalities. The King of the troop is naturally Solomon and Nebuchanezzar is a vengeful, attacking female.
    The book is never sappy and does not romanticize the beasts and that is good - because wild animals they certainly are. A troop is an appropriate name for a group of baboons. Perhaps squad could work also because when approaching an unknown there is an element of military purposefulness and discipline about their behavior. As a 10 year old in Kenya in the sixties, I was stranded with my uncle in his car on the side of the road from Mombasa to Nairobi. While we waited baboons approached: there was the dominant male as point man - up front to get our attention; there were flankers on the sides, circling; and sure enough there were commandos coming up from the rear, behind the car. I can fully appreciate Mr Sapolsky's comment on their intelligence when he says: "you find yourself, a reasonably well-educated human with a variety of interests, spending hours each day and night obsessing on how to outmaneuver these beasts, how to think like them, how to think better than them. Usually unsuccessfully."
    The depradations of bush life, the difficulties that he occasionally got into, and the intruding, harsh reality of life in the Third World are all addressed by Mr Sapolsky is an honest and yet very humorous way. Overall, above and beyond science and the odd difficulty, A PRIMATE'S MEMOIR portrays a wonderful joi de vivre that both Mr Sapolsky and his baboons seem to have enjoyed most of the time.
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  • Neasa MacErlean
    5.0 out of 5 stars Parallels between men and baboons — a riveting read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2024
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    The big baboon in a troop keeps his position by threatening his wannabe successors, and if he has to fight with any of them that is often a sign that he is on his way out. Robert Sapolsky has been observing different troops in the Serengeti for over 30 years, and he recounts here the first baboon society he observed and became deeply attached to. The tales are completely fascinating — how Solomon, Uriah and the others rise to power and then fall; and why the lot of the females (who make friendships with other females, rather than rivalries) is in some ways better. Sapolsky, biology professor at Stanford, is an outstanding storyteller — funny, insightful, likeable and profound. Back in the lab in California, he studies stress, and that was a main reason why he went to Kenya in the first place. His comparisons between baboons and humans are riveting.
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  • orhan
    1.0 out of 5 stars Yazılar çok küçük.
    Reviewed in Turkey on April 20, 2024
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    Kitabın puntolari çok küçük. Ben rahatça okuyamadım. Eziyete dondurmenin anlamı yok. İade edeceğim.
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  • aesthetic24x7
    5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious
    Reviewed in India on March 1, 2024
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    This book was so fun to read. Robert has written a great book for everyone who loves Primates.
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  • Axby
    4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and substantial
    Reviewed in France on March 22, 2014
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    If you think that a scientist can't possibly entertain you, this book could prove you wrong. As a naive doctoral student sent to Africa to study baboons, Sapolsky discovers, not only his study subjects, but also all kinds of people, first and foremost himself, the primate in the book's title.
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  • 123abc
    5.0 out of 5 stars A thought-provoking captivating book
    Reviewed in Spain on November 2, 2020
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    A wonderful book describing periods of the life of Dr Sapolsky and of his work. It is so well written and so easy to understand and follow, that there is no need to be a scientist oneself to enjoy its reading and to learn from it. I wish I had had the opportunity to read this book when I was in my teens and I had to decide what to do for living. It is really worth your time and money particularly (but not only) if you are interested in comprehending some common aspects of human behaviour, potential causes and the consequences of it. I strongly recommend it.
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