Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Neuropolis: A Brain Science Survival Guide

  • By: Robert Newman
  • Narrated by: Robert Newman
  • Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (30 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Neuropolis: A Brain Science Survival Guide cover art

Neuropolis: A Brain Science Survival Guide

By: Robert Newman
Narrated by: Robert Newman
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.00

Buy Now for £13.00

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Rob Newman's Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution cover art
Apocalypso Now cover art
Rob Newman cover art
The Left Brain Speaks, the Right Brain Laughs cover art
Ask a Historian cover art
Nebulous: The Complete Series 1-3 cover art
50 Things About Us cover art
How Does That Make You Feel? Series 1-10 cover art
Thanks a Lot, Milton Jones! Series 5 cover art
Great Unanswered Questions: Series 1-3 cover art
Whatever Gets You Through the Night cover art
Alexei Sayle’s: The Absence of Normal, Series 1 and 2 cover art
Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar: Series 1-3 cover art
Good Thinking cover art
The Human Instinct cover art
How the Mind Works cover art

Summary

Based on Rob Newman's live stand-up show and new BBC Radio 4 comedy series, his thought-provoking and wryly amusing new book explores the scientific breakthroughs that have turned received ideas of brain science upside down.

After volunteering for a brain-imaging experiment meant to locate the part of the brain that lights up when you're in love, comedian Rob Newman emerged with more questions than answers. Can brain scans read our minds? Are we our brains? How can you map the mind?

He argues that the dehumanising claims of most current neuroscientific findings derive not from science but from a combination of philosophical blunders and a version of evolutionary biology that owes little to Darwin. He questions why brain science books are devoted to such a peculiarly pessimistic worldview when really exciting advances in neuroscience go untold, such as awe-inspiring discoveries about the origins of memory in ancient oceans.

Newman offers up fascinating examples showing that our brains are inextricably and profoundly intertwined with our bodies, the natural world and the world we have made, including hilarious accounts of his own participation in neurological experiments. Debunking common, even brainless interpretations of brain science, he celebrates the more intriguing and underreported advances in neuroscience in his signature nonconformist, charming and witty voice.

©2017 Robert Newman (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

Praise for Rob Newman:
"Dissing bad science, capitalists and Brian Cox, Newman's low-octane cabinet of neuroscientific curiosities has nonconformist bite." ( The Guardian)
"A fascinating and highly original book, the sort you pick up idly and then discover that two hours have gone by." ( The Spectator)
"Newman combines proper scientific argument with dazzling shafts of wit." ( The Times)
"Scalpel-sharp analysis...very funny." ( The Psychologist)
"Hilarious...delightfully eccentric...skilfully done." ( Nature)
"He is one amazing comedian." ( Time Out)

More from the same

Narrator

What listeners say about Neuropolis: A Brain Science Survival Guide

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    16
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    17
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

"I reckon, yeah?"

Newman demonstrates a (deliberate?) misunderstanding of evolutionary biology, neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, logic, software engineering and science itself as he cherry picks supporting evidence and applies argument ad absurd, confirmation bias and false dichotomy to, in his mind, debunk Swaab, Eagleman, Dawkins, Hawking, Pavlov and more. He doesn't offer anything more substantial than a metaphorical "I reckon it's like this". Most of his arguments appear to be ground in unrecognised ignorance, the rest in dogma.
This would be easier to stomach if he was funny. His TV and stand up performances have been brilliantly clever and frequently hilarious. This book is neither.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fascinating

funny fascinating and furiously funny. It's common sense thinking, uncommonly sensible thinking, so common it's downright rare.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

helps if you get his humour

I can imagine people coming to this being bewildered, it's funny but Newman funny. Not rolling about the floor funny but very dry, sometimes fanciful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

better to read than listen to

Unfortunately, Newman's voice sends me to sleep. The content is very entertaining but I ended up returning this and buying the paperback.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!