Audiobooks by Alex Hutchinson

The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map

New York Times bestselling author of Endure, Alex Hutchinson returns with a fresh, invigorating investigation into how exploration, uncertainty, and risk-taking shape our behavior and wellbeing. For fans of On Trails and Range alike, The Explorer’s Gene makes the case not just that humans are wired to seek the unknown, but that thriving in the modern world depends on pushing our mental and physical boundaries to new places. Off the beaten path, on unmarked trails, we are wired to explore. More than just a need to get outside, the search for the unknown is a specific, primal urge that has shaped the history of our species and continues to mold our behavior in ways we are just beginning to understand. In fact, the latest neuroscience suggests that exploration is an essential ingredient of human life. Exploration, it turns out, isn’t merely a hobby—it’s our story. In this long-awaited follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Endure, Alex Hutchinson dives headfirst into a fascinating and provocative new field of research, examining how exploration is a fundamental part of what makes us human and revealing how, even in our fully mapped modern world, the pursuit of the unknown remains an indispensable mindset in all walks of life. And yet, it has never been easier to live an exploration-free life, without the struggle and uncertainty that true exploration—of places, experiences, and ideas—requires. With the digital world designed to exploit the neural circuitry behind our drive to explore, we receive the illusion of novelty without accompanying growth. This despite mounting evidence that our lives are better—more productive, more satisfying, and more fun—when we ditch the maps on our phones and find our own way. From paddling the lost rivers of the northern Canadian wilderness to the ocean-spanning voyages of the Polynesians, The Explorer’s Gene combines riveting stories of exploration with cutting-edge insights from behavioral psychology and neuroscience. The end result offers a singular approach to finding meaning in our past struggles, embracing the possibility of failure in our future, and crucially, recognizing when our present is good enough.

Alex Hutchinson (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?: Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discover

In Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?, physicist and award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson tackles dozens of commonly held beliefs and looks at just what research science has-and has not-proven to be true: - Should I exercise when I'm sick? - Do I get the same workout from the elliptical machine that I get from running? - What role does my brain play in fatigue? - Will running ruin my knees? - To lose weight, is it better to eat less or exercise more? This myth-busting book covers the full spectrum of exercise science and offers the latest in research from around the globe, as well as plenty of practical tips on using proven science to improve fitness, reach weight loss goals, and achieve better competition results.

Alex Hutchinson (Author), Roger Wayne (Narrator)

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Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

Featuring a foreword by Malcolm Gladwell. 'If you want to gain insight into the mind of great athletes, adventurers, and peak performers then prepare to be enthralled byAlex Hutchinson's Endure.' Bear Grylls Writing from both the cutting edge of scientific discovery and the front-lines of elite athletic performance, National Magazine Award-winning science journalist Alex Hutchinson presents a revolutionary account of the dynamic and controversial new science of endurance. The capacity to endure is perhaps the key trait that separates champions and determines great performance in any field from a 100-meter sprint to a 100-mile ultramarathon, from summiting Everest to acing finals. But what if everything we've been taught about endurance was wrong? What if we all have more potential than we think to go farther, push harder, and achieve more? Blending cutting-edge science and gripping storytelling in the vein of Malcolm Gladwell who forewords the book Hutchinson reveals that a wave of paradigm-altering research over the past decade suggests that the seemingly physical barriers you encounter are mediated as much by your brain as by your body. But it's not all in your head. For each of the physical limits that Hutchinson explores pain, muscle, oxygen, heat, thirst, fuel he carefully disentangles the delicate interplay of mind and muscle by telling the riveting stories of men and women who've approached (and sometimes surpassed) their own ultimate limits. As the longtime Sweat Science columnist for Outside and Runner's World as well as a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and New York Times, Hutchinson draws on his background as a former national-team long-distance runner and Cambridge-trained physicist. But the lessons he draws from traveling to labs around the world and trying out new endurance-boosting techniques like electric brain stimulation and brain endurance training are surprisingly universal. Endurance, he writes, is the struggle to continue against a mounting desire to stop and we're always capable of pushing a little farther.

Alex Hutchinson (Author), Robert G. Slade (Narrator)

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Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance

'This book is AMAZING!' - MALCOLM GLADWELL 'If you want to gain insight into the mind of great athletes, adventurers, and peak performers then prepare to be enthralled by Alex Hutchinson's Endure.' - BEAR GRYLLS How high or far or fast can humans go? And what about individual potential: what defines a person's limits? From running a two-hour marathon to summiting Mount Everest, we're fascinated by the extremes of human endurance, constantly testing both our physical and psychological limits. In Endure Alex Hutchinson, Ph.D., reveals why our individual limits may be determined as much by our head and heart, as by our muscles. He presents an overview of science's search for understanding human fatigue, from crude experiments with electricity and frogs' legs to sophisticated brain imaging technology. Going beyond the traditional mechanical view of human limits, he instead argues that a key element in endurance is how the brain responds to distress signals-whether heat, or cold, or muscles screaming with lactic acid-and reveals that we can train to improve brain response. An elite distance runner himself, Hutchinson takes us to the forefront of the new sports psychology - brain electrode jolts, computer-based training, subliminal messaging - and presents startling new discoveries enhancing the performance of athletes today, showing us how anyone can utilize these tactics to bolster their own performance - and get the most out of their bodies.

Alex Hutchinson (Author), Robert G. Slade (Narrator)

Audiobook