Audiobooks by Steven Pinker

Think with Pinker: How to be a better critical thinker

Steven Pinker's 12-part guide to thinking better 'A paean to human potential' The Telegraph Cognitive scientist Professor Steven Pinker has spent his life thinking about thinking, and now he wants us to join him. With the aid of his critical thinking toolkit, he hopes to help us make smarter choices, become more rational, gain a greater understanding of the confused world we live in - and maybe even become better citizens. In this fascinating series, produced in partnership with the Open University, he examines the different ways the human brain can be tripped up, from understanding probability to the difference between correlation and causation. Joined by an array of other prominent thinkers, he explores such diverse subjects as whether formulas can predict how well an athlete will perform, why it's dangerous to see patterns in the randomness of everyday experience and why so many of us believe in conspiracy theories. He also considers the life and death choices made by judges and juries, ponders whether some thoughts are too evil to think, asks why making future predictions can be hard, and wonders: should we eat, drink and be merry, or make sacrifices now to benefit our future selves? And what can the game 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' teach us about preventing a climate catastrophe? In addition, he and his fellow experts discuss how we can stop the news distorting our understanding of the world - and why getting it right might mean admitting you're wrong... Among his special guests are Tim Harford, presenter of BBC Radio 4's More or Less; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Siddartha Mukherjee; Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Professor Hannah Fry, co-presenter of Radio 4's popular science show The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry; Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics; and one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th Century, Elizabeth Loftus. Production credits Presented by Steven Pinker Produced by Imogen Walford and Joe Kent Edited by Emma Rippon Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University Episode 1: Think twice Featuring: Sig Mejdal and Professor Ellen Peters Episode 2: Methinks it is a weasel Featuring: Charlie Munger and Tim Harford Episode 3: In touch with reality Featuring: Jonathan Rauch and Ellen Cushing Episode 4: Don't expect a zebra Featuring: Talithia Williams and Siddartha Mukherjee Episode 5: You can't think that! Featuring: Philip Tetlock and Sally Satel Episode 6: Future you Featuring: Dr Maria Kournikova and Bina Venkataraman Episode 7: The climate game Featuring: Bill Gates and Professor Hannah Fry Episode 8: Rational soothsaying Featuring: Barbara Mellers and Thomas Friedman Episode 9: Nudges and noise Featuring: Daniel Kahneman and Robyn Scott Episode 10: Sentence first, verdict afterwards Featuring: Judge Nancy Gertner and Elizabeth Loftus Episode 11: Headlines and trendlines Featuring: James Harding and Anna Rosling Rutland Episode 12: Being right Featuring: Julia Galef and Daniel Willingham First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 18 November 2021 - 3 February 2022 © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P) BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Steven Pinker (Author), Bill Gates, Daniel Kahneman, Elizabeth Loftus, Hannah Fry, Siddartha Mukherjee, Steven Pinker, Tim Harford, Various (Narrator)

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Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

Brought to you by Penguin. Can reading a book make you more rational? Can it help you understand why there is so much irrationality in the world? These are the goals of Rationality, Steven Pinker's follow-up to Enlightenment Now. In the twenty-first century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for Covid-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, quack cures and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are an irrational species - cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives and set the benchmarks for rationality itself. Instead, he explains that we think in ways that are sensible in the low-tech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we have built up over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and decision-making. These tools are not a standard part of our educational curricula, and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book - until now. Rationality also explores its opposite: how the rational pursuit of self-interest, sectarian solidarity and uplifting mythology by individuals can add up to crippling irrationality in a society. Collective rationality depends on norms that are explicitly designed to promote objectivity and truth. Rationality matters. It leads to better choices in our lives and in the public sphere, and is the ultimate driver of social justice and moral progress. Brimming with insight and humour, Rationality will enlighten, inspire and empower. © Steven Pinker 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Brought to you by Penguin. What is the secret of good prose? Does writing well even matter in an age of instant communication? Should we care? In this funny, thoughtful book about the modern art of writing, Steven Pinker shows us why we all need a sense of style. More than ever before, the currency of our social and cultural lives is the written word, from Twitter and texting to blogs, e-readers and old-fashioned books. But most style guides fail to prepare people for the challenges of writing in the 21st century, portraying it as a minefield of grievous errors rather than a form of pleasurable mastery. They fail to deal with an inescapable fact about language: it changes over time, adapted by millions of writers and speakers to their needs. Confusing changes in the world with moral decline, every generation believes the kids today are degrading society and taking language with it. A guide for the new millennium, writes Steven Pinker, has to be different. Drawing on the latest research in linguistics and cognitive science, Steven Pinker replaces the recycled dogma of previous style guides with reason and evidence. This thinking person's guide to good writing shows why style still matters: in communicating effectively, in enhancing the spread of ideas, in earning a reader's trust and, not least, in adding beauty to the world. Eye-opening, mind-expanding and cheerful, The Sense of Style shows that good style is part of what it means to be human. Winner, Plain English Campaign's International Award 2014: 'a superbly and clearly written celebration of the best, least fuzzy kind of writing.' ©2014 Steven Pinker (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

Brought to you by Penguin. In The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, Steven Pinker looks at how the relationship between words and thoughts can help us understand who we are. Why do so many swear words involve topics like sex, bodily functions or the divine? Why do some children's names thrive while others fall out of favour? Why do we threaten and bribe and seduce in such elaborate, often comical ways? How can a choice of metaphor damn a politician or start a war? And why do we rarely say what we actually mean? Language, as Steven Pinker shows, is at the heart of our lives, and through the way we use it - whether to inform, persuade, entertain or manipulate - we can glimpse the very essence of what makes us human. ©2008 Steven Pinker (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Steven Pinker (Author), John Chancer (Narrator)

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The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Brought to you by Penguin. Recently many people have assumed that we are blank slates shaped by our environment. But this denies the heart of our being: human nature. Violence is not just a product of society; male and female minds are different; the genes we give our children shape them more than our parenting practices. To acknowledge our innate abilities, Pinker shows, is not to condone inequality, but to understand the very foundations of humanity. 'A passionate defence of the enduring power of human nature ... both life-affirming and deeply satisfying' Daily Telegraph 'Brilliant ... enjoyable, informative, clear, humane' New Scientist 'Startling ... This is a breath of air for a topic that has been politicized for too long' Economist ©2003 Steven Pinker (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Steven Pinker (Author), Victor Bevine (Narrator)

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Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

The follow-up to Pinker's groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents the big picture of human progress: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature-tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking-which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress. *Includes a Bonus PDF with charts and graphs.

Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

Penguin Presents the audiobook edition of Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker, read by Arthur Morey. Includes a bonus PDF of graphs. Is modernity really failing? Or have we failed to appreciate progress and the ideals that make it possible? If you follow the headlines, the world in the 21st century appears to be sinking into chaos, hatred and irrationality. Yet, as Steven Pinker shows, if you follow the trendlines, you discover that our lives have become longer, healthier, safer and more prosperous - not just in the West, but worldwide. Such progress is no accident: it's the gift of a coherent value system that many of us embrace without even realizing it. These are the values of the Enlightenment: of reason, science, humanism and progress. The challenges we face today are formidable. But the way to deal with them is not to sink into despair or try to lurch back to a mythical idyllic past; it's to treat them as problems we can solve, as we have solved other problems in the past. This is the case for an Enlightenment newly recharged for the 21st century.

Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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Words and Rules

In Words and Rules, Steven Pinker explores profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple phenomenon—regular and irregular verbs—and examining it from every angle. With humor and verve, he covers an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities, from the history of languages to how to simulate languages on computers to major ideas in the history of Western philosophy. Through it all, Pinker presents a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules. The idea extends beyond language and offers insight into the very nature of the human mind. This is a sparkling, eye-opening, and utterly original book by one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists. “[An] excellent work of popular science.” —Thomas Nagel, The New Republic “The book provides a scholarly, persuasive, enjoyable, and eminently readable account of important language phenomena.” —Nature “Compelling and revelatory.” —The Guardian “An intellectual joyride.” —The Globe and Mail ***Please contact Member Services for additional documents***

Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person?s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

A short and entertaining book on the modern art of writing well by New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker. Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Do the kids today even care about good writing? Why should any of us care?< In The Sense of Style, the bestselling linguist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker answers these questions and more. Rethinking the usage guide for the twenty-first century, Pinker doesn't carp about the decline of language or recycle pet peeves from the rulebooks of a century ago. Instead, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose. In this short, cheerful, and eminently practical book, Pinker shows how writing depends on imagination, empathy, coherence, grammatical knowhow, and an ability to savor and reverse engineer the good prose of others. He replaces dogma about usage with reason and evidence, allowing writers and editors to apply the guidelines judiciously, rather than robotically, being mindful of what they are designed to accomplish. Filled with examples of great and gruesome prose, Pinker shows us how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and a fascinating intellectual topic in its own right.

Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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The Language Instinct

In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published. "Pinker writes with acid verve." -Atlantic Monthly "An extremely valuable book, very informative, and very well written." -Noam Chomsky

Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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How the Mind Works

In this delightful, acclaimed bestseller, one of the world's leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational-and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness? How the Mind Works synthesizes the most satisfying explanations of our mental life from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and other fields to explain what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and contemplate the mysteries of life. This new edition of Pinker's bold and buoyant classic is updated with a new foreword by the author. "Undeniably brilliant." -Newsday "Big, brash, and a lot of fun." -Time "Hugely entertaining . . . always sparkling and provoking." -Wall Street Journal "Witty popular science that you enjoy reading for the writing as well as for the science." -New York Times Book Review

Steven Pinker (Author), Mel Foster (Narrator)

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The Better Angels of Our Nature

We've all asked, "What is the world coming to?" But we seldom ask, "How bad was the world in the past?" In this startling new book, the bestselling cognitive scientist Steven Pinker shows that the world of the past was much worse. In fact, we may be living in the most peaceable era yet. Evidence of a bloody history has always been around us: the genocides in the Old Testament and crucifixions in the New; the gory mutilations in Shakespeare and Grimm; the British monarchs who beheaded their relatives and the American founders who dueled with their rivals. Now the decline in these brutal practices can be quantified. Tribal warfare was nine times as deadly as war and genocide in the 20th century. The murder rate in medieval Europe was more than thirty times what it is today. Slavery, sadistic punishments, and frivolous executions were unexceptionable features of life for millennia, then were suddenly abolished. Wars between developed countries have vanished, and even in the developing world, wars kill a fraction of the numbers they did a few decades ago. Rape, hate crimes, deadly riots, child abuse - all substantially down. How could this have happened, if human nature has not changed? Pinker argues that the key to explaining the decline of violence is to understand the inner demons that incline us toward violence and the better angels that steer us away. Thanks to the spread of government, literacy, trade, and cosmopolitanism, we increasingly control our impulses, empathize with others, debunk toxic ideologies, and deploy our powers of reason to reduce the temptations of violence. Pinker will force you to rethink your deepest beliefs about progress, modernity, and human nature. This gripping book is sure to be among the most debated of the century so far.

Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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