Why people recommend it
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon is a sweeping popular science book that explores how the female body shaped human evolution over hundreds of millions of years. On People I Mostly Admire, Steve Levitt introduced Cat Bohannon as the author of this stunning work. Levitt admitted that he initially did not expect to enjoy the book because he is generally not interested in history from millions of years ago, but he found that chapter after chapter offered such a fresh and surprising perspective that he could not put it down. He praised the work for avoiding standard popular science tropes, presenting entirely new and fascinating facts that changed his worldview, such as the biological capability of male nipples to produce milk under certain circumstances. Additionally, Cat Bohannon discussed her writing process on Freakonomics Radio, noting that her editors did heroic work helping her trim down a much longer manuscript and adjust the tone.
Who recommended it
- Steve Levitt Recommended
Steve Levitt — 1 mention
“My guest will be Cat Bohannan, who has written an absolutely stunning book; it's called "Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution."”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 6
“Welcome to a special episode of 'People I Mostly Admire' with Steve Levitt. I did not expect to like this book. I'm generally just not that interested in things that happened 200 million years ago or even 10,000 years ago.”
“But in chapter after chapter, Cat Bohannan offers such a fresh and surprising perspective that I couldn't put the book down. Over and over, I found myself bringing up these stories in conversation. Are her hypotheses right?”
“This isn't just a repackaging of the standard popular science stories; on subject after subject that I thought I knew something about, you brought forth facts and ideas that were totally new to me, that were fascinating, and that changed my view of the world. And I don't think, as a writer, you could have hoped to do anything more”
“The book used to be longer; my editors did a heroic job of helping me trim it down. I cut out a lot of jokes because not all my jokes land, but also they were worried about the tone.”
“So I was amazed and surprised to read in your book that not only do babies latch onto some men's breasts, but that male breasts can actually sometimes produce milk. Oh, absolutely, many male nipples can produce milk biologically.”
“His show is called People I Mostly Admire, and you'll hear a fantastic conversation with Cat Bohannan, the author of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution.”