The SciFri Book Club

Stiff

The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

By: Mary Roach
Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
Length: 7 hours 59 minutes

An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.



For 2,000 years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to... Read more

An Immense World

How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

By: Ed Yong
Narrated by: Ed Yong
Length: 14 hours 17 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong

“One of this year’s finest works of narrative... Read more

The Alchemy of Us

How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another

By: Ainissa Ramirez
Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
Length: 7 hours 53 minutes

In The Alchemy of Us, scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez examines eight inventions—clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips—and reveals how they shaped the human experience. Ramirez tells the stories of the woman who sold time, the inventor who... Read more

The Future Earth

A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming

By: Eric Holthaus
Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann
Length: 6 hours 42 minutes

The first hopeful book about climate change, The Future Earth shows readers how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades.The basics of climate science are easy. We know it is entirely human-caused. Which means its solutions will be similarly human-led. In The Future Earth, leading climate change... Read more

Entangled Life

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

By: Merlin Sheldrake
Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
Length: 9 hours 32 minutes

“This book does a great job of introducing you to the wonders of fungi. You learn a lot of info but it’s not written in a way that’s too scientific or textbook. The info is told alongside personal stories about the author’s own research journey. This book left me thoroughly amazed! The author Merlin Sheldrake also does a great job as the... Read more

The Possibility of Life

Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos

By: Jaime Green
Narrated by: Jaime Green
Length: 8 hours 24 minutes

“Every page of this book makes our shared universe feel larger and more interesting than ever before, a true gift of fascinating science and engrossing storytelling.” —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

A spellbinding exploration of alien life and the cosmos, examining how the possibility of life on other planets shapes our understanding of... Read more

The Devil's Element

Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance

By: Dan Egan
Narrated by: Jason Culp
Length: 6 hours 50 minutes

The New York Times best-selling author on the source of great bounty—and now great peril—all over the world.

Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of... Read more

The Grieving Brain

The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss

By: Mary-Frances O'Connor
Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
Length: 8 hours 1 minute

NPR SciFri Book Club PickNext Big Idea Club's ""Top 21 Psychology Books of 2022""Behavioral Scientist Notable Books of 2022A renowned grief expert and neuroscientist shares groundbreaking discoveries about what happens in our brain when we grieve, providing a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and learning.In The Grieving Brain,... Read more

The Ministry for the Future

A Novel

By: Kim Stanley Robinson
Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, Gary Bennett, Raphael Corkhill, Barrie Kreinik, Natasha Soudek, Nikki Massoud, Joniece Abbott Pratt, Inés del Castillo & Vikas Adam
Length: 20 hours 42 minutes

“This hearty work of hard science fiction has been the antidote to my climate change despair. As a novel, it is good. As a thought experiment in imagining a near future in which humanity averts complete disaster and begins the transformation into an ecologically humane civilization—it is a masterpiece. Is it possible that we’ll overcome the... Read more

The Milky Way

An Autobiography of Our Galaxy

By: Moiya McTier
Narrated by: Moiya McTier
Length: 6 hours 43 minutes

In this approachable and fascinating biography of the galaxy, an astrophysicist and folklorist details everything humans have discovered—from the Milky Way's formation to its eventual death, and what else there is to learn about the universe we call home. 

After a few billion years of bearing witness to life on Earth, of watching one hundred... Read more

The Sounds of Life

How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants

By: Karen Bakker
Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
Length: 10 hours 24 minutes

This audiobook narrated by Suzanne Toren takes you on an amazing journey into the hidden realm of nature's sounds The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using groundbreaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow... Read more

Braiding Sweetgrass

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Length: 16 hours 44 minutes

“A beautifully written book, full of profound and lyrical insights. Perfect for illuminating the scientific skeptic mind to the complementary truths of native spiritual wisdom. Everyone interested in world changing ideas and perspectives, and hope for the long term viability of human life on earth should read this. Read more

Vagina Obscura

An Anatomical Voyage

By: Rachel E. Gross
Narrated by: Siho Ellsmore
Length: 10 hours 50 minutes

“A wild journey into a long-neglected and maligned body part. I found myself equally enraptured and enraged the whole way through. Complete with haunting illustrations by Armando Veve, Vagina Obscura provides scientific, philosophical, psychological, and historical perspective on the past, present, and future of the vagina. Read more