Original Sin
The Genetics of Wrongdoing, the Problem of Blame and the Future of Forgiveness
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Original Sin
Narrated by:
Kristen DiMercurio
Pre-order Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Kristen DiMercurio
About this listen
In Original Sin, she weaves together insights from her own experience as a daughter, mother, wife and scientist with cutting-edge research in genetics and psychology to grapple with some of the most important questions in modern life: How do we take responsibility for the people we become, knowing how we are shaped by both biology and experience? How should we respond when people hurt each other - or themselves? And has science made guilt obsolete?
Navigating the psychological and biological terrain of addiction, antisocial behaviour and violence, Harden confronts the discomforting ways science unsettles our understanding of wrongdoing and choice. In doing so she asks us not to absolve, but to reckon differently with notions of fairness and blame. A revelatory inquiry into the uneasy space where human behaviour meets inherited biology, Original Sin challenges us to imagine a more humane vision of accountability - for ourselves and for one another.©2026 Sophrosyne Studio LLC (P)2026 Penguin Random House Audio
Critic reviews
A tour de force. Original Sin is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book that invites us to go deep into questions about why people do terrible things and how we should treat them afterwards. Harden's discussion is deepened by her personal reflections on her own responses to hurt and cruelty - a rare mixture, showing how the scientific and the personal perspective combine in a rich complementarity. I loved this book (GWEN ADSHEAD, author of THE DEVIL YOU KNOW)
An extraordinary book, the very best of science writing, because it is not just about science, but is memoir, history, bleeding-edge genetics and a completely original take on original sin. Thrilling, entertaining, provocative, brilliant (ADAM RUTHERFORD, author of A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED)
What makes Original Sin so readable apart from damned good writing is a sincere and palpable search for the safety of a god in what we're beginning to know. It's not only part of the solution to a human future but a blind date with the meaning of life. Anyone with a beating heart and a hungry mind should eat this up (DBC PIERRE, author of VERNON GOD LITTLE)
A powerful read that stops you dead in your tracks and forces you to think very deeply (SUE BLACK, author of ALL THAT REMAINS)
Regardless of the side you take in the nature vs nurture debate, Kathryn Paige Harden's Original Sin offers an eye-opening perspective on possible genetic links to antisocial behaviour. Those who can accept that there is nothing inherently amoral about having an unconventional experience of emotion will see the potential life-changing and positive impact this understanding can have on stigmatised and marginalised antisocial youth (PATRIC GAGNE, author of SOCIOPATH)
Unique, expansive and illuminating - a mix of religion and genetics that interweaves intensely personal storytelling with rigidly objective science to explore big questions about the bad things we have the capacity to do (JOHN HIGGS, author of WILLIAM BLAKE VS THE WORLD)
Even if you have no interest in the concept of sin, this is a compelling read. Harden's bottom line is that we subjective beings are morally responsible for our actions (sorry), despite the fact that we also tick along deterministically. This emotionally startling and intellectually erudite book explains why (MARK SOLMS, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst and author of THE ONLY CURE)
Wonderful. Popular science these days, in its understandable desire to attract readers, can feel overly simplistic. But Harden's fascinating personal revelations never obscure the fact that what she has written is an undeniably intellectual and moral book. We need more of this kind of writing, and I absolutely loved it (GABRIEL WESTON, author of ALIVE)
A brave, open-hearted examination of how our glitchy brains make sense of what our imperfect bodies do
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