Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain cover art

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

By: Lisa Feldman Barrett
Narrated by: Lisa Feldman Barrett
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £4.99

Buy Now for £4.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

From the author of How Emotions Are Made, a myth-busting primer on the brain in the tradition of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

Have you ever wondered why you have a brain? Let renowned neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett demystify that big gray blob between your ears. In seven short essays (plus a bite-sized story about how brains evolved), this slim, entertaining, and accessible collection reveals mind-expanding lessons from the front lines of neuroscience research. You'll learn where brains came from, how they're structured (and why it matters), and how yours works in tandem with other brains to create everything you experience. Along the way, you'll also learn to dismiss popular myths such as the idea of a "lizard brain" and the alleged battle between thoughts and emotions, or even between nature and nurture, to determine your behavior.

Sure to intrigue casual listeners and scientific veterans alike, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain is full of surprises, humor, and important implications for human nature - a gift of a book that you will want to savor again and again.

©2020 Lisa Feldman Barrett (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Biological Sciences Neuroscience & Neuropsychology Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Human Brain Witty Thought-Provoking Cognitive Science

Listeners also enjoyed...

How Emotions Are Made cover art
Handbook of Emotions, Fourth Edition cover art
Who You Are cover art
How to Understand Everything cover art
The Molecule of More cover art
Darwin's Dangerous Idea cover art
The Psychopath Whisperer cover art
Brainscapes cover art
Journey of the Mind cover art
Autopilot cover art
How to Be Human cover art
Consciousness and the Brain cover art
A Whole New Mind cover art
Proust and the Squid cover art
Social cover art
How Evolution Explains Everything About Life cover art

Critic reviews

"Acclaimed neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett narrates her series of essays in this brief but sprightly introduction to the brain. In her erudite, enthusiastic voice…Barrett's goal is to give compelling and comprehensible information to a general audience. In this production she has definitely succeeded." - AudioFile Magazine, An Earphones Award Winner

“An excellent education in brain science…[Feldman Barrett] deftly employs metaphor and anecdote to deliver an insightful overview of her favorite subject…so short and sweet that most readers will continue to the 35-page appendix, in which the author delves more deeply, but with no less clarity, into topics ranging from teleology to the Myers-Briggs personality test to ‘Plato’s writings about the human psyche.’ Outstanding popular science.” - Kirkus, STARRED

"What about that 'three-pound blob between your ears'? In seven essays about the brain and a half-size one about its evolution…Barrett has crafted a well-written tribute to this wow-inducing organ." - Booklist

All stars
Most relevant
I will be listening to this again in the future. apparently there is a fifteen word minimum review length on audible.

fascinating and digestible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is a really useful and thought provoking book that dispels many of the old ideas about how our brains work and should be read by every trainer and consultant out there that relies anything to do with neurology.

But I thought that…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I heard of the author after an interview with Tom Swarbrick on LBC - STUNNING work, absolutely brilliant, endlessly fascinating, supremely helpful!

Wowser... what a brilliant book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

hooray for Lisa Feldman Barrett. pseudo science and folk psychology beware! at last someone working from first principles without an economic agenda or need to trade Mark a bogus therapy! I am a psychotherapy trainee and I found this book incredibly refreshing.

sounding the death bell for Bogus folk psychology

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I’m absolutely biased (clinical psychologist with neuroscience background), and I’ve followed Prof FB for years since my own msc. I gave this to my dad to help understand my field. Really good clear explanations.

Complex neuroscience made comprehensible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews