Super Stimulated
How Our Biology Is Being Manipulated to Create Bad Habits – and What We Can Do About It
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Adding to library failed
Please try again
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
LIMITED TIME OFFER
Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
Offer ends December 16, 2025 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.
Buy Now for £12.99
-
Narrated by:
-
Joe Leat
About this listen
"Highly readable" DAILY MAIL
"Brilliantly unpacks how modern life hijacks our ancient biology." DR JENNA MACCIOCHI
"An informative and engaging read that will appeal to anyone with a bad habit - which must widen the net to everyone." IRISH INDEPENDENT
"Intriguing ... makes some shocking revelations." SUNDAY TIMES
------
IT'S NOT YOU. IT'S YOUR BIOLOGY.
Modern society is plagued by health epidemics: obesity, record levels of loneliness, increasing mental health problems and various forms of addiction. From the outside, all these issues might seem unrelated. But a single phenomenon actually ties them all together: superstimuli.
Superstimuli are exaggerated, unnatural versions of things we have evolved to want and need such as food, sex and social recognition. This hard wired evolutionary response is why we binge on fake ultra-processed food, lust after airbrushed people online, and struggle to stop scrolling on social media, even when it makes us feel bad. Our lack of control isn't because we are weak. It's because powerful companies spend billions creating superstimuli that manipulate our biology for profit, leaving us unhealthy and unhappy as a consequence.
Super Stimulated shows how we can resist this hijacking of our natural instincts, recognise superstimulus traps, and take control of our bad habits to live longer, healthier lives.©2025 Nicklas Brendborg
Critic reviews
In Super Stimulated, Nicklas Brendborg brilliantly unpacks how modern life hijacks our ancient biology - designing environments that exploit our instincts and hardwire us for unhealthy habits. As a scientist, I found it both sobering and empowering. This book is a call to awareness - and a toolkit for reclaiming our agency in a world that profits from our overstimulation. (Dr Jenna Macciochi)
In Super Stimulated, Danish science writer Nicklas Brendborg successfully answers an unsettling question - why are many of us fatter, unhappier, and having less sex than our forefathers, despite today's world of unprecedented convenience? [...] While much has been written about this topic recently - Brendborg's take feels fresh. As a molecular scientist, Brendborg's writing is accessible, similar to the Freakonomics style ... This is an informative and engaging read that will appeal to anyone with a bad habit - which must widen the net to everyone.
We're in a stimulation arms race ... according to the 29-year-old Danish molecular biologist and wunderkind Nicklas Brendborg ... His thesis is intriguing, and he makes some shocking revelations.
Highly readable
Insightful information in an easy to understand format
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.