The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

Jared Diamond

Apr 2012 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Rob Shapiro

About this audiobook

The Development of an Extraordinary Species
We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet -- having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art -- while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins? In this fascinating, provocative, passionate, funny, endlessly entertaining work, renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning author and scientist Jared Diamond explores how the extraordinary human animal, in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world . . . and the means to irrevocably destroy it.

Ratings and reviews

This book is very well written and a testament to how refined and wide encompassing a thought process us third species of chimp can accomplish. In my idea of a perfect world I would also have Ben Shapiro be the narrator of all my audiobooks.

About the author

Jared Diamond, professor of geography at the University of California at Los Angeles, is the author of the bestselling Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel. He began his scientific career in physiology and expanded into evolutionary biology and biogeography. Diamond has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.