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Why Brains Need Friends<\/p>\n
Ben Rein<\/p>\n
Bridge Street (2024)<\/p>\n
Have you ever chosen between answering a friend\u2019s phone call and finishing some work? This relatable scenario opens Why Brains Need Friends by neuroscientist Ben Rein. Social connection feels good and there is clear evidence that it lowers risks of dementia, cognitive decline, heart failure, diabetes, depression and stroke. Yet, few people prioritize it in the way they do exercise, sleep and nutrition.<\/p>\n
Rein notes that various factors, including political polarization, remote work and online habits, are dividing people. And an accumulation of small decisions, such as choosing self-checkouts over small but real social contact in shops, could lead to increased risks of social isolation in older people.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that socializing can feel awkward. Some brains want more interaction than others; some encounters are more pleasant than others. Rein recommends recognizing, and meeting, your own social needs \u2014 like a \u2018social diet\u2019.<\/p>\n
The good news is that other people like us more than we think they do, studies have shown. We can underestimate how interested others will be in us and how much a brief chat can lift our mood.<\/p>\n
Rein encourages readers to not worry about people\u2019s approval. And to think about what each declined invitation might cost both parties over time. So, when a friend calls, maybe answer? \u2014 Kelly-Ann Allen<\/p>\n
Slowing the Sun<\/p>\n
Nadine Hura<\/p>\n
Bridget Williams (2025)<\/p>\n
In Slowing the Sun, writer and poet Nadine Hura (of Ng\u0101ti Hine, Ng\u0101puhi and P\u0101keh\u0101 descent) brings us a refreshing perspective on climate change. Western knowledge tends to struggle to reach communities outside academia; she offers Indigenous storytelling as a solution. Through her collection of essays, interspersed with powerful poetry, we meet climate activists, politicians and Indigenous leaders \u2014 and learn about her experiences of grief.<\/p>\n
Recounting her father\u2019s role in flattening mountains in Auckland, New Zealand, Hura highlights the juxtaposition of Indigenous people\u2019s involvement in extractive industries, and reminds us how the poorest people bear the brunt of climate change in a system that they have no control over.<\/p>\n
Hura reveals the gulf between how Western scientists discuss climate change, focusing on risks and vulnerabilities, and the determination of Indigenous communities to act \u2014 despite their lack of resources and power.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to be overwhelmed by the climate crisis and disengage from it. But Hura reminds readers that \u201canything you do to benefit the land benefits you, often immediately. The environment is the healer, not the other way around\u201d. I have never read a book like this before \u2014 deeply personal, yet relevant to everyone. Even the most seasoned climate scientist will learn a lot. \u2014 Tara McAllister<\/p>\n
Thinking Like an Economist<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Popp Berman<\/p>\n
Princeton Univ. Press (2022)<\/p>\n
It can seem hard to disagree with the maxim of efficiency. But observing the actions of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year \u2014 including the cuts it made to research \u2014 raised an important question. Is efficiency everything? A government is not a private company; organizing it around efficiency can detract from what it should be. Worryingly so.<\/p>\n
Sociologist Elizabeth Popp Berman\u2019s book, Thinking Like an Economist, helped me to make sense of what can be lost in favour of efficiency. Berman shows how, since the 1960s, US governments have strived for efficiency, sometimes over considerations of equity and democracy. The US Clean Air Act, for instance, was framed initially around asserting the public value of clean air by stigmatizing polluters and pushing industry to innovate. But over time, pollution became something to be priced, shifting efforts away from negotiating acceptable levels of pollution and towards markets.<\/p>\n
This book is essential reading for those who want to understand how a focus on efficiency can help to centralize power and authority. Policies affect societal concerns that cannot be monetized. They are shaped through political bargains, by treading the line between redistribution and growth, environmental protection and business interests \u2014 and require messy democratic negotiation not algorithms. Such bargaining might not always deliver \u2018value for money\u2019 \u2014 but it remains essential for preserving freedoms. \u2014 Yamini Aiyar<\/p>\n
These Letters End in Tears<\/p>\n
Musih Tedji Xaviere<\/p>\n
Catapult (2024)<\/p>\n
In These Letters End in Tears, novelist Musih Tedji Xaviere tells a story about two young women in love in Cameroon \u2014 a love that provides refuge, self-acceptance and joy in a country where being gay is punishable by law. But the society fights back violently and devastatingly, through both individuals and institutions. The two women are incarcerated, for example. When my teary eyes left the last line of the final chapter, I became laser-focused on how to dismantle systems with beliefs, norms and laws that criminalize some experiences and existences.<\/p>\n
As a medical sociologist, a central aspect of my work is to help people and institutions to understand how our societies can cause harm to some of us while allowing others to thrive. I identify how to eliminate oppression and promote well-being for all. For me, as a Cameroonian lesbian living in the United States, this book blurs the lines, in positive ways, between reality and fiction and between my professional responsibilities and my life\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n
Readers will question the very core of education, media, religion, gender, family life, class, language, politics and law \u2014 in Cameroon and beyond. Tragedy is an explicit focus of this poignant book, but Xaviere\u2019s award-winning fiction also suggests actions of resistance that everyone can take against the erasure that is perpetuated in many societies, to varying extent: defiance, community-building, storytelling and being present. \u2014 Sirry Alang<\/p>\n
The Reason I Jump<\/p>\n
Naoki Higashida<\/p>\n
Sceptre (2013)<\/p>\n
As a neuroscientist studying sensory input and behaviour, I seek to understand how brains construct perception and action. The Reason I Jump remains the most illuminating and hopeful book I have read. First published in 2007, its relevance has only increased as diagnoses of and research on autism spectrum disorder have expanded. Yet, the rich forms of communication, social connection and empathy that Naoki Higashida describes remain overlooked.<\/p>\n
Higashida, who mainly communicates non-verbally, wrote this candid book using a Japanese hiragana alphabet grid when he was just 13 years old. Unlike most autobiographies written by adults, the book offers an unfiltered account of how his mind perceives, feels and attempts to act, before such experiences can be \u2018sorted\u2019 cognitively.<\/p>\n
Autism is often portrayed as a condition of deficits: impaired communication, reduced empathy and inflexible behaviour. Higashida\u2019s reflections challenge this idea with clarity and force. He describes his intense sensory world, the effort required to initiate even simple actions and the confusion that his own body can cause him.<\/p>\n
For me, this book is galvanizing. In an era when discussions about autism often focus on pathology and clinical prediction rather than lived experience, it reminds me that communication extends far beyond speech \u2014 and that it can take forms that we have yet to fully understand. \u2014 Misa Shimuta<\/p>\n
Intertwined<\/p>\n
Rebecca Kormos<\/p>\n
New Press (2024)<\/p>\n
As part of her work documenting the relationship between people and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), wildlife biologist and conservationist Rebecca Kormos interviewed women \u2014 and wondered why she hadn\u2019t previously sought their voices. The honesty and sincerity of this question, which kicks off her book about women involved in conservation and environmental activism, made me keep reading.<\/p>\n
Intertwined showcases a vast sisterhood from which we can draw wisdom, courage and hope. For example, fisheries and wildlife biologist Midori Nicolson from Gwayi, Kingcome Inlet, a small village in Canada, reflects on the origin story of her people, the Dzawada\u2019enuxw First Nation, whose history and cultural practices were altered by patriarchy and colonization. Reflecting on my own Yucatec Maya heritage, this prompted me to question which of our ancestral Indigenous stories have also been neglected. The resilience and strength of Zimbabwe\u2019s Akashinga Rangers, all of whom are women, was so inspirational that I hope it will help to guide the transformation of the ranger team of the Belize Maya Forest Trust, which I lead.<\/p>\n
Intertwined examines the role of everyone \u2014 not just women \u2014 in solving the planetary polycrisis. The scientific data and collective wisdom of the stories in the book show that good outcomes for gender equality and women\u2019s rights will benefit all of humanity and nature. \u2014 Elma Kay<\/p>\n
The Coming Wave<\/p>\n
Mustafa Suleyman & Michael Bhaskar<\/p>\n
Crown (2023)<\/p>\n
Technologies such as artificial intelligence and synthetic biology are developing at a pace that outstrips that of the institutions designed to govern them. In The Coming Wave, Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, explores this \u201ccontainment problem\u201d with writer Michael Bhaskar: keeping control over systems that evolve faster than the associated political, social and ethical frameworks.<\/p>\n
Rather than immersing readers in technical minutiae, the book captures the tension between technology\u2019s extraordinary potential and the responsibility that comes with shaping its impacts. Suleyman\u2019s analysis shows that the coming decades will be defined not just by the deployment of innovative technologies, but also by how they are used (governance and collective judgement).<\/p>\n
The Coming Wave balances urgency and optimism well. Suleyman is clear about the risks of disruption by technologies that cannot be paused or reversed. Yet, he frames these challenges as an invitation to act.<\/p>\n
As a researcher at the intersection of AI and spatial intelligence, I was struck by the book\u2019s foresight. It offers younger generations the chance to become architects rather than victims of technological change and to shape systems that are resilient, equitable and aligned with human values. It is a call to ethical engagement with powerful technologies. \u2014 Mohamed Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Naturalistas<\/p>\n
Laura de Cabo et al.<\/p>\n
El Ateneo (2024)<\/p>\n
Inspiration can be close by \u2014 if you know where to look. Women in the research team of Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales \u201cBernardino Rivadavia\u201d in Buenos Aires explored the work and lives of 16 of their predecessors: women who worked at the museum as illustrators and scientists, including botanists, arachnologists and marine biologists, over the past century. Despite contributing to their fields and the museum, these pioneers have long been overlooked.<\/p>\n
This beautifully illustrated book, written in Spanish, conveys the thorough detective work its authors did. They combed through documents, newspapers and official records and contacted the researchers\u2019 relatives. The stories were harder to piece together than they should have been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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