#AcademicRunPlaylist - 1/18/26

It felt like winter again in Boston, and while waiting for the kids to finish their activities I hiked around in the woods and listened to books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was "The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups" by Tracey Camilleri, Samantha Rockey, and Robin Dunbar. You'd be hard pressed to identify Robin Dunbar's influence beyond the first chapter, which is mostly a general introduction to his work. The rest is a fairly standard management book - tons of case studies with unclear generality or scope, popular science taken way beyond its research context, etc. It's a totally average book in that regard, I was just hoping for more https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444270/the-social-brain-by-dunbar-tracey-camilleri-samantha-rockey-robin/9781847943620

Last was "Some Assembly Required" by Neil Shubin. This book ends up being a great introductory explainer on the mechanisms that evolutionary processes employ for organisms to reach new forms, combining embryology, genetics, microbiology, and more. The first half of this book is a bit shaky, spending too much time on extraneous details of scientist biographies and laying far too basic groundwork. If you know anything about biological processes and aren't interested in disconnected trivia you can safely start at chapter 4 (although 5 is when it really picks up). Still highly recommend https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/540510/some-assembly-required-by-neil-shubin/