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Robert M. Sapolsky is the author of several works of nonfiction, including A Primate's Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, and Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. His most recent book, Behave, was a New York Times bestseller and named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is the John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of biology, neurology and neurosurgery at Stanford University and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant." He and his wife live in San Francisco.
This bio was last updated on 10/01/2023. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
In the book you touch on some of the cultural and societal changes you have
witnessed in your over twenty years of summers in Africa. What aspect of bush
life has changed the most during the years you've spent there? What the least?
I am taking "bush life" to mean Masai life, rather than that of
the more westernized, agricultural tribes. Probably most broadly, there has been
one big shift; when I got there, ambition, hope for one's kids, goals were built
around being a more successful Masai -- figuring out a way to have more cows,
more wives, more children. And what has shifted is that ambition now takes the
form of wanting outside things: a watch, a pair of pants, a cassette player or
even of wanting to be someone else (without having much of a sense of what
anyone else's life is like). The Masai have realized that they are not the
center of the universe, and thus not even of the Masai universe. In terms of
what has changed the least, I keep thinking of the phrase, "Despite the new
goals, the Masai still go about trying to achieve them with the same Masai rules
and values." But I'm having trouble sorting out what exactly I mean by
that.
The stories you relate reach back to your very first ...
Russell Banks was raised in New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts. The
eldest of four children, he grew up in a working-class environment, which has
played a major role in his writing.
Mr. Banks (who was the first in his...
(more)
If you enjoyed:
A Primate's Memoir
Try:
The Darling
by Russell Banks
Marla Cone is one of the nation's premier environmental journalists. She has nineteen years of experience covering environmental issues, including fifteen years at the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Silent ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
A Primate's Memoir
Try:
Silent Snow
by Marla Cone
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