I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life

Written by Ed Yong

Narrated by Charlie Anson

Your body is teeming with tens of trillions of microbes. It's an entire world, a colony full of life.

In other words, you contain multitudes.

These microscopic companions sculpt our organs, protect us from diseases, guide our behaviour, and bombard us with their genes. They also hold the key to understanding all life on earth.

In I Contain Multitudes, Ed Yong opens our eyes and invites us to marvel at ourselves and other animals in a new light, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems.

We learn the invisible and wondrous science behind the corals that construct mighty reefs and the squid that create their own light shows. We see how bacteria can alter our response to cancer-fighting drugs, tune our immune system, influence our evolution, and even modify our genetic make-up. And we meet the scientists who are manipulating these microscopic partners to our advantage.

In a million tiny ways, I Contain Multitudes will radically change how you think about the natural world, and how you see yourself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House UK Audio
• Release date: Sep 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473546530

Ed Yong

Ed Yong is a science writer who reports for The Atlantic. For his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, he won the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting, the George Polk Award for science reporting, and other honors. His first book, I Contain Multitudes, was a New York Times bestseller. He is based in Washington, DC.

Reviews for I Contain Multitudes

[Michael · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an eye opening read! A dizzying perspective shift. This book by Ed Yong explores the world of microbes and the microbiome which turn out to be the things that define life - the world that every living thing and beyond is embedded in. Ed Yong shows how microbes and their interactions with each other are extraordinarily complex and and how they shape and drive life and even evolution. The book starts off from the history and development of our understanding of microbes and goes on to describe just how big a role they play in our being, other animals and the environment.
One fascinating thing is how we don’t just contain multitudes but we release about 37 million microbes per hour! So our own biomes extend beyond the confines of our bodies and define the microbiome around us. That’s insane and great.
This book has changed me and my view of reality forever.