Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World

Written by M.R. O'Connor

Narrated by Teri Schnaubelt

At once far flung and intimate, a fascinating look at how finding our way makes us human.

In this compelling narrative, O'Connor seeks out neuroscientists, anthropologists and master navigators to understand how navigation ultimately gave us our humanity. Biologists have been trying to solve the mystery of how organisms have the ability to migrate and orient with such precision―especially since our own adventurous ancestors spread across the world without maps or instruments. O'Connor goes to the Arctic, the Australian bush and the South Pacific to talk to masters of their environment who seek to preserve their traditions at a time when anyone can use a GPS to navigate.

O’Connor explores the neurological basis of spatial orientation within the hippocampus. Without it, people inhabit a dream state, becoming amnesiacs incapable of finding their way, recalling the past, or imagining the future. Studies have shown that the more we exercise our cognitive mapping skills, the greater the grey matter and health of our hippocampus. O'Connor talks to scientists studying how atrophy in the hippocampus is associated with afflictions such as impaired memory, dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, depression and PTSD.

Wayfinding is a captivating book that charts how our species' profound capacity for exploration, memory and storytelling results in topophilia, the love of place.

"O'Connor talked to just the right people in just the right places, and her narrative is a marvel of storytelling on its own merits, erudite but lightly worn. There are many reasons why people should make efforts to improve their geographical literacy, and O'Connor hits on many in this excellent book—devouring it makes for a good start." —Kirkus Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jun 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781721342631

M.R. O'Connor

M. R. O’Connor is a journalist who writes about the politics and ethics of science, technology, and conservation. Her work has appeared online in The Atavist, Slate, Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, Nautilus, UnDark and Harper’s.  Her first book, Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things (St. Martin’s Press, 2015), was one of Library Journal and Amazon’s Best Books of The Year. Her second book, Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World (St. Martin’s Press, 2019), is an exploration of navigation traditions, neuroscience, and the diversity of human relationships to space, time and memory. Its writing was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan’s Program for the Public Understanding of Science, Technology & Economics. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her partner and their two sons.

Reviews for Wayfinding

[andres zacarias · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This books tries to explore the old way of navigating with the modern scientific approach. Obviously the old method was orally based and there are less and less people that hold such old knowledge. If you are looking for a story about navigation look elsewhere. I recommend "sea people" as an introductory book. If you are looking for tidbits to supplement your exisitng knowledge of navigation, this is a good read.

[dennis morgan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There is much of interest here, but it meanders. There are so many barely related digressions and so many compulsively cited sources that it at times is simply disorienting. I suggest skimming the book format for a few compass points and heading out to some of the original work in this field. It’s valuable as such a guide. Narrative non-fiction it is not.