In this captivating book, neuroscientist Shane O'Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits walking confers on our bodies and brains, and to appreciate the advantages of this uniquely human skill. From walking's evolutionary origins, traced back millions of years to life forms on the ocean floor, to new findings from cutting-edge research, he reveals how the brain and nervous system give us the ability to balance, weave through a crowded city, and run our "inner GPS" system. Walking is good for our muscles and posture; it helps to protect and repair organs, and can slow or turn back the aging of our brains. With our minds in motion we think more creatively, our mood improves, and stress levels fall. Walking together to achieve a shared purpose is also a social glue that has contributed to our survival as a species.As our lives become increasingly sedentary, O'Mara makes the case that we must start walking again--whether it's up a mountain, down to the park, or simply to school and work. In Praise of Walking illuminates the joys, health benefits, and mechanics of walking, and reminds us to get out of our chairs and discover a happier, healthier, more creative self.

In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration

Health, Fitness & Dieting

O'Mara, Shane

Exercise & Fitness

W.W.Norton&Company

Review\n"Informative and persuasive enough to rouse the most ardent couch potato." 
― Jonathon Keats, New Scientist\n"Honest in its scope, timely in its urgency, and convincing in its presentation.… O’Mara takes what seems like a prosaic subject and reveals how fascinating and vital it truly is." 
― Michael Berry, Sierra\n"Delightful and salient.… [O’Mara] manages to engagingly weave history, philosophy, and poetry into the scientific literature." 
― M.R. O’Connor, Undark\n"As O’Mara makes clear, every amble is transformative. It grows brain cells, fires our muscles, unleashes our creative spirit and lifts our moods. This book could―and should―change your life." 
― Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix\n"A reader-friendly digest of scientific studies.… [In Praise of Walking] delivers a great deal of salutary, practicable common sense." 
― Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal\n"In Praise of Walking [is] a backstage tour of what happens in our brains while we perambulate. Walking makes us healthier, happier and brainier.… [O’Mara] knows this not only through personal experience, but from cold, hard data." 
― Amy Fleming, Guardian\n"A fascinating new book that examines the multitudinous benefits of this form of locomotion." 
― Lydia Slater, Harper’s Bazaar\n"Convincing and compelling.… In Praise of Walking is peppered with insights about everything from 19th-century poets and flâneurs to modern-day experiments with subjects playing video games in fMRI scanners." 
― Helen Davies, Sunday Times\n"Compelling and wise, In Praise of Walking points the way to the human adventure." 
― Richard Louv, author of Our Wild Calling and Last Child in the Woods\n"Full of insights.… An accessible and thought-provoking discussion of walking as a key to human success." 
― Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain\n“A surprisingly fascinating scientific consideration of humanity’s most ordinary activity.” ―Ron Charles, Washington Post 
In this “wonderful” (John Brandon, Forbes) book, neuroscientist Shane O’Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits walking confers on our bodies and brains, and to appreciate the advantages of this uniquely human skill. From walking’s evolutionary origins, traced back millions of years to life forms on the ocean floor, to new findings from cutting-edge research, he reveals how the brain and nervous system give us the ability to balance, weave through a crowded city, and run our “inner GPS” system. Walking is good for our muscles and posture;?it helps to protect and repair organs, and can slow or turn back the aging of our brains. With our minds in motion we think more creatively, our mood improves, and stress levels fall. Walking together to achieve a shared purpose is also a social glue that has contributed to our survival as a species. 
As our lives become increasingly sedentary, O’Mara makes the case that we must start walking again―whether it’s up a mountain, down to the park,?or simply to school and work. In Praise of Walking?illuminates the joys, health benefits, and mechanics of walking, and reminds us to get out of our chairs and discover a happier, healthier, more creative self.

Torture is banned because it is cruel and inhumane. But as Shane O’Mara writes in this account of the human brain under stress, another reason torture should never be condoned is because it does not work the way torturers assume it does.
In countless films and TV shows such as Homeland and 24, torture is portrayed as a harsh necessity. If cruelty can extract secrets that will save lives, so be it. CIA officers and others conducted torture using precisely this justification. But does torture accomplish what its defenders say it does? For ethical reasons, there are no scientific studies of torture. But neuroscientists know a lot about how the brain reacts to fear, extreme temperatures, starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, and immersion in freezing water, all tools of the torturer’s trade. These stressors create problems for memory, mood, and thinking, and sufferers predictably produce information that is deeply unreliable―and, for intelligence purposes, even counterproductive. As O’Mara guides us through the neuroscience of suffering, he reveals the brain to be much more complex than the brute calculations of torturers have allowed, and he points the way to a humane approach to interrogation, founded in the science of brain and behavior.
Torture may be effective in forcing confessions, as in Stalin’s Russia. But if we want information that we can depend on to save lives, O’Mara writes, our model should be Napoleon: “It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile.”

Why Torture Doesn’t Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation

Psychology & Counseling

Harvard University Press

In Praise of Walking: The new science of how we walk and why it’s good for us

'Informative and persuasive enough to rouse the most ardent couch pototo' New Scientist Walking upright on two feet is a uniquely human skill. It defines us as a species.It enabled us to walk out of Africa and to spread as far as Alaska and Australia. It freed our hands and freed our minds. We put one foot in front of the other without thinking yet how many of us know how we do that, or appreciate the advantages it gives us In this hymn to walking, neuroscientist Shane OMara invites us to marvel at the benefits it confers on our bodies and minds, and urges us to appreciate and exercise our miraculous ability. SUNDAY INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE WEEK AGreatRead and ArgosyBooks BOOK OF THE MONTH

In Praise Of Walking

Vintage

Talking Heads: The New Science of How Conversation Shapes Our Worlds

Our brains have distinct mechanisms for talking about thoughts, about memories, about feelings and about the future. In Praise of Talking will be about the neuroscience of how we talk about ourselves, how we disclose information, and how that activity is central to the bonds we make with each other. It draws on a wealth of the latest neurological research, some of which the author has conducted himself, on talking about ourselves to other people - how we do it and why we do it, and what our brains are up to while we do it.\nWe talk about ourselves so consistently and pervasively we are unaware how much talking about ourselves to others supports our intense social lives. It is the currency underlying social transactions and social life, allowing us to build trust and rapport with others. In turn, building trust and rapport with others is at the core of our mental and social well-being. Conversation depends critically on having a richly-stocked autobiographical memory that we use not just in the service of remembering, but also in negotiating our position and status with others. We talk about ourselves to change what other people think of us, feel about us, will do for us.\nThis novel way of thinking about talking turns our view of identity inside-out because our sense of identity arises out of what we think others think about us. We tell our stories to others, drawing on our fragile and fallible autobiographical memories, which are in turn shaped by the questions we are asked and the stories we want to tell about ourselves, and by what others tell us. And we do so to affect what others think about us - not simply to disclose ourselves to others. And this is all in the service of social belonging: to the family, to tribes, to institutions, to cultures and subcultures, to nations, to those who profess the same ideals and stories that we do.\nIn Praise of Talking blends expertise and a scientific journey of discovery, leavened by Shane O'Mara's warm tone and evangelical gift for transmitting the wonder of the brain to a wide readership.

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

Bodley Head

Pourquoi la torture ne marche pas: L'interrogatoire à la lumière des neurosciences

Medical Books

Psychology

MARKUS HALLER

Behaviour change is hard, but O’Mara shows that by adopting strategies that are well-founded in the science of brain and behaviour individuals and organisations can adapt to the demands of the modern world. 
The brain matters in business. The problem is that our brains have many biases, heuristics and predilections that can distort behaviour and decision making. The good news is that we know more about how these work than ever before. O’Mara’s starting point is that, as our behaviour arises from the structure and function of our brains, careful examination of a series of brain–based (‘neurocognitive’) analyses of common aspects of human behaviour relevant to business and management practice reveals lessons that can be used at work. 
He begins by looking at neuroplasticity and how it is enables a shift from a restrictive ‘fixed mindset’ to an enabling ‘growth mindset’. He shows how this changing mindset approach – where the focus is on task and improvements based on effort – is scalable within organisations. Next, as the brain is a living organ like the heart and lungs, O’Mara shows how to keep it physically in the best possible shape before examining how we exercise control over our behaviour, build resilience and create positive brain states. He also considers the implications for business of our brains wiring for status and illustrates how research shows that it is possible to de-bias assumptions about gender and race – and the impact that this has on performance.

A Brain for Business – A Brain for Life: How insights from behavioural and brain science can change business and business practice for the better (The Neuroscience of Business)

Business & Money

Economics

Springer

Behaviour change is hard, but O'Mara shows that by adopting strategies that are well-founded in the science of brain and behaviour individuals and organisations can adapt to the demands of the modern world. The brain matters in business. The problem is that our brains have many biases, heuristics and predilections that can distort behaviour and decision making. The good news is that we know more about how these work than ever before. O'Mara's starting point is that, as our behaviour arises from the structure and function of our brains, careful examination of a series of brain-based ('neurocognitive') analyses of common aspects of human behaviour relevant to business and management practice reveals lessons that can be used at work. He begins by looking at neuroplasticity and how it is enables a shift from a restrictive 'fixed mindset' to an enabling 'growth mindset'. He shows how this changing mindset approach - where the focus is on task and improvements based on effort - is scalable within organisations. Next, as the brain is a living organ like the heart and lungs, O'Mara shows how to keep it physically in the best possible shape before examining how we exercise control over our behaviour, build resilience and create positive brain states. He also considers the implications for business of our brains wiring for status and illustrates how research shows that it is possible to de-bias assumptions about gender and race - and the impact that this has on performance.

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Das Glück des Gehens: Was die Wissenschaft darüber weiß und warum es uns so guttut

Diseases & Physical Ailments

Rowohlt Verlag, GmbH

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