In recent months I've been cutting down on my following the news cycle and social media, and on some podcasts. This has freed up time for some books to read or listen to. Here are a few that I enjoyed quite a bit.

• The Gene: An Intimate History by Mukherjee, Siddhartha.
• Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari.
• Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body by Daniel Goleman & Richard Davidson.
• If you are as skeptical toward "meditation" as I was, Sam Harris' Waking Up might convince you that it can be done without religious mumbo-jumbo.
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch.
• I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong.
• Last, Compelling Science Fiction periodically publishes ebooks with short stories. Not all brilliant, maybe, but some quite compelling indeed.