"Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution"

"Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution"

Join ISC & the Chicago Public Library on May 13th for what will most certainly be a *very* interesting conversation with author Cat Bohannon

By Illinois Science Council

Date and time

Monday, May 13 · 6 - 7:30pm CDT

Location

Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago Public Library

400 South State Street Pritzker Auditorium, Lower Level Chicago, IL 60605

About this event

  • 1 hour 30 minutes

How did the female body drive 200 million years of human evolution? Why do women live longer than men? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? Is sexism useful for evolution? And why, seriously why, do women have to sweat through our sheets every night when we hit menopause?

These questions are producing some truly exciting science – and in Eve, with boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Cat Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex: “We need a kind of user’s manual for the female mammal. A no-nonsense, hard-hitting, seriously researched (but readable) account of what we are. How female bodies evolved, how they work, what it really means to biologically be a woman. Something that would rewrite the story of womanhood. This book is that story. We have to put the female body in the picture. If we don’t, it’s not just feminism that’s compromised. Modern medicine, neurobiology, paleoanthropology, even evolutionary biology all take a hit when we ignore the fact that half of us have breasts. So it’s time we talk about breasts. Breasts, and blood, and fat, and vaginas, and wombs—all of it. How they came to be and how we live with them now, no matter how weird or hilarious the truth is.”


Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Picking up where Sapiens left off, Eve will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens has become such a successful and dominant species.


NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION FINALIST • THE REAL ORIGIN OF OUR SPECIES: a myth-busting, eye-opening landmark account of how humans evolved, offering a paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution still shapes all our lives today

“For over a century and a half since Darwin, we have talked about the origin of man. But what about women? Marshaling considerable wit, scholarship, and cutting edge science Cat Bohannon traces the history and importance of female biology and, in the process, gives us a refreshing new view on the origin of humanity.”
—Neil Shubin, University of Chicago biologist and author of Your Inner Fish

“A page-turning whistle-stop tour of mammalian development that begins in the Jurassic Era, Eve recasts the traditional story of evolutionary biology by placing women at its center…. The book is engaging, playful, erudite, discursive and rich with detail.”
—Sarah Lyall, The New York Times

“A smart, funny, scientific deep-dive into the power of a woman’s body, Eve surprises, educates, and emboldens.”
—Bonnie Garmus, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Lessons in Chemistry


Doors to the auditorium open at 5pm; seating is first come, first served. Books will be available for purchase and Dr. Bohannon will autograph books at the conclusion of the program.


Organized by

Illinois Science Council ("ISC") is an independent 501c3 nonprofit with a mission to engage, educate, and entertain the adult public about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) topics. We showcase the scientists and research of the Chicago-area institutions and companies that make Chicago our nation's true "City of Science." ISC serves as the science & tech complement to the region's arts & culture offerings, and the adult complement to student-focused programs, by raising understanding and appreciation of STEM subjects.

Carl Sagan also observed, "We live in a society that is exquisitely dependent upon science and technology in which hardly anyone understands anything about science and technology."  ISC is certainly working to change that!

ISC explores all areas of science and technology and we do so with a fun, non-stuffy approach. We don't care what's been forgotten since school (or never learned in the first place). It's simply about continuing to exercise our inexhaustible human sense of curiosity. We create free and low-cost programs open to the public (aimed at adults and accessible to teens). ISC's engaging programs include author talks (Mary Roach, James Hamblin, Lisa Randall, Randall Munroe, Michio Kaku...), film screenings ("The Believers," "The Atom Smashers," "I Believe in Dinosaurs"), topical talks (Science of Cooking, Your Brain on Happiness, The Brain on Addiction, Science of the Internet, Human Genome & Consumer Genetic Tests...), and experiential hands-on chemistry (Chemistry of... Beer, Chocolate, Whiskey, Coffee, Honey, Bread...), and more. 

Visit: IllinoisScience.org for more info or to volunteer in our work. To support our science outreach efforts, you can make a donation here, or buy something from our Science Swag store here.