
Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $13.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
George Guidall
-
By:
-
Lewis Thomas
About this listen
This collection of 24 essays is a perfect introduction to the world of Lewis Thomas. Topics ranging from the riddle of smelling to nuclear proliferation carry the gentle, unassuming persuasiveness that characterizes the author’s work. Here we are also introduced to the concerns that have distinguished Thomas’ literary career: the natural altruism of organisms; the inter-relatedness of all creatures; the fragility of the human species; the uneasiness of life on a threatened planet.
©1983 Lewis Thomas (P)1992 Recorded Books, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Medusa and the Snail
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: Stuart Langton
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lewis Thomas has been compared to a philosopher who uses the language of biology. His fascinating observations on the quirkiness of the world's infinite creations causes the listener to ponder the workings of the cosmos through the most microscopic of life forms.
-
-
Interesting and often funny
- By Kim on 10-24-10
By: Lewis Thomas
-
The Lives of a Cell
- Notes of a Biology Watcher
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Lives of a Cell, Dr. Lewis Thomas opens up to the listener a universe of knowledge and perception that is perhaps not wholly unfamiliar to the research scientist; but the world he explores is also one of men and women, of complex interrelationships, old ironies, peculiar powers, and intricate languages that give identity to the alienated and direction to the dependent. This remarkable work offers a subtle, bold vision of humankind and the world around us - a sense of what gives life - from a writer who seems to draw grace and strength from the very substance of his subject.
-
-
So enlightening and enjoyable!
- By Flora on 03-15-18
By: Lewis Thomas
-
The Fragile Species
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether he is discussing our origins as archaebacteria or the politics of trench warfare, physician-scientist Lewis Thomas is always insightful and exuberantly engaged in his world. This collection of essays deals with everything from AIDS to ozone depletion, and reveals the author’s clear thinking and his ability to cut through the fog of modern problems.
By: Lewis Thomas
-
The Youngest Science
- Notes of a Medicine Watcher
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this partially autobiographical work, best-selling author Lewis Thomas offers insights on subjects as wide-ranging as gender differences, how it feels to be a patient, human vs. computer intelligence, the future of cancer research, and the longevity of the planet—interspersing all with charming anecdotes about his family, his colleagues and himself.
-
-
Pure enchantment. Excellence.
- By Tamara on 06-26-16
By: Lewis Thomas
-
I Am Legend
- By: Richard Matheson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In I Am Legend, a plague has decimated the world, and those unfortunate enough to survive are transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Robert Neville is the last living man on earth. Everyone else has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood. By day, he stalks the sleeping undead, by night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.
-
-
Superb!
- By Steven Casper on 01-24-08
By: Richard Matheson
-
Time's Echo
- The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance
- By: Jeremy Eichler
- Narrated by: Jeremy Eichler, Sherrill Milnes
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1785, when the great German poet Friedrich Schiller penned his immortal “Ode to Joy,” he crystallized the deepest hopes and dreams of the European Enlightenment for a new era of peace and freedom, a time when millions would be embraced as equals. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony then gave wing to Schiller’s words, but barely a century later these same words were claimed by Nazi propagandists and twisted by a barbarism so complete that it ruptured, as one philosopher put it, “the deep layer of solidarity among all who wear a human face.”
-
-
marvelous storytelling
- By Anonymous User on 01-08-25
By: Jeremy Eichler
-
The Medusa and the Snail
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: Stuart Langton
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lewis Thomas has been compared to a philosopher who uses the language of biology. His fascinating observations on the quirkiness of the world's infinite creations causes the listener to ponder the workings of the cosmos through the most microscopic of life forms.
-
-
Interesting and often funny
- By Kim on 10-24-10
By: Lewis Thomas
-
The Lives of a Cell
- Notes of a Biology Watcher
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Lives of a Cell, Dr. Lewis Thomas opens up to the listener a universe of knowledge and perception that is perhaps not wholly unfamiliar to the research scientist; but the world he explores is also one of men and women, of complex interrelationships, old ironies, peculiar powers, and intricate languages that give identity to the alienated and direction to the dependent. This remarkable work offers a subtle, bold vision of humankind and the world around us - a sense of what gives life - from a writer who seems to draw grace and strength from the very substance of his subject.
-
-
So enlightening and enjoyable!
- By Flora on 03-15-18
By: Lewis Thomas
-
The Fragile Species
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether he is discussing our origins as archaebacteria or the politics of trench warfare, physician-scientist Lewis Thomas is always insightful and exuberantly engaged in his world. This collection of essays deals with everything from AIDS to ozone depletion, and reveals the author’s clear thinking and his ability to cut through the fog of modern problems.
By: Lewis Thomas
-
The Youngest Science
- Notes of a Medicine Watcher
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this partially autobiographical work, best-selling author Lewis Thomas offers insights on subjects as wide-ranging as gender differences, how it feels to be a patient, human vs. computer intelligence, the future of cancer research, and the longevity of the planet—interspersing all with charming anecdotes about his family, his colleagues and himself.
-
-
Pure enchantment. Excellence.
- By Tamara on 06-26-16
By: Lewis Thomas
-
I Am Legend
- By: Richard Matheson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In I Am Legend, a plague has decimated the world, and those unfortunate enough to survive are transformed into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Robert Neville is the last living man on earth. Everyone else has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood. By day, he stalks the sleeping undead, by night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.
-
-
Superb!
- By Steven Casper on 01-24-08
By: Richard Matheson
-
Time's Echo
- The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance
- By: Jeremy Eichler
- Narrated by: Jeremy Eichler, Sherrill Milnes
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1785, when the great German poet Friedrich Schiller penned his immortal “Ode to Joy,” he crystallized the deepest hopes and dreams of the European Enlightenment for a new era of peace and freedom, a time when millions would be embraced as equals. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony then gave wing to Schiller’s words, but barely a century later these same words were claimed by Nazi propagandists and twisted by a barbarism so complete that it ruptured, as one philosopher put it, “the deep layer of solidarity among all who wear a human face.”
-
-
marvelous storytelling
- By Anonymous User on 01-08-25
By: Jeremy Eichler
-
The Visionaries
- Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times
- By: Wolfram Eilenberger, Shaun Whiteside
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The period from 1933 to 1943 was one of the darkest and most chaotic in human history, as the Second World War unfolded with unthinkable cruelty. It was also a crucial decade in the dramatic, intersecting lives of some of history’s greatest philosophers. There were four women, in particular, whose parallel ideas would come to dominate the twentieth century—at once in necessary dialogue and in striking contrast with one another.
-
-
Long deep dive into the lives of writers
- By profcpa on 09-16-24
By: Wolfram Eilenberger, and others
-
The Song of the Cell
- An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and The Gene, a #1 New York Times bestseller, comes his most spectacular book yet, an exploration of medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells. Rich with Mukherjee’s revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors, and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, The Song of the Cell is the third book in this extraordinary writer’s exploration of what it means to be human.
-
-
Beyond Words Wonderful
- By Lynn on 11-27-22
-
The Demon-Haunted World
- Science as a Candle in the Dark
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Cary Elwes, Seth MacFarlane
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.
-
-
Some good points, but not a great book
- By William Jenks on 07-25-19
By: Carl Sagan
-
The Case for a Creator
- By: Lee Strobel
- Narrated by: Lee Strobel
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee Strobel became convinced that God was outmoded. Today science is supports the conclusion that the universe was intelligently designed. Darwinism has faltered in the face of facts and hard reason. Science definitely gives faith a boost as new findings emerge about the complexity of our universe. Strobel re-examines the theories that once led him away from God. You'll encounter discoveries from cosmology, DNA research, and human consciousness that present evidence in The Case for a Creator.
-
-
Case closed...or opened?
- By KML on 10-25-04
By: Lee Strobel
-
The Believing Brain
- From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies - How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths
- By: Michael Shermer
- Narrated by: Michael Shermer
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this, his magnum opus, the world’s best known skeptic and critical thinker Dr. Michael Shermer—founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and perennial monthly columnist (“Skeptic”) for Scientific American—presents his comprehensive theory on how beliefs are born, formed, nourished, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished.
-
-
A reader's digest version of many other good books
- By K. S. on 06-29-11
By: Michael Shermer
-
The Tangled Tree
- A Radical New History of Life
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.
-
-
Very Enjoyable and Readable
- By Dennis on 08-18-18
By: David Quammen
-
The Cosmic Serpent
- DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
- By: Jeremy Narby
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald "a Copernican revolution for the life sciences", leads the listener through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge. In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery that opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology, and the limits of rationalism, The Cosmic Serpent reveals how startlingly different the world around us appears when we open our minds to it.
-
-
Very Good Religious Text
- By Blair K. Hartman on 08-09-17
By: Jeremy Narby
-
Ignorance
- How It Drives Science
- By: Stuart Firestein
- Narrated by: David Copelin
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Knowledge is a big subject, says Stuart Firestein, but ignorance is a bigger one. And it is ignorance - not knowledge - that is the true engine of science. Most of us have a false impression of science as a surefire, deliberate, step-by-step method for finding things out and getting things done. In fact, says Firestein, more often than not, science is like looking for a black cat in a dark room, and there may not be a cat in the room.
-
-
It turns out, I’m not dumb at all
- By corridor5 on 03-28-18
By: Stuart Firestein
-
At the Edge of Uncertainty
- 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise
- By: Michael Brooks
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The atom, the big bang, DNA, natural selection - all are ideas that have revolutionized science; and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, best-selling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery.
-
-
All smoke, no fire
- By Kenton on 07-25-15
By: Michael Brooks
-
Life
- The Leading Edge of Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Anthropology, and Environmental Science
- By: John Brockman
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain, Antony Ferguson, Jonathan Yen
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scientists' understanding of life is progressing more rapidly than at any point in human history, from the extraordinary decoding of DNA to the controversial emergence of biotechnology. Featuring pioneering biologists, geneticists, physicists, and science writers, Life explains just how far we've come - and takes a brilliantly educated guess at where we're heading.
-
-
A remarkable book
- By PMonaco on 03-06-18
By: John Brockman
-
The Fourth Age
- By: Byron Reese
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. The Fourth Age provides extraordinary background information on how we got to this point, and how - rather than what - we should think about the topics we’ll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity.
-
-
A Big History Story of AI
- By Doug Hohulin on 04-25-18
By: Byron Reese
-
Science in the Soul
- Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward, Gillian Somerscales
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades Richard Dawkins has been the world's most brilliant scientific communicator, consistently illuminating the wonders of nature and attacking faulty logic. Science in the Soul brings together 42 essays, polemics, and paeans - culled from personal papers, newspapers, lectures, and online salons - all written with Dawkins' characteristic erudition, remorseless wit, and unjaded awe of the natural world.
-
-
Great writing; distracting reading
- By Chris DeMuth Jr on 08-09-17
By: Richard Dawkins
What listeners say about Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David G. Ross
- 08-16-24
This classic is timelessly beautiful listening.
Having read this when it first came out and having treasured it as a wonderful set of essays, upon finding the audiobook I knew I had to hear it especially with the voice of George Guidall. I simply love it. I know that I will return to it often as a refresher for keeping my humanity thoughtful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!