New book

Coming soon

Jesse Bering

Writer, psychologist, science communicator

Psychologist, professor and writer, Jesse specializes in cognitive science and the evolutionary bases of human behaviour. From God to sex to suicide to the afterlife, he uses humor and science to explore, at the deepest levels, what it means to be—and to think—human.

Books

Books

Photo by Guy Frederick

About Jesse

Jesse is the author of several acclaimed popular science books, and he and his work have been featured on numerous documentaries, television shows and radio programmes, including ‘Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman’, ‘Conan’, ‘Chelsea Lately’, ‘Q&A’ (Australia), NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’ and the BBC. He has written for Scientific American, Slate, Guardian, The New York Times, Discover, Chicago Tribune, New Republic, Vice and many others.

Jesse is Professor of Science Communication and Head of the Department of Science Communication at the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand. He lives on the Otago Peninsula with his partner Juan and their two border terriers, Hanno and Kora.

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"Excellent in its entirety, woven of Bering’s rare tapestry of scientific rigor and a powerful, articulate social point of view.”

Brain Pickings

"By the time you finish reading these sentences someone in the world will have committed suicide. Why do more than a million people a year kill themselves? To answer this question we need a brilliant research scientist, an insightful psychologist, and a sensitive but powerful writer who has seriously contemplated taking their own life. Jesse Bering fits all three criteria and the book you hold in your hands is a deeply moving narrative that cuts to the heart of the ultimate question any of us could ever ask: why should I live? Given what’s at stake in the topic, Suicidal may very well be the most important book you will ever read.”

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic Magazine

“Jesse Bering is a brilliant young psychologist, a gifted storyteller, a careful reader of Jean-Paul Sartre, and a very funny man. And his first book, The Belief Instinct, is a triumph—a moving, provocative, and entertaining exploration of the human search for meaning.”

Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology, Yale University, author of How Pleasure Works

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