Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. This is one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever read. Robert Sapolsky, a brilliant neurobiologist and primatologist, reverse engineers human behavior—from our immediate physiological responses, to our upbringing and anthropological foundations, through our genetic and evolutionary roots—and weaves together a captivating explanation of why we, human beings, do the things we do. (Hint: the answers aren’t as simple or clear-cut as many of us think they are.) This book will enlighten you on the inner-workings of our minds and bodies and, hopefully, humble you as an individual—it certainly did so for me.
Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit. Chris Matthews paints an effulgent portrait of one of the most inspiring yet tragically unfulfilled lives of the twentieth century. From his tenure as attorney general in his brother’s administration, up until his heart-rending run for president, Robert Kennedy lived a life of constant growth and service to his fellow man. Idealistic yet pragmatic, he galvanized Americans from all walks of life to set their differences aside and unite toward a common hope in perhaps one of the most tumultuous periods in our country’s history—there is a great deal we can learn by studying his example. (Even if you don’t read the book, at least take a look at this speech he gave to a black audience in Detroit just moments after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.—it’s an incredibly powerful display of the kind of empathic leadership our country desperately needs, now more than ever.)
We’re about to wrap up another year and, for me, that means the culmination of yet another successful stretch of reading, learning, and growing as a human being.
I was ten years old and my family headed to Miami Beach’s Eden Roc resort for one of my father’s biennial conferences for the Cuban American Medical Association.
