It's All Relative: Adventures Up And Down The World's Family Tree

  • Author: A. J. Jacobs
  • Narrator: A. J. Jacobs
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Duration: 8:03:22
preview

Synopsis

#1 New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs undergoes a hilarious, poignant quest to understand what constitutes family—where it begins and how far it goes—in It’s All Relative, a “thought-provoking…delightful, easy-to-read, informative book” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

A.J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: “You don’t know me, but I’m your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database.”

That’s enough family members to fill Madison Square Garden four times over. Who are these people, A.J. wondered, and how do I find them? So began Jacobs’s three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history. In It’s All Relative, he “muses on the nature of family and the interconnectedness of humanity in this entertaining introduction to the world of genealogy” (Publishers Weekly).

Jacobs’s journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a US president, sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels. After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family.

“Whether he’s posing as a celebrity, outsourcing his chores, or adhering strictly to the Bible, we love reading about the wacky lifestyle experiments of author A.J. Jacobs” (Entertainment Weekly). Now Jacobs upends, in ways both meaningful and hilarious, our understanding of genetics and genealogy, tradition and tribalism, identity and connection. “Whimsical but also full of solid journalism and eye-opening revelations about the history of humanity, It’s All Relative is a real treat” (Booklist, starred review).

Chapters

  • ItsAllRelative 41 Ch38

    Duration: 12min
  • ItsAllRelative 42 Ch39

    Duration: 12min
  • ItsAllRelative 43 Ch40

    Duration: 09min
  • ItsAllRelative 44 Ch41

    Duration: 05min
  • ItsAllRelative 45 Ch42

    Duration: 11min
  • ItsAllRelative 46 Ch43

    Duration: 08min
  • ItsAllRelative 47 Ch44

    Duration: 08min
  • ItsAllRelative 48 Ch45

    Duration: 18s
  • ItsAllRelative 49 Ch46

    Duration: 19min
  • ItsAllRelative 50 AuthorsNote

    Duration: 28s
  • ItsAllRelative 51 Cousins

    Duration: 03min
  • ItsAllRelative 52 Credits

    Duration: 01min
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