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 01 Title

    Duration: 36s
  • ItsAllRelative 02 Dedication

  • ItsAllRelative 03 Introduction

    Duration: 07min
  • ItsAllRelative 04 Ch1

    Duration: 05min
  • ItsAllRelative 05 Ch2

    Duration: 09min
  • ItsAllRelative 06 Ch3

    Duration: 04min
  • ItsAllRelative 07 Ch4

    Duration: 12min
  • ItsAllRelative 08 Ch5

    Duration: 09min
  • ItsAllRelative 09 Ch6

    Duration: 13min
  • ItsAllRelative 10 Ch7

    Duration: 13min
  • ItsAllRelative 11 Ch8

    Duration: 10min
  • ItsAllRelative 12 Ch9

    Duration: 09min
  • ItsAllRelative 13 Ch10

    Duration: 13min
  • ItsAllRelative 14 Ch11

    Duration: 08min
  • ItsAllRelative 15 Ch12

    Duration: 12min
  • ItsAllRelative 16 Ch13

    Duration: 13min
  • ItsAllRelative 17 Ch14

    Duration: 09min
  • ItsAllRelative 18 Ch15

    Duration: 10min
  • ItsAllRelative 19 Ch16

    Duration: 07min
  • ItsAllRelative 20 Ch17

    Duration: 10min
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