Breath

James Nestor

James Nestor has written for Outside, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Dwell, The New York Times, and many other publications. His book Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves was a finalist for the 2015 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, an Amazon Best Science Book of 2014, and more. Nestor has appeared on dozens of national television shows, including ABC’s Nightline and CBS’s Morning News, and on NPR. He lives and breathes in San Francisco.

Riverhead Books 052620

A New York Times Bestseller

A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020

A Goodreads Award Finalist for Best Science & Technology Book of the Year

"A fascinating book, full of dazzling revelations." — Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 

"This book is awesome. Most people have no idea how to do breathing exercises and how beneficial they are. Over the last few weeks I’ve been using the methods I learned from his book and I can tell you there are absolutely some real benefits to be had from this. . .I really enjoyed this book."  — Joe Rogan

"I highly recommend this book." — Wim Hof

"A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time. I already feel calmer and healthier just in the last few days, from making a few simple changes in my breathing, based on what I’ve read. . . . Our breath is a beautiful, healing, mysterious gift, and so is this book." — Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat, Pray, Love

"With his entertaining, eerily well-timed new book, James Nestor explains the science behind proper breathing and how we can transform our lungs and our lives. . . . The book is brisk and detailed, a well-written read that is always entertaining, as he melds the personal, the historical, and the scientific." — The Boston Globe

“It's a rare popular-science book that keeps a reader up late, eyes glued to the pages. But Breath is just that fascinating. It will alarm you. It will gross you out. And it will inspire you. Who knew respiration could be so scintillating?” — Spirituality & Health

“Breath provides a new perspective of modern day technology and how we’ve unknowingly abandoned the answers we’ve always had. James Nestor artfully brings back what modern society has walked away from by combining ancestral techniques and new age technology in one elegant book.”  — Scientific Inquirer

“A transformative book that changes how you think about your body and mind.” — Joshua Foer, New York Times–bestselling author of Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Memory

“Breath is an utterly fascinating journey into the ways we are wired. No matter who you are, you’ll want to read this.” — Po Bronson, New York Times–bestselling author of What Should I Do with My Life? and coauthor of NutureShock

“An eye-opening, epic journey of human devolution that explains why so many of us are sick and tired. A must-read book that exposes what our health care system doesn’t see.” — Dr. Steven Y. Park, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, author of Sleep, Interrupted 

“I don’t say this often, but when I do I mean it: This book changed my life. Breath is part scientific quest, part historical insight, part Hero’s Journey, full of groundbreaking ideas, and a rollicking good read. I had no idea that the simple and intuitive act of inhaling and exhaling has taken such an evolutionary hit. As a result, I figured out why I sleep so badly and why my breathing feels so often out of sync. With a few simple tweaks, I fixed my breathing and fixed myself. A transformational book!” — Caroline Paul, bestselling author of The Gutsy Girl

“If you breathe, you need this book. When we undervalue anything, including something so basic as breathing, bad things always happen—and Nestor makes it clear how awful it’s gotten. But he also provides a clear airway back to better, deeper, stronger respirations.” — Wallace J. Nichols, PhD, New York Times–bestselling  author of Blue Mind

“Breath shows us just how extraordinary the act of breathing is and why so much depends on how we do it. An enthralling, surprising, and often funny adventure into our most overlooked and undervalued function.” — Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim and American Chinatown

"A welcome, invigorating user’s manual for the respiratory system." — Kirkus Review

“Although we all breathe, there is an art and science to breathing correctly . . . Full of fascinating information an compelling arguments, this eye-opening (or more aptly a mouth-closing and nostril-opening) work is highly recommended.” — Library Journal

YouTube  Videos

"The magic of the nose, and it's healing powers,
wasn't lost on the ancients."