News & Events

2020

Friendship was named a Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Nonfiction Book for Winter 2020. The NBIC is curated by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain and Dan Pink. They chose six finalists and I am honored to be one of them! Read more here.

Organizational psychologist and best-selling author Adam Grant named Friendship one of his 20 new leadership books for 2020. These books were his “top picks for books that have the potential to have a lasting impact on your thoughts and actions.” Check out his full list here.

Here are all the books that made Adam Grant’s list.

Friendship has been named one of Apple Books Most Anticipated Books for Winter 2020.

Reviews are starting to roll in and they’re good!

Booklist gave Friendship a starred review: “Denworth’s work achieves the best of science writing by making complicated concepts clear. She uses intelligent observation, empathy, and curiosity to offer a friendship manifesto that will absolutely affect readers’ own personal approaches to friendship.”

Library Journal: “Verdict: After reading Denworth’s treatise on friendship, you may want to immediately call your best friend or make a new one.”

Kirkus Reviews: “Convincing evidence that evolution endowed us with a need for friends, support, comfort, stimulation, and, ultimately, happiness.”

Friendship Events are coming! Save these dates.

January 27 at 7 p.m.: PageTurners, The Nook at DeKalb Stage, Inside the DeKalb Market Hall/City Point, Hosted by Glenn Raucher, Books available from Books on Call NYC

January 29 at 7 p.m.: In conversation with Steven Johnson at Community Bookstore, 143 7th Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

January 30 at 6 p.m.: In conversation with Randi Hutter Epstein at Corner Bookstore, 1313 Madison Ave at 93rd St, New York, NY.

February 3 at 7 p.m.: In conversation with Judith Warner, Politics & Prose at the Wharf, 70 District Sq SW, Washington DC

February 4 at 6 p.m.: Penn Bookstore, 3601 Walnut St, Philadelphia PA

February 11 at 7 p.m.: Science in the City, Pacific Science Center, Seattle

February 12 at 7 p.m.: Science on Tap, Kiggins Theater, Vancouver, WA

February 18 at 7 p.m.: The Cardigan Connection with Robin and Emily Homonoff, Askew, 150 Chestnut St., Providence, RI.

February 20 at 4:30 – 6 p.m.: Knight Science Journalism Program, MIT, 400 Main St., Cambridge, MA.

March 3: SWINY (Science Writers in New York) Book Talk, New York, NY.

 

2019

I was a guest on KNRS in Salt Lake City to talk about my story in Scientific American on social media and well-being. Listen in here.

 

I was a guest on Radiolab’s episode G: Problem Space. As part of a discussion of IQ tests, I shared the story of Herb Needleman and the use of such tests in the battle over lead poisoning. Give it a listen. (I appear around 27:40 but you should start at 22 minutes in for the set-up.)

Cochlear Celebration

I spoke and moderated two panels at Cochlear Celebration 2019 in Nashville.

 

2018

I was a guest on the Books in Three Bytes podcast to talk about storytelling and science. We covered the stories that inspired each of my books including the one I’m working on now.

My feature on suicide prevention appeared in the April issue of Scientific American. I talked about it on the online business network Cheddar.

I took the stage to talk about friendship as one of 14 finalists in the TED NYC Idea Search on January 24. Stay tuned for more news on this front.

2017

  • I appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Morning Show to talk about empathy with John Munson. Listen in here.
  • I talked about the neuroscience of empathy with Krys Boyd, host of Think on KERA in Dallas (an NPR affiliate.) You can catch our conversation here.
  • My feature on empathy is in the December 2017 issue of Scientific American.
  • The Impact of Touch With Lydia Denworth: I talk all about affective touch with Cathy Biase on The Health Hub, a Radio Mario Canada show and podcast.

  • I talked about writing and coping with what life hands you on The Role Models Podcast with David Noël.
  • See the September 2017 issue of Scientific American for my article on the perennial and controversial question: “Is There a ‘Female’ Brain?” It’s part of a special issue on sex and gender you won’t want to miss.
  • Friendship: A Natural History (working title) will be published by W.W. Norton some time in 2019. Here’s the August 8, 2017 announcement in Publisher’s Marketplace: “Science journalist and I CAN HEAR YOU WHISPER author Lydia Denworth’s FRIENDSHIP: A Natural History, a new look at the sociobiological origins of friendship, from its evolutionary underpinnings in the animal world, to its indispensable role in humans’ ability to survive and thrive, to Quynh Do at Norton, by Dorian Karchmar at William Morris Endeavor (NA). Foreign: Janine Kamouh at WME UK: Matilda Forbes Watson at WME.”

 

2014-2016

I Can Hear You Whisper is called “timely and rigorous . . . enthralling . . . tender and moving”  in The New York Review of Books.

In June, Lydia was the Commencement speaker for CUNY Graduate Center’s Audiology Program and spoke to the Special Education Office of New York City’s Department of Education.

Lydia talked about sound, music and Deaf brains with John Schaefer on WNYC’s Soundcheck.

Lydia spent an hour talking about the book with Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY’s Radio Times.

I Can Hear You Whisper featured in People (May 12) and Parents (June)

I Can Hear You Whisper adapted on Time.com

I Can Hear You Whisper featured in The New York Times

Lydia and Alex featured on CBS This Morning

Lydia interviewed by Andy Borowitz on The Leonard Lopate Show    

Lydia is first featured author in World Science Festival’s new Smart Reads column

I Can Hear You Whisper mentioned in Vanity Fair’s “Hot Type” (May)

Reviews of I Can Hear You Whisper:
The New York Review of Books
The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Kirkus Reviews
About.com
Michael Chorost
Sudden Silence