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A Quantum Life

By: Hakeem Oluseyi, Joshua Horwitz
Narrated by: Hakeem Oluseyi
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Summary

In this inspiring coming-of-age memoir, a world-renowned astrophysicist emerges from an impoverished childhood and crime-filled adolescence to ascend through the top ranks of research physics.

Navigating poverty, violence, and instability, a young James Plummer had two guiding stars - a genius IQ and a love of science. But a bookish nerd was a soft target in his community, where James faced years of bullying and abuse. As he struggled to survive his childhood in some of the country's toughest urban neighborhoods in New Orleans, Houston and LA, and later in the equally poor backwoods of Mississippi, he adopted the persona of "gangsta nerd" - dealing weed in juke joints while winning state science fairs with computer programs that model Einstein's theory of relativity.

Once admitted to the elite physics PhD program at Stanford University, James found himself pulled between the promise of a bright future and a dangerous crack cocaine habit he developed in college. With the encouragement of his mentor and the sole Black professor in the physics department, James confronted his personal demons as well as the entrenched racism and classism of the scientific establishment. When he finally seized his dream of a life in astrophysics, he adopted a new name, Hakeem Muata Oluseyi, to honor his African ancestors.

Alternately heartbreaking and hopeful, A Quantum Life narrates one man's remarkable quest across an ever-expanding universe filled with entanglement and choice.

©2021 Hakeem Oluseyi and Joshua Horwitz (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK
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exceptional

It's hard to believe this isn't a fictional novel. Read passionately by Hakeem, anyone who has the good fortune to listen to this intriguing, heartbreaking and grounding admission to flawed genius will be a better human being for it.

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Unabashed and daring!

what a brilliant listen - unabashed and daring in its candour and reflections! It felt like many life-times wrapped in one. Read by Hakeem himself - I can't imagine it any other way now! I can't wait for the movie, which I believe is in the works..but this narration will be a hard act to follow!

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very good!

I enjoyed listening to this one. especially when i found out it was narrated by the author Hakeem Oluseyi . very good and clear voice.

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