Book Recommendation: Traversal by Maria Popopva
E-book cover of Maria Popova’s book, Traversal.
If you’ve been following my work for a while now, you’ll know that I’m enchanted / gobsmacked / deeply moved / provoked by the work of Maria Popova, one of the most astonishing writers I’ve ever encountered.
Let me commit the cardinal sin of content creation and advise you to stop reading, right here. Go sign up for Popova’s fantastic newsletter, The Marginalian, and also for her great new Substack, Reweaving the Rainbow, which is a nature-themed poetry collaboration. You won’t be sorry.
Are you back? Great!
An Exploration of What It Means to Be Human
Image credits: Patrick Hendry | Unsplash
Popova’s work occupies a rare intellectual ecosystem. She moves effortlessly among art and science, biology and astronomy, poetry and physics, history and the inner life. More importantly, she reveals the hidden connective tissue between them: how humans make meaning from the bewildering fact of being alive. I previously reviewed the poetry collection that Popova edited as well as her previous masterwork, Figuring. Her new book, Traversal, continues her exploration of what it means to be human—not as a fixed identity, but as an ongoing process of becoming.
This is a book about curiosity and longing, yes, but also about discovery, grief, creativity, scientific “truth”, cultural evolution, and the strange miracle that consciousness can contemplate itself at all*. It is populated by scientists, poets, revolutionaries, lovers, iconoclasts, and visionaries, all engaged in the same essential act: trying to understand how to live.
And perhaps that is the meaning of the title. A traversal is not a destination. It is a crossing. A movement through uncertainty. A willingness to be transformed by what one encounters along the way.
Building Our World Beyond the Ledger of Facts
Image credits: Note Thanun |Unsplash
That idea resonates deeply with me as a scientist. We often imagine that science is the accumulation of facts. It is not; science is a process. We might also mistake knowledge (or, heaven forbid, wisdom) for the accumulation of facts. But Popova reminds us that facts alone are not enough. "The beholding eye and the consciousness from which it protrudes, that instrument of flesh," she writes, "does not make the truth; it only makes its meaning, mines the austere fact for usefulness, part wonder and part greed."
In other words: the work of a life is not merely to discover reality, but to decide how to attend to it.
Again and again, Traversal returns to this question: What do we do with what we know? Science can describe the world with astonishing precision. But wonder, compassion, art, and moral imagination determine what kind of world we build from that knowledge. Popova notes that “We are humanized not by how precisely we can measure the universe and map the world with the tools of the mind but by the quality of attention we pay to the truths we discover—attention as an instrument of love, that deepest measure of how much reality we can bear.”
The Stories We Tell About Who We Are Becoming
Image credits: Vincent van Zalinge | Unsplash
This may be the book's deepest argument: meaning is not found. It is made. Individually, collectively, generation after generation, as we revise the stories we tell about who we are and who we might become.
Sometimes, I feel awkward when I use the language of love to describe the marvels of science as I encounter them as a lived reality. Sometimes, I catch myself returning to the language of science to try, desperately and fruitlessly, to understand my lived reality of love and curiosity and friendship and sheer unabashed wonder. I find myself wishing that I could gift just an instant of this magic to every person that crosses my life’s path.
Fortunately, Popova is out there, pulling us into this sweet current. How good it is to know that I’m not alone, that there is a far more talented writer than me telling these stories to the world.
Happy reading, happy wondering, happy loving!
*I recently reviewed Michael Pollan’s new book on consciousness. I guess this topic is top-of-mind for me these days (see what I did there?!). No surprise, given all the conversation about artificial intelligence.
About Tiffany
Dr. Tiffany Vora speaks, writes, and advises on how to harness technology to build the best possible future(s). She is an expert in biotech, health, & innovation.
For a full list of topics and collaboration opportunities, visit Tiffany’s Work Together webpage.
Get bio-inspiration and future-focused insights straight to your inbox by subscribing to her newsletter, Be Voracious. And be sure to follow Tiffany on LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube, and X for conversations on building a better future.
For the Curious and the Voracious
Subscribe to Be Voracious, Tiffany’s newsletter, for thoughtful conversations on science, innovation, and leadership, delivered straight to your inbox.
Buy Tiffany a Cup of Coffee | Image credits: Irene Kredenets via Unsplash.
Donate = Impact
If this article sparked curiosity, inspired reflection, or made you smile, consider buying Tiffany a cup of coffee!
Your support will:
Spread your positive impact around the world
Empower Tiffany to protect time for impact-focused projects
Support her travel for pro bono events with students & nonprofits
Purchase carbon offsets for her travel
Create a legacy of sustainability with like-minded changemakers!
Join Tiffany on her mission by contributing through her Buy Me a Coffee page.
Here are a few other book reviews that might spark curiosity and wonder:
💡The Universe in Verse by Maria Popova | Read the book review here
💡Figuring by Maria Popova | Read the book review here
💡The Transcendent Brain by Alan Lightman | Read the book review here
💡How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan | Read the book review here
💡Biomimicry by Janine M. Benyus | Watch the book review here or read the review here
💡Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones | Watch the review here
