How to Train Your Ape

I’ll admit, I side-eyed the title *How to Train Your Ape* at first—another gimmicky self-help book? But within five minutes, JJ Zulu had me laughing *and* squirming. The premise is deceptively simple: your brain’s default settings are optimized for a savanna, not a spreadsheet, and modern misery stems from ignoring that fact. What sets this apart from the glut of “rewire your brain” books is Zulu’s refusal to sugarcoat. He doesn’t just *tell* you your inner ape is sabotaging you; he *shows* you, with examples so specific (like comparing office politics to chimpanzee grooming hierarchies) that you’ll cringe in recognition. Nick Holbrook’s performance sells the material. His delivery swings between deadpan sarcasm (“Congrats, you’ve evolved just enough to feel guilty about eating cake”) and genuine urgency when tackling heavier topics like loneliness or self-sabotage. My only critique? The audiobook’s brevity sometimes works against it. Chapters on “tribe-building” and “status games” feel rushed—like Zulu’s racing to the next joke before fully unpacking the psychology. And while the ape metaphor is gold, a few sections (like the “dominance vs. prestige” breakdown) could use more real-world examples to ground the theory. Still, the narration’s energy and the book’s refusal to panders make it a standout. If you’re tired of self-help that treats you like a broken robot in need of debugging, this is the feral kick in the pants you didn’t know you needed.