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Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor Review: A Landmark Popular Science Bestseller
James Nestor's Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art is a popular science book that blends history, science, and personal investigation to make the case that modern humans have forgotten how to breathe — and are paying a steep physiological price. First published by Riverhead Books on May 26, 2020, the book became an international phenomenon, debuting at number seven on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list and spending 18 weeks on that list in its first year. It has since sold over two million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 35 languages. Kirkus Reviews named it "a welcome, invigorating user's manual for the respiratory system," and it won Best General Nonfiction Book of 2020 from the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Curious general readers who want to understand how breathing affects their health and are open to a journey through ancient wisdom, modern pulmonology, and one journalist's self-experimentation — without needing clinical-grade evidence at every turn.
Worth it if
You're drawn to wide-ranging popular science that blends history, physiology, and practical technique, and you appreciate a journalist's knack for making complex biology both urgent and readable.
Skip if
You're a clinician or evidence-based-medicine reader who will bristle when a journalist's confidence in ancient breathing practices outruns the peer-reviewed support beneath it.
What readers & critics say
Kirkus Reviews awarded it a starred "Get It" verdict, calling it "a welcome, invigorating user's manual for the respiratory system" and praising its "readable treatise" on a subject half the population is getting wrong. According to the Wikipedia reception summary, the book became an international bestseller — over two million copies sold, 35-plus languages — while some reviewers, including science writer Sam Kean, raised skepticism about whether the evidence fully supports Nestor's broader claims around ancient breathing exercises.
“A welcome, invigorating user's manual for the respiratory system — a readable treatise on improving the way we breathe.”
— Kirkus ReviewsIn This Review
- What Works & What Doesn't
- What the Book Is and What It Argues
- Scope and Research Ambition
- Reception and Cultural Reach
- Genuine Strengths: Accessibility and Synthesis
- Limitations and Who May Push Back
What Works & What Doesn't
What Works
- International bestseller with over two million copies sold worldwide and translations into more than 35 languages, demonstrating exceptional breadth of appeal
- Won Best General Nonfiction Book of 2020 from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and was a finalist for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021
- Praised by Kirkus Reviews as 'a welcome, invigorating user's manual for the respiratory system' and by Publishers Weekly as a 'fascinating treatise'
- Draws on ten years of research spanning ancient medical texts, cutting-edge pulmonology, and Nestor's own self-experimentation for rare depth and range
- Presents actionable, concrete guidance — including the specific 'perfect breath' technique — alongside its historical and scientific narrative
What Doesn't
- Some science-focused reviewers, including Sam Kean, expressed skepticism about claims regarding ancient breathing practices, suggesting the evidentiary case is not airtight for all findings
- Written from a journalist's perspective rather than a clinician's, which readers seeking strictly peer-reviewed conclusions may find limiting
A global bestseller grounded in ten years of research, Breath makes the case that the most fundamental human act has gone dangerously wrong — and that the fix is simpler than anyone expects.
What the Book Is and What It Argues
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art is a popular science book by science journalist James Nestor, first published by Riverhead Books on May 26, 2020. Its central argument is deceptively radical: humans, as a species, have lost the ability to breathe correctly, and this failure carries serious consequences for health and longevity. Nestor structures the book as a wide-ranging investigation — drawing on medical texts spanning thousands of years alongside cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology — to examine how and why modern humans shifted away from nasal breathing toward chronic mouth breathing. The book traces this shift, at least in part, to the rise of processed-food consumption, which altered jaw structure over generations. As Nestor puts it in one of the book's anchoring lines: "No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes are, how skinny or young or wise we are — none of it will matter unless we are breathing correctly."
“a welcome, invigorating user's manual for the respiratory system.”
Scope and Research Ambition
What distinguishes Breath from a narrow self-help title is its extraordinary geographic and disciplinary range. Nestor travels to ancient burial sites, Soviet-era research facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo in pursuit of answers. He teams up with pulmonary researchers at Stanford University and tracks down practitioners of ancient breathing techniques — Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo among them — to examine whether millennia-old wisdom holds up under modern scrutiny. Nestor also draws on his own first-person experiences with breathing difficulties, framing the investigation as personally motivated as well as rigorously reported. This combination of self-experimentation and institutional science is one of the book's defining structural choices. The research behind it spans a decade.
Reception and Cultural Reach
The book's commercial and critical footprint is substantial and well-documented. Breath debuted at number seven on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list and spent 18 weeks on that list during its first year of publication. It became a bestseller in Germany, Spain, Croatia, Italy, and the United Kingdom, and by April 2023 had sold over two million copies worldwide after being translated into more than 35 languages. It won the American Society of Journalists and Authors award for Best General Nonfiction Book of 2020 and was a finalist for the Royal Society Science Book Prize in 2021. Critics called it a "fascinating treatise" on breathing, while Kirkus Reviews praised it as "a welcome, invigorating user's manual for the respiratory system." Writing in The Spectator, psychiatrist Kate Womersley characterized the book as "playful and optimistic" for its blend of science, self-experimentation, and ancient technique.
Genuine Strengths: Accessibility and Synthesis
One of the book's most praised qualities is its ability to make technical science readable without flattening it. Kirkus Reviews noted that Nestor succeeded in delivering a "readable treatise," while the Wikipedia-sourced reception summary records that Stuart Miller of The Boston Globe wrote that Nestor succeeded at explaining both the basics and the more complicated aspects of breathing properly. The book's synthesis is genuinely unusual: it moves fluidly between ancient spiritual traditions — prana, chi, pneuma, atma — and peer-reviewed pulmonology, treating neither as inherently superior. Nestor also provides concrete, actionable guidance within the text, including his description of "the perfect breath": a 5.5-second inhale through the nose followed by a 5.5-second exhale, yielding 5.5 breaths per minute — a finding he presents as free and universally accessible.
Limitations and Who May Push Back
Breath is not without its critics, and readers with a strong background in evidence-based medicine may find points of friction. As Wikipedia's reception summary notes, some reviewers, including science writer Sam Kean, expressed skepticism about Nestor's claims regarding the benefits of ancient breathing exercises, questioning whether the evidence fully supports the broader conclusions drawn. The book is written by a journalist, not a clinician or academic researcher, and it synthesizes findings across disciplines with a degree of confidence that not every specialist shares. Readers who prefer their popular science tightly hedged and peer-reviewed at every turn may find the book's wide-ranging ambition occasionally outpaces its evidentiary caution. That said, these are the characteristic tensions of ambitious popular science writing — and Breath has demonstrably reached, and resonated with, a global audience that most science books never approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
is Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor worth reading
For most readers, yes — it's an unusually wide-ranging popular science book that blends ancient breathing traditions like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo with cutting-edge pulmonology research, and it spent 18 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list for good reason. Kirkus Reviews called it "a welcome, invigorating user's manual for the respiratory system," and psychiatrist Kate Womersley described it in The Spectator as "playful and optimistic." The main caveat: readers who want tightly hedged, peer-reviewed science at every step may find Nestor's confidence occasionally outpaces the evidence.
What is this book actually about
At its core, the book argues that modern humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly — shifting from nasal breathing to chronic mouth breathing — and that this shift carries serious consequences for health and longevity. Nestor traces the problem partly to processed-food consumption, which he says altered jaw structure over generations, and he frames the fix in remarkably simple terms: "No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes are, how skinny or young or wise we are — none of it will matter unless we are breathing correctly." The investigation takes him from ancient burial sites and Soviet-era research facilities to Stanford University pulmonary labs and New Jersey choir schools.
Is this book hard to read
No — one of its most praised qualities is making technical science readable without flattening it. Stuart Miller of The Boston Globe wrote that Nestor succeeded at explaining both the basics and the more complicated aspects of breathing properly, and Kirkus Reviews specifically called it a "readable treatise." It's written by a science journalist, not a clinician, so the prose stays accessible even when the subject matter gets into biochemistry or physiology.
Does this book have any practical advice or is it just theory
It includes concrete, actionable guidance alongside the research — most famously Nestor's description of "the perfect breath": a 5.5-second inhale through the nose followed by a 5.5-second exhale, yielding 5.5 breaths per minute. He presents this as free and universally accessible, not something requiring special equipment or training. So while the book covers thousands of years of medical history and disciplines from pulmonology to biochemistry, it's also designed to leave you with something you can actually practice.
Is this book scientifically legit or is it pseudoscience
It's grounded in real science — Nestor collaborated with pulmonary researchers at Stanford University and draws on peer-reviewed studies across pulmonology, psychology, and biochemistry — but some reviewers have pushed back on the broader conclusions. Science writer Sam Kean expressed skepticism about Nestor's claims regarding the benefits of ancient breathing exercises, questioning whether the evidence fully supports everything he asserts. The book is ambitious popular science written by a journalist, not a clinician, so readers with a strong evidence-based medicine background may find some claims reach further than the data strictly supports.
Who is this book good for
It's a strong pick for curious adult readers who enjoy popular science that moves between history, personal experimentation, and cutting-edge research — think people interested in health optimization, ancient wellness traditions, or the kind of narrative science writing that takes you to unexpected places like São Paulo streets or Soviet-era research facilities. It's less ideal for readers who want strictly peer-reviewed, clinically cautious science writing. With over two million copies sold and translations into more than 35 languages, it has clearly resonated well beyond a niche wellness audience.
Is this book similar to other popular science books about the body
It occupies a distinctive niche because it blends hard science with deep dives into ancient spiritual traditions — prana, chi, pneuma, atma — treating neither as inherently superior to the other, which sets it apart from more conventionally biomedical popular science books. The review notes that this synthesis is "genuinely unusual," moving fluidly between millennia-old wisdom and peer-reviewed pulmonology. If you enjoy books that combine first-person self-experimentation with serious research across multiple disciplines, Breath fits that mold well.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
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lindentreebooks.com
- Further reading
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James Nestor, Wikipedia
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en.wikipedia.org
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kirkusreviews.com
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eyalshifroni.com
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bookshelfdiscovery.com
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newbookrecommendation.com
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