
How We Got to Now
Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $13.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
George Newbern
-
By:
-
Steven Johnson
About this listen
From the New York Times best-selling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new look at the power and legacy of great ideas.
In this volume, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences. Filled with surprising stories of accidental genius and brilliant mistakes - from the French publisher who invented the phonograph before Edison but forgot to include playback, to the Hollywood movie star who helped invent the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth - How We Got to Now investigates the secret history behind the everyday objects of contemporary life.
In his trademark style, Johnson examines unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated fields: how the invention of air-conditioning enabled the largest migration of human beings in the history of the species - to cities such as Dubai or Phoenix, which would otherwise be virtually uninhabitable; how pendulum clocks helped trigger the industrial revolution; and how clean water made it possible to manufacture computer chips. Accompanied by a major six-part television series on PBS, How We Got to Now is the story of collaborative networks building the modern world, written in the provocative, informative, and engaging style that has earned Johnson fans around the globe.
©2014 Steven Johnson (P)2014 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Where Good Ideas Come From
- The Natural History of Innovation
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Eric Singer
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.
-
-
Ambitious
- By Roy on 12-08-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
Guns, Germs and Steel
- The Fate of Human Societies
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Doug Ordunio
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology.
-
-
Compelling pre-history and emergent history
- By Doug on 08-25-11
By: Jared Diamond
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Farsighted
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Steven Johnson - introduction
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's no one-size-fits-all model for the important decisions that can alter the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. But Farsighted explains how we can approach these choices more effectively and how we can appreciate the subtle intelligence of choices that shaped our broader social history.
-
-
Powerful Book for Business and Personal Decisions
- By Robert Z on 09-30-18
By: Steven Johnson
-
Extra Life
- A Short History of Living Longer
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1920, at the end of the last major pandemic, global life expectancy was just over 40 years. Today, in many parts of the world, human beings can expect to live more than 80 years. As a species, we have doubled our life expectancy in just one century. There are few measures of human progress more astonishing than this increased longevity.
-
-
Thought provoking
- By MacGyver124 on 06-14-21
By: Steven Johnson
-
Wonderland
- How Play Made the Modern World
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Got to Now and Extra Life, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained. This history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.
-
-
It will delight you
- By T. Leach on 02-09-17
By: Steven Johnson
-
Where Good Ideas Come From
- The Natural History of Innovation
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Eric Singer
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.
-
-
Ambitious
- By Roy on 12-08-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
Guns, Germs and Steel
- The Fate of Human Societies
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Doug Ordunio
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology.
-
-
Compelling pre-history and emergent history
- By Doug on 08-25-11
By: Jared Diamond
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Farsighted
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Steven Johnson - introduction
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's no one-size-fits-all model for the important decisions that can alter the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. But Farsighted explains how we can approach these choices more effectively and how we can appreciate the subtle intelligence of choices that shaped our broader social history.
-
-
Powerful Book for Business and Personal Decisions
- By Robert Z on 09-30-18
By: Steven Johnson
-
Extra Life
- A Short History of Living Longer
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1920, at the end of the last major pandemic, global life expectancy was just over 40 years. Today, in many parts of the world, human beings can expect to live more than 80 years. As a species, we have doubled our life expectancy in just one century. There are few measures of human progress more astonishing than this increased longevity.
-
-
Thought provoking
- By MacGyver124 on 06-14-21
By: Steven Johnson
-
Wonderland
- How Play Made the Modern World
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Got to Now and Extra Life, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained. This history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.
-
-
It will delight you
- By T. Leach on 02-09-17
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Invention of Air
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Steven Johnson recounts - in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion - the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. The Invention of Air is a title of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.
-
-
Good scientific history
- By Roger on 05-03-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
Enemy of All Mankind
- A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event - the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew - and its surprising repercussions across time and space.
-
-
Slow
- By Gary V Howell on 06-07-20
By: Steven Johnson
-
Origin Story
- A Big History of Everything
- By: David Christian
- Narrated by: Jamie Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day - and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of "Big History", the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
-
-
A brilliant achievement, must read/listen
- By 11104 on 09-05-18
By: David Christian
-
The Ghost Map
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.
-
-
It was okay until the end
- By Matthew Groom on 12-04-08
By: Steven Johnson
-
Everyone Communicates, Few Connect
- What the Most Effective People Do Differently
- By: John C. Maxwell
- Narrated by: Henry O. Arnold, John Maxwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most effective leaders know how to connect with people. It's not about power or popularity, but about making the people around you feel heard, comfortable, and understood. While it may seem like some folks are born with a commanding presence that draws people in, the fact is anyone can learn to communicate in ways that consistently build powerful connections. Bestselling author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell offers advice for effective communication to those who continually run into obstacles when it comes to personal success.
-
-
stronger than normal Maxwell
- By jdon on 07-17-20
By: John C. Maxwell
-
The Idea Factory
- Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
- By: Jon Gertner
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Idea Factory, New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner reveals how Bell Labs served as an incubator for scientific innovation from the 1920s through the1980s. In its heyday, Bell Labs boasted nearly 15,000 employees, 1200 of whom held PhDs and 13 of whom won Nobel Prizes. Thriving in a work environment that embraced new ideas, Bell Labs scientists introduced concepts that still propel many of today’s most exciting technologies.
-
-
Great story -- horrible pauses
- By Rodney on 01-29-13
By: Jon Gertner
-
Think Like a Rocket Scientist
- Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life
- By: Ozan Varol
- Narrated by: Ozan Varol
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rocket science is often celebrated as the ultimate triumph of technology. But it's not. Rather, it's the apex of a certain thought process—a way to imagine the unimaginable and solve the unsolvable. It's the same thought process that enabled Neil Armstrong to take his giant leap for mankind, that allows spacecraft to travel millions of miles through outer space and land on a precise spot, and that brings us closer to colonizing other planets.
-
-
Incrementally new perspectives on rehashed themes
- By James S. on 06-13-20
By: Ozan Varol
-
The Art of Impossible
- A Peak Performance Primer
- By: Steven Kotler
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author and peak performance expert Steven Kotler decodes the secrets of those elite performers - athletes, artists, scientists, CEOs, and more - who have changed our definition of the possible, teaching us how we too can stretch far beyond our capabilities, making impossible dreams much more attainable for all of us. What does it take to accomplish the impossible? What does it take to shatter our limitations, exceed our expectations, and turn our biggest dreams into our most recent achievements?
-
-
The power of this book is IMMENSE. One of a kind.
- By TL on 01-23-21
By: Steven Kotler
-
The Knowledge
- How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch
- By: Lewis Dartnell
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself.
-
-
We might be screwed, but... science!
- By Ryan on 11-28-15
By: Lewis Dartnell
-
The Nature of Technology
- What It Is and How It Evolves
- By: W. Brian Arthur
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur sets forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology. The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology's origins and evolution. It achieves for the progress of technology what Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions did for scientific progress.
-
-
mind blowing
- By T. Leach on 01-12-18
By: W. Brian Arthur
-
The Information
- A History, a Theory, a Flood
- By: James Gleick
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
James Gleick, the author of the best sellers Chaos and Genius, now brings us a work just as astonishing and masterly: A revelatory chronicle and meditation that shows how information has become the modern era’s defining quality - the blood, the fuel, the vital principle of our world. The story of information begins in a time profoundly unlike our own, when every thought and utterance vanishes as soon as it is born.
-
-
Brilliant book, heroic reader, better in print?
- By A reader on 03-12-11
By: James Gleick
-
How We Learn
- Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine...for Now
- By: Stanislas Dehaene
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The human brain is an extraordinary machine. Its ability to process information and adapt to circumstances by reprogramming itself is unparalleled and it remains the best source of inspiration for recent developments in artificial intelligence. In How We Learn, Stanislas Dehaene decodes the brain's biological mechanisms, delving into the neuronal, synaptic, and molecular processes taking place. He explains why youth is such a sensitive period, but assures us that our abilities continue into adulthood and that we can enhance our learning and memory at any age.
-
-
Too pedantic, too didactic
- By RickyF on 12-05-21
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Where Good Ideas Come From
- The Natural History of Innovation
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Eric Singer
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.
-
-
Ambitious
- By Roy on 12-08-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
Wonderland
- How Play Made the Modern World
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Got to Now and Extra Life, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained. This history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.
-
-
It will delight you
- By T. Leach on 02-09-17
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Invention of Air
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Steven Johnson recounts - in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion - the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. The Invention of Air is a title of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.
-
-
Good scientific history
- By Roger on 05-03-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
Everything Bad Is Good for You
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence. Forget everything you’ve ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture.
-
-
great material, but outdated.
- By Anonymous User on 01-15-18
By: Steven Johnson
-
How We Got to Now
- Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innovation starts with a problem whose solution sets in motion all kinds of unexpected discoveries. That's why you can draw a line from pendulums to punching the clock at a factory, from ice blocks to summer movie blockbusters, from clean water to computer chips. In the lively storytelling style that has made him a popular, best-selling author Steven Johnson looks at how accidental genius, brilliant mistakes, and unintended consequences shape the way we live in the modern world.
-
-
Thank you
- By Anonymous User on 07-16-19
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Infernal Machine
- A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steven Johnson’s engrossing account of the epic struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and between two centuries—from Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite and the assassination of Czar Alexander II to New York City in the shadow of World War I.
-
-
Really Emma Goldman bio
- By Richard G. on 09-09-24
By: Steven Johnson
-
Where Good Ideas Come From
- The Natural History of Innovation
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Eric Singer
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.
-
-
Ambitious
- By Roy on 12-08-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
Wonderland
- How Play Made the Modern World
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Got to Now and Extra Life, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained. This history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.
-
-
It will delight you
- By T. Leach on 02-09-17
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Invention of Air
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Steven Johnson recounts - in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion - the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. The Invention of Air is a title of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.
-
-
Good scientific history
- By Roger on 05-03-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
Everything Bad Is Good for You
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence. Forget everything you’ve ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture.
-
-
great material, but outdated.
- By Anonymous User on 01-15-18
By: Steven Johnson
-
How We Got to Now
- Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innovation starts with a problem whose solution sets in motion all kinds of unexpected discoveries. That's why you can draw a line from pendulums to punching the clock at a factory, from ice blocks to summer movie blockbusters, from clean water to computer chips. In the lively storytelling style that has made him a popular, best-selling author Steven Johnson looks at how accidental genius, brilliant mistakes, and unintended consequences shape the way we live in the modern world.
-
-
Thank you
- By Anonymous User on 07-16-19
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Infernal Machine
- A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steven Johnson’s engrossing account of the epic struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and between two centuries—from Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite and the assassination of Czar Alexander II to New York City in the shadow of World War I.
-
-
Really Emma Goldman bio
- By Richard G. on 09-09-24
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Ghost Map
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.
-
-
It was okay until the end
- By Matthew Groom on 12-04-08
By: Steven Johnson
-
Farsighted
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Steven Johnson - introduction
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's no one-size-fits-all model for the important decisions that can alter the course of a life, an organization, or a civilization. But Farsighted explains how we can approach these choices more effectively and how we can appreciate the subtle intelligence of choices that shaped our broader social history.
-
-
Powerful Book for Business and Personal Decisions
- By Robert Z on 09-30-18
By: Steven Johnson
-
Enemy of All Mankind
- A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event - the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew - and its surprising repercussions across time and space.
-
-
Slow
- By Gary V Howell on 06-07-20
By: Steven Johnson
-
Extra Life
- A Short History of Living Longer
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1920, at the end of the last major pandemic, global life expectancy was just over 40 years. Today, in many parts of the world, human beings can expect to live more than 80 years. As a species, we have doubled our life expectancy in just one century. There are few measures of human progress more astonishing than this increased longevity.
-
-
Thought provoking
- By MacGyver124 on 06-14-21
By: Steven Johnson
-
Future Perfect
- The Case for Progress in a Networked Age
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Samuel Cohen
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combining the deft social analysis of Where Good Ideas Come From with the optimistic arguments of Everything Bad Is Good for You, New York Times best-selling author Steven Johnson's Future Perfect makes the case that a new model of political change is on the rise, transforming everything from local governments to classrooms, from protest movements to health care. Johnson paints a compelling portrait of this new political worldview.
-
-
Learn something new
- By Mauricio Eduardo Elizondo Perez on 03-12-13
By: Steven Johnson
-
Hit Makers
- The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction
- By: Derek Thompson
- Narrated by: Derek Thompson
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing "goes viral". If you think a popular movie, song, or app came out of nowhere to become a word-of-mouth success in today's crowded media environment, you're missing the real story. Each blockbuster has a secret history - of power, influence, dark broadcasters, and passionate cults that turn some new products into cultural phenomena. In his groundbreaking investigation, Atlantic senior editor Derek Thompson uncovers the hidden psychology of why we like what we like.
-
-
Starts of saying “The Tipping Point” book was wrong but then...
- By Venusian Incognito on 03-25-18
By: Derek Thompson
New insight into famous innovations
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Johnson’s first example is a translucent substance in the Egyptian desert. Its discovery takes the form of art-buried in ancient tombs. Tiny scarab models lead to questions of how a translucent glass beetle is formed. His second example is the brittle transparent natural production of ice that leads to cooled drinks, to refrigeration, air conditioning, and frozen dinners. In the early days of civilization, sunlight determined the length of the work day. Eventually ways of extending the work day are created with artificial light. With Guttenberg, innovations in print spread education around the world at an affordable cost. Personal human knowledge expands geometrically. Innovations in sound have expanded from echoes in caves to wired communication to cell phone conversations to sea floor mapping to the discovery of remnants of the sound of earth’s Big Bang. As the world matures, time is measured; i.e. first by the position of the sun; later by the segmentation of a created twenty-four hour day and finally with accuracy determined by the molecular action of atoms. Accurate and synchronized measurement of time becomes critical to many aspects of life.
Johnson argues that these six areas of innovation coalesce to explain humanity’s past, present, and future. Johnson’s glass, ice, light, print, sound, and time reminds one of Aristotle’s forms; i.e. the idea that forms are what human’ senses determine objects to be. Johnson adds the principle of innovation to Aristotelian forms to make the world modern.
CIVILIZATION'S ADVANCE
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I come back to this over and over!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing, but 25% shorter than I'd like
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
interesting
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good Naration of Science History
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A must read!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Inventions Rock!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The Proper Telling of Human Evolution
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.