How to Invent Everything
A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler
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Narrated by:
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Ryan North
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By:
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Ryan North
About this listen
An NPR Best Book of 2018
"How to Invent Everything is such a cool book. It's essential reading for anyone who needs to duplicate an industrial civilization quickly." (Randall Munroe, xkcd creator and New York Times best-selling author of What If?)
The only book you need if you're going back in time
What would you do if a time machine hurled you thousands of years into the past...and then broke? How would you survive? Could you improve on humanity's original timeline? And how hard would it be to domesticate a giant wombat?
With this book as your guide, you'll survive - and thrive - in any period in Earth's history. Best-selling author and time-travel enthusiast Ryan North tells you how to invent all the modern conveniences we take for granted - from first principles. This manual contains all the science, engineering, art, philosophy, facts, and figures required for even the most clueless time traveler to build a civilization from the ground up. Deeply researched, irreverent, and significantly more fun than being eaten by a saber-toothed tiger, How to Invent Everything will make you smarter, more competent, and completely prepared to become the most important and influential person ever. You're about to make history....better.
©2018 Ryan North (P)2018 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Technically, we are all time travelers and we are all trapped. So, even if you happen to be scanning this blurb in what you perceive to be a 'normal' timeline, I heartily recommend you read this book cover to cover.” (Zach Weinersmith, creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and author of Soonish)
“Brilliant conceit...a slyly funny piece of popular science writing.” (Glen Weldon, NPR’s Great Reads of 2018)
“Hilarious and endlessly fascinating.... For the vast general population that might decide to trust their lives to the FC3000, this book is potentially invaluable (and mighty entertaining) one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about life, the universe, and the fly wheel.” (Christian Science Monitor)
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How does soap know what's dirt? How do magnets work? Why do ice cubes crackle in your glass? And how can you keep them quiet? These are questions that torment us all. Now Robert L. Wolke, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, provides definitive - and amazingly simple - explanations for the mysteries of everyday life.
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A funny thing happened on the way to a great book
- By Joseph on 10-01-12
By: Robert L. Wolke
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The Disappearing Spoon
- And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Reporter Sam Kean reveals the periodic table as it’s never been seen before. Not only is it one of man's crowning scientific achievements, it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
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Great Book, Great Narration, But...
- By Henny Button on 09-18-10
By: Sam Kean
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The Second Book of General Ignorance
- Everything You Think You Know Is (Still) Wrong
- By: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Just when you thought that it was safe to start showing off again, John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are back with another busload of mistakes and misunderstandings. Here is a new collection of simple, perfectly obvious questions you'll be quite certain you know the answers to. Whether it's history, science, sports, geography, literature, language, medicine, the classics, or common wisdom, you'll be astonished to discover that everything you thought you knew is still hopelessly wrong.
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It's all stuff from QI
- By Bonnie Kennedy on 04-07-21
By: John Lloyd, and others
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Proof
- The Science of Booze
- By: Adam Rogers
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In Proof, Adam Rogers reveals alcohol as a miracle of science, going deep into the pleasures of making and drinking booze—and the effects of the latter. The people who make and sell alcohol may talk about history and tradition, but alcohol production is really powered by physics, molecular biology, organic chemistry, and a bit of metallurgy—and our taste for those products is a melding of psychology and neurobiology.
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Great listening to all about booze
- By Atila on 08-02-14
By: Adam Rogers
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A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
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an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
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The Triumph of Seeds
- How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life, supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and the humble peppercorn drove the Age of Discovery, so did coffee beans help fuel the Enlightenment and cottonseed help spark the Industrial Revolution. And from the fall of Rome to the Arab Spring, the fate of nations continues to hinge on the seeds of a Middle Eastern grass known as wheat.
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Delightfully simplistic!
- By Adrian on 03-30-16
By: Thor Hanson
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Ignition!
- An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
- By: John Drury Clark, Isaac Asimov - foreward
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Ignition! is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety. John Drury Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise that eventually took men to the moon.
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Science man lists names of chemicals for 9 hours
- By Adrian on 05-06-19
By: John Drury Clark, and others
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How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls
- Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future
- By: David Hu
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Insects walk on water, snakes slither, and fish swim. Animals move with astounding grace, speed, and versatility: how do they do it, and what can we learn from them? In How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls, David Hu takes listeners on an accessible, wondrous journey into the world of animal motion. From basement labs at MIT to the rain forests of Panama, Hu shows how animals have adapted and evolved to traverse their environments, taking advantage of physical laws with results that are startling and ingenious.
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Fun, entertaining, hilarious, and informative
- By Susan T on 11-04-19
By: David Hu
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That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles
- 65 All New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life
- By: Dr. Joe Schwarcz
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Interesting anecdotes and engaging tales make science fun, meaningful, and accessible. Separating sense from nonsense and fact from myth, these essays cover everything from the ups of helium to the downs of drain cleaners and provide answers to numerous mysteries, such as why bug juice is used to color ice cream and how spies used secret inks. Mercury in teeth, arsenic in water, lead in the environment, and aspartame in food are discussed.
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Very cavalier attitude
- By Paula on 11-14-14
By: Dr. Joe Schwarcz
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Cræft
- An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts
- By: Alexander Langlands
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In Craeft, archaeologist and medieval historian Alexander Langlands argues that our modern understanding of craft only skims the surface. His journeys from his home in Wales have taken him along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe, from Spain through France and England to Scotland and Iceland in search of the lost meaning of craft.
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Too little information too much brag and biography
- By Thomas B. on 04-28-21
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Periodic Tales
- A Cultural History of the Elements, From Arsenic to Zinc
- By: Hugh Aldersey-Williams
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Like the alphabet, the calendar, or the zodiac, the periodic table of the chemical elements has a permanent place in our imagination. But aside from the handful of common ones (iron, carbon, copper, gold), the elements themselves remain wrapped in mystery. We do not know what most of them look like, how they exist in nature, how they got their names, or of what use they are to us.
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Interesting but Rambling
- By Carolyn on 08-24-15
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No Immediate Danger
- Carbon Ideologies, Volume One
- By: William T. Vollmann
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling some of the most important issues of our age. Now, Vollmann turns to a topic that will define the generations to come - the factors and human actions that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins No Immediate Danger by examining and quantifying the many causes of climate change, from industrial manufacturing and agricultural practices to fossil fuel extraction, economic demand for electric power, and the justifiable yearning of people all over the world to live in comfort.
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Look at the brightside always and die in a dream!
- By Darwin8u on 04-14-19
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Creation
- How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
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The Goldilocks book on what is life
- By Gary on 07-11-13
By: Adam Rutherford
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Fruitless Fall
- The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis
- By: Rowan Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Rowell Gormon
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Many people will remember that Rachel Carson predicted a silent spring, but she also warned of a fruitless fall, a time with no pollination and no fruit. The fruitless fall nearly became a reality when, in 2007, beekeepers watched 30 billion bees mysteriously die. And they continue to disappear. The remaining pollinators, essential to the cultivation of a third of American crops, are now trucked across the country and flown around the world, pushing them ever closer to collapse.
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Compulsory Reading - Share with Everyone!
- By Charles Koenen on 04-12-20
By: Rowan Jacobsen
What listeners say about How to Invent Everything
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- zackeroo
- 12-21-19
Audiobook is fantastic
INFORMATIVE, PROFOUND AND LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY!!!
How is this even possible in one book??? Mr. North, if by any chance you read this review, Please Please write a follow up. Annotation? And your narration was perfect ( I usually cringe when authors read their own books) - But yours was great.
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- Spencer Owen Mcguire
- 06-30-22
Read it
It’s about as entertaining and informative as one book can be at the same time.
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- wealthandtaste
- 02-20-23
Great idea, oddly executed
Read “The Knowledge” instead. Doesn’t understand basic points of biology. The “name this discovery after yourself” got old after the 2nd time, let alone the 30th.
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- Miles
- 01-13-19
great reading
one of my favorite books. I have the digital and paperback copy. I can't recommend this enough!
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- Hank
- 02-12-20
Everything I want in a book, unfortunately a lot of tables and diagrams
Ryan North kindly provides some extra material for the audiobook, but unfortunately does not make up for the fact that hearing him list the contents of a table I would scan in a few seconds any less boring.
That being said, I love everything about the content of the book itself. It just doesn’t lend itself to a listening format.
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- Roberto
- 06-19-23
Great book!
It is a great read, let you know how a lot of things work in our world that most of them we know nothing about. And all written in a sarcastic funny way thinking you´re a time traveller inventing civilization for your own confort in the past!
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- Cody
- 05-02-24
Best book in the world
Wow ❕ I can listen to this again so useful I understand the world better now that has real vale so happy.
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- Nerf Herder
- 01-05-19
An enjoyable and witty chrononaut survival manual.
Disclaimer: In the event you are stranded in an alternate worldline this isn't the only book to bring. Although quite comprehensive in rebuilding society's technology, it misses the necessary weapons, self defense, hunting techniques, political strategy. Maybe revision 2 will fix that? Or maybe society would be better without weapons.
Joking aside, this is a great look at how we all stand on the shoulders of giants. Our technology and harnessing nature's power is explained in sometimes excruciating but humorous details for the layperson. Although the visual depictions are missing, the narrator does a great job describing them. Clearly, this is geared for rebuilding western society. Complete with the snarky "It took this long for humans to develop xxxxx!?!" Written by disgruntled employees of Chrononaut Solutions. I recommend this book to anyone looking for perspective on our modern society.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 05-19-21
Entertaining but maybe not what you expect
Full of dad jokes and interesting history. Dont go in expecting it to just be Primitive Technology. It covers humanities greatest inventions and discoveries and their histories, from things like nutrition to the most efficient farming practices. If you were to be plopped down 50,000 years ago, you would theoretically be able to jumpstart civilization by tens of thousands of years with the info here. The narration is also really well done.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Arthur Warren
- 11-12-18
this title is accurate
Ryan North is a comedy genius. His other books are great, Dinosaur Comics, Adventure Time and Squirrel Girl are all fantastic. Here, he tackles, well, everything - explaining how the most mundane and complex things that form civilization work - just in case you are stranded after using a time machine in the distant past and may need to create that thing from scratch.
The narration is pretty good, by the author himself - and good care was taken to render the many tables and infographics on the book understandable in audio form (to some great comedy effect here and there)
overall, amazing and enlightening: I might not be able to create eveything after listening to it, but I sure understand the whole world a bit better.
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