Progress
Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
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By:
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Johan Norberg
About this listen
From an examination of official data from such institutions as the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg paints a portrait of a better future ahead.
It's on the television, in the papers, and in our minds. Every day we're bludgeoned by news of how bad everything is - financial collapse, unemployment, growing poverty, environmental disasters, disease, hunger, war. But the rarely acknowledged reality is that our progress over the past few decades has been unprecedented. By almost any index you care to identify, things are markedly better now than they have ever been for almost everyone alive.
Examining official data from the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, political commentator Johan Norberg traces just how far we have come in tackling the issues that define our species. While it's true that not every problem has been solved, we do now have a good idea of the solutions, and we know what it will take to see this progress continue. Dramatic, uplifting, and counterintuitive, Progress is a call for optimism in our pessimistic, doom-laden world.
©2016 Johan Norberg (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Good observations, very politically biased.
- By P. Bradley on 11-29-23
By: Nadav Eyal
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The Great Escape
- Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality
- By: Angus Deaton
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The world is a better place than it used to be. People are healthier, wealthier, and live longer. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many has left gaping inequalities between people and nations. In The Great Escape, Angus Deaton - one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty - tells the remarkable story of how, beginning 250 years ago, some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's disproportionately unequal world.
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not worth listening
- By Kyung on 04-26-20
By: Angus Deaton
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Age of Discovery
- Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance
- By: Ian Goldin, Chris Kutarna
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Age of Discovery explores a world on the brink of a new Renaissance and asks: how do we share more widely the benefits of unprecedented progress? How do we endure the inevitable tumult generated by accelerating change? How do we each thrive through this tangled, uncertain time? From gains in health, education, wealth and technology to crises of conflict, disease and mass migration, the similarities between today's world and that of the 15th century are both striking and prophetic: we have been here before.
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A monotonous text disguised as casual reading.
- By Rob on 07-29-16
By: Ian Goldin, and others
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Ethnic America
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: James Bundy
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas Sowell provides us with a useful and concise record tracing the history of nine ethnic groups: Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans.
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Understanding the ethnic tapestry of America
- By Amazon Customer on 12-23-19
By: Thomas Sowell
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The Challenge for Africa
- By: Wangari Maathai
- Narrated by: Chinasa Ogbuagu
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Nobel Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai has campaigned for environmental activism and democracy in Africa for more thanthree decades. In The Challenge for Africa, she delivers an insightful call to action, presenting a realistic look at the diverse problems facing Africans today.
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10 years later, this is still powerful.
- By Presence on 04-21-18
By: Wangari Maathai
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Late Victorian Holocausts
- El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World
- By: Mike Davis
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Examining a series of El Niño-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China, and Northeastern Brazil.
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Mike Davis on Audible!
- By Nathan D. Backlund on 09-02-17
By: Mike Davis
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The White Man's Burden
- Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
- By: William Easterly
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In his previous book, The Elusive Quest for Growth, William Easterly criticized the utter ineffectiveness of Western organizations to mitigate global poverty, and he was promptly fired by his then-employer, the World Bank. The White Man's Burden is his widely anticipated counterpunch - a brilliant and blistering indictment of the West's economic policies for the world's poor.
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A Bit Repetitive
- By Amazon Customer on 04-27-19
By: William Easterly
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Let's Move On
- Beyond Fear & False Prophets
- By: Vicente Fox, Sulay Hernandez-Elhussein
- Narrated by: Thom Rivera
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Vicente Fox offers his unique viewpoint as a former head of state, avid historian, and true admirer of America’s constitutional ideals. He knows where a Trump presidency can lead—and it is nowhere good. Let’s Move On is a political manifesto written in Fox’s trademark, no-nonsense style where he both denounces Trump’s malignant anti-intellectualism and inspires people to rise up and resist.
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Inspirational, honest and thought provoking
- By Cristina on 06-18-23
By: Vicente Fox, and others
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A Brief History of the Future
- A Brave and Controversial Look at the Twenty-first Century
- By: Jacques Attali
- Narrated by: Alan Robertson
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
What will planet Earth be like in 20 years? At mid-century? In the year 2100? Prescient and convincing, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future. Never has the world offered more promise for the future and been more fraught with dangers. In this powerful and sometimes terrifying work, Attali analyzes the past and pinpoints nine distinct periods of human history, each with its world center of power and prestige, and predicts what the tenth will bring by the end of this century.
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feels like a popular mechanics article
- By Robin on 07-11-17
By: Jacques Attali
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Ramp Hollow
- The Ordeal of Appalachia
- By: Steven Stoll
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Appalachia - among the most storied and yet least understood regions in America - has long been associated with poverty and backwardness. But how did this image arise, and what exactly does it mean? In Ramp Hollow, Steven Stoll launches an original investigation into the history of Appalachia and its place in US history, with a special emphasis on how generations of its inhabitants lived, worked, survived, and depended on natural resources held in common.
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Almost unlistenable
- By Golf Fan on 09-13-18
By: Steven Stoll
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Countdown
- Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
- By: Alan Weisman
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Weisman visits an extraordinary range of the world's cultures, religions, nationalities, tribes, and political systems to learn what in their beliefs, histories, liturgies, or current circumstances might suggest that sometimes it's in their own best interest to limit their growth.
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Boring
- By NorthFLADiver on 01-14-14
By: Alan Weisman
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not worth listening
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Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West but worldwide.
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We live in the best of all times
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NASA Astrobiologist and renowned scientist Dr. David Grinspoon brings listeners an optimistic message about humanity's future in the face of climate change. For the first time in Earth's history, our planet is experiencing a confluence of rapidly accelerating changes prompted by one species: Humans. Climate change is only the most visible of the modifications we've made - up until this point, inadvertently - to the planet. And our current behavior threatens not only our own future but that of countless other creatures.
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Wonderful listen.
- By Britt on 05-25-17
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Stalin
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The Kremlin intrigues, the private worlds of the Soviet Empire's ruling class, Radzinsky thrillingly brings them to life. And the riddle of that most cold-blooded of leaders, a man for whom nothing was sacred in his pursuit of absolute might, and perhaps the greatest mass murderer in Western history, is solved.
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The world is a better place than it used to be. People are healthier, wealthier, and live longer. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many has left gaping inequalities between people and nations. In The Great Escape, Angus Deaton - one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty - tells the remarkable story of how, beginning 250 years ago, some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's disproportionately unequal world.
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not worth listening
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The Rational Optimist
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Life is getting better at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people's lives as never before.
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Personal
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An unknown perspective
- By Salman Syed on 01-15-24
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Enlightenment Now
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We live in the best of all times
- By Neuron on 02-25-18
By: Steven Pinker
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Earth in Human Hands
- Shaping Our Planet's Future
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NASA Astrobiologist and renowned scientist Dr. David Grinspoon brings listeners an optimistic message about humanity's future in the face of climate change. For the first time in Earth's history, our planet is experiencing a confluence of rapidly accelerating changes prompted by one species: Humans. Climate change is only the most visible of the modifications we've made - up until this point, inadvertently - to the planet. And our current behavior threatens not only our own future but that of countless other creatures.
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Wonderful listen.
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The Kremlin intrigues, the private worlds of the Soviet Empire's ruling class, Radzinsky thrillingly brings them to life. And the riddle of that most cold-blooded of leaders, a man for whom nothing was sacred in his pursuit of absolute might, and perhaps the greatest mass murderer in Western history, is solved.
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What listeners say about Progress
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-09-23
Good reminder the world is getting better
On so many critical dimensions, the world is objectively getting better. This was a thoughtful not overly fluffy summary of that improvement. The commentary on the media at the end was particularly spot on.
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- Syd Molenkamp
- 01-27-21
A modern general education in one book!
This book has been the most influential read since my college years 30 years ago.
Not only does it accurately review modern history on a global scale which is so rare (say since the 1990’s), but also combats a pessimistic modern conception of the present. We all know life is better now than ever, yet somehow we believe to be pessimistic about it is to be more adult, less fictional, more “real”, or the more responsible view. Actually, the reverse is true.
Without putting your head in the clouds, review data and long-range history as you discover both the how and the why things are so much better. I’m still in the same place and of the same era I was in before reading the book, but I feel much more appreciative and justified in doing so.
Enjoy!
Syd
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1 person found this helpful
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- MarianoGomez
- 01-10-23
Great perspective
The book is short and sweet and has interesting insights and statistics. The ten points of view are well put and have enough facts to support. I got to this book because Jordan Peterson recommended it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jason
- 07-14-21
Fantastic
Very similar to the work of Steven Pinker. A data-filled exploration of the last few centuries since the birth of liberalism and the enormous leaps we’ve made as a species across several categories. Directly contrary to the hysterical ravings of those voices in our society whose agendas are predicated on the idea that the world is a dumpster fire. Far from it, Norberg calmly shows us the enormous progress we’ve made globally.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jakob
- 05-23-22
A Refreshing Dose of Perspective
In an era of intellectual pessimism and malaise, this book offers a refreshingly upbeat picture of human progress and history. Contrary to much of the modern intelligentsia's anticipatory lamentations of human extinction and self-flagellations over historical injustices, Mr. Norberg reminds us that the human experience today is materially much better than it has ever been by a staggering margin.
This is not to say the book is perfect. Mr. Norberg occasionally ascribes phenomena to particular causes without sufficient evidence or logical rigor. He also overlooks certain important and troubling trends entirely (the fragmentation of the family, mental health deficiencies, technology enabled isolation, etc.). At worst Mr. Norberg commits minor factual imprecisions or ignores the fragility of crucial systems and institutions on which our security and prosperity depend.
However, the essential thrust of Mr. Norberg's book is basically correct and factually substantiated. Anyone willing to do the hard work of verifying his claims can only conclude they are to be taken seriously. At best, Mr. Norberg helps us understand that our lives and opportunities are vastly more favorable than we often believe, such as to render the traditions and knowledge from which we inherited this abundance worthy of protection and preservation. What's more, Mr. Norberg shows us that the future is not inevitably apocalyptic, but may very well continue to usher in greater security, abundance, and eponymous progress.
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- wbiro
- 06-07-18
A Refreshing Positivist Perspective on the Future
You have a choice - read doomsayers and doomsdayers, or read futurists and positivists. This book is the latter, exposing the fallacies and erroneous, fashionable dogma of the former.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Alexandra Hopkins
- 09-22-17
Global Uptrends That May Surprise You
This book describes global socioeconomic up-trends that most people are unaware of. This is important stuff to understand—we need to know what has gone right, not just focus on disasters. A lot has gone right since the Scientific Revolution of the 1500’s and the Enlightenment of the 1700’s: increases in income, literacy, democracy, and women’s rights, and, even remarkably large decreases in crime and violence.
The book gives a lot of the credit for the up-trends to free market capitalism, which, in many cases is quite accurate. But the book, published in 2017, ignores the Great Recession and growing income inequality and even growing poverty in countries like the U.S. It implies that at this time more free market capitalism is just what the doctor ordered. A more objective analysis would point out that given the cracks that are developing in the U.S. economic system, it’s time to re-evaluate our next steps.
The author, Johan Norberg, is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank. His transparent agenda to reduce governmental regulation reduces the book’s objectivity. How can the author imply that free market capitalism has somehow IMPROVED the natural environment? He fails to mention or give credit to the dedicated environmental organizations which battled the corporations to increase regulations and ameliorate some of the worst corporate pollution problems. The book has the taint of propaganda. This is unfortunate, because the important and accurate statistical data presented on the many global up-trends should be better known.
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8 people found this helpful
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- CesarRQ
- 10-17-20
Outstanding!
Excellent read with an outstanding perspective of progress’ journey. It serves very well to inform and develop a balanced perspective of how far we’ve come. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to all!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Allan Souza
- 09-11-22
Nice to see the things that n a different perspect
The author share a lot of data that show that the perceived worsening is societies is by many ways a wrong perception that is solidified by the media.
Worth reading.
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- Robert
- 02-24-21
Refreshing!
In this day of wokeness, it is so refreshing to hear the facts that support the ultimate benefits of western culture and our imperfect march to the here and now and ultimately towards a better future. Timely.
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2 people found this helpful