
The Unthinkable (Revised and Updated)
Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why
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Narrated by:
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Kirsten Potter
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By:
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Amanda Ripley
About this listen
Unlock the secrets of survival with this riveting expedition into the science of disaster—now revised and updated to address the pandemic, the role of social media in disaster response, and more—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Kids in the World
Disaster can come in many forms, from earthquakes and avalanches to catastrophic machine failure and acts of terror. And afterwards, when the dust settles and the survivors emerge, we can't help but wonder: why them? Why did they live when so many others perished?
In The Unthinkable, Prize-winning journalist Amanda Ripley, who has covered some of the most devastating disasters of our age, sets out to find the answers. To understand the human reaction to chaos and imminent danger, she turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts—formal and informal—from a Holocaust survivor who studies heroism to a master gunfighter who learned to overcome the effects of extreme fear. Along the way, we learn about crowd psychology, the neurobiology of fear, and the many other invisible factors that can make the difference between death and survival.
Seamlessly marrying neuroscience, firsthand accounts, and thrilling investigative journalism, The Unthinkable is a must-listen for anyone who has ever wondered how they would respond in a life-or-death situation—or wanted to increase their odds of surviving one. This revised and updated edition updates all the original research and expands on enormous, slow-moving disasters like pandemics to bring Ripley’s lessons on survivorship into the modern day.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF including the Appendix, Selected Bibliography, and Notes sections.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2024 Amanda Ripley (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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great book beyond awareness
- By Theresa S. on 03-20-24
By: Gary Dean Quesenberry, and others
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Surviving Survival
- By: Laurence Gonzales
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The shark attacked while she was snorkeling, tearing through Micki Glenn’s breast and shredding her right arm. Her husband, a surgeon, saved her life on the spot, but when she was safely home she couldn’t just go on with her life. She had entered an even more profound survival journey: the aftermath. The survival experience changes everything because it invalidates all your previous adaptations, and the old rules don’t apply. In some cases survivors suffer more in the aftermath than they did during the actual crisis. In all cases, they have to work hard to reinvent themselves.
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Well written, compelling and honest to the end
- By Mark on 07-21-14
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Corruptible
- Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us
- By: Brian Klaas
- Narrated by: Brian Klaas
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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An “absorbing, provocative, and far-reaching” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) look at what power is, who gets it, and what happens when they do, based on over 500 interviews with those who (temporarily, at least) have had the upper hand - from the creator of the Power Corrupts podcast and Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas.
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Not much substance
- By Nathan Parker on 04-06-22
By: Brian Klaas
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When Violence Is the Answer
- Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life Is at Stake
- By: Tim Larkin
- Narrated by: Tim Larkin
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In this essential new book, self-protection expert and former military intelligence officer Tim Larkin changes the way we think about violence in order to save our lives. By deconstructing our assumptions about violence - its morality, its function in modern society, how it actually works - Larkin unlocks the shackles of our own taboos and arms us with what we need to know to prevent, prepare for, and survive the unthinkable event of life-or-death violence.
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Excellent book on when violence is the only answer
- By GC on 09-20-17
By: Tim Larkin
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Limitarianism
- The Case Against Extreme Wealth
- By: Ingrid Robeyns
- Narrated by: Rachel Bavidge
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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This will be the first authoritative trade book to unpack the concept of a cap on wealth, where to draw the line, how to collect the excess, and what to do with the money. In the process, Robeyns ignites an urgent debate about wealth, one that calls into question the very forces we live by (capitalism and neoliberalism) and invites us to a radical reimagining of our world.
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How important it is for everyone to read this book!
- By MSH on 02-27-24
By: Ingrid Robeyns
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How Civil Wars Start
- And How to Stop Them
- By: Barbara F. Walter
- Narrated by: Beth Hicks
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Political violence rips apart several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan and try her for treason. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists storms the U.S. Capitol. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the start of something bigger? Barbara F. Walter has spent her career studying civil conflict in places like Iraq, Ukraine, and Sri Lanka, but now she has become increasingly worried about her own country.
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Reveals the limits of a Political Science approach
- By Bill on 01-17-22
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Left of Bang
- How the Marine Corps’ Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life
- By: Patrick Van Horne, Jason A. Riley
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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You walk into a restaurant and get an immediate sense that you should leave. You are about to step onto an elevator with a stranger, and something stops you. You interview a potential new employee who has the résumé to do the job, but something tells you not to offer the position. These scenarios all represent "left of bang", the moments before something bad happens.
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Easier to follow when read
- By Chris Hutchinson on 04-29-16
By: Patrick Van Horne, and others
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The Shock Doctrine
- The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Abridged
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In her groundbreaking reporting, Naomi Klein introduced the term "disaster capitalism." Whether covering Baghdad after the U.S. occupation, Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, or New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed something remarkably similar. People still reeling from catastrophe were being hit again, this time with economic "shock treatment," losing their land and homes to rapid-fire corporate makeovers. The Shock Doctrine retells the story of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman's free market economic revolution.
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If It's Bad for Humanity, It's Good for Business
- By Nelson Alexander on 09-29-07
By: Naomi Klein
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Five Days at Memorial
- Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
- By: Sheri Fink
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs.
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Five Days in Hell/Years in Purgatory
- By Cynthia on 09-15-13
By: Sheri Fink
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On Tyranny (Expanded Audio Edition)
- Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In this exclusive audiobook edition, which includes eight hours of new content, Snyder combines the original essays from On Tyranny with twenty new lessons that answer the questions everyone is asking about this war. With forays into history, he clarifies the causes of the Russian invasion and the meaning of Ukrainian resistance, and explains the war's connections to threats to democracy here in the United States and around the world. Linking past and present, speaking only from notes, he guides the listener into the larger moral universe of On Tyranny.
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Best book of the decade
- By Chuck on 04-21-22
By: Timothy Snyder
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The Quiet Damage
- QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family
- By: Jesselyn Cook
- Narrated by: Jesselyn Cook
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Quiet Damage, celebrated reporter Jesselyn Cook unfolds the heartbreaking stories of five representative families from couples young and old to rural white parents to urban Black siblings, to show how QAnon shattered bonds once believed unbreakable. Cook paints a portrait of American suffering, of the vulnerabilities that have left people susceptible to outrageous theories promising order and control in a world where both are increasingly in short supply.
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Engaging story telling
- By Joshua M. Kuo on 09-30-24
By: Jesselyn Cook
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Pure Innocent Fun
- Essays
- By: Ira Madison III
- Narrated by: Ira Madison III
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In Pure Innocent Fun, Madison explores the key cultural moments that inspired his career as a critic and guided his coming of age as a Black gay man in Milwaukee. In this hilarious, full-throttle trip through the ’90s and 2000s, he recounts learning about sex from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; facing the most heartbreaking election of his youth (not George W. Bush’s win, but Jennifer Hudson losing American Idol); and how never getting his driver’s license in high school made him just like Cher Horowitz in Clueless: “a virgin who can’t drive.”
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Relatable! Great word choice! Hilarious!
- By Anonymous User on 05-02-25
By: Ira Madison III
Excellent information
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However, as the book approaches recent events, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, it takes a turn. Ripley’s stance on masks and vaccines, especially the assertion that vaccines alone saved lives, comes across as heavy-handed.
This bias detracts from the book’s objectivity and leaves readers feeling lectured rather than informed. For those looking for a balanced perspective on crisis response, this book has great moments but ultimately loses some credibility due to personal bias.
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