Material World cover art

Material World

A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future

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Material World

Written by: Ed Conway
Narrated by: Ed Conway
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

THE
SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future.

These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take them completely for granted.

In Material World, Ed Conway travels the globe - from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates - to uncover a secret world we rarely see. Revealing the true marvel of these substances, he follows the mind-boggling journeys, miraculous processes and little-known companies that turn the raw materials we all need into products of astonishing complexity.

As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. This is the story of civilisation - our ambitions and glory, innovations and appetites - from a new perspective: literally from the ground up.

'A compelling narrative of the human story' TIM MARSHALL, author of Prisoners of Geography

'Lively, rich and exciting... full of surprises' PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads

©2023 Ed Conway (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Economic History Nature & Ecology

Critic Reviews

An eye-opening celebration of human ingenuity (Andrew Hill)
Lively, rich and exciting ... full of surprises. Underlines that to understand global geopolitics, you need to understand natural resources and geology (Peter Frankopan, author of THE SILK ROADS)

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Exceptional book

It’s always nice to understand the details behind various critical supply chains that govern our daily lives. The author does a good job of narrating the stories of critical elements without which we can’t survive. By making us aware of the complexity & fragility of the global supply chain perhaps we will educate ourselves more about the things we use and perhaps we can hope to make sustainable choices and reduce wastefulness.

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New perspective of the key materials

Excellent book uncovering the importance of six key materials - sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. Although we as a community enjoy various amenities, for instance, the usage of smartphones universally, we do not understand or appreciate how difficult is it to fabricate the processor from sand and the battery from lithium which powers them. This book explains in detail about these great materials which acts as the backbone of our facilities.

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Oh wow, what a great story of evolution of mankind from the materials perspective!

The author did a commanding job of bring out overlooked aspects of our growth. While the storyline itself is amazing, it's rendering by the author himself adds special value.

Our ability to deal with materials was, is and will be the key to our story. The author bring forward this point in friendly way. It seems we have not fully understood our planet and it's gifts.

Thanks Ed! I enjoyed this book.

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fascinating story telling

fascinating story telling, author takes the listener through the history and into the future with ease

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Absolutely new stories and unknown arena. Thank You

I knew so little about the material world. Really refreshing listen. The story narration is excellent, thank you for this amazing book.

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