Numbers Don't Lie

71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World

By: Vaclav Smil

Narrated by: Ben Prendergast

Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

"There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil." (Bill Gates)

An essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world - exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production.

Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment - your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?

From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world - and how all of this affects the planet itself - in Numbers Don't Lie, Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit - all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics - Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true.

©2021 Vaclav Smil (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“The human mind soaks up the images and narratives conveyed by the press, but they are a highly nonrandom sample of reality: the lurid, the sudden, the photogenic. Smil’s title says it all: To understand the world, you need to follow the trendlines, not the headlines. This is a compelling, fascinating, and most important, realistic portrait of the world and where it’s going.” (Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now)

“[A] tidy, entertaining collection of brief inquiries into a host of hot-button topics.... Throughout, Smil’s viewpoint is balanced, and each element of the text is fully backed by research as well as the author’s contagious curiosity. Even when examining dire circumstances, Smil keeps readers engaged. A fascinating book to be read straight through or consulted bit by bit.” (Kirkus)

“[Smil] presents a robust array of data, at times with devastating acuity.” (Publishers Weekly) 

No hot air, just data!

This book is well written, useful and important. I love how Smil supports everything he says with hard data and includes a lengthy PDF with the audio program which further supports his points. We live in a day and age where our biggest challenge is often figuring out fact from fiction. This is not a challenge with Smil’s book. Above and beyond this, there is a tremendous amount of interesting information and ideas presented. For example, instead of simply presenting the elimination of meat from our diets as a solution to global warming, Smil discusses (with data!) how a relative shift from beef to chicken and pork consumption could positively impact the environment. I would like to see more of this approach in our governmental policy discussion as it is much more practical and thus likely to lead to success. In the end, understanding our world is the single biggest factor in figuring out how to make it better. Smil makes a strong positive step in assisting with that understanding.

loved it

One of those books you want to listen to over and over again. 👏 👏

Must- read book.

This is an absolutely fascinating book that gives it's readers a real window into the global challenges we are facing in the 21st century.

6 hours of mental illumination

If you hate facts, then you would not like this book.
People, whose prejudices are hardened already, will hate this book.
If you value facts, data and the most balance truth that humans are capable of, then this book is a joy, almost karmic.
If you appreciate, context, then this book is for you.
One of the most humble, yet, tour de force, summary of how the modern world works.

Great book, poor narration

The reading style of the narrator doesn't fit the content. There are moments of odd intonation and expression that would better fit other genres. One mispronunciation stands out, "Lie ion" for lithium ion.

Lots of facts, not much connection

While many snippets were informative there was no definable pattern or point to the book.

legit unheard of point of views

for a car listeners a more complete pdf for visual review would really help a lot

Must read for everyone

Random data has never been so interesting . There’s so much data around but I have come across such fascinating presentation
Cannot stop thinking about this book

Fascinating stuff, but a bit dry

There wasn’t really much of a through line. Also, constantly having to refer back to the PDF for context defeats the purpose of an audiobook and I just had a kind of assumed that the information I would’ve seen supported whatever the premise was at the time. It was still quite interesting, but I think the experience could’ve been more enjoyable with a few tweaks to the structure and the injection of just a little more sarcasm or humor.

Great book that will bring you closer to reality

Great book that will bring you closer to reality. It will make you think and guide you on how to use numbers to better understand where are we coming from and where are we heading.