-
Uranium
- War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $29.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
-
-
Wow... Grade A+ ... Exceptional.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-15-16
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Chernobyl
- The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of April 26, 1986, Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine. Dozens died of radiation poisoning, fallout contaminated half the continent, and thousands fell ill. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy draws on new sources to tell the dramatic stories of the firefighters, scientists, and soldiers who heroically extinguished the nuclear inferno. He lays bare the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry....
-
-
Companions to Each Other
- By Tim on 06-04-19
By: Serhii Plokhy
-
Energy
- A Human History
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.
-
-
Rhodes si, accents no!
- By Photino on 07-26-18
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Command and Control
- Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.
-
-
SUPERB ON SO MANY LEVELS
- By Jeff on 03-11-14
By: Eric Schlosser
-
Idaho Falls
- The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident
- By: William McKeown
- Narrated by: Bob Dunsworth
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When asked to name the world’s first major nuclear accident, most people cite the Three Mile Island incident or the Chernobyl disaster. Revealed in this book is one of American history’s best-kept secrets: the world’s first nuclear reactor accident to claim fatalities happened on United States soil. Chronicled here for the first time is the strange tale of SL-1, a military test reactor located in Idaho’s Lost River Desert that exploded on the night of January 3, 1961, killing the three-man maintenance crew on duty.
-
-
Nuclear noocyuler
- By paulb on 08-20-15
By: William McKeown
-
Twilight of the Gods
- War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945
- By: Ian Toll
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 36 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twilight of the Gods is a riveting account of the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the US Navy won the largest naval battle in history; MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized. Toll's narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are gripping, but he also takes the listener into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo.
-
-
Amazing Details
- By Benjamin Casey on 09-14-20
By: Ian Toll
-
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
-
-
Wow... Grade A+ ... Exceptional.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-15-16
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Chernobyl
- The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of April 26, 1986, Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine. Dozens died of radiation poisoning, fallout contaminated half the continent, and thousands fell ill. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy draws on new sources to tell the dramatic stories of the firefighters, scientists, and soldiers who heroically extinguished the nuclear inferno. He lays bare the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry....
-
-
Companions to Each Other
- By Tim on 06-04-19
By: Serhii Plokhy
-
Energy
- A Human History
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.
-
-
Rhodes si, accents no!
- By Photino on 07-26-18
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Command and Control
- Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 20 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Famed investigative journalist Eric Schlosser digs deep to uncover secrets about the management of America's nuclear arsenal. A groundbreaking account of accidents, near misses, extraordinary heroism, and technological breakthroughs, Command and Control explores the dilemma that has existed since the dawn of the nuclear age: How do you deploy weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them? That question has never been resolved - and Schlosser reveals how the combination of human fallibility and technological complexity still poses a grave risk to mankind.
-
-
SUPERB ON SO MANY LEVELS
- By Jeff on 03-11-14
By: Eric Schlosser
-
Idaho Falls
- The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident
- By: William McKeown
- Narrated by: Bob Dunsworth
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When asked to name the world’s first major nuclear accident, most people cite the Three Mile Island incident or the Chernobyl disaster. Revealed in this book is one of American history’s best-kept secrets: the world’s first nuclear reactor accident to claim fatalities happened on United States soil. Chronicled here for the first time is the strange tale of SL-1, a military test reactor located in Idaho’s Lost River Desert that exploded on the night of January 3, 1961, killing the three-man maintenance crew on duty.
-
-
Nuclear noocyuler
- By paulb on 08-20-15
By: William McKeown
-
Twilight of the Gods
- War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945
- By: Ian Toll
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 36 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twilight of the Gods is a riveting account of the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the US Navy won the largest naval battle in history; MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized. Toll's narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are gripping, but he also takes the listener into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo.
-
-
Amazing Details
- By Benjamin Casey on 09-14-20
By: Ian Toll
-
The Billion Dollar Spy
- A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
- By: David E. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While getting into his car on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station was handed an envelope by an unknown Russian. Its contents stunned the Americans: details of top-secret Soviet research and development in military technology that was totally unknown to the United States.
-
-
Compelling as historical thriller, character study
- By Mr. Pointy on 08-25-15
By: David E. Hoffman
-
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)
- The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 1
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern learner can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.
-
-
Fascinating book, great performance
- By Ted on 05-30-16
By: Rick Atkinson
-
Dark Sun
- The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Richard Rhodes
- Length: 6 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Rhodes' landmark history of the atomic bomb won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, in this majestic new masterpiece of history, science, and politics, he tells for the first time the secret story of how and why the hydrogen bomb was made, and traces the path by which this supreme artifact of 20th-century technology became the defining issue of the Cold War.
-
-
Abridged??
- By Delano on 04-17-13
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Oxygen
- The Molecule That Made the World
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oxygen takes the listener on an enthralling journey, as gripping as a thriller, as it unravels the unexpected ways in which oxygen spurred the evolution of life and death.
-
-
A Story About Pretty Much Everything
- By ZebraBear on 09-09-20
By: Nick Lane
-
Arsenals of Folly
- The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a narrative that moves like a thriller, Rhodes sheds light on the Reagan administration's unprecedented arms buildup in the early 1980s, as well as the arms-reduction campaign that followed, and Reagan's famous 1986 summit meeting with Gorbachev. Rhodes' detailed exploration of events of this time constitutes a prehistory of the neoconservatives. The story is new, compelling, and continually surprising - a revelatory re-creation of a hugely important era of our recent history.
-
-
overall outstanding
- By Thomas on 06-25-09
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Truth, Lies, and O-Rings
- Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
- By: Allan J. McDonald, James R. Hansen - contributor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 26 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cold January morning in 1986, NASA launched the Space Shuttle Challenger, despite warnings against doing so by many individuals including Allan McDonald. The fiery destruction of Challenger on live television moments after launch remains an indelible image in the nation's collective memory. In Truth, Lies, and O-Rings, McDonald, a skilled engineer and executive, relives the tragedy from where he stood at Launch Control Center.
-
-
Couldn’t finish...
- By J.Brock on 07-19-19
By: Allan J. McDonald, and others
-
Symphony in C
- Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything
- By: Robert M. Hazen
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An enchanting biography of the most resonant - and most necessary - chemical element on Earth. Carbon. It's in the fibers in your hair, the timbers in your walls, the food that you eat, and the air that you breathe. It's worth billions as a luxury and half a trillion as a necessity, but there are still mysteries yet to be solved about the element that can be both diamond and coal. Where does it come from, what does it do, and why, above all, does life need it?
-
-
There is a Caveat
- By Joseph L Contreras on 06-26-19
By: Robert M. Hazen
-
Breaking the Chains of Gravity
- The Story of Spaceflight Before NASA
- By: Amy Shira Teitel
- Narrated by: Laurence Bouvard
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
NASA's history is a familiar story, culminating with the agency successfully landing men on the moon in 1969. But NASA's prehistory is a rarely told tale, one that is largely absent from the popular space-age literature but that gives the context behind the incredible lunar program. America's space agency wasn't created in a vacuum; it was assembled from preexisting parts, drawing together some of the best minds the non-Soviet world had to offer.
-
-
Great Historical Book, Performance Weak
- By Ryan Specht on 01-31-16
By: Amy Shira Teitel
-
Fallout
- Disasters, Lies, and the Legacy of the Nuclear Age
- By: Fred Pearce
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Hiroshima to Chernobyl, Fukushima to the growing legacy of lethal radioactive waste, humanity's struggle to conquer atomic energy is rife with secrecy, deceit, human error, blatant disregard for life, short-sighted politics, and fear. Fallout is an eye-opening odyssey through the first eight decades of this struggle and the radioactive landscapes it has left behind. We are, Pearce finds, forever torn between technological hubris and all-too-human terror about what we have created.
-
-
A strong history in a crowded field
- By Mike on 12-16-20
By: Fred Pearce
-
Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster
- By: Edwin Lyman, Susan Stranahan, David Lochbaum, and others
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake large enough to knock the earth from its axis sent a massive tsunami speeding toward the Japanese coast and the aging and vulnerable Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors. Over the following weeks, the world watched in horror as a natural disaster became a man-made catastrophe: fail-safes failed, cooling systems shut down, nuclear rods melted.
-
-
Internal workings of the NRC
- By Eduards J. Vucins on 05-11-14
By: Edwin Lyman, and others
-
A People’s Tragedy
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 47 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Opening with a panorama of Russian society, from the cloistered world of the Tsar to the brutal life of the peasants, A People’s Tragedy follows workers, soldiers, intellectuals and villagers as their world is consumed by revolution and then degenerates into violence and dictatorship. Drawing on vast original research, Figes conveys above all the shocking experience of the revolution for those who lived it, while providing the clearest and most cogent account of how and why it unfolded.
-
-
Excellent detailed history
- By privacy on 01-07-19
By: Orlando Figes
-
The Higgs Boson and Beyond
- By: Sean Carroll, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this 12-lecture masterpiece of scientific reporting, you'll learn everything you need to know to fully grasp the significance of this discovery, including the basics of quantum mechanics; the four forces that comprise the Standard Model of particle physics; how these forces are transmitted by fields and particles; and the importance of symmetry in physics.
-
-
Masterfully done
- By Jerome Robbins on 02-25-15
By: Sean Carroll, and others
Publisher's Summary
Slave labor camps in Africa and Eastern Europe were built around mine shafts, and America would knowingly send more than 600 uranium miners to their graves in the name of national security. Fortunes have been made from this yellow dirt; massive energy grids have been run from it. Fear of it panicked the American people into supporting a questionable war with Iraq, and its specter threatens to create another conflict in Iran. Now, some are hoping it can help avoid a global warming catastrophe.
In Uranium, Tom Zoellner takes readers around the globe in this intriguing look at the mineral that can sustain life or destroy it.
Critic Reviews
What listeners say about Uranium
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Carolyn
- 03-30-09
GREAT book, awful narration
The narrator of this book should really have stuck to reading it straight. His appalling accents would be funny if they weren't so insulting, and his pronunciation, particularly of German words, is poor and clearly not researched. The book itself is excellent and will please many listeners, especially anyone who (like me) enjoys specific histories in line with books like "Cod," "Salt," and "The 13th Element." In the end, the reader could be worse and if you are willing to put up with his accent hash, you will enjoy this book tremendously.
33 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Lizzer
- 06-15-09
4-star book with 2-star narration
This book is informative and pretty well-written, but the narrator makes the baffling choice to read every quote (and there are several throughout the book) in a different voice, most of which sound absolutely ridiculous. Totally out of place in a serious non-fiction book, and I have no clue why somebody...the producer, for one...didn't stop him from narrating in this way.
Seriously. His accented voices are truly terrible...along the lines of "Vee haff veys to make you talk".
It's not quite bad enough to make me stop listening to the book (which is quite interesting), but it's enough to irritate me every single time he does it.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Douglas
- 06-29-10
Scientific and historical errors, good miner tales
I am unimpressed with it, but I did like the human stories of the prospectors and miners. I had to laugh when the author described the nucleus of the atom being held together with electrical force. Besides the errors in comparison to the information in the Oppenheimer biography (American Prometheus audio book), there are glaring deficiencies, such as the almost complete avoidance of the subject of disposing of uranium waste. It is a industry book seemingly written by a scientifically illiterate journalist.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Roy
- 10-30-10
Great for What It Is
In what I would loosely call a postmodern way, Tom Zoeliner deconstructs Uranium. He deals with the mineral historically calling up characters from the past with vivid description. Prospectors, researchers, political figures, international intrigue, smuggling, --- its all here. If you are looking for science, per se, you'll not find it here. If you want a broader understanding of the basic science and the socio/political/economic context in which Uranium resides, then you are in luck. This is a journalistic rather than an academic tome. If you don't have a knowledge of Uranium AND you have even a passing interest in the subject OR you are willing to engage yourself in an unfamiliar toic, this book might just be for you. The writing is very good and Patrick Lawlor is a great narrator as well.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joshua Kim
- 06-10-12
Energetic
America's cold war nuclear program cost us $10 trillion over the 50 years that this war was waged. Growing up I remember watching the TV movie "The Day After" - nuclear war did not seem like an abstract possibility. Today we worry about Pakistan having (and selling) nuclear capabilities. North Korea conducts another underground test (and fires rockets the same day), threatening to go to war if any efforts are made to halt their program. And Iran continues to develop their nuclear capabilities, an eventuality that will most likely not be acceptable to Israel.
Zoellner brings all these events and developments down to their source, to the rock that when processed (on an industrial scale) is capable of releasing enormous amounts of energy. We learn about the physics of a nuclear reaction, how these physics were harnessed by the scientists in the Manhattan Project to create the terrible weapons that the U.S. dropped on Japan to end World War 2 We learn the extreme steps that the Soviet Union took to mine uranium and start their own crash nuclear program. And we follow uranium speculators and get-rich quick dreamers as they rode the uranium mining bubble. An excellent work of both reporting and history.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeffrey
- 11-24-11
Great Subject, Tepid Narration
I'm of much the same opinion as others that the subject matter is immensely interesting and well written. The narrator needed to have not added his stupid accents, they detracted throughout.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- B. Hongo
- 06-22-10
Probably have a reason to read this
I worked in militray and civilian nuclear power for 13 years and now live in Wyoming so this book was very interesting to me. My wife thinks I'm wierd but I throughly enjoyed it. Good history lessons.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Angela
- 06-15-09
Most fascinating documentary, learned a lot
I bought this book for my brother, a science guy, then I thought I’d read it too. It was amazing! The author truly gave his all into this work. He shares his knowledge as if we were friends and sipping coffee together. I learned so very much about the history of not only America, but of Germany, Africa, Russia and Austria as well. His interweaving of peoples personal lives was intriguing. My rating lacked getting a five star because it did move fast for me.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Alex
- 05-03-09
Fascinating History
Great research makes this book hum! While some people might think the details are too much, I found it make the history that much better. You feel like you are there!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 09-12-20
disappointing
the book follows a narrative that uranium is bad and is the cause of great misfortune for humanity. I was hoping for a more nuanced story. I came here after reading Richard Rhodes' the making of the atom bomb, which is a far better book. I was also very annoyed by the narrator's use of fake accents. It was unnecessary and distracting.