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Wonderland
- How Play Made the Modern World
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
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Wonderland
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Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, and insight.
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Publisher's summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of How We Got to Now and Extra Life, a look at the world-changing innovations we made while keeping ourselves entertained.
This history of popular entertainment takes a long-zoom approach, contending that the pursuit of novelty and wonder is a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. Steven Johnson argues that, throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused.
Johnson’s storytelling is just as delightful as the inventions he describes, full of surprising stops along the journey from simple concepts to complex modern systems. He introduces us to the colorful innovators of leisure: The explorers, proprietors, showmen, and artists who changed the trajectory of history with their luxurious wares, exotic meals, taverns, gambling tables, and magic shows.
In Wonderland, Johnson compellingly argues that observers of technological and social trends should be looking for clues in novel amusements. You’ll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.
Critic reviews
“A house of wonders itself...Wonderland inspires grins and well-what-d'ya-knows” (The New York Times Book Review)
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Best-selling author Steven Johnson recounts - in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion - the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. The Invention of Air is a title of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good scientific history
- By Roger on 05-03-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Age of Edison
- Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America
- By: Ernest Freeberg
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 63
The late 19th century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but arguably the most important invention of all was Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb. Unveiled in his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory in 1879, the light bulb overwhelmed the American public with the sense of the birth of a new age. More than any other invention, the electric light marked the arrival of modernity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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great book
- By kyle on 03-10-16
By: Ernest Freeberg
-
Shortcut
- How Analogies Reveal Connections, Spark Innovation, and Sell Our Greatest Ideas
- By: John Pollack
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 50
Analogies are far more complex than their SAT stereotype and lie at the very core of human cognition and creativity. Once we become aware of this, we start seeing them everywhere - in ads, apps, political debates, legal arguments, logos, and euphemisms, to name just a few. At their very best, analogies inspire new ways of thinking, enable invention, and motivate people to action. Unfortunately, not every analogy that rings true is true. That's why, at their worst, analogies can deceive, manipulate, or mislead us into disaster.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Analogies???
- By Frederick on 08-16-15
By: John Pollack
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In Pursuit of Elegance
- Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing
- By: Matthew E. May
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 29
In this thought-provoking exploration, Matthew May defines elegance as the elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power, and pinpoints the four key elements that characterize it: seduction, subtraction, symmetry, and sustainability. In a story-driven narrative that sheds light on the need for elegance in design, engineering, physics, art, urban planning, sports, and work, May offers a surprising array of stories that illustrate why what's "not there" often matters more than what is.
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1 out of 5 stars
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I love elegance, but this book isn't elegant
- By Oliver Nielsen on 06-26-11
By: Matthew E. May
-
The Pun Also Rises
- How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics
- By: John Pollack
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 53
The Pun Also Rises is an authoritative yet playful exploration of a practice that is common, in one form or another, to virtually every language on earth. At once entertaining and educational, this engaging book answers fundamental questions: Just what is a pun, and why do people make them? How did punning impact the development of human language, and how did that drive creativity and progress? And why, after centuries of decline, does the pun still matter?
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3 out of 5 stars
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Punderful Little Book
- By B. Lane on 01-10-13
By: John Pollack
-
Leonardo's Brain
- Understanding da Vinci's Creative Genius
- By: Leonard Shlain
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 830
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 736
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Story4 out of 5 stars 736
Bestselling author Leonard Shlain explores the life, art, and mind of Leonardo da Vinci, seeking to explain his singularity by looking at his achievements in art, science, psychology, and military strategy (yes), and then employing state of the art left-right brain scientific research to explain his universal genius. Shlain shows that no other person in human history has excelled in so many different areas as Da Vinci and he peels back the layers to explore the how and the why.
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3 out of 5 stars
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As distracted as Da Vinci
- By D. McCracken on 05-12-15
By: Leonard Shlain
-
Applied Minds
- How Engineers Think
- By: Guru Madhavan
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 85
Through narratives and case studies spanning the brilliant history of engineering, Madhavan shows how the concepts of prototyping, efficiency, reliability, standards, optimization, and feedback are put to use in fields as diverse as transportation, retail, health care, and entertainment. Equal parts personal, practical, and profound, Applied Minds charts a path to a future where we apply strategies borrowed from engineering to create useful and inspired solutions to our most pressing challenges.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
excellent edifying book; great narrator too.
- By Phillip on 01-16-22
By: Guru Madhavan
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Tesla vs Edison
- A Captivating Guide to the War of the Currents and the Life of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 28
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 28
Human history has seen many surprising and profound turning points. The ways that humans learned to use raw materials to create activity and resources set the stage for the most compelling and life-altering phase of the modern era, the Industrial Revolution. Born during this time on different continents but connected by similar interests, two men indelibly marked their generation and those that followed with their genius and foresight. This audiobook covers the war of currents and the individual lives of Tesla and Edison.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Arduous
- By Hasbro on 10-22-18
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Paper
- Paging Through History
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 377
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 323
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 315
Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce, and art; it has formed the foundation of civilizations, promoting revolutions and restoring stability.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very enjoyable
- By Vicki on 02-16-17
By: Mark Kurlansky
-
Trekonomics
- The Economics of Star Trek
- By: Manu Saadia
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 840
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 754
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 746
What would the world look like if everybody had everything they wanted or needed? Trekonomics, the premier book in financial journalist Felix Salmon's imprint PiperText, approaches scarcity economics by coming at it backward - through thinking about a universe where scarcity does not exist. Delving deep into the details and intricacies of 24th-century society, Trekonomics explores post-scarcity and whether we, as humans, are equipped for it.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
An Amusing & Practical Analysis of Fictional Ideas
- By Lost In The Wash on 09-19-16
By: Manu Saadia
-
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
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 45
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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1 out of 5 stars
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A monotonous text disguised as casual reading.
- By Rob on 07-29-16
By: Ian Goldin, and others
-
Nonzero
- The Logic of Human Destiny
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 412
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 306
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 306
At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Non-Zero (but pretty close to zero)
- By Douglas on 02-06-14
By: Robert Wright
-
Kingdom of Characters
- The Language Revolution That Made China Modern
- By: Jing Tsu
- Narrated by: Jing Tsu
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Missed important information
- By Ms. on 04-01-22
By: Jing Tsu
-
Seven Games
- A Human History
- By: Oliver Roeder
- Narrated by: William Sarris
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
Checkers, backgammon, chess, and Go. Poker, Scrabble, and bridge. These seven games, ancient and modern, fascinate millions of people worldwide. In Seven Games, Oliver Roeder charts their origins and historical importance, the arcana of their rules, and the ways their design makes them pleasurable.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
All about computers and games
- By Mark L on 01-03-23
By: Oliver Roeder
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Thank you
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This is a thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.
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It was okay until the end
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Steven Johnson’s engrossing account of the epic struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and between two centuries—from Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite and the assassination of Czar Alexander II to New York City in the shadow of World War I.
By: Steven Johnson
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Learn something new
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What listeners say about Wonderland
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- T. Leach
- 02-09-17
It will delight you
Just as the topic of this book, this book will delight you as it did me in it's novelty. Worth the listen for the very serious who study the history of innovation. Like myself I'm sure it will cause you to look at play differently.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leon Proller
- 05-08-18
Great telling about subtle human motivation
a great documenting humankind's not so recognized motivators in innovation: play and the joy of having fun
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Colin
- 11-27-18
Press play
Hearing about how play shaped the world is itself very entertaining. So many important developments arose from our desire to play.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David
- 08-06-18
The fun side of innovation
Entertaining and informative history of the impact that our desire for fun has had on innovations. Some familiar stories and some unexpected ones, but all are enjoyable and accessible to broad audiences.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Jaime Antonio Torres
- 02-12-17
interesting
if you enjoyed Johnsons' previous works on creativity then you'll enjoy this work's exploration of play. While the subjects are varied, I enjoy Johnsons' writing style which never drags or drolls on but leads you to some new and enlightened idea. Whether in print or digital audio I found this to be a pleasurable read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Staceghost
- 12-05-18
Bill Maher should read this book
Another romp through time discovering history's forgotten links with Steven Johnson? Yes, please! Very fun!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Blair L. Murray
- 01-09-17
Great read, great perspective of how & why we got to where we are.
A great perspective on the drivers in the evolution of the human race since mankind progressed beyond survival. I particularly enjoyed the analysis of the computer, and its development. As a physicist and mathematician, I particularly appreciated the acknowledgement of some of the real pioneers in the field.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David A.
- 06-15-23
Terrific insights
I love how Steven pulls the thread that ties seemingly unrelated things into a beautiful mosaic that is not readily obvious.
Really great writing and the reader is excellent.
Well worth the time!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Whit B
- 12-07-16
Worth a listen!
Great perspective on the evolution of modern society. Learned a of novel things!
If you liked the author's other works, you'll enjoy this as well...
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 03-05-18
Great audiobook.
Loved it. I would say, it is one of those books that helps you to better understand the world around you, history and prepare you for the future as you learn what shaped history & innovation. Well done Steven. Slavo.
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