ESCAPE FROM MODEL LAND by Erica Thompson, read by Kirsty Dillon - audiobook extract

11/11/22 • 5 min

How do mathematical models shape our world—and how can we harness their power for good? Models are at the centre of everything we do. Whether we use them or are simply affected by them, they act as metaphors that help us better understand the increasingly complex problems facing us in the modern world. Without models, we couldn't begin to tackle three of the major challenges facing modern society: regulation of the economy, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet in recent years, the validity of the models we use has been hotly debated and there has been renewed awareness of the disastrous consequences when the makers and interpreters of models get things wrong. Drawing on contemporary examples from finance, climate and health policy, Erica Thompson explores what models are, why we need them, how they work and what happens when they go wrong. This is not an audiobook that argues we should do away with models, but rather, that we need to properly understand how they are constructed—and how some of the assumptions that underlie the models we use can have significant unintended consequences. Unexpectedly humorous, thought-provoking and passionate, this is essential listening for everyone.

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FOR PROFIT by William Magnuson, read by Dan Woren - audiobook extract

We have long been suspicious of corporations recklessly pursuing profit and amassing wealth and power. But the story of the corporation didn't have to be like this. For most of history, they were not amoral entities, but public institutions designed to promote the societies that granted them charter. Magnuson reveals how the corporation has evolved since its beginnings in the ancient world. What happens in this next chapter of the global economy depends on whether we can return to their public-minded spirit, or whether we have sunk irrevocably into the swamp of high profit at all costs. Epic and compelling in scope, For Profit illuminates the roles corporations played, for good and evil, in the making of the modern world.

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AN EMOTIONAL DICTIONARY written and read by Susie Dent - audiobook extract

Whether it's the distress of a bad haircut (AGE-OTORI) or longing for the food someone else is eating (GROAKING), the pleasure found in other people's happiness (CONFELICITY) or the shock of jumping into icy water (CURGLAFF), there are real words to pinpoint exactly how you feel and Susie Dent, Queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner and lexicographer extraordinaire, is going to help you find them. Here are 1001 terms everyone needs, whether it's the best kind of hug (CWTCH), the relief found in swearing (LALOCHEZIA), or the ability to endure till the end (PERTOLERANCE). It's time to rediscover the lost positives of language (and be more GORM); find out how a stork gave us the word for the love between parent and child, and who the first MAVERICK was. Packed with unexpected stories and unforgettable words, on a mission to describe the indescribable, this life-enhancing audiobook will deepen your vocabulary as much as it extends it. Welcome to the first truly human dictionary, as idiosyncratic and unusual as you are.