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  • The Unthinkable

  • Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why
  • By: Amanda Ripley
  • Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
  • Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (23 ratings)

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The Unthinkable

By: Amanda Ripley
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
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Publisher's Summary

Discover how human beings react to danger—and what makes the difference between life and death

“Fascinating and useful . . . [shows that] the most important variable in an emergency is your own behavior.”—The New York Times

Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims?

In her quest to answer these questions, award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley traces human responses to some of recent history’s epic disasters, from the explosion of the Mont Blanc munitions ship in 1917–one of the biggest explosions before the invention of the atomic bomb–to the journeys of the 15,000 people who found their way out of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. To understand the science behind the stories, Ripley turns to leading brain scientists, trauma psychologists, and other disaster experts. She even has her own brain examined by military researchers and experiences, through realistic simulations, what it might be like to survive a plane crash into the ocean or to escape a raging fire.

Ripley comes back with precious wisdom about the surprising humanity of crowds, the elegance of the brain’s fear circuits, and the stunning inadequacy of many of our evolutionary responses. Most unexpectedly, she discovers the brain’s ability to do much, much better–with just a little help.

©2008 Amanda Ripley (P)2008 Random House, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“Engrossing and lucid . . . facing the truth about the human capacity for risk and disaster turns out to be a lot less scary than staying in the dark.”O: The Oprah Magazine

“The thinking person’s manual for getting out alive.”NPR’s “Book Tour”

The Unthinkable isn’t merely a book about disaster; it’s a book about survival—maybe yours.”—Gavin de Becker, New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Fear

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This needs to be required reading

this is one of the best audiobooks I've ever heard and I recommend thouraghly .

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Super Interesting

Great analysis of many dimensions of human behaviour. Excellent interviews and the book was well organised, returning to people’s personal experience of certain events to compare and contrast different facets. This was complemented by thorough academic research.

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Great book for the professional.

I live and work in Sydney Australia. I am in the Emergency Management field and stumbled across this book from a podcast that I listen too. Glad I did gave him a few insights that I will continue to explore.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.