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  • The Wizard and the Prophet

  • Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World
  • Written by: Charles C. Mann
  • Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
  • Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (31 ratings)

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The Wizard and the Prophet

Written by: Charles C. Mann
Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
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Publisher's Summary

From the best-selling, award-winning author of 1491 and 1493 - an incisive portrait of the two little-known 20th-century scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, whose diametrically opposed views shaped our ideas about the environment, laying the groundwork for how people in the 21st century will choose to live in tomorrow's world.

In 40 years, Earth's population will reach 10 billion. Can our world support that? What kind of world will it be? Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups - Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book. The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin. Cut back! was his mantra. Otherwise everyone will lose! The Wizards are the heirs of Norman Borlaug, whose research, in effect, wrangled the world in service to our species to produce modern high-yield crops that then saved millions from starvation. Innovate! was Borlaug's cry. Only in that way can everyone win! Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces - food, water, energy, climate change - grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future. With our civilization on the line, the author's insightful analysis is an essential addition to the urgent conversation about how our children will fare on an increasingly crowded Earth.

©2018 Charles C. Mann (P)2018 Random House Audio

What the critics say

“Scrupulous, stimulating, and elegant.... A beautifully crafted book. Anyone wanting a readable, relentlessly intelligent narrative showing where our environmental ideas and anxieties in the present-day Anglophone world come from will find it here in abundance.” (Robert J. Mayhew, Times Literary Supplement

“Brilliant.... The author’s science journalism shines.” (William Easterly, The Wall Street Journal

“An elegantly written, devoted testimonial to the art of the possible.” (Jonathan Hahn, Sierra)  

What listeners say about The Wizard and the Prophet

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if you're thinking about the environment

give this a listen. It's really interesting to learn about the history of innovation and technology vs reduction in the 20th century.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Great premise ... but then it meander off course

The premise of the book is very interesting ... how does two dueling visions to feed the world compare?
I wish the author would have stay focus on the topic and not wonder off all over the place. I found myself constantly asking "what does that have to do with the dueling visions"? Being off-course makes for a distracting read. But when the author was on topic, it was actually quite informative ... I did learn a few things about the topic.
The narration is very good, and it help compensate (a little bit) on the off-topic discussions.
In the end, great premise, some nuggets of good insight, but not enough to get it pass 2 stars overall

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