Download or read book The Unpersuadables written by Will Storr and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While excavating fossils in the tropics of Australia with a celebrity creationist, Will Storr asked himself a simple question. Why don't facts work?
Download or read book Summary of Will Storr s The Unpersuadables written by Everest Media, and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-06-10T22:59:00Z with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The town of Devil was hosting a talk by John Mackay, an Australian who had traveled far to give the audience his book The Bible, which was filled with visions, violence, and lore. The audience was asked to choose between Darwin and God. #2 The town of Gympie, Australia, is named after a local tree called the gympie-gympie. It is a place of early closing and close community. The locals know the town as Gympie, an Aboriginal word meaning Devil. #3 John Mackay, a Christian evangelist, has come to north Australia to give a talk on the obsession that has run through his life like a burning wick: evolution and all the reasons it is wrong. To accept evolution is to call the entire Bible a lie. #4 The Gympie Christian church is a small, local congregation that believes in creationism. When I attended their meeting, I was presented with a six-thousand-year-old news report about the world being perfect and without pain or struggle until Eve ate the apple with Adam.
Download or read book Selfie written by Will Storr and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An intriguing odyssey” though the history of the self and the rise of narcissism (The New York Times). Self-absorption, perfectionism, personal branding—it wasn’t always like this, but it’s always been a part of us. Why is the urge to look at ourselves so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell—especially since it doesn’t necessarily make us better or happier people? Full of unexpected connections among history, psychology, economics, neuroscience, and more, Selfie is a “terrific” book that makes sense of who we have become (NPR’s On Point). Award-winning journalist Will Storr takes us from ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of the “selfie generation,” and the era of hyper-individualism in which we live now, telling the epic tale of the person we all know so intimately—because it’s us. “It’s easy to look at Instagram and selfie-sticks and shake our heads at millennial narcissism. But Will Storr takes a longer view. He ignores the easy targets and instead tells the amazing 2,500-year story of how we’ve come to think about our selves. A top-notch journalist, historian, essayist, and sleuth, Storr has written an essential book for understanding, and coping with, the 21st century.” —Nathan Hill, New York Times-bestselling author of The Nix “This fascinating psychological and social history . . . reveals how biology and culture conspire to keep us striving for perfection, and the devastating toll that can take.”—The Washington Post “Ably synthesizes centuries of attitudes and beliefs about selfhood, from Aristotle, John Calvin, and Freud to Sartre, Ayn Rand, and Steve Jobs.” —USA Today “Eminently suitable for readers of both Yuval Noah Harari and Daniel Kahneman, Selfie also has shades of Jon Ronson in its subversive humor and investigative spirit.” —Bookseller “Storr is an electrifying analyst of Internet culture.” —Financial Times “Continually delivers rich insights . . . captivating.” —Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book The Science of Storytelling written by Will Storr and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers compel us? In The Science of Storytelling, award-winning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers—and also our brains—create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change. Will Storr’s superbly chosen examples range from Harry Potter to Jane Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to children’s stories. With sections such as “The Dramatic Question,” “Creating a World,” and “Plot, Endings, and Meaning,” as well as a practical, step-by-step appendix dedicated to “The Sacred Flaw Approach,” The Science of Storytelling reveals just what makes stories work, placing it alongside such creative writing classics as John Yorke’s Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey into Story and Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing. Enlightening and empowering, The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.
Download or read book The Unpersuadables written by Will Storr and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A tour de force . . . [Storr’s] dogged approach to nailing many of the most celebrated skeptics in lies and misrepresentations is welcome.” —Salon Why, that is, did the obviously intelligent man beside him sincerely believe in Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden and a six-thousand-year-old Earth, in spite of the evidence against them? It was the start of a journey that would lead Storr all over the world—from Texas to Warsaw to the Outer Hebrides—meeting an extraordinary cast of modern heretics whom he tries his best to understand. Storr tours Holocaust sites with famed denier David Irving and a band of neo-Nazis, experiences his own murder during “past life regression” hypnosis, discusses the looming One World Government with an iconic climate skeptic, and investigates the tragic life and death of a woman who believed her parents were high priests in a baby-eating cult. Using a unique mix of highly personal memoir, investigative journalism, and the latest research from neuroscience and experimental psychology, Storr reveals how the stories we tell ourselves about the world invisibly shape our beliefs, and how the neurological “hero maker” inside us all can so easily lead to self-deception, toxic partisanship and science denial. “The subtle brilliance of The Unpersuadables is Mr. Storr’s style of letting his subjects hang themselves with their own words.” —The Wall Street Journal “Throws new and salutary light on all our conceits and beliefs. Very valuable, and a great read to boot, this is investigative journalism of the highest order.” —The Independent, Book of the Week
Download or read book Will Storr Vs The Supernatural written by Will Storr and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-05-31 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When journalist and ghost sceptic Will Storr heads to Philadelphia to meet Lou Gentile, a demonologist, he expects a little fun with an amusing eccentric. What he gets are terrifying experiences of spectral lights and horrific demonic growling - and all of his safe, adult preconceptions about ghosts instantly vanish. In the cold light of day, Will decides on a quest for the truth about ghosts. He meets professional paranormal investigators and takes part in séances and a vigil in the most haunted house in Britain, tries out divining rods and ouija boards, and goes on set with TV's Most Haunted. But Will also seeks out the sceptics in clinical psychology and philosophy who ask if spirits are really just in our heads. His journey is full of bizarre, terrifying and hilarious experiences, each one a new insight into life, death and what might come after.
Download or read book The Status Game written by Will Storr and published by William Collins. This book was released on 2021-09 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Science of Storytelling comes a bold and ambitious investigation of status that will redefine human culture for our times There's something humans desire even more than gold. It's a fundamental drive that's common to all humanity, cutting across race, gender, age and culture. Our need for it is such that exactly how much of it we possess dramatically effects not only our happiness and well-being but also our physical health. It'sstatus, argues Will Storr. You can't understand human behaviour without understanding The Status Game. This game, which we are all playing, is not only the secret of our success, but also of our most evil behaviour. Everything is subordinate to status, and humans aren't unique in our complicity with it. By reflecting on the various ways humans negotiate this game - through status hierarchies, values, myths and sacred markers, Storr gives readers a master class in this most malevolent of social mysteries.
Download or read book Fear of Food written by Harvey Levenstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-03-08 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These include Nobel Prize-winner Eli Metchnikoff, who advised that yogurt would enable people to live to be 140, and Elmer McCollum, the "discoverer" of vitamins, who tailored his warnings about vitamin deficiencies to suit the food producers who funded him. Levenstein also highlights how large food companies have taken advantage of these concerns by marketing their products to combat the fear of the moment. Such examples include the co-opting of the "natural foods" movement, which grew out of the belief that inhabitants of a remote Himalayan Shangri-la enjoyed remarkable health by avoiding the very kinds of processed food these corporations produced, and the physiologist Ancel Keys, originator of the Mediterranean Diet, who provided the basis for a powerful coalition of scientists, doctors, food producers, and others to convince Americans that high-fat foods were deadly.
Download or read book Periodic Tales written by Hugh Aldersey-Williams and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-03-29 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spirit of A Short History of Nearly Everything comes Periodic Tales. Award-winning science writer Hugh Andersey-Williams offers readers a captivating look at the elements—and the amazing, little-known stories behind their discoveries. Periodic Tales is an energetic and wide-ranging book of innovations and innovators, of superstition and science and the myriad ways the chemical elements are woven into our culture, history, and language. It will delight readers of Genome, Einstein’s Dreams, Longitude, and The Age of Wonder.
Download or read book Into the Woods written by John Yorke and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2014-05-29 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of the fundamental narrative structure, why it works, the meanings of stories, and why we tell them in the first place. The idea of Into the Woods is not to supplant works by Aristotle, Lajos Egri, Robert McKee, David Mamet, or any other writers of guides for screenwriters and playwrights, but to pick up on their cues and take the reader on a historical, philosophical, scientific, and psychological journey to the heart of all storytelling. In this exciting and wholly original book, John Yorke not only shows that there is truly a unifying shape to narrative—one that echoes the great fairytale journey into the woods, and one, like any great art, that comes from deep within—he explains why, too. With examples ranging from The Godfather to True Detective, Mad Men to Macbeth, and fairy tales to Forbrydelsen (The Killing), Yorke utilizes Shakespearean five-act structure as a key to analyzing all storytelling in all narrative forms, from film and television to theatre and novel-writing—a big step from the usual three-act approach. Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey into Story is destined to sit alongside David Mamet’s Three Uses of the Knife, Robert McKee’s Story, Syd Field’s Screenplay, and Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing as one of the most original, useful, and inspiring books ever on dramatic writing. Praise for Into the Woods “Love storytelling? You need this inspiring book. John Yorke dissects the structure of stories with a joyous enthusiasm allied to precise, encyclopedic knowledge. Guaranteed to send you back to your writing desk with newfound excitement and drive.” —Chris Chibnall, creator/writer, Broadchurch and Gracepoint “Outrageously good and by far and away the best book of its kind I’ve ever read. I recognized so much truth in it. But more than that, I learned a great deal. Time and again, Yorke articulates things I’ve always felt but have never been able to describe. . . . This is a love story to story—erudite, witty and full of practical magic. I struggle to think of the writer who wouldn’t benefit from reading it—even if they don’t notice because they’re too busy enjoying every page.” —Neil Cross, creator/writer, Luther and Crossbones “Part ‘how-to’ manual, part ‘why-to’ celebration, Into the Woods is a wide-reaching and infectiously passionate exploration of storytelling in all its guises . . . exciting and thought-provoking.” —Emma Frost, screenwriter, The White Queen and Shameless
Download or read book The Hunger and the Howling of Killian Lone written by Will Storr and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-03-11 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part sinister fairy tale, part gothic horror, this debut novel pulls back the curtain on the celebrity chef’s kitchen, revealing a disturbing world of ambition and brutality. Killian Lone comes from a long line of gifted cooks stretching back to the 17th century, and he yearns to become a famous chef himself. When he starts an apprenticeship under Max Mann, the most famous chef in London, he looks set to continue the family tradition. But the reality of kitchen life is brutal. Even his fellow apprentice, Kathryn, who shows Killian uncharacteristic kindness, can’t stop him being sucked into the vicious and debauched world of 1980s fine dining; and gradually he is forced to surrender his dream. Then he discovers a dark family secret – the legacy of an ancestor who was burnt as a witch for creating food so delicious it was said to turn all who tasted it mad. Killian knows he can use this secret to achieve his ambitions and maybe, finally, to win Kathryn's affections. But is he willing to pay the price?
Download or read book The Coddling of the American Mind written by Greg Lukianoff and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Something is going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and afraid to speak honestly. How did this happen? First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths are incompatible with basic psychological principles, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. They interfere with healthy development. Anyone who embraces these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—is less likely to become an autonomous adult able to navigate the bumpy road of life. Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to produce these untruths. They situate the conflicts on campus in the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization, including a rise in hate crimes and off-campus provocation. They explore changes in childhood including the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.
Download or read book Charles Darwin written by A.N. Wilson and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-12-12 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A radical reappraisal of Charles Darwin from the bestselling author of Victoria: A Life. With the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin—hailed as the man who "discovered evolution"—was propelled into the pantheon of great scientific thinkers, alongside Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton. Eminent writer A. N. Wilson challenges this long-held assumption. Contextualizing Darwin and his ideas, he offers a groundbreaking critical look at this revered figure in modern science. In this beautifully written, deeply erudite portrait, Wilson argues that Darwin was not an original scientific thinker, but a ruthless and determined self-promoter who did not credit the many great sages whose ideas he advanced in his book. Furthermore, Wilson contends that religion and Darwinism have much more in common than it would seem, for the acceptance of Darwin's theory involves a pretty significant leap of faith. Armed with an extraordinary breadth of knowledge, Wilson explores how Darwin and his theory were very much a product of their place and time. The "Survival of the Fittest" was really the Survival of Middle Class families like the Darwins—members of a relatively new economic strata who benefited from the rising Industrial Revolution at the expense of the working classes. Following Darwin’s theory, the wretched state of the poor was an outcome of nature, not the greed and neglect of the moneyed classes. In a paradigm-shifting conclusion, Wilson suggests that it remains to be seen, as this class dies out, whether the Darwinian idea will survive, or whether it, like other Victorian fads, will become a footnote in our intellectual history. Brilliant, daring, and ambitious, Charles Darwin explores this legendary man as never before, and challenges us to reconsider our understanding of both Darwin and modern science itself.
Download or read book Religion 101 written by Peter Archer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the origins and traditions of world religions! With so many religions in the world, it isn't always easy to recall each faith's key influences, spiritual figures, and dogmas. Written in easy-to-understand language, Religion 101 offers a fascinating--and memorable--glimpse at the sacred stories, traditions, and doctrines that have influenced today's most popular religions. From Jesus and the Four Noble Truths to the Buddhist Wheel of Existence, this book provides you with thought-provoking insight into the customs and beliefs of common faiths like Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. Inside, you will also discover hundreds of important religious facts, illustrations, and thought puzzles that you won't be able to find anywhere else. So whether you're looking to unravel the mysteries of existence and meaning, or just want to find out what Kabbalah is all about, Religion 101 has all the answers--even the ones you didn't know you were looking for.
Download or read book The Vanishing Neighbor The Transformation of American Community written by Marc J. Dunkelman and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-08-04 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping new look at the unheralded transformation that is eroding the foundations of American exceptionalism. Americans today find themselves mired in an era of uncertainty and frustration. The nation's safety net is pulling apart under its own weight; political compromise is viewed as a form of defeat; and our faith in the enduring concept of American exceptionalism appears increasingly outdated. But the American Age may not be ending. In The Vanishing Neighbor, Marc J. Dunkelman identifies an epochal shift in the structure of American life—a shift unnoticed by many. Routines that once put doctors and lawyers in touch with grocers and plumbers—interactions that encouraged debate and cultivated compromise—have changed dramatically since the postwar era. Both technology and the new routines of everyday life connect tight-knit circles and expand the breadth of our social landscapes, but they've sapped the commonplace, incidental interactions that for centuries have built local communities and fostered healthy debate. The disappearance of these once-central relationships—between people who are familiar but not close, or friendly but not intimate—lies at the root of America's economic woes and political gridlock. The institutions that were erected to support what Tocqueville called the "township"—that unique locus of the power of citizens—are failing because they haven't yet been molded to the realities of the new American community. It's time we moved beyond the debate over whether the changes being made to American life are good or bad and focus instead on understanding the tradeoffs. Our cities are less racially segregated than in decades past, but we’ve become less cognizant of what's happening in the lives of people from different economic backgrounds, education levels, or age groups. Familiar divisions have been replaced by cross-cutting networks—with profound effects for the way we resolve conflicts, spur innovation, and care for those in need. The good news is that the very transformation at the heart of our current anxiety holds the promise of more hope and prosperity than would have been possible under the old order. The Vanishing Neighbor argues persuasively that to win the future we need to adapt yesterday’s institutions to the realities of the twenty-first-century American community.
Download or read book Why People Believe Weird Things written by Michael Shermer and published by Holt Paperbacks. This book was released on 2002-09-01 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This sparkling book romps over the range of science and anti-science." --Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel Revised and Expanded Edition. In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory, New Age hokum, and alien abduction. A no-holds-barred assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, with more than 80,000 copies in print, Why People Believe Weird Things debunks these nonsensical claims and explores the very human reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. In an entirely new chapter, "Why Smart People Believe in Weird Things," Michael Shermer takes on science luminaries like physicist Frank Tippler and others, who hide their spiritual beliefs behind the trappings of science. Shermer, science historian and true crusader, also reveals the more dangerous side of such illogical thinking, including Holocaust denial, the recovered-memory movement, the satanic ritual abuse scare, and other modern crazes. Why People Believe Strange Things is an eye-opening resource for the most gullible among us and those who want to protect them.
Download or read book Reality Check written by Donald R. Prothero and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looks at why scientific ideas, ranging from evolution to global warming, that have been accepted by the scientific community have been challenged with unscientific arguments, and argues that science deniers pose a threat to society.
