97: Vince Beiser | Why Sand Is More Important Than You Think It Is
The Jordan Harbinger Show
Jordan Harbinger
4.8 • 12.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2018
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Vince Beiser (@vincelb) is an award-winning journalist specializing in social issues, technology, and the places they intersect. His latest book is The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization.
What We Discuss with Vince Beiser:- Sand is to cities what flour is to bread -- without sand, civilization as we know it could not exist.
- Sand is at the core of our daily lives, used to make concrete, glass, asphalt, silicon chips in laptops, and smartphones.
- Usable sand is a finite, endangered resource and desert sand doesn't work for construction -- in fact, Dubai imports sand from Australia.
- There's a black market for sand, and there are sand pirates -- it's a resource over which people literally die.
- Nearly 70% of sand on Earth is quartz (one of the most common minerals on earth), and the cycle to create new sand takes 200 million years.
- And much more...
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the show I'm Jordan Harbinger as always I'm here with my producer Jason to fill up |
| 0:04.6 | up today we're talking with Vince bizer author of the world in a grain the story of sand and how it |
| 0:09.9 | transformed civilization I know what you're thinking a show about friggin sand don't do not yet don't |
| 0:16.6 | do not yet yes that's what I was I thought that too I thought when I got this pitch I was like |
| 0:20.4 | whatever why would you even send me this and that's what I thought I really wasn't into it and |
| 0:24.9 | then I read the pitch and I thought oh my gosh I'm gonna grab this book even though I don't I'm |
| 0:28.8 | not gonna do a show on it and then I read the book and I thought y'all might be as interested in |
| 0:32.4 | some of this as I am and today we'll learn why sand is to cities and indeed to our civilization what |
| 0:39.4 | flower is to bread what sells our to our bodies we simply wouldn't have the modern age as we know |
| 0:44.3 | it without sand and we'll discover why this might be one of our most precious and endangered |
| 0:49.6 | resources even though we've got massive deserts full of this stuff and we'll learn about sand pirates |
| 0:55.8 | and the black market for sand and why people are literally dying and being murdered over this |
| 1:01.4 | stuff I know an episode about sand I'm curious to hear what you think of topics like this yes it's |
| 1:07.2 | a departure from our normal fare but I thought it was a worthy one if you want to know how I managed to |
| 1:11.4 | book all these great people and manage a lot of these relationships I have using systems in tiny |
| 1:15.7 | habits check out our level one course which is free over at advanced human dynamics dot com slash |
| 1:21.9 | level one and don't forget we've got worksheets for today's episode that's how you can make sure you |
| 1:26.0 | solidify all your understanding all the key takeaways here from Vince that link is in the show notes |
| 1:31.2 | at jordan harbinger dot com slash podcast people love those worksheets so get after it all right |
| 1:36.0 | here's Vince bizer I never thought that I would be interested in sand Vince I really and I didn't |
| 1:42.8 | think anybody else would either to be frank I was surprised that there was a book on sand and as soon |
| 1:47.0 | as I saw the pitch in my inbox I immediately deleted it and then I went back and read it and went |
... |
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