People Are the Problem | Preview Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth

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Pushkin Industries

Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re sharing a preview of a new audiobook, Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth, which celebrates the wit and wisdom of the legendary science fiction author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.

Twenty-five years after his death, Adams’ books continue to be read by new generations and his creations along with his ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything being “42”, have seeped deep into public consciousness. Written and narrated by Arvind Ethan David, Adams’ former protégé, this one-of-a-kind audiobook includes reenactments of his work, rare archival material from the Adams Estate, and interviews with Adams’ personal friends like Stephen Fry and Ian Charles Stewart, and zoologists Lucy Cooke and Mark Carwardine. The preview you’re about to hear examines Adams’ view on politics, government, and power.

Get Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth now at Audible, Spotify, Pushkin, or wherever audiobooks are sold.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:14.2	Hello there, listeners.
0:16.2	My name is Arvind Ethan David.
0:18.8	I'm an author, a playwright and a screenwriter, whose work has won
0:22.7	Grammy and Tony Awards. But more important than any of that, I started my career working for Douglas
0:29.6	Adams. And I'm dropping into your feed today to share a preview of my new audiobook about
0:35.3	him, Douglas Adams, The Ends of the Earth, a celebration
0:39.5	of his intellectual legacy. Adams was more than a science fiction or comedy writer. He was someone
0:47.4	with deep insights into our world. He foresaw the dangers of our current age, from social media to chaotic politics, with hilarious
0:57.0	clarity, and maybe he even had some good ideas about how we might survive these dangerous times.
1:05.5	In this audiobook, you'll go on an immersive journey through Adams' mind. We've never before heard recordings
1:12.4	from his personal archive, original readings of his work, and interviews with those who knew and
1:18.6	loved him best. From Stephen Fry and David Bedeal, to leading astrophysicists, conservationists, and political
1:26.6	scientists. I do hope you enjoy this conservationists, and political scientists.
1:34.8	I do hope you enjoy this excerpt, and if you do, you can find Douglas Adams, The Ends of the Earth,
1:42.5	at pushkin.fm slash audiobooks, on audible, Spotify, or wherever else good audiobooks are found.
1:43.7	Thank you.
1:48.3	Chapter 5. Politics.
1:50.3	People are the problem.
1:59.0	The next three chapters of this book discuss Douglas' views on politics, economics, and government.
2:03.9	They work as a triptych since the three subjects are interwoven at more or less the atomic level. Given the times of extreme polarization we live in,
2:11.0	it might be helpful to give the section a bit of a preface. So first, let me say that I don't
	...

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