Tomes will tell: books that predict the future
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2024
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some people read books to escape. Others turn to them for instruction. As the new year looms, our correspondents – and listeners – consider which titles can help forecast what’s coming next. Picks include “Rainbows End” by Vernor Vinge, “Nuclear War” by Annie Jacobsen, “Not the End of the World” by Hannah Richie and “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey.
This is a full list of the books mentioned in the show:
“Rainbow’s End, A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire upon the Deep” by Vernor Vinge
“Ageless” by Andrew Steele
“War” by Bob Woodward
“Nuclear War: A Scenario” by Annie Jackobson
“1984” by George Orwell
“On Freedom and On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder
“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers
“Qualityland” from Marc-Uwe Kling
“Ministry of the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson
“Severance” by Ling Ma
“Land of Milk and Money” by C Pam Zhang
“The Broken Earth Trilogy” by NK Jemisin
“Not the End of the World" by Hannah Ritchie
“Orbital” by Samantha Harvey
“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” by Carson McCullers
“Ancillary Justice” (The Imperial Rasch Series) by Ann Leckie
“The Battle of Dorking” by Sir George Chesney
“War of the Worlds" by HG Wells
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | At Christmas, you've things to do and places to be, so you might need to borrow a car for the Christmas shop or share the drive to a party. |
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| 0:29.5 | Temp cover is regulated by the FCA, eligibility criteria and tis and C supply. |
| 0:34.3 | The Economist. |
| 0:43.2 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:47.9 | I'm your host, Rosie Blore, and today we've got something different for you. |
| 0:51.9 | For the whole show, we're talking about my favorite thing, books. |
| 1:11.8 | Last Christmas, we asked our correspondence which books would inform us about the present moment. |
| 1:18.1 | I can't be entirely certain that those books helped us deal with the craziness of this year. |
| 1:21.3 | So this time, we thought we'd ask a different question. |
| 1:26.3 | We're discussing books that help us think about what's coming next. |
| 1:32.9 | We've got a number of books to talk about, and to help me leaf through the pages are Oliver Morton, who likes to call himself the Economist Planetary Affairs Editor. |
| 1:37.3 | To be fair, your colleague Jason likes to call me that. |
| 1:40.8 | And Shashank Joshi, our defence editor. |
| 1:42.9 | I prefer to go by Apocalypse editor, but that's fine. |
| 1:46.5 | So with the two horsemen of the apocalypse with me, hi, Ollie. |
| 1:50.0 | Tell me what the big changes are that you see coming in the future. |
| 1:54.4 | Well, a soups on of them, some greatest hits. |
... |
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