MATERIAL WORLD The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization

Author Ed Conway narrates this fascinating survey of six raw materials essential to civilization: sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. Conway's narrative point of view is the plural "we," and his narrative reach is global. We visit salt mines and blast furnaces, and gaze far into the cyberfuture, all of it informative, fresh, and enlightening. Conway is an animated narrator, but his voice is unpleasantly pitched, and his unpolished British accent smashes "w's" and "r's," as in "world." And "what" is a clanky "wot." One grows attuned, but some adjustment is required for each listening. Even so, this is a revelatory narrative, and no listener will afterward be able to look at a saltshaker or a stretch of beach the same way. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2024]