Sand #489
August 31, 2018
Did you know that, even though sand the most used building materials in world, the sand in the desert is more or less useless? Did you know there is a serious black market trade in sand in certain parts of the world, and that people are murdered to protect that black market trade? This week we learn just how much of our modern world is built with, on, and using sand. We spend the hour with award-winning journalist and author Vince Beiser, talking about his new book "The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization".
Guests:
- Vince Beiser
Featured Book
The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization
Guest Bios
Vince Beiser
Vince Beiser is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles, and author of "The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization". Vince has reported from over 100 countries, states, provinces, kingdoms, occupied territories, liberated areas, no man's lands and disaster zones. He has exposed conditions in California's harshest prisons, trained with troops bound for Iraq, ridden with the first responders to disasters in Haiti and Nepal and hunted down other stories from around the world for publications including Wired, The Atlantic, Harper's, The Guardian, GQ, The Nation, Mother Jones, Playboy, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.
