Stuff Matters cover art

Stuff Matters

The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Stuff Matters

By: Mark Miodownik
Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik, read by Daniel Weyman.

A unique and inspiring exploration of human creativity from one of the UK's best-known scientists

Everything is made of something...

From the everyday objects in our homes to the most extraordinary new materials that will shape our future, Stuff Matters reveals the inner workings of the man-made world, and the miracles of craft, design, engineering and ingenuity that surround us every day.

From the tea-cup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, from the ancient technologies of fabrics and ceramic to today's self-healing metals and bionic implants, this is a book to inspire amazement and delight at mankind's creativity.

 Engineering Political Science Politics & Government Science Technology

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Elemental cover art
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
Bernoulli's Fallacy cover art
Water cover art
Stardust: The Chemistry of the Universe and You cover art
Cosmos cover art
Oxygen cover art
How the Earth Works cover art
Sticky cover art
Biomimicry cover art
The Wise Book of Whys cover art
222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions cover art
Funny You Should Ask...Again cover art
It's Not Rocket Science cover art
All stars
Most relevant
As a novice on the topic, this book was a pleasant introduction to material sciences. The audiobook is lighthearted yet informative and well narrated. Reminds me of the work of Carlo Rovelli. Will definitely check out more books from the author.

A fun and insightful book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good book overall. It is not only focused on material scientific as I expected, there are big sections on the emotional effects of materials and personal stories.

Great narration though.

Good content great performance from the narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
i read liquid and went straight to the authors next book, have to say a little disappointed the structure of the oyher book was lacking, but the same wit and insight was delivered. i've downloaded gas his new book and look forward to it.

nice book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Phenomenal book into the science of materials and their importance to the fabric of human existence.

It has transformed my understanding of and appreciation for everyday objects! I will never look at our material world in the same way again.

Transformative!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mark Miodownik makes a topic that could easily be very dry, fascinating and engaging. He connects each material discussed to his own entertaining life experiences, whilst not skimping on the chemistry and physics of the matter (at least for someone who is a beginner on these topics). Chapters on concrete, metal, glass, paper, plastics and ceramics were particularly interesting as they are things we use every day and so can relate to (aerogel was cool but lost me a bit).
Daniel Weyman performs the book brilliantly and is the best reader I’ve heard so far on audible (I’ve listened to at least 20 books so far).

Well written, brilliantly read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews