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The Coming Storm
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
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The Coming Storm
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Summary
Tornadoes, cyclones, tsunamis…Weather can be deadly—especially when it strikes without warning. Millions of Americans could soon find themselves at the mercy of violent weather if the public data behind lifesaving storm alerts gets privatized for personal gain. In his first Audible Original, New York Times best-selling author and journalist Michael Lewis delivers hard-hitting research on not-so-random weather data—and how Washington plans to release it. He also digs deep into the lives of two scientists who revolutionized climate predictions, bringing warning systems to previously unimaginable levels of accuracy. One is Kathy Sullivan, a gifted scientist among the first women in space; the other, D.J. Patil, is a trickster-turned-mathematician and a political adviser. Most urgently, Lewis’s narrative reveals the potential cost of putting a price tag on information that could save lives. Please note The Fifth Risk includes the entirety of The Coming Storm.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Simon
- 01-08-18
Tornadoes, Big Data and Trump bashing!
Martin Lewis is a voice I've thought worth listening to ever since the highly revealing Flash Boys passed between my ears. This one is short but packs in a very decent amount of information and of course opinion. Lewis covers the devastating impact that tornadoes in particular can have and touches on the psychology of why people ignore warnings and weather forecasts despite their dramatic improvements in usefulness over recent years.
Set against the awesome power of nature of course are the weathermen and he concentrates on two scientists in particular. The role that big data plays in the science of weather prediction becomes very clear but so does the damage that can be done by its misuse. Over-hyped forecasts that erode public trust in meteorologists, the commercial use of data whereby only paying customers get storm warnings and of course the Trump administration all come in for a Lewis-fuelled bashing.
I think it's well worth listening to. There is a level of political bias here (though most felt well deserved!) but the issues are important. How the data is used, the importance of public ownership of it and how government policy could send us backwards are all well worth exploring.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- dsarin
- 14-08-18
Excellent book
This is a must-read book. The fact that it is Audible only is a crime.
Forecasting, corruption, tornadoes, astronauts.Yes, it is that cool.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Charlie
- 03-06-19
Extracted from the Fifth Risk
Stay away if you already have the Fifth Risk, or else you will be ripped off. This is just chapters taken from the Fifth Risk.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Barry Hawkins
- 19-06-22
Trump and Myers were some kinda bad huh
Briliant, loved it. Chilling, but it seems we're back on the right track now.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- J. M. Poulain
- 22-11-21
An extract of Fifth Risk
Whilst the information and stories inside are interesting it is two chapters from his book Fifth Risk that goes into more detail on a lot of areas that The Coming Storm only touched on.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 20-09-21
There’s seldom a bad short book
In a short format the author tells about the invaluable amount of data that the federal government collects and made available to the public before the Trump administration restricted access to it so that their associates could profit from it through their private companies
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Judy Corstjens
- 20-10-18
It's about the weather
I ordered this book on the basis that if Michael Lewis writes something, then I'll read it. I thought it was going to be about global warming, but actually it is about typhoons - i.e. whirl-winds. It was quite interesting, and written with verve and colour, but it was a bit of a surprise as it didn't really seem to lead anywhere.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Lae
- 10-10-18
Not my cup of tea at this moment.
Boring. My fault. Had no idea what the book was about when I got it.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- CJ
- 02-10-18
Another great offering by Michael Lewis
This is a great listen overall. The only negative is that the conclusion is not quite as strong as the rest of the book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mike Harris
- 04-09-18
excellent short recent history and well read
always been a fan of Michael Lewis's work and this short only adds to that
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- GE Guest
- 07-08-18
Badly Mixed Message
Mr. Lewis is a good storyteller. I very much enjoyed The Undoing Project but this one is not of the same quality. Perhaps that's why it's free. It seems to be an underhanded way of equating middle America's short-sighted attitude about tornados with their attitude about current politics. Is this about climate change? Not exactly. Is it a metaphor about Trump? Hard to tell. Is it interesting? Yes, but as Max Tegmark says in Our Mathematical Universe, "I find that when it comes to telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, it's the second part that accounts for most of the differences in how they portray reality: what they omit."
I had friends whose house was wiped out in Joplin and I went the next day to help clean up. A good part of everyone's days was spent wandering around in slack-jawed disbelief. It was simply beyond words, but Lewis makes a good attempt. He also does eventually assess the problem correctly - it's not that there isn't enough warning, it's that no one can imagine the monster will come for them. Far too many people in tornado alley have not even the most rudimentary form of storm shelter. That story could have been what this book was about. But it's not.
It's not even about any specific "storm" at all. It's not a clear case for anything in the future. It IS a place where lots of shots are lobbed at the Trump administration. That would be alright if the story was told in a complete fashion, but it's not.
He seems to disapprove of government collected data of all sorts recently being removed from public access, but he also seems to disapprove of the private sector actually DOING anything with that data. He conflates the collection of data with data analysis, as if because the Department of Commerce has the data it is also the ultimate expert on what that data means or how it can best be used. And nowhere does he even give a hint that any of that data might be inaccurate. For instance, crime data is reported to the FBI by local police. No one seems to be aware that because of personnel shortages on municipal departments, often only one-tenth of crime reports can be processed. Federal crime statistics are way off. And he wonders why they are no longer available? Are people the solution or the problem? Is government the solution or the problem? He can't lay any solid argument, but he sure can complain and blame Trump for the sky that soon will fall.
It's not a bad listen for free but there is a deep undercurrent of intellectual dishonesty that ultimately makes it a disappointment.
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195 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kingsley
- 01-08-18
Talking about the weather was never so interesting
'The Coming Storm' tells a brief history of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the prediction of weather - how it has improved over time, and how we can get people to actually pay attention to the extreme weather warnings.
It is rather political in it's content - discussing changes in NOAA (and Dept of Commerce) since the Trump Administration has begun. It also discussed laws and attempted laws that were trying to dismantle or cripple NOAA, in favour of private companies like AccuWeather (of which one of the founders is appointed to Dept of Commerce by Trump), despite the fact that AccuWeather gets it's data from NOAA and then just processes it differently.
It goes into details on how people react to storm warnings - often ignoring them due to a 'it wont happen to me' attitude, or thinking 'home' means safe. And it looks at how NOAA is changing how it present information based on social science.
Michael Lewis narrates his own work, and it is fine narration. Nothing outstanding, but clear and well produced. I would be more than happy to listen to him narrate more of his own books.
Overall a very interesting piece of work that is likely to get a lot of strong opinions from the two sides of politics - something that can already be seen in the handful of reviews on Audible already.
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88 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-08-18
More like a Podcast
This felt less like a narrated story and more like a podcast, but I still very much enjoyed it. Those that listen to NPR and podcasts would enjoy this.
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70 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- discerning_buyer
- 18-08-18
Political leanings aside, it was interesting
I think it's pretty clear there is an agenda here that is left leaning. That is unfortunate, I prefer neutral material. Interesting story, but I was turned off by the liberal bias.
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65 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Elisabeth Carey
- 10-09-18
Why you shouldn't ignore the weather forecast
The age of Big Data is upon us, and mostly what we hear are the troubling and potentially terrifying consequences of business and government having easy access to all of our data. That's a real problem that we have to devote time and attention to dealing with.
Yet Big Data can do many other things, many of them very beneficial. The misnamed Department of Commerce collects enormous amounts of data about, among other things, the weather. Before the growth of the internet into its modern form, that data mostly sat on paper, and later on tape, and eventually some of it on servers, in the bowels of NOAA--the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, inside the Commerce Dept. Then a grad student with the foresight to see how useful vast stores of data could be went looking for weather data to test out a theory for his research, and stumbled upon a hole in the Commerce Dept. systems that let him download that data and work with it.
He didn't even know that it was the Commerce Dept. he'd gotten into. He had no idea NOAA was part of Commerce.
This book is a discussion of how much weather forecasting has improved because of NOAA's research and data collection, and what they and other clever people have been able to do with it.
It's about why people still discount National Weather Service warnings that could save their lives.
And it's about the private corporations that are trying to lock up that data so that, after you the taxpayer have paid for that research and data collection, you would then be required to pay again, to for-profit companies, for any use of that weather, including getting weather forecasts.
You may think you get your weather news from your local tv station or Accuweather or the Weather Channel, or your favorite weather app (I have several, for different purposes), but all that data comes from the National Weather Service, which is to say NOAA.
I happen to like how the Weather Channel repackages that information, but you and I and everyone with internet access can get the same information directly from NOAA's websites.
Also, Accuweather is lying to you when they say they're more accurate than NOAA. They're cherry-picking particular dates and locations when their meteorologists did a better job of interpreting NOAA's data than the National Weather Service did. That will happen sometimes; someone who knows nothing about horse racing will sometimes bet on the right horse when the expert picks the wrong one. It happens.
With weather forecasting, it doesn't happen often. And that data? Accuweather wouldn't have it if your tax dollars hadn't paid for NOAA to gather it.
Michael Lewis gives us a clear, lucid discussion of what's going on and what it all potentially means.
And also why you should not roll your eyes at the weather forecast, no matter whether you get it from the National Weather Service, or from one of the for-profit companies repackaging it for you.
Highly recommended.
I received this audiobook at no cost from Audible as part of their Audible Originals program, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
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61 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Alex
- 06-08-18
Skeptical
The author obviously put a lot of research into this book and was able to convey the seriousness and destructive power of tornados and thus the importance of having accurate weather forecasts.
He also offered a fair deal of insight into where weather data comes from and eluded to many political as well as human issues inhibiting the progress of weather forecasting to minimize catastrophes.
What made me skeptical, however, was the rather obvious black and white painting of politicians and scientists — there were very obvious heroes and just as obvious antagonists.
While not entirely uninteresting, I found the tangents describing the backgrounds and (exceptional) commitment of various scientist/key contributors too long and many details at least borderline irrelevant.
In contrast and yet similarly, the politicians were presented as clearly inappropriate/incompetent for the roles they were appointed to, and solely focused on their own profit without eluding to any saving grace — are these individuals truly as selfish and one-sided as presented? In my opinion, the details given in this context seemed insufficiently convincing and strongly biased by the author’s personal opinion — again, making me wonder, to some extent, about their relevance.
The narration was just fine, properly read but not particularly remarkable (albeit, I particularly enjoyed the occasional moments during which the author appeared to suppress a giggle or onset of euphoria).
In summary, it was a decent listen revealing some interesting insights and highlighting a tax-payed service that is probably widely underestimated.
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54 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- lawrence mclernon
- 18-08-18
What is this editorial really about?
A lovely double entendres. I took it thinking it was about the weather. I’ve read many of Michael’s books. He handles the explanation of complex transactions very well. This treatiest was a negative piece on Trump. It’s not only about his insane concept to use the Commerce Dept for commerce but he also worsened things by putting 79 year old Wilbur Ross as the head.But the climax of the book is Trump is allowing tornadoes and by the end of the piece Trump is a tornado and all of you who voted for him you will get what you voted for; chaos?
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46 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Clifford Reynolds
- 02-09-18
political dishonesty disguised as weather data.
don't waste your time. full of contempt for everyone BUT the "in group." performance was good though.
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43 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Richard Rainford
- 31-07-18
My odd review
This is how democracy is destroyed, from within. This is a must read just from the several nuggets of information given. Form your own opinion but dig like hell for the information, because it’s out there.
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43 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Keele
- 07-09-18
What????
This is not what I thought it was going to be at all. I decided O well I’ll listen to it all the way through it’ll get better nope not even a little.
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30 people found this helpful