Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

The Unthinkable is the thinking person's manual for getting out alive.
NPR, National Public Radio

“Engrossing and lucid … An absorbing study of the psychology and physiology of panic, heroism, and trauma … Facing the truth about the human capacity for risk and disaster turns out to be a lot less scary than staying in the dark.”

O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
 

Coming soon: Amanda's upcoming book, THE SMART KIDS CLUB, follows her global quest to discover how other countries built smarter kids. To stay in the loop, please join the email list.

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This year, for the first time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will recognize a regular, non-governmental human (or organization) for acts of superior leadership and innovation—through a new honor called the Rick Rescorla National Award for Resilience.

This is a big deal. For years, schmucks like me have been haranguing the federal government for failing to highlight the stories and wisdom of the regular people who make our country more resilient. Instead of talking about how government is going to make us…

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Where Does the $ Go?

Thanks to the folks at USC’s Master of Arts in Teaching Program for this nice graphic on $ and education around the world.

U.S. Education versus the World via Master of Arts in Teaching at USC
Via: MAT@USC | Master’s of Arts in Teaching

But this raises another mystery: We’ve known for a long time that more money does not tend to lead to more learning, once you get past a bare minimum (which we did a long time ago). So here’s my question: Where does all that money go…

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Women & Children First?

On the Titanic, 70% of the women and children survived—but only 20% of the men. Cue the orchestra!

But was the Titanic the exception? A new study investigates whether women and children really do have an advantage on a sinking ship.

It is so refreshing, first of all, to see a study focus obsessively on the thing that matters most in a disaster—the behavior of the humans involved. Naturally, the results show that life is more complicated than the movies.

The study, out of Sweden, concludes that it is in fact worse to be a woman…

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Event Date: Friday, March 23, 2012

Strength Training

New America Foundation is hosting an unusual conference on resilience today. They’ve defined it creatively, which I like, including every angle from a resilient psyche to resilient capitalism. Plus, it gives me the perfect excuse to catch up with Admiral Thad Allen (retired), the Coast Guard Commandant who let the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and then oversaw the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

We’ll be talking about resilience, along with several other veterans of the subject, this afternoon.

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Event Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bugs & Bombs

I’ll be joining some other, smarter folks to talk about bioterrorism at a Cornell event at the Woodrow Wilson Center in DC tonight. Is it possible to prepare for bioterrorism in a reasonable and intelligent way? Or can you not really have all those words in the same sentence? 

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About Amanda Ripley

Author of
The Unthinkable
& contributor to Time.

Amanda Ripley, a longtime TIME Magazine contributor, is an investigative journalist who writes about human behavior and public policy. Her book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — and Why, is the first major book to explain how the brain works in disasters — and how we can learn to do better. It has been published in 15 countries.

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