What's Our Problem? cover art

What's Our Problem?

A Self-Help Book for Societies

Preview

Get this deal Try for £0.00
Offer ends January 21, 2025 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pay £0.99/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.
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.
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.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

What's Our Problem?

By: Tim Urban
Narrated by: Tim Urban
Get this deal Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

From the creator of the wildly popular blog Wait but Why, a fun and fascinating deep dive into what the hell is going on in our strange, unprecedented modern times.

Between 2013 and 2016, Tim Urban became one of the world’s most popular bloggers, writing dozens of viral long-form articles about everything from AI to colonizing Mars to procrastination. Then, he turned his attention to a new topic: the society around him. Why was everything such a mess? Why was everyone acting like such a baby? When did things get so tribal? Why do humans do this stuff?

This massive topic sent Tim tumbling down his deepest rabbit hole yet, through mountains of history, evolutionary psychology, political theory, neuroscience, and modern-day political movements, as he tried to figure out the answer to a simple question: What’s our problem?

Six years later, he emerged from the hole with this book. Narrated by the author, What’s Our Problem? is a deep and expansive analysis of our modern times, in the classic style of Wait but Why, packed with original concepts and sticky metaphors. The book provides an entirely new framework and language for thinking and talking about today’s complex world. Instead of focusing on the usual left-center-right horizontal political axis, which is all about what we think, the book introduces a vertical axis that explores how we think, as individuals and as groups. Listeners will find themselves on a delightful and fascinating journey that will ultimately change the way they see the world around them.

Anyway, he wanted to say a lot more about all of this, but there was a word limit on this book description, so just go listen to the book.

©2023 Tim Urban (P)2023 Tim Urban
Politics & Government Social Psychology & Interactions Thought-Provoking Feel-Good Self Help Societies

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Status Game cover art
Broken Money cover art
Panic Attack cover art
The Capitalist Manifesto cover art
The Beginning of Infinity cover art
Against the Web cover art
The Madness of Crowds cover art
How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement cover art
The Plot to Change America cover art
The Constitution of Knowledge cover art
Political Correctness Does More Harm than Good cover art
The Authoritarian Moment cover art
The New Right cover art
Speechless cover art
The Demon-Haunted World cover art
The Parasitic Mind cover art

What listeners say about What's Our Problem?

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    76
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    11
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    66
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    66
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Puts all my recent feelings into simple words

An honest and unbiased challenge to hold ourselves to higher standards of thinking.

important to read, even if you don't agree, actually, especially if you don't fully agree with his point of view. as that's the whole point. hiding from valid argument or criticism only serves to blind us from reality and enables very dangerous behaviours from all sections of society.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Every potential student should read this

Potentially the most important book of the decade or even this century. I only hope another book like this needs to be written because we can learn all we need to here. However, I somehow doubt this will be the end of SNF. Perhaps the beginning of the end though. Thanks for efforts.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great insights into some key challenges we face

Well written and narrated. Unpacks the mechanisms the many politicians use.
It's a pity that he focuses on BLM movement almost entirely rather than balancing the far left and the far right.
But as he's a great friend of Elon Musk I guess that's not too surprising.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

5 stars!

Really interesting, I love Tim’s Waitbutwhy blog and this is written in the same style but with much more depth into just one topic. He sums it all up so clearly and has actually really changed my view on things. I’ll be recommending this to all my friends, 5 stars!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A much needed dose of clear thinking...

... in an otherwise noisy world.

Tim's intellectual honesty can be felt throughout despite falling a little short at times in my opinion, but at the end of the day he's aware that he's human too and clearly strives to take the nuanced approach to understand what's really going on in the US (but also the west more generally, albeit to a lesser extent) right now. Excellent book, highly recommended esp if you've always felt somewhat "In the middle" when everyone around you is telling you to take sides.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great, as always

Do we expect anything less from Tim? The illustrations are amazing and the content richly educational.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

How democracy dies

A deep dive on the threat to democracy and freedom by extreme ideas and ideologis. Should be read by all people living in the free world.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Spot on

Takes the “taking everything back to first principles” concept which I always loved about the wait but why posts, and applies it to the biggest issue facing the world over the last few years. Enlightening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This is the book I needed to hear!

I have already recommended this book to many others and am about to start listening again. A much needed exploration of many issues and challenges emerging today and some ideas about how to navigate them.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Genius. Thank you Tim

A concise interpretation of political and cultural representation in societies, well researched and delivered. God help us!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!