Most Wanted - May 2019

David Rowan - Founding Editor-in-chief of WIRED’s UK edition and is now technology columnist for The Times

Travels the globe in search of the most exciting and pioneering startups building the future. He’s got to know the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Spotify, Xiaomi, Didi, Nest, Twitter and countless other ambitious entrepreneurs disrupting businesses in almost every sector. And yet too often the companies they’re disrupting don’t get it.

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi - Network scientist.

A data-driven approach, attempting to quantify and predict the many mysterious rich-get-richer effects that are all around us. Specifically, he and his team have crunched data from a wide range of domains like finance, academia, athletics, entertainment, politics, twitter, and even kickstarter campaigns in order to identify five factors that drive success. 

John Browne - Former CEO of BP

Drawing on history, his own experiences and conversations with many of today's great innovators, he uncovers the basis for all progress and its consequences, both good and bad. He argues compellingly that the same spark that triggers each innovation can be used to counter its negative consequences. 

Hannah Critchlow - Leading Neuroscientist

So many of us believe that we are free to shape our own destiny. But what if free will doesn't exist? What if our lives are largely predetermined, hardwired in our brains - and our choices over what we eat, who we fall in love with, even what we believe are not real choices at all?

Rory Sutherland - advertising legend whose TED Talks have been viewed nearly 7 million times

Why is Red Bull so popular – even though everyone hates the taste? Why do countdown boards on platforms take away the pain of train delays? And why do we prefer stripy toothpaste?
We think we are rational creatures. Economics and business rely on the assumption that we make logical decisions based on evidence. But we aren’t, and we don’t.

Alice Robb - Columnist for New York's Science of Us

A clear-eyed, cutting-edge examination of the meaning and purpose of our nightly visions and a guide to changing our dream lives--and making our waking lives richer, healthier, and happier.

Paul Mason - Former economics editor of Channel 4

Argues that we are still capable - through language, innovation and co-operation - of shaping our future. He offers a vision of humans as more than puppets, customers or cogs in a machine. This work of radical optimism asks: Do you want to be controlled? Or do you want something better?

Gabriel Weinberg - founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo

You want to make better decisions. You want to be right more of the time-professionally and personally. However, being more right consistently is a hard problem because the world is such a complex, evolving place. 

Anthony Reuben - the BBC's first Head of Statistics and now works on the corporation's fact-checking Reality Check brand

Statistics don't need to be scary. If you can add, subtract, multiply and divide then you already have most of the tools you need to challenge the numbers all around you. And in this book you'll find the other tools you need to deal with the things you hear that set off alarm bells in your head. 

Bec Evans - consultant on innovation and the co-founder of Prolifiko.

Shares secrets from innovation experts and successful start-ups that you can use right now to come up with life-changing ideas and get them off the ground. Focusing on building both the right mindset and practical skills, its three-step approach guides you to have, hone and implement your ideas - whether you’re looking to solve problems in your current job or develop a side project.

Richard Davies - British economist and journalist and fellow at the London School of Economics

To understand how humans react and adapt to economic change we need to study people who live in harsh environments. From death-row prisoners trading in institutions where money is banned to flourishing entrepreneurs in the world's largest refugee camp, from the unrealised potential of cities like Kinshasa to the hyper-modern economy of Estonia, every life in this book has been hit by a seismic shock, violently broken or changed in some way.

Ben Mezrich - New York Times-bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House

From the Silk Road to the halls of the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Facebook boardroom, Bitcoin Billionaires will take us on a wild and surprising ride while illuminating a tantalizing economic future. On November 26th, 2017, the Winklevoss brothers became the first bitcoin billionaires. Here's the story of how they got there - as only Ben Mezrich could tell it.

Chris Stokel-Walker

In the first independent in-depth book on YouTube, WIRED and Economist journalist Chris Stokel-Walker reveals the site's secrets. He charts its rise from a single home video to multi-billion-dollar giant, how it shook up TV, and how its influencers really live.