A performance from the first word to the last

I recently listened to a very funny, entertaining and educational audio book that was exactly the kind of stories I needed for this time in our world. It was called 100 of the Worst Ideas in History: Humanity's Thundering Brainstorms Turned Blundering Brain Farts by Michael Smith and Eric Kasum. It seems as though the authors have basically goes through ancient history, modern history, and current events and handpicked a hundred of the worst ideas, and turned each ome into a short little story, infused it with dripping sarcasm, undeniable humor and wit, created a format for each story to follow and voila…the perfect funny, educational, broad spectrum, book, that reminds us all just how human we all are.

It is by far the best audio book I have ever listened to. It is truly a performance from the first word to the last. There is a loud bellowing voice like a circus master or a game show announcer, and sound effects, guest voices, it is truly so much more than someone just reading a book to you.

Each story followed the exact same format: the Bad Idea, The Genius Behind it, The Brainstorm Struck, Bring on the Blunder, From Bad to Worse, Dumb luck, and After thoughts. Which I think was really smart and told the stories in a really brilliant way. Some examples of stories and their diversity include historical events, battles in Rome, early American history, battlefield errors, recent pop culture events, president Clinton and Monica Lewinski, the balloon boy, fashion faux pas, and any and everything in between. I actually found myself liking the stories that were a little less current events. The pop stars and entertainment industry and octomom really were not my favorites.

I really think this story has something for everything and because of the sarcasm and wit you may not even realize you are learning. I highly recommend for everyone.

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Upbeat and Entertaining

Easy and entertaining read, or in this case, listen.  100 of the worst ideas in history spans a variety of topics from political debacles to scientific ones and everything in between. Thankfully that means there is something for everyone in this book.  From stories I know well like the Pres Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Balloon Boy fiasco, or Octomom some of the tales are from the current time and will be known and reminisced by all but the youngest listeners.  Meanwhile other stories are more for my parents or grandparents generation and some go back to the early days of the US or even to ancient Rome for tales of interest that will be new to all but the biggest of history buffs.  This is not a boring audio book that drones on in a monotone voice by any means. It is read by multiple readers in an upbeat, fast paced style.  Accents and voice impressions are used throughout.  I really liked the Bill Clinton impression, it sounded just like him.  There was frequent music of varying styles throughout and other sound effects which were relevant to the story at hand.  All told that really helped keep it entertaining and energetic compared to other audiobooks to which I have listened.  I also liked that all the individual stories were short and easy to follow.  If I zoned out for a few seconds to pay more attention to my driving, I could either continue to follow along or it was just a quick rewind to catch back up.  I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys humor, history, or popular interest stories.

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An Audiobook That You Definitely Want to Listen to

Do you remember my review of Tiny Blunders, Big Disasters back in November of 2020? Well, I just listened to an audiobook with a similar theme. It's called (get ready for a long one) 100 of the Worst Ideas in History: Humanity's Thundering Brainstorms Turned Blundering Brain Farts, by Michael N. Smith and Eric Kasum. This is entertaining because of how they put the audiobook together. Each one starts with "The bad idea," followed by "The genius behind it," The brainstorm struck," "Bring on the blunder," "From bad to worse," "Dumb luck," and "Afterthoughts." On top of that there are voiceovers, sound effects, and sarcastic remarks all thrown in. It definitely made it more interesting than it would have been in print, IMHO.

How about a few examples to whet your curiosity?

1. Did you know that President William Henry Harrison didn't wear a coat on a very cold Inauguration Day because he wanted to show how strong and in great shape he was? Did you also know that he got an infection and died 31 days later?
2. Did you know that Nick Nolte turned down the lead role of Raiders of the Lost Ark? Did you also know that those 4 movies, with Harrison Ford, made $1.9B at the box office?
3. We all know that the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. But did you know the owner of the Red Sox needed the money to produce Broadway plays? I sure didn't.
4. Did you know that a soda jerk in 1886 accidentally added carbonated water to John Stith Pemberton's syrup, thereby creating Coke? Did you also know that Pemberton sold the rights to Asa Griggs Candler for very little up-front money and got no residuals?
5. Did you know that Mars said no to M&M's for the movie ET? Voila Reese's Pieces.
6. Do you want to know the 5 reasons the Titanic sank? They are...I will let you listen on your own. It's a real eye-opener.

I am a huge fan of print over ebooks and audiobooks. But I have to say that 100 should definitely be listened to. Kudos to the team who decided that the already-in-print book should be given an audio spin.

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Informative, Humor and History!

The audiobook version of this book was great. I enjoyed listening to this book on a long road trip. It was the perfect book to listen to on my 4-hour drive back home from college. This was an entertaining and intriguing way to learn about history and some of the world's biggest blunders. There's a wide range of topics discussed from the past and to present day, so it is always changing it up. Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed!

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100 of the Worst Ideas in History

100 of the Worst Ideas in History Audiobook By: Michael N. Smith, Eric Kasum and Narrated by: The Authors and Others has wonderful charm to it, I do have to confess I have a soft spot for old radio shows that this hearkens to with its voice actors and sound effects. Some of the impersonations are a little off but only if you really listen closely and are familiar with the original event but most are dead on. Many times throughout listening I did have to ask myself if this was an actor or a recording.
As for the content I will say this really scratched a “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” itch I was having but in a historical way. While many of the events are laid out in a wonderfully clear and concise manner I will say usually there was more to the historical event, most of these I was familiar with however I did have a few I was not familiar with nor as indepthly knowledgeable of. As I said earlier there usually were more to the event than is listed in the format here but I will say it is a great jumping off point to study the event/learn a lesson from and I cannot see it being a better introduction to introducing children to the study of history. Perhaps not elementary but certainly early teens as there will certainly be questions about death, war, brutality, and I did consider language specifically in case about the song Louie Louie by the The Kingsmen but it was handled in a clinical way and was certainly not crass in the explanation but a certain level of maturity is needed always when studying history. Overall I have to say that 100 of the Worst Ideas in History Audiobook was incredibly entertaining.

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Sound effects for comedic relief were spot on

This is definitely a fun book to listen to. There are sound effects mixed in with the commentary of the worst ideas in history which makes it sound like an old school late night talk show. I was honestly expecting to hear a laugh track, which I felt would be an amazing touch to an already creative take on an audio-book.

Another great thing is that this list based book has a variety of what the author believes are 100 of the worst ideas in history including a mix of historical events, to battlefield blunders, to recent pop culture happenings and fashion faux pas. I liked how there is a little bit of everything in this book, which could lead to many conversations with diverse people and could even lead to friendly debates.

The voiceover of the book is very upbeat, again leading to the image of a late night talk show host. There’s heavy sarcasm and inflection which just lends to the already entertaining subject matter.

My one critique is that this commentary only exists through the benefit of hindsight. It’s easy to point out how something is a horrible idea after many years have passed and other solutions to problems have solved the issues easier or after other advancements have been made. I also do not think that someone suffering from drug addiction or mental illness should be featured in a book of bad ideas alongside publicity stunts and media hoaxes as it gives the impression that their actions stemming from addiction or mental illness are active choices that they made instead of being a symptom of their illness and disease. Labeling their behavior as one of the worst ideas in history leads to stigma within the mental health community and should be avoided and not taken so lightly.

Overall, this audio book is entertaining and easy to follow along. My issue with audio books tends to be that I zone out and often miss large chunks of the story. Since each idea covered takes less than two minutes to summarize, I didn’t find myself zoning out or missing much.

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Surprisingly FUNNY! You'll love it.

I laughed so hard I thought I would throw up. Lots of FUN and surprisingly insightful. Perfect for listening to in the airport or on your drive to work, or when you just want something that's very funny to set you in a great mood. At times this book surprised me by being deep and insightful. I learned a lot about history. Great production value, quality voice recording and sound effects, it sounds like it was done in a professional recording studio. Very funny. It's worth twice the price. I don't usually write reviews but this is the funniest book I've read in the last couple years. I highly recommend it.

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Why IS the elephant wearing Lederhosen?!

100 of the Worst Ideas in History was by far the best audiobook I have ever had the opportunity to listen to. It felt like I was watching a movie! The book goes through some fairly bad ideas and their results throughout history, but holy moly the audiobook makes the moment so much more priceless! There is music that goes along with each story and compliments the character voice at the time. The character voices change often from a hilarious southern twang to the occasional appearance of someone who sounded just like Bill Clinton and so many more. The sound effects in the book are so well done and realistic that I couldn't stop my children from forcing their way into whichever room I was in listening to the book in. This audiobook caused so much giggling last night and today among my entire family that I am forced to keep it up on my phone as my kiddos and husband pull up different parts to re-listen to. We all remember the election between Hillary and Donald Trump right? Well, you haven't heard the reason Hillary did not win the way this book explains it. How I see it, is that the world is serious enough in itself these days. It seems that every day there is another terrible thing that happens which we see on the news and it gets terribly depressing to see all the time. I could listen to this book all day as it cheered me up immediately!

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very good

100 of the Worst Ideas in History by Michael N Smith and Eric Kasum, voiced by the authors and others was an enjoyable audiobook. It was entertaining and informative.
This was my first time listening to an audiobook. I had no idea what to expect. I honestly thought I was going to hate it, but I did not. I really liked it. I feared that it would get boring after a couple of hours but it did not. My fear was that the voice of the reader was going to be monotone, but it was not. I really liked that there was more than one person reading. It wasn’t the same voice for hours which I thought was really good. There were at least three different readers. The alternating of readers was great. The readers seemed excited and upbeat. That kept the audiobook interesting.
The listing of the 100 Worst Ideas in History was interesting and entertaining. My favorite part was when they said BSC, before common sense. At times it was funny. I really liked that as well. Some of the ideas listed I had never heard of and I thought they were interesting.
The readers of the audiobook did a great job. I was really impressed. Listening to this audiobook was a great experience and I really enjoyed it.

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So Much Fun

Ordinarily I am not a fan of audible books. I find them sleep inducing. Well, this one is the exception. 100 of the Worst Ideas in History by Michael N. Smith and Eric Kasum is delivered in a way that is so fun that you just want to keep listening, especially if you are a trivia fan (which I am) and you love history (which I do). The audible book employs a wide variety of sound effects, celebrity imitations, and an overall snappy delivery that makes it a fun listen. Each idea is short, so it’s hard to get bored. And I was thinking what a fun thing to listen to in the car on a long drive with your kids, until we got to the merkin. And if you don’t know what a merkin is look it up! There are other assorted adult themed entries too, so I just offer that as a heads up for parents.

And although I’m sure the authors could have found one hundred idiot ideas by Americans, I appreciated the fact that they took a wider view and offered many tidbits in world history as well. And here’s the best part! There were things that even a know-it-all like me didn’t know. They offer a wide variety of stupid ideas in science, sports, advertising and politics as well. Yes, apparently bad ideas know no boundaries. I recommend this book, especially if you have some boring chore that could use the levity to get you through it.

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1 person found this helpful