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The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Katie Mack (Author, Narrator), Gabra Zackman (Narrator), Simon & Schuster Audio (Publisher)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,011 ratings
Goodreads Choice Award nominee
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A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY * THE WASHINGTON POST * THE ECONOMIST * NEW SCIENTIST * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY * THE GUARDIAN

From one of the most dynamic rising stars in astrophysics, an “engrossing, elegant” (The New York Times) look at five ways the universe could end, and the mind-blowing lessons each scenario reveals about the most important concepts in cosmology.

We know the universe had a beginning. With the Big Bang, it expanded from a state of unimaginable density to an all-encompassing cosmic fireball to a simmering fluid of matter and energy, laying down the seeds for everything from black holes to one rocky planet orbiting a star near the edge of a spiral galaxy that happened to develop life as we know it. But what happens to the universe at the end of the story? And what does it mean for us now?

Dr. Katie Mack has been contemplating these questions since she was a young student, when her astronomy professor informed her the universe could end at any moment, in an instant. This revelation set her on the path toward theoretical astrophysics. Now, with lively wit and humor, she takes us on a mind-bending tour through five of the cosmos’s possible finales: the Big Crunch, Heat Death, the Big Rip, Vacuum Decay (the one that could happen at any moment!), and the Bounce. Guiding us through cutting-edge science and major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory, and much more, The End of Everything is a wildly fun, surprisingly upbeat ride to the farthest reaches of all that we know.

Previous slide of product details
  1. Listening Length
    6 hours and 21 minutes
  2. Author
    Katie Mack
  3. Narrator
    Gabra Zackman, see all
  4. Audible release date
    August 4, 2020
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Simon & Schuster Audio
  7. ASIN
    B07Z8B5NZ8
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
Next slide of product details

Product details

Listening Length 6 hours and 21 minutes
Author Katie Mack
Narrator Gabra Zackman, Katie Mack
Audible.com Release Date August 04, 2020
Publisher Simon & Schuster Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B07Z8B5NZ8
Best Sellers Rank #8,848 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#7 in Cosmology (Audible Books & Originals)
#9 in Astronomy (Audible Books & Originals)
#14 in Cosmology (Books)

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
3,011 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book entertaining and informative. They appreciate the breezy prose and accessible language that conveys complex messages in a clear way for lay readers. The book provides meaningful insights into physics and cosmology, providing a deep understanding of the cosmos without being too math-intensive. Readers describe the book as well-written and worth reading. While some concepts are challenging, the author makes them approachable and easy to understand.

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HumorWriting styleInformation qualityReadabilityInformation content
89 customers mention "Humor"85 positive4 negative

Customers enjoy the book's humor and cultural references. They find it an enjoyable read about science with a lighthearted tone and sense of wonder. The author injects humor into the writing, which is a pleasant surprise. Overall, readers describe the book as an interesting and fun read that offers a lucid look at leading theories.

"...This was one of the most fun books that I’ve ever read." Read more

"...A bang of a book. Dark jokes. Easy read." Read more

"...us who follow research on the cosmos, the author has a clear, conversational style and a skill at explaining even the most dense, math-laden..." Read more

"Well written. Author has a great sense of humor." Read more

72 customers mention "Writing style"68 positive4 negative

Customers find the book's writing style engaging and accessible. They appreciate the author's clear explanation of complex concepts in an easy-to-understand tone, with humor. The book is written for lay readers, with a cogent explanation of the Big Bang Theory. Readers describe the author as an authority on the subject.

"...The book is written for laymen, and I found it to be between Neil De Grasse Tyson / Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking in difficulty level...." Read more

"...A bang of a book. Dark jokes. Easy read." Read more

"...to those of us who follow research on the cosmos, the author has a clear, conversational style and a skill at explaining even the most dense, math-..." Read more

"In The End of Everything, Katie Mack perfectly balances technical language with concise and approachable explanations to lend readers with even the..." Read more

71 customers mention "Information quality"71 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides meaningful insights and a deep understanding of physics and cosmology. They appreciate the clear explanations of all theories and how they evolved. While dealing with some complicated topics, the book is easy to read and provides excellent scientific detail. Readers describe it as popular science at its best with lucid explanations.

"...Perhaps most importantly, we learn about dark matter and dark energy, which are important concepts that have greatly changed cosmology over the last..." Read more

"...the author has a clear, conversational style and a skill at explaining even the most dense, math-laden concepts in an understandable way...." Read more

"...judicious use of humor, analogies, diagrams, and vivid descriptions to keep readers engaged and captivated...." Read more

"Clear and straightforward explanations of our origins and potential fate...." Read more

53 customers mention "Readability"53 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and worth reading closely. They appreciate the plot and find it well-written, not overdone. The book is described as brilliant and reassuring, providing a guide through modern life.

"...ways the Universe might end, based on current physics, was a delightful read. It is an interesting and fun book...." Read more

"...A bang of a book. Dark jokes. Easy read." Read more

"...PS The bonus Q&A with Katie Mack portion after the book ends is well worth the read...." Read more

"...In a larger sense, The End of Everything is a reassuring treatise on the importance (and joy) of trying to know something rather than just..." Read more

14 customers mention "Information content"10 positive4 negative

Customers find the book's information clear and easy to understand. They appreciate the thoughtful explanation of complex concepts and meaningful insights into science and the human mind. The book provides a great look at the possibilities and multiple ideas about how it might end. Readers also mention that the book is written in an easy-to-follow style.

"Katie Mack has put together a deeply-thoughtful explanation of very challenging and meaningful insights from physics/cosmology aboutthe ways the..." Read more

"...book about how the universe probably works, as far as we know, and multiple ideas about how it might end or be recreated in the blink of an eye..." Read more

"Definitely not for the layman with no background in physics or astronomy...." Read more

"...She wonderfully put it all together for me: the people, the scientific evidence to date, the critical pieces of evidence needed, and how..." Read more

All good things must come to an end
5 out of 5 stars
All good things must come to an end
I am an avid reader of astronomy/cosmology/astrophysics books & like content. They mostly all have one thing in common; they all talk about the big bang and how the universe started. It does get redundant after a time to read about the start of the cosmos over and over. This book was a great change of pace. Not only was it looking at the many ways we could all eat the big one, but it did so in a very humorous way. Dr. Katie Mack does a great job of explaining each "end" requiring the reader to have little or no formal background on the topic to understand it. She also adds in commentary foot notes that are humorous & feel like she is just having a conversation with you rather than talking at you. (see photos for examples)Anyone who has an interest in physics, astronomy, or just space in general should give this book a read.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Thomas Wikman
    5.0 out of 5 stars The End of the Universe can be a lot of fun
    Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Katie Mack’s timely (it’s 2020 after all) survey of the various ways the Universe might end, based on current physics, was a delightful read. It is an interesting and fun book. We learn about the Big Crunch (the Universe shrinking back), the Heat Death, or rather the high-entropy death, the Big Rip, Vacuum decay, or the “quantum bubble of death” if you want to call it that, and the “bounce”. The bounce is a bouncing Universe with repeated Big Bangs. This could result from a much larger eternal ekpyrotic Universe where colliding 3D branes result in repeated Big Bangs. Personally, I am hoping for the quantum bubble of death.

    To understand where the various ideas regarding the end of the Universe come from, you need to understand some of the physics and the cosmology. We learn something about CMB, or the Cosmic Microwave Background, Big Bang, cosmic inflation, Planck Time, GUTs, Nucleosynthesis, the standard model, de Sitter Space, black holes, electroweak symmetry breaking, the Higgs Boson and the Higgs field, multiverses, and much more. Perhaps most importantly, we learn about dark matter and dark energy, which are important concepts that have greatly changed cosmology over the last few years. Chapter 2 on the Big Bang reminded me a lot about an old book by Stephen Weinberg, the first 3 minutes. However, Katie Mack puts a modern spin on it and goes much further beyond our Universe. I was intrigued to hear that it might be possible to communicate between different Universes in a multiverse using gravity, or gravity waves.

    The book is written for laymen, and I found it to be between Neil De Grasse Tyson / Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking in difficulty level. The book covers a lot of concepts and theories but does so concisely, simply and not in a mathematical way. Not so simply though that it is misleading. I am an Engineer with an undergrad degree in physics so I may not be the best person to judge whether this is an easy read for laymen, but I believe it is. I am very interested in these kinds of topics, and I read all popularized books on cosmology, modern physics, the standard model, that I can find. This was one of the most fun books that I’ve ever read.
    66 people found this helpful
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  • Maxim Ischenko
    5.0 out of 5 stars great book
    Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Somehow reading about how all life ends makes the present much more tolerable.

    A bang of a book. Dark jokes. Easy read.
    One person found this helpful
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  • GS_Jennsen
    4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written exploration of the universe's future
    Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    While the theories explored in the book are well-known to those of us who follow research on the cosmos, the author has a clear, conversational style and a skill at explaining even the most dense, math-laden concepts in an understandable way. Her enthusiasm for the subject-matter shines through, and makes you care about our ultimate fate as well.
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  • Chez GKY
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Left-brain Stretcher
    Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    In The End of Everything, Katie Mack perfectly balances technical language with concise and approachable explanations to lend readers with even the mildest scientific inclinations ample appreciation of the astrophysics behind our universe's creation (and demise) - all while doing the subject matter justice.

    Mack's work starts out by extensively describing the universe and space-time as we know them and elaborating on the different microphases of the Big Bang that got us here in the first place. It then proceeds to offer the reader different ways the universe could terminate existence, walking the reader through each theory's technical details, providing scientific basis in the form of research and observations to support or debunk each one, and occasionally capping chapters off with neat discussions of probability.

    Cosmological constants, dark energy, and the myriad of other topics can get dense at times (or always equally dense but ever-expanding, but I digress), and Mack makes judicious use of humor, analogies, diagrams, and vivid descriptions to keep readers engaged and captivated. Supported this way, the content presented affords even laypersons intriguing rethinks on the very origins of our universe: Maybe the Big Bang was but a transient point and not THE origin?

    Nevertheless, getting lost in some chapters will be excusably inevitable to some, myself included. Quick re-reads of these chapters are advised, since succeeding ones often build upon concepts discussed prior, as was the case between the Big Rip and Heat Death chapters. Keep up with the content, however, and the The End of Everything delivers hours of brilliant left-brain stretching - one apocalypse at a time.

    PS The bonus Q&A with Katie Mack portion after the book ends is well worth the read.

    PPS This book is great practice for the reading comprehension portion of the GMAT exam, where you have to get used to taking in subject matter that is either extremely complex, of no interest, or both to you.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Mental Expansion
    Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Clear and straightforward explanations of our origins and potential fate. For someone who loves science but isn’t a fan of math, I loved the analogies to put concepts in a context that was understandable. Still mind bending at times
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  • R. Branson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
    Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Well written. Author has a great sense of humor.
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  • Cesium
    4.0 out of 5 stars A view of our universe
    Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Katie Mack (Professor of Physics, among other things) provides us a non-fiction look at cosmology and astrophysics. She defines the latter as a cosmologist looking at very, very, very far away things in our universe. The former, the beginning and end of our universe. The current estimated age of our universe is 13.8 billion years. This sort of puts a limit on how far we can see, because light with a finite speed, has to travel large distances for us to see. Which means when we look at pictures from the universe we are seeing the past.

    Mack explores many theories and science in a whimsical way. She outlines how our universe may end. All theorical, of course, but what it tells me is this. With all our science, our measurements, our theories, the more we learn, the more we discover there is much we do not understand.

    This was a fun deviation for me from fiction.
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • B
    5.0 out of 5 stars Buen libro
    Reviewed in Mexico on November 12, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Fue un regalo, la persona quedo encantada con el libro.
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  • thiago
    5.0 out of 5 stars If u love astronomy
    Reviewed in Brazil on August 27, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    If u love astronomy/cosmology, u must read it. Its funny and complex. Easy learning
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  • Julio A Sanjines
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastically told
    Reviewed in Canada on August 1, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    The author's passion makes this a fantastic and entertaining read while dealing with very complex subjects.
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  • Riccardo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
    Reviewed in Italy on June 9, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Well written book and simple to read, it talks about not only "the end of the universe" but it starts from the bing bang untill present day, exploring how the universe and the things in it are working.
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  • Jorge García
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelent concise book
    Reviewed in Germany on March 14, 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This author really knows how to explain all the main theories of the end of the universe. I really recommend it
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