Matt Ridley Audio & Video

Building on his national best seller The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley chronicles the history of innovation, and how we need to change our thinking on the subject.

The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Genome" offers a provocative case for an economics of hope, arguing that the benefits of commerce, technology, innovation, and change--cultural evolution--will inevitably increase human prosperity.

Put yourself in an optimistic mindset about the future of our species and the world, with the facts presented by author Matt Ridley from his book The Rational Optimist.

At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

If, as Darwin suggests, evolution relentlessly encourages the survival of the fittest, why are humans compelled to live in cooperative, complex societies?

THE EVOLUTION OF EVERYTHING: HOW IDEAS EMERGE, Matt Ridley's brilliant and ambitious new book in which he explores his considered belief that evolution-in biology, business, technology, and nearly every area of human culture-trumps deliberate and intelligent design.

Understanding how COVID-19 started is crucial for the future of humankind. Viral is the most incisive and authoritative book about the search for the source of the virus.

Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators....

The New York Times best-selling author of The Rational Optimist and Genome returns with a fascinating, brilliant argument for evolution that definitively dispels a dangerous, widespread myth: that we can command and control our world.

Armed with extraordinary new discoveries about human genes, acclaimed sciencewriter Matt Ridley turns his attention to the nature versus nurture debateā€¦