Someday soon, you might be finally able to count all the grains of sand on the beach, because there might be no beaches—and no sand—left. With the global population and its attendant consumption booming, we’re running out of sand in our quest to build larger cities and better smartphones. This essential resource, so easy to overlook, ranks just below air and water on a global scale of how much we use. But as journalist Vince Beiser explains in his new book, The World in a Grain, its over-extraction is harming us, whether in the form of murder in the black markets of India, pollution from fracking sand mines in Wisconsin, or islands that have simply disappeared.

Go beyond the episode:

• Vince Beiser’s The World in a Grain
• Read his article on India’s black market in Wired, “The Deadly Global War for Sand”
• For more on how sand mining works, watch this aerial video (from a sand mine worker) of a quarry in Central Texas
• Visit our episode page to see photographs from Adam Ferguson, who accompanied Beiser on his visit to India

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

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