Inspired by Wondery’s hit podcast with 1.3 million monthly listeners, Against the Odds takes you inside the stories of everyday people confronted by life-or-death situations and shows you how to survive nature’s most extreme scenarios.

In our most dire moments, humans will fight, struggle, and triumph—no matter how unlikely the chance for survival. Against the Odds transports readers into first-person accounts of real-life survivors, detailing the harrowing, moment-to-moment events that brought them to death’s door. Including dynamic illustrations, sidebars, and callouts, each story explores the physiological responses of the human body under unbearable conditions, how to counteract them, and strategies for survival from doctors and psychologists. Through these lived experiences, we see the grit, determination, and willpower needed to navigate out of a host of merciless situations.

Broken into three parts—Extreme Environments, Attacked by Animals, and Natural Disasters—these stomach-twisting stories include guidance on how to survive being:

• ADRIFT AT SEA: Includes info for curing turtle meat, procuring potable water, and how to survive on a life raft.
• MAULED BY A BEAR: Black bears? Fight back. Grizzly bears? Play dead. Polar bears? Start praying. You’ll learn how to triage wounds using the MARCH method and how to gain leverage by spotting a bear’s “bluff charge.”
• BURIED BY AN EARTHQUAKE: There’s still hope after being buried alive. Find out how to survive the crush, maintain your sanity if trapped under the rubble, and “think away your hunger.”
• And many more!

Conveyed through the lens of fifteen engaging and exhilarating true stories of survival that will help you remember the tips and tricks herein, this might just be the most important book you’ll ever read. Armed with the information in Against the Odds and when faced with similar threats, you may also find that you have what it takes to defy death and live to tell your story.