transportation

Your iPhone's 160,000 Mile Journey to Your Pocket

Did you know your morning coffee travels 30,000 miles to reach your cup— more than enough to circle the globe? 

That the parts of your smartphone journey 160,000 miles just to reach your pocket? 

Or that the average car makes the equivalent of a round trip to the moon before your first test drive? And go ahead, add another 100,000 miles for each tank of gas you buy, an oily cocktail from four states and fourteen foreign countries to a pump near you.

Such complex, meandering journeys lie behind nearly all we buy, eat, wear and touch—millions of miles embedded in every trip we take and every click we make. It’s a modern miracle. And absolute madness. All rolled in one.

Welcome to the world of Door to Door, my transportation detective story, which has just arrived in a new paperback edition. 

With Door to Door, I wanted to explore a vast and seemingly impenetrable story by bringing it home—literally. I simply looked inside my closet and sock drawer, my kitchen and garage, and asked the most basic of questions: How do the things I use every day get here? 

What does it take to a keep a modern American family fed and clothed and on the move? Who are the heroes and villains in our have-it-now economy, what are the techno-wonders that make it happen, and what are the hidden costs behind the global sourcing of… everything? 

The answers blew me away. I’ll never look at my car or my cup of coffee in quite the same way. I’d love to hear what you think.

Come take a ride with me and with Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation. The paperback edition is now available at a variety of booksellers. You can buy a copy of Door to Door at your favorite bookseller here. It's also available as an audiobook—perfect for commuting!