Alive: 8 key ideas
The core ideas of Alive, each in under a minute, written in our own words. Want the full depth? Get the book.
- IDEA 1 OF 8
A plane crashed in the Andes
Read tells the story of a 1972 plane crash in the Andes mountains carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and their friends and family.
Many died in the crash, and the survivors were stranded in freezing snow.
- IDEA 2 OF 8
Survivors faced cold and hunger
The survivors had little food and no warm clothing.
They used the plane's wreck as shelter. Read describes how the freezing mountain air made every day a fight to stay alive until help could come.
- IDEA 3 OF 8
They learned the search had ended
Through a radio, the survivors learned that the search for them had been called off.
They realised they had to save themselves. Read shows that hearing this news changed their hope into a hard decision to act.
- IDEA 4 OF 8
They made a terrible choice
With no food, the survivors decided to eat the bodies of those who had died.
Read describes the moral and emotional struggle behind this choice. Read presents the choice as a painful last resort that they did not take lightly.
- IDEA 5 OF 8
An avalanche killed more
An avalanche buried the wreck, killing several more survivors.
Those left were devastated. Read describes how this new blow shattered the hope of those who were left, and tested their spirit once more.
- IDEA 6 OF 8
Two men set out for help
Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa trekked for ten days across the mountains to find help.
Their journey was extraordinary. Read presents this trek as the survivors' best chance to bring help to everyone left behind.
- IDEA 7 OF 8
They were rescued
Parrado and Canessa found a shepherd in Chile, who alerted authorities.
Helicopters rescued the remaining survivors. Read describes how this chance meeting ended weeks of waiting for the men who had waited so long on the mountain.
- IDEA 8 OF 8
Survival needs cooperation
Read shows how the survivors organised themselves, shared tasks and supported each other.
Cooperation helped them survive. Read shows that dividing the work and caring for the weak gave the group its best chance of survival.
Get one idea like this every daySwipe through ideas, go deeper on any of them, and save the ones that matter. Free.
Read Alive in the app