How to Survive Against the Odds: Tales and Tips for Animal Attacks and Natural Disasters

Inspired by Wondery’s hit podcast Against the Odds—learn how to survive whatever nature can throw at you through gut-twisting true stories of survival on the brink

How to Survive Against the Odds places you at the center of fifteen real life-or-death scenarios. 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 tales, we see the grit, willpower, and know-how needed to navigate out of a host of merciless situations.

This invaluable survival guide includes tips on how to endure being:

ADRIFT AT SEA: • Learn how to cure turtle meat, procure potable water, and 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 spot the difference between a bear’s bluff charge and an actual attack. BURIED BY AN EARTHQUAKE: • Find out how to survive the initial crush, maintain your sanity if trapped under the rubble, and “think away your hunger.” • And so much more!

This might just be the most important book you’ll ever read. Armed with the information in How to Survive 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.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

© 2025 HarperAudio (Audiobook): 9780063387171

Release date

Audiobook: 3 June 2025