What to read, watch, and listen to if you lovedConnections
James Burke · Series · 1978
If you loved Connections, start with Cosmos (Carl Sagan, 1980) — a book on the same thread. Below: 4 books, 4 films and 2 podcasts, each matched to Connections across media.
You loved Connections because it revealed how the most disparate technological and historical threads weave together into our modern reality.
Books on the same thread
Cosmos
Carl Sagan · Book · 1980
Shares a thread with Connections: History of Science.
Much like Connections, this work frames scientific advancement not as an isolated discipline, but as a shared human narrative that shaped the very foundation of our current civilization.
Cybernetics Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
Norbert Wiener · Book · 1961
Explores: Communication, Control, Automation.
This foundational text mirrors the systems-thinking approach of Connections by exploring how feedback loops and communication networks dictate the evolution of both machines and our broader society.
Adventures of Ideas
Alfred North Whitehead · Book · 1933
Shares a thread with Connections: Intellectual History.
If you appreciated how Connections traced the non-linear path of innovation, you will find this exploration of how shifting ideas continuously drive the complex evolution of mankind equally compelling.
Science and the Modern World
Alfred North Whitehead · Book · 1967
Shares a thread with Connections: History of Science.
Whitehead provides the philosophical framework for the historical causality seen in Connections, demonstrating how the interplay between culture and scientific discovery creates the modern world we occupy today.
Films on the same thread
Threads
Mick Jackson · Film · 1985
Explores: Nuclear War, Survival, Social Breakdown.
Connections illustrates the fragility of progress, and this film serves as a sobering, documentary-style examination of how quickly those complex technological systems can collapse during a total societal breakdown.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Steven Spielberg · Film · 1977
Explores: Government Conspiracy, The Sublime, Man vs. The Unknown.
The sense of wonder found in Connections extends to this film, which captures the overwhelming, sublime nature of encountering advanced phenomena that sit outside our conventional understanding of reality.
The Terminator
James Cameron · Film · 1984
Explores: Man vs. Machine, Artificial Intelligence, Fate vs. Free Will.
This narrative explores the dangerous endpoint of the technological trajectory discussed in Connections, specifically focusing on the moment human innovation creates a system that escapes our direct control.
Man with a Movie Camera
Dziga Vertov · Film · 1929
Explores: Urban modernism, Meta-cinematic self-reflexivity, Industrialization.
Just as Connections uses inventive observation to explain industrial history, this film uses the camera as a mechanical eye to reveal the interconnected pulse of a rapidly modernizing city.
Podcasts on the same thread
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
Dan Carlin · Podcast · 2026
Explores: civilizational collapse, human nature, moral ambiguity.
Carlin shares the same unorthodox, inquisitive spirit as the host of Connections, applying a wide-angle lens to historical events to uncover the moral ambiguities hidden within human progress.
Ologies with Alie Ward
Alie Ward · Podcast · 2026
Explores: intellectual curiosity, scientific wonder, human obsession.
The infectious curiosity about the world that defined Connections lives on here, as these experts map the bizarre, interconnected details of nature that usually escape our daily notice.
Keep exploring
Common questions
What is the core premise of Connections?
Connections explores an alternative view of change by rejecting the conventional linear and teleological view of historical progress. The series utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the history of science and invention, tracing how past events and innovations influence the modern world through a series of specific paths.
How does James Burke structure each episode of Connections?
In each episode of Connections, James Burke begins with a specific event or innovation from ancient or medieval history. He then traces a path from that starting point through a series of related developments to demonstrate his alternative view of how historical progress and technological change actually occur.
Is Connections focused on a linear history of science?
No, Connections explicitly rejects the conventional linear view of historical progress. Instead, the series takes an interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention, arguing that change occurs through complex, interconnected paths rather than a simple, straight line of development leading toward the present day.
What is the primary theme explored in Connections?
The primary theme of Connections is the alternative view of change. By examining the history of science and invention, the series illustrates that historical progress is not a teleological process, but rather a series of interconnected events and innovations that trace back to ancient or medieval origins.