Marshall Brain

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Marshall David Brain II (May 17, 1961 – November 20, 2024) was an American author, public speaker, futurist, businessman, and academic, who specialized in making complex topics easier to understand for the general public.[1] Brain was the founder of HowStuffWorks.com and the author of the How Stuff Works book series. He hosted the National Geographic channel's Factory Floor with Marshall Brain and Who Knew? With Marshall Brain.[2][3][4]

Early life and education

Marshall Brain was born in Santa Monica, California, where his father designed components for Moon rockets.[1][2] He received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1983, and a M.S in computer science from North Carolina State University.[5][1]

Marshall taught in the computer science department at North Carolina State University from 1986 to 1992.[6] He also wrote computer programming manuals and ran a software training and consulting company.[7]

Business career

In 1998, Brain founded the website HowStuffWorks.com as a hobby.[8][9][2] In 2002, Time magazine described HowStuffWorks.com as "an eclectic encyclopedia that covers everything from torque converters to dieting to DNA."[8] In 2002, Brain sold a part of his related company, How Stuff Works Inc., to The Convex Group, an Atlanta-based investment company owned by former Web MD CEO Jeff Arnold, for an estimated $1 million.[10] Discovery purchased the website for $250 million in 2007 and introduced its television show How Stuff Works in 2008.[11][1]

In 2008 and 2009, he hosted Factory Floor with Marshall Brain and the Who Knew? With Marshall Brain, both on the National Geographic channel.[2][12][4] For these shows, Brain showed viewers how products are designed, tested, and manufactured.[12] Brain says shows like this are popular because "We use this stuff every day and some of it's so interesting. Like the science underneath it, and how people use that science to make the product and other people make it cheap enough for all of us to be able to afford it."[2]

Brain appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, CNN, and Modern Marvels.[13][14]

In addition to his How Stuff Works nonfiction book series, Brain wrote about robotics, transhumanism, and atheism, including his books The Second Intelligent Species: How Humans Will Become as Irrelevant as Cockroaches (2015) and Manna: Two Views of Humanity's Future (2012).[15][16] Brain maintained that automation and robots will lead to unemployment for humans, such as 1.5 million big-rig truck drivers in the U.S. losing their jobs to self-driving cars, requiring a government guaranteed minimum income.[15][16]

Brain last lectured at, and was the director of the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program at North Carolina State University.[13] He worked on EcoPRT, a new transportation system, with Dr. Seth Hollar.[16][17][18]

Personal life and death

Brain resided in Cary, North Carolina, with his wife Leigh Ann and four children.[7][9][12] He was an atheist and ran the website Why Won't God Heal Amputees?.[19] In 2018, he was a speaker during the March for Science, a protest against President Donald Trump.[20]

Brain was found dead in his office at Centennial Campus on November 20, 2024, at the age of 63.[21][22] His death certificate described the cause of death as suicide.[23] Two and a half hours before his body was discovered, he sent an email to over 30 recipients claiming that he had been forced into retirement at North Carolina State after filing an ethics complaint against Veena Misra, dean of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, writing “I have just been through one of the most demoralizing, depressing, humiliating, unjust processes possible with the university.”[24]

Publications

Books Publisher Date ISBN
Motif Programming: The Essentials... and More Digital Press 1992 Template:ISBN
Using Windows NT: The Essentials for Professionals Prentice Hall 1993 Template:ISBN
Win 32 System Services: The Heart of Windows NT Prentice Hall 1994 Template:ISBN
Windows NT Administration: Single Systems to Heterogeneous Networks Prentice Hall 1994 Template:ISBN
Visual C++ 2: Developing Professional Applications in Windows 95 and NT Using MFC Prentice Hall 1995 Template:ISBN
Windows Application Design with OLE 2.0: For Windows and Windows NT Prentice Hall 1995 Template:ISBN
Developing Professional Applications: For Windows 95 and NT Using MFC, with CD-ROM Prentice Hall 1996 Template:ISBN
Sybase System XI Prentice Hall 1996 Template:ISBN
Win 32 System Services (2nd edition) Prentice Hall 1996 Template:ISBN
The Teenager's Guide to the Real World: How to Become a Successful Adult BYG Publishing 1997 Template:ISBN
Microsoft Technology: Networking, Concepts, Tools Prentice Hall 1998 Template:ISBN
Understanding COM+ Prentice Hall 1998 Template:ISBN
Win 32 System Services: The Heart of Windows 98 and Windows 2000 (3rd Edition) Prentice Hall 2000 Template:ISBN
Windows CE 3.0: Application Programming [With CDROM] Prentice Hall 2000 Template:ISBN
How Much Does the Earth Weigh? (Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works) Wiley 2001 Template:ISBN
Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works Wiley 2001 Template:ISBN
Marshall Brain's More How Stuff Works Wiley 2002 Template:ISBN
What If...? Intriguing Answers for the Insatiably Curious Wiley 2002 Template:ISBN
Brain's Sum and Substance Quick Review on Contracts, 7th edition West 2006 Template:ISBN
The Science Book: Everything You Need to Know About the World and How It Works National Geographic 2008 Template:ISBN
The Day You Discard Your Body BYG Publishing Inc. 2012 ASIN B00ATF93BS
How to Make a Million Dollars BYG Publishing Inc. 2012 Template:ISBN
How to Raise Money from Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists BYG Publishing Inc. 2012 ASIN B00AUJGM3A
Manna - Two Views of Humanity's Future BYG Publishing Inc. 2012 Template:ISBN
The Meaning of Life BYG Publishing Inc. 2012 ASIN B007F1PMJ6
50 Things that Can Kill Your Child and How to Avoid All of Them BYG Publishing Inc. 2013 ASIN B00HNFP816
Robotic Nation & Robotic Freedom BYG Publishing Inc. 2013 ASIN B00HCQLR5M
The Engineering Book: From the Catapult to the Curiosity Rover, 250 Milestones in the History of Engineering Union Square Co 2015 Template:ISBN
How God Works: A Skeptic Questions Belief Sterling Ethos 2015 Template:ISBN
The Second Intelligent Species: How Humans Will Become as Irrelevant as Cockroaches BYG Publishing Inc. 2015 Template:ISBN
How "God" Works: A Logical Inquiry on Faith Sterling Ethos 2016 Template:ISBN
The Doomsday Book: The Science Behind Humanity's Greatest Threats Union Square Co. 2020 Template:ISBN

Television Shows

  • Factory Floor with Marshall Brain (2008) – Host
  • Who Knew? With Marshall Brain (2008) – Host

References

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  5. ↑ "Sultan of Stuff" Template:Webarchive, Rensselaer Magazine, June 2002.
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ a b Manjoo, Farhad. "Welcome to the machine?" Template:Webarchive, Salon, 18 September 2003.
  8. ↑ a b "50 Best Websites: Information and Reference: HowStuffWorks", Time.com, 2002.
  9. ↑ a b Guernsey, Lisa. "For One Web Site, Some Explaining to Do", The New York Times, 24 May 2001.
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ CNN interview with Kyra Phillips, CNN, August 15, 2003.
  15. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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External links

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