Experience our world: as it was, as it is, as it might become with these audiobooks about history, the arts, culture, education, and politics. Don't miss Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, or Fresh Air with Terry Gross: Writers, or Gwen Ifill's The Breakthrough.
Leslie Zemeckis continues to discover the forgotten feminist histories of the golden age of entertainment, turning her sights on the lost stories of Sally Rand and Faith Bacon—icons who each claimed to be the inventor of the notorious fan dance. Learn More
In a fascinating account combining policy expertise with compelling on-the-ground reporting, Susan Crawford reveals how the giant corporations that control cable and internet access in the United States use their tremendous lobbying power to tilt the playing field against competition, holding back the infrastructure improvements necessary for the country to move forward. Learn More
A spirited portrait of twentieth-century war correspondent Maggie Higgins and her tenacious fight to the top in a male-dominated profession. Learn More
From an esteemed scholar, a richly textured, authoritative history of sex and sexuality in America—the first major account in three decades. Learn More
Packed with shocking new evidence, Fighting for Justice exposes the cover-ups of the JFK assassination and the murders of Dorothy Kilgallen and Marilyn Monroe, while revealing for the first time the corrupt inner workings of the Warren Commission based on the firsthand "whistleblower" account of an actual Commission member never identified before. Learn More
edited by Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger; read by Deanna Anthony
NEW! Now Available
Fighting Mad is a book about what "reproductive justice" means and what it looks like to fight for it. Editors Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger bring together many of the strongest, most resistant voices in the country to describe the impacts of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision on abortion access and care. Learn More
Over eighty years of international turmoil, discriminatory agendas, and vicious acts of violence . . . This is the haunting Olympic history of Israel and Palestine. Learn More
A family story full of twists and turns, Finding Francis reclaims and honors those women who played an essential role in the historical survival and triumph of Black people during and after American slavery. Learn More
Firepower sheds vital new light on how the NRA has grown powerful by mobilizing average Americans, and how it uses its GOP alliance to advance its objectives and shape the national agenda. Learn More
by Natascia Tornetta-Mallin; read by Jean Ann Douglass
A proudly humanist portrayal of sexual impulse and impropriety in the City of Angels, The First 50 is a chronological recapitulation of fifty erotic encounters that take place between the ages of thirteen and thirty-three. Columbine, 9/11, The Iraq War, and The Great Recession set the stage as a young woman navigates the ambient decadence that has long defined Los Angeles. Learn More
Betty Boyd Caroli's engrossing and informative First Ladies is an essential resource for anyone interested in the role of America's First Ladies. Learn More
A lively, behind-the-scenes look at the historic cohort of diverse, young, and groundbreaking women newly elected to the House of Representatives in 2018 as they arrive in Washington, DC, and start working for change, by a New York Times reporter with sharp insight and deep knowledge of the Hill. Learn More
Exhaustively researched and elegantly written by one of the nation's leading education law scholars, Five Miles Away, A World Apart ties together, like no other book, a half-century's worth of education law and politics into a coherent, if disturbing, whole. It will be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered why our schools are so unequal and whether there is anything to be done about it. Learn More
Five Nickels is the true story of Captain Steve Phillis, a decorated Air Force A-10 fighter pilot killed under heroic circumstances while trying to save his downed wingman on their thirtieth Desert Storm combat mission. Learn More
Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. Learn More
Founding Director Lonnie Bunch's deeply personal tale of the triumphs and challenges of bringing the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to life. His story is by turns inspiring, funny, frustrating, quixotic, bittersweet, and above all, a compelling listen. Learn More
This first comprehensive history of America's lottery obsession explores the spread of state lotteries and how players and policymakers alike got hooked on wishful dreams of an elusive jackpot. Learn More