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.
From one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our time, Harold Bloom presents Othello's Iago, perhaps the Bard's most compelling villain—the fourth in a series of five short books about the great playwright’s most significant personalities. Learn More
Marking the fiftieth anniversary of the historic Summit Series, here is the incredible story of an unlikely political stage—the hockey rink—where a Cold War, and the threat of nuclear annihilation, is no less important than a power play in the final minute. Discover a diplomacy mission like no other: caught between capitalism and communism, Canada and the Soviet Union, young Canadian diplomat Gary J. Smith must navigate the rink, melting the ice between two nations skating a dangerous path. Learn More
For the first time, the choreographer of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Björk, and many others reveals stage stories through his extraordinary journey. Learn More
In The Idea of Europe and the Origins of the American Revolution, Dan Robinson presents a new history of politics in colonial America and the imperial crisis, tracing how ideas of Europe and Europeanness shaped British-American political culture. Learn More
by John Sides, Michael Tesler, Lynn Vavreck; read by Paul Heitsch
Donald Trump's election victory stunned the world. How did he pull it off? Was it his appeal to alienated voters in the battleground states? Was it Hillary Clinton and the scandals associated with her long career in politics? Were key factors already in place before the nominees were even chosen? Identity Crisis provides a gripping account of the campaign that appeared to break all the political rules―but in fact didn't. Learn More
British historian Tony Judt writes a passionate, wise letter about what is profoundly wrong with the way we think about how we should live today. He shows how to apply the past to the future, challenging us to confront our societal ills and to shoulder responsibility for the world we live in. Learn More
If your reaction to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol was to think, 'That's not us,' think again: in Illiberal America, a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian uncovers a powerful illiberalism as deep seated in the American past as the founding ideals. Learn More
In this revelatory work, Ruha Benjamin calls on us to take imagination seriously as a site of struggle and a place of possibility for reshaping the future. Learn More
by James Trefil & Michael Summers; read by Paul Boehmer
Scientists Trefil and Summers bring listeners on a marvelous experimental voyage through the possibilities of life—unlike anything we have experienced so far—that could exist on planets outside our own solar system. Learn More
The first book about Lange and his contributions to the fight against HIV, The Impatient Dr. Lange is a powerful tribute to one of the greatest scientists, activists, humanitarians, and social entrepreneurs in the world of HIV/AIDS. Learn More
"Vivid with a Mesozoic bestiary" (Tom Holland), this on-the-ground, must-listen narrative weaves together the chance discovery of dinosaurs and the rise of the secular age. Learn More
In his highly anticipated debut essay collection, Impossible Owls, Brian Phillips demonstrates why he's one of the most iconoclastic journalists of the digital age, beloved for his ambitious, off-kilter, meticulously reported essays that read like novels. Learn More
From the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner comes this surprising portrait of Wendell Willkie, the businessman–turned–presidential candidate who (almost) saved America’s dysfunctional political system. Learn More
From the bestselling author of Fosse, a sweeping yet intimate—and often hilarious—history of a uniquely American art form that has never been more popular. Sam Wasson charts the meteoric rise of improv in this richly reported, scene-driven narrative that, like its subject, moves fast and digs deep. Learn More
Manuel Hinds examines America's past and present (up to and including the 2020 presidential election) to illustrate how current events can be as dramatic as any historical legacy in warning us of the danger of abandoning our democratic principles. Learn More
Robert Kaplan first visited Romania in the 1970s, when he was a young journalist and Romania was a Communist backwater where "history had virtually stopped" since World War II. Learn More
Do you see women your age portrayed as puttering gardeners and docile grannies? Do you feel bombarded by anti-aging products that insist you must "defy" getting older? Do you feel invisible in professional and social situations? And have you had enough and are you ready to challenge the intertwining of sexism and ageism in our culture? Learn More
In this captivating book, neuroscientist Shane O’Mara invites us to marvel at the benefits walking confers on our bodies and brains, and to appreciate the advantages of this uniquely human skill. Learn More