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.
In this unique book, John Janovy Jr., one of the world's preeminent experts on parasites, reveals what can humans learn from the most reviled yet misunderstood animals on Earth: lice, tapeworms, flukes, and maggots that can eat a lizard from the inside, and how these lessons help us negotiate our own complicated world. Whether we're learning to adapt to adverse conditions, accept our own limitations, or process new information in an ever-changing landscape—we can be sure a parasite did it first. Learn More
This book tells the complete story of the quest to answer one of the most tantalizing questions in astronomy. But it is more than a history. Life on Mars explains what we need to know before we go. It also shows how Mars mania has obscured our vision since we first turned our sights on the planet and encourages a healthy skepticism toward the media hype surrounding Mars as humanity prepares to venture forth. Learn More
In Light of the Stars, astrophysicist and NPR commentator Adam Frank reveals what the latest research on alien civilizations may tell us about our own. Learn More
A U.S. fighter pilot captured by the enemy. A father determined to rescue his son. One of the most remarkable and moving true stories of faith and perseverance to come out of World War II. Learn More
Rush was one of the most celebrated hard rock acts of the '80s, and the second book of Popoff's staggeringly comprehensive three-part series takes listeners from Permanent Waves to Presto, while bringing new insight to Moving Pictures, their crowning glory. Learn More
A groundbreaking, magisterial study that explains why, like Walt Whitman, we "love the President personally."
In a stunning feat of scholarship, insight, and engaging prose, Lincoln's Body explores how a president ungainly in body and downright "ugly" of aspect came to mean so much to us. Learn More
America’s Manifest Destiny—as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson and nine other Americans—comes to life in bestselling historian and biographer Robert Morgan’s skilled hands. Learn More
by Mark Howard & Chris Howard; read by Peter Berkrot
An album-by-album account of working with iconic artists such as Anthony Kiedis, Michael Stipe, Gord Downie, and Bono, from a leader in the field. Learn More
Our current "culture wars" have reshaped the politics of secondary literature instruction. Due to a variety of challenges from both the left and the right—to language or subject matter, to potentially triggering content, or to authors who have been canceled—school reading lists are rapidly shrinking. Deborah Appleman's Literature and the New Culture Wars is a timely and eloquent argument for a reasoned approach to determining what literature still deserves to be read and taught and discussed. Learn More
by Steven S. Gubser and Frans Pretorius; read by Andrew Eiden
The Little Book of Black Holes takes readers deep into the mysterious heart of the subject, offering rare clarity of insight into the physics that makes black holes simple yet destructive manifestations of geometric destiny. Learn More
by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales; read by Christina Delanie and Paul Woodson
In Live From New YorkJames Andrew Miller and Tom Shales raucously and revealingly take the SNL story up to the present, adding a constellation of iconic new stars, surprises, and controversies. Learn More
A centennial celebration of the career and legacy of the first made-in-America violin virtuoso and one of the twentieth century's greatest musicians. Learn More
From the author of the acclaimed biography Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, new perspectives on how Luther and others crafted his larger-than-life image. Learn More
