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.
The first major history in fifty years of the often overlooked Eastern Front of the First World War, where a more fluid conflict resulted in the destruction of great empires and the rise of the Soviet Union. Learn More
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
Many studies of China's relations with Southeast Asia focus on how Beijing has used its power asymmetry to achieve regional influence. Yet, scholars and pundits often fail to appreciate the complexity of the contemporary Chinese state and society, and just how fragmented, decentralized, and internationalized China is today. In The Ripple Effect, Enze Han argues that a focus on the Chinese state alone is not sufficient for a comprehensive understanding of China's influence in Southeast Asia. Learn More
The bestselling author of Norco '80 returns with a riveting story of mid-1980s San Diego that placed one young Black man at the center of a whirlwind of crime and punishment that profoundly altered Southern California. Learn More
A sardonic chronicle of how conservatism turned into a racketeering enterprise—and why Donald Trump became the living emblem of the American right's moral decay. Learn More
by Michael Mascarenhas; read by Malcolm Hillgartner
F O R T H C O M I N G ! Available June
Toxic Water, Toxic System exposes the consequences of a seemingly anonymous authoritarian state willing to maintain white supremacy at any cost—including poisoning an entire city and shutting off water to thousands of people. Weaving together narratives of frontline activists along with archival data, Michael Mascarenhas provides a powerful exploration of the political alliances and bureaucratic mechanisms that uphold inequality. Learn More
Western civilization is generally regarded as the child of Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome. However, Western society has other forefathers as well: we would be unwise to give the Byzantine Empire short shrift. The ways in which it has influenced our world for the good, and indeed, created the parameters of our society at its healthiest and strongest, are insufficiently appreciated today. Learn More
A lively account of how Darwin's work on natural selection transformed science and society, and an investigation into the mysterious illness that plagued its author. Learn More
Why has war been such a consistent presence throughout the human past? A leading historian explains, drawing on rich examples and keen insight. Learn More
The dramatic story of one of the most violent episodes of the civil rights movement and its role in the ongoing reckoning with racial injustice in the United States. Learn More
In a magisterial work, Jaan Puhvel unravels the prehistoric Indo-European origins of the traditions of India and Iran, Greece and Rome, of the Celts, Germans, Balts, and Slavs. Utilizing the methodologies of historical linguistics and archaeology, he reconstructs a shared religious, mythological, and cultural heritage. Separate chapters on individual traditions as well as on recurrent themes give life to Comparative Mythology as both a general introduction and a detailed reference. Learn More
edited by Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger; read by Deanna Anthony
F O R T H C O M I N G ! Available May
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
