The Social Sciences category has 3,302 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 32,502 ratings. The most-rated is Homo Deus.
We Matter
Summary
Featuring interviews by former NBA player Etan Thomas with over 50 athletes, executives, media figures, and more - and interwoven with essays and critiques by Thomas - We Matter shares the personal tales and opinions of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook, Steve Kerr, Oscar Robertson, Mark Cuban, Michael Bennett, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose, Swin Cash, Alonzo Mourning, Chris Webber, Jemele Hill, Anquan Boldin, Jamal Crawford, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson, Shannon Sharpe, James Blake, John Carlos, Laila Ali, Michael Eric Dyson, Joakim Noah, Eric Reid, Adam Silver, Soledad O'Brien, John Wall, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Bradley Beal, Tamika Catchings, Curtis Conway, Harry Edwards, Chris Hayes, Chamique Holdsclaw, Scoop Jackson, Bomani Johnes, Shaun King, Jimmy King, Ted Leonsis, Thabo Sefolosha, Ilyasah Shabazz, Torrey Smith, Kenny Smith, Michael Smith, David West, Michael Wilbon, Jahvaris Fulton (brother of Trayvon Martin), Emerald Snipes (daughter of Eric Garner), Allysza Castile (sister of Philando Castile), Valerie Castile (mother of Philando Castile), and Dr. Tiffany Crutcher (sister of Terence Crutcher). This volume will be an inspiration for many different people: sports junkies; young readers who need words of encouragement from their favorite athletes; parents seeking positive messages for their children; activists who want to hear athletes using their voices to address social justice; and schools that need motivational material for their students.
©2018 Etan Thomas (P)2018 Recorded Books
Care to Make Love in That Gross Little Space Between Cars?
Summary
The Believer magazine presents a compendium of advice from producers, writers, and actors of The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, Parks and Recreation, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Hangover, and The Colbert Report, along with other musicians, cartoonists, New Yorker writers, and those similarly unqualified to offer guidance. Here Amy Sedaris describes the perfect murder for unwanted hermit crabs - you will need a piece of meat and a brick. Simon Rich explains how to avoid being found dead in your underwear by firemen - buy some long johns. Zach Galifianakis provides insight into how he changed his name without a social security card - he just started calling himself Adam Zapple, and it stuck. Bob Saget finally illuminates what "friends with benefits" really means - a nonsexual relationship wherein your ex makes monetary deposits into your bank account. Contributors include: Rob Baedeker, Anne Beatts, Elizabeth Beckwith, Jerri Blank, Roz Chast, Louis C.K., Mike Doughty, Dave Eggers, Rich Fulcher, Zach Galifianakis, Dan Guterman, Anthony Jeselnik, Julie Klausner, Lisa Lampanelli, Nick Hornby, Sam Lipsyte, Liam Lynch, Merrill Markoe, Rose McGowan, Misc. Canadian rock musicians, Laraine Newman, The Pleasure Syndicate, Bob Powers, Simon Rich, Bob Saget, George Saunders, Kristen Schaal, Paul Scheer, Amy Sedaris, Allison Silverman, Paul Simms, Brendon Small, Jerry Stahl, Scott Thompson, Fred Willard, Cintra Wilson, Weird Al Yankovic, and Alan Zweibel.
©2012 The Believer (P)2012 Random House Audio
Be the Refuge
Summary
A must-listen for modern sanghas - Asian-American Buddhists in their own words, on their own terms. Despite the fact that two thirds of US Buddhists identify as Asian American, mainstream perceptions about what it means to be Buddhist in America often whitewash and invisibilize the diverse, inclusive, and intersectional communities that lie at the heart of American Buddhism. Be the Refuge is both critique and celebration, calling out the erasure of Asian-American Buddhists while uplifting the complexity and nuance of their authentic stories and vital, thriving communities. Drawn from in-depth interviews with a pan-ethnic, pan-Buddhist group, Be the Refuge is the first book to center young Asian-American Buddhists' own voices. With insights from multi-generational, second-generation, convert, and socially engaged Asian-American Buddhists, Be the Refuge includes the stories of trailblazers, bridge-builders, integrators, and refuge-makers who hail from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds. Championing nuanced representation over stale stereotypes, Han and the 89 interviewees in Be the Refuge push back against false narratives like the Oriental monk, the superstitious immigrant, and the banana Buddhist - typecasting that collapses the multivocality of Asian-American Buddhists into tired, essentialized tropes. Encouraging frank conversations about race, representation, and inclusivity among Buddhists of all backgrounds, Be the Refuge embodies the spirit of interconnection that glows at the heart of American Buddhism.
©2021 Chenxing Han (P)2021 North Atlantic Books
April 4, 1968
Summary
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., the prophet for racial and economic justice in America, was fatally shot. Only hours earlier, he had ended his final public speech by promising that "we as a people will get to the Promised Land." Now, at the 40th anniversary of King's assassination, acclaimed public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson gives a comprehensive reevaluation of the fate of America, specifically Black America, since that date. Ambitiously and controversially, he investigates the ways in which we as a people have made it to that Promised Land King spoke of, and the many areas in which we still have a long way to go. April 4, 1968 takes a sweeping view of King's death, remembering all the toil, triumph, and tribulation that led to that fateful date while anticipating the ways in which King's legacy will affect the future of the United States.
©2008 Michael Eric Dyson (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Ic.
The Hard Times
Summary
From the comedic minds behind TheHardTimes.net comes the most accurate reporting on punk and hardcore culture in music history Since 2014, The Hard Times has been at the forefront of music journalism, delivering hard-hitting reports and in-depth investigations into the punk and hardcore scene. From their scathing takedown of Kim Jong-un after he appointed himself the new singer of Black Flag to their incisive coverage of a healthy Lars Ulrich being replaced by a hologram, the site has become a trusted source for all things counterculture. Now, in this zine-style “historical retrospective”, the writers behind the site reveal their humble roots, documenting The Hard Times’ ascension alongside the rise of punk. With original articles from their "archives" commenting on ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s punk, as well as fan favorites from the aughts onward, this comprehensive examination of the scene will make listeners dust off their Doc Martens and creepy crawl their way to the nearest pit. Read by the editors, Bill Conway, Krissy Howard, and Matt Saincome.
©2019 Hard Times Media, LLC (P)2019 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
In Search of Sita
Summary
Sita is one of the defining figures of Indian womanhood, yet there is no single version of her story. Different accounts coexist in myth, literature, and folktale. Canonical texts deify Sita while regional variations humanize her. Folk songs and ballads connect her timeless predicament to the daily lives of rural women. Modern-day women continue to see themselves reflected in films, serials, and soap operas based on Sita’s narrative. Sacrifice, self-denial, and unquestioning loyalty are some of the ideals associated with popular perceptions of Sita. But the Janaki who symbolized strength, who could lift Shiva’s mighty bow, who courageously chose to accompany Rama into exile and who refused to follow him back after a second trial, is often forgotten. However she is remembered, revered or written about, Sita continues to exert a powerful influence on the collective Indian psyche. In Search of Sita presents essays, conversations, and commentaries that explore different aspects of her life. It revisits mythology, reopening the debate on her birth, her days in exile, her abduction, the test by fire, the birth of her sons, and finally her return to the earth - offering fresh interpretations of this enigmatic figure and her indelible impact on our everyday lives.
©2009 Respective authors of all material within (P)2020 Random House Audio
Robots: Good, Bad and...Sexy?
Summary
Robots have evolved far from the typical metal, shiny, stiff-joint inventions you see in the movies. Dive in to learn all about different types of robots - from tiny ingestible robots that can save your life to autonomous insect robots that will one day swarm the skies. You'll also explore the freaky future of robots: Will they have the same rights as humans? How close are we to replacing humans with robots at work? And more!
©2021 Seeker (P)2021 Audiogems by Findaway
Scatter, Adapt, and Remember
Summary
In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How? As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference. It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters–from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation–resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation–humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just during the last million years–but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions. This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death. Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world–on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.
©2013 Annalee Newitz (P)2013 Random House Audio
Murdered Innocents
Summary
On a December night in Austin, Texas, teenagers Jennifer Harbison and Eliza Thomas closed up the yogurt store where they worked. The girls were joined by Jennifer's younger sister, Sarah, and her friend Amy Ayers. Less than an hour later, all four girls were dead - tragic victims of an apparent fire. Until it was discovered that the girls had been bound and gagged, sexually assaulted, and shot execution style. With no physical evidence or eyewitnesses, Austin police faced one of their toughest cases ever. Nearly eight years passed before four young men were charged with the crime, and authorities learned how a planned robbery exploded into a drug- and sex-fueled spree of brutality. But the road to justice was packed with shocking twists.
©2005 Corey Mitchell (P)2017 Tantor
All They Will Call You
Summary
All They Will Call You is the harrowing account of "the worst airplane disaster in California's history", which claimed the lives of 32 passengers, including 28 Mexican citizens - farmworkers who were being deported by the US government. Outraged that media reports omitted only the names of the Mexican passengers, American folk icon Woody Guthrie penned a poem that went on to become one of the most important protest songs of the 20th century, "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)". It was an attempt to restore the dignity of the anonymous lives whose unidentified remains were buried in an unmarked mass grave in California's Central Valley. For nearly seven decades, the song's message would be carried on by the greatest artists of our time, including Pete Seeger, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez, yet the question posed in Guthrie's lyrics, "Who are these friends all scattered like dry leaves?" would remain unanswered - until now. Combining years of painstaking investigative research and masterful storytelling, award-winning author Tim Z. Hernandez weaves a captivating narrative from testimony, historical records, and eyewitness accounts, reconstructing the incident and the lives behind the legendary song.
©2017 Tim Z. Hernandez (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Violence of Mind
Summary
A book covering the topic of self-defense from a shocking, firsthand perspective. The subjects of criminal violence, self-defense, lethal force, mindset, firearms training, and concealment have never been introduced so comprehensively in one place. Having successfully sold worldwide in its independently published and distributed paperback paperback and Kindle formats, Violence of Mind is now available in audiobook form. "A powerful, gripping, and self-reflective roller coaster that's part cautionary tale, part how-to book on building the counterpart to the high-order predator, Varg makes no apologies for it being an in-your-face look at real violence from the perspective of that rare someone who can speak from deep personal experience, from both sides of the fence. In an industry littered with those often driven by ego, fantasy, and disconnected from reality, there are a vast number of people in this industry that NEED to read this. A book only an authentic leader in the industry could produce, fully-recommended. Read this book if you're serious about personal protection." (D.P. Friesen, Costa Rica) Varg Freeborn is an author, strength and fitness coach, violence educator, and a lethal force instructor widely known for his unique background in the violent criminal underworld. Having grown up in a violent criminal atmosphere, beginning as a teen he spent five years in prison for a self-defense stabbing gone wrong. Varg later achieved a legal restoration moving forward to train, lecture, and instruct in the tactical firearms and law enforcement communities. His breadth of experience is unmatched in criminal violence education and self-defense training.
©2018 Varg Freeborn (P)2018 Varg Freeborn
Dark Psychology: This Book Includes: Manipulation and Dark Psychology; Persuasion and Dark Psychology; Dark NLP
Summary
Do you want to know the techniques of dark psychology? Do you think you are being manipulated, and that someone controls your mind and your actions? Do you feel that your life is getting out of control? If you want to understand the effects of mental manipulation, to recognize and contrast them instantly, then keep reading. Dark psychology can be seen as the study of the human condition, in relation to the psychological nature of the different kinds of people who prey on others. The fact is that every single human being has the potential to victimize other people or other living creatures. Due to social norms, the human conscience, and other factors, most humans tend to restrain their dark urges and to keep themselves from acting on every impulse that they have. However, there is a small percentage of the population that is unable to keep their dark instincts in check, and they harm others in seemingly unimaginable ways. Dark psychology is becoming more and more used by those who want to control your actions, to get what they want. All in all, it is quite clear that the knowledge of this subject is necessary for daily survival. What kinds of traits malicious and exploitative people have? What are the psychological drives that lead the people to act in ways that are against social norms and are harmful to others? With Dark Psychology: 3 Books in 1, I give a complete picture of the most dangerous aspects of dark psychology (mental manipulation, psychological persuasion and dark NLP techniques) to provide you the tools you need to feel safe and secure in navigating what can be a scary world. You will learn: What are dark psychology techniques used by mental manipulators What are the adverse effects dark psychology have on people’s mind How people with dark personalities traits behave to control your life How toxic people choose their favorite victims How persuasive people use dark psychology to control their victims’ minds How to understand non-verbal communication used to influence people Simple strategies to read body language quickly how to spot dark NLP techniques How to spot covert emotional manipulation in relationships and at work Simple methods to avoid brainwashing How to analyze people quickly to defend yourself effectively from dark human behavior How to become autonomous through easy steps to take control of your life Dark Psychology: 3 Books in 1 provides practical actions that can create real and lasting change to help you intercept these manipulations. And how to use them to your advantage! Even if you’ve never been able to defend yourself from manipulative behavior, this book will be teaching the techniques you need in your toolbox to fight all parts of dark psychology. Would you like to know more? Download now to overcome fear and keep your life under your control. And no one else’s. Scroll to the top of the page and click the "Buy Now" button!
©2019 Jonathan Mind (P)2019 Jonathan Mind
The Ecstasy of Being
Summary
Joseph Campbell’s collected writings on dance and art, edited and introduced by Nancy Allison, CMA, the founder of Jean Erdman Dance, and including Campbell’s unpublished manuscript “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the book he was working on when he died. Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye, where for nearly fifteen years they presented a wide array of dance and theater productions, lectures, and performance pieces. The Ecstasy of Being brings together seven of Campbell’s previously uncollected articles on dance, along with “Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts,” the treatise that he was working on when he died, published here for the first time. In this new collection Campbell explores the rise of modern art and dance in the twentieth century; delves into the work and philosophy of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and others; and, as always, probes the idea of art as “the funnel through which spirit is poured into life.” This book offers the listener an accessible, yet profound and provocative, insight into Campbell’s lifelong fascination with the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and human psychology.
©2017 Joseph Campbell Foundation (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Daisy Miller
Summary
Daisy Miller is the story of a beautiful, unconventional American girl who becomes the fascination of Frederick Winterbourne, a sophisticated compatriot. His pursuit of her is hampered by her flirtatiousness and flagrant disregard for the customs and behavior of the other expatriates when they meet in Switzerland and Italy. Henry James used Daisy's story to exemplify how he believed Europeans and Americans felt about each other, and more generally the prejudices common in the culture at that time between wealthy American industrialists and European aristocracy. Daisy Miller was an immediate and widespread popular success for James, despite some criticism that the story was "an outrage on American girlhood". The story continues to be one of James' most popular works, along with The Turn of the Screw and The Portrait of a Lady. This narration is from the original text which was published in 1879. In 1909 Henry James published a second version of Daisy Miller, which, in spite of his preferring it, never had the critical or commercial acclaim of the earlier version.
Public Domain (P)2017 Kitty Hendrix
A Beginner's Guide to America
Summary
A stirring, witty, and poignant glimpse into the bewildering American immigrant experience from someone who has lived it. Also, a mirror held up to America. Into the maelstrom of unprecedented contemporary debates about immigrants in the United States, this perfectly timed audiobook gives us a portrait of what the new immigrant experience in America is really like. Written as a "guide" for the newly arrived and providing "practical information and advice", Roya Hakakian, an immigrant herself, reveals what those who settle here love about the country, what they miss about their homes, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. She captures the texture of life in a new place in all its complexity, laying bare both its beauty and its darkness as she discusses race, sex, love, death, consumerism, and what it is like to be from a country that is in America's crosshairs. Her tenderly perceptive and surprisingly humorous account invites us to see ourselves as we appear to others, making it possible for us to rediscover our many American gifts through the perspective of the outsider. In shattering myths and embracing painful contradictions that are unique to this place, A Beginner's Guide to America is Hakakian's candid love letter to America.
©2021 Roya Hakakian (P)2021 Random House Audio
When You Find My Body
Summary
When Geraldine "Gerry" Largay first went missing on the Appalachian Trail in remote western Maine in 2013, the people of Maine were wrought with concern. When she was not found, the family, the wardens, and the Navy personnel who searched for her were devastated. The Maine Warden Service continued to follow leads for more than a year. They never completely gave up the search. Two years after her disappearance, her bones and scattered possessions were found by chance by two surveyors. She was on the US Navy's SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) School land, about 2,100 feet from the Appalachian Trail. This book tells the story of events preceding Geraldine Largay's vanishing in July 2013, while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Maine, what caused her to go astray, and the massive search and rescue operation that followed. Her disappearance sparked the largest lost-person search in Maine history, which culminated in her being presumed dead. She was never again seen alive. The author was one of the hundreds of volunteers who searched for her. Gerry's story is one of heartbreak, most assuredly, but is also one of perseverance, determination, and faith. For her family and the searchers, especially the Maine Warden Service, it is also a story of grave sorrow.
©2019 Denis Dauphinee (P)2019 Tantor
Hate Crime
Summary
On June 7, 1998, James Byrd, Jr., a 49-year-old black man, was dragged to his death while chained to the back of a pickup truck driven by three young white men. It happened just outside of Jasper, a sleepy East Texas logging town that, within 24 hours of the discovery of the murder, would be inextricably linked in the nation's imagination to an exceptionally brutal, modern-day lynching. In this superbly written examination of the murder and its aftermath, award-winning journalist Joyce King brings us on a journey that begins at the crime scene and extends into the minds of the young men who so casually ended a man's life. She takes us inside the prison in which two of them met for the first time, and she shows how it played a major role in shaping their attitudes - racial and otherwise. The result is a deeply engrossing psychological portrait of the accused and a powerful indictment of the American prison system's ability to reform criminals. Finally, King writes with candor and clarity about how the events of that fateful night have affected her - as a black woman, a native Texan, and a journalist given the agonizing assignment of covering the trials of all three defendants. More than a spectacular true-crime debut, Hate Crime is a breathtaking work of reportage and a searing look at how the question of race continues to shape life in America.
©2002 Joyce King (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Gaysia
Summary
Benjamin Law considers himself pretty lucky to live in Australia: he can hold his boyfriend's hand in public and lobby his politicians to recognize same-sex marriage. But as the child of immigrants, he's also curious about how different life might have been had he grown up in Asia. So he sets off to meet his fellow Gaysians. Law takes his investigative duties seriously, going nude where required in Balinese sex resorts, sitting backstage for hours with Thai ladyboy beauty contestants, and trying Indian yoga classes designed to cure his homosexuality. The characters he meets - from Tokyo's celebrity drag queens to HIV-positive Burmese sex workers and Malaysian ex-gay Christian fundamentalists to Chinese gays and lesbians who marry each other to please their parents - all teach him something new about being queer in Asia. At once entertaining and moving, Gaysia is a wild ride and a fascinating quest by a leading Australian writer.
©2015 Benjamin Law (P)2016 Audible, Ltd.
Grieving While Black
Summary
A groundbreaking exploration of grief and racial trauma through the eyes of a Black end-of-life caregiver. Most of us understand grief as sorrow experienced after a loss - the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or a change in life circumstance. Breeshia Wade approaches grief as something that is bigger than what's already happened to us - as something that is connected to what we fear, what we love, and what we aspire toward. Drawing on stories from her own life as a Black woman and from the people she has midwifed through the end of life, she connects sorrow not only to specific incidents but also to the ongoing trauma that is part and parcel of systemic oppression. Wade reimagines our relationship to power, accountability, and boundaries and points to the long-term work we must all do in order to address systemic trauma perpetuated within our interpersonal relationships. Each of us has a moral obligation to attend to our own grief so that we can responsibly engage with others. Wade elucidates grief in every aspect of our lives, providing a map back to ourselves and allowing the listener to heal their innate wholeness.
©2021 Breeshia Wade (P)2021 North Atlantic Books
From Here to There
Summary
How is it that we can walk unfamiliar streets while maintaining a sense of direction? How can we come up with shortcuts on the fly, in places we've never traveled? The answer is the complex mental map in our brains. This feature of our cognition is easily taken for granted, but it's also critical to our species' evolutionary success. In From Here to There, Michael Bond tells stories of the lost and found - Polynesian sailors, orienteering champions, early aviators - and surveys the science of human navigation. Navigation skills are deeply embedded in our biology. The ability to find our way over large distances in prehistoric times gave Homo sapiens an advantage, allowing us to explore the farthest regions of the planet. Wayfinding also shaped vital cognitive functions outside the realm of navigation, including abstract thinking, imagination, and memory. Bond brings a reporter's curiosity and nose for narrative to the latest research from psychologists, neuroscientists, animal behaviorists, and anthropologists. He also turns to the people who design and expertly maneuver the world we navigate: search-and-rescue volunteers, cartographers, ordnance mappers, urban planners, and more. The result is a global expedition that furthers our understanding of human orienting in natural and built environments.
©2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC