Ed Begley Jr. has narrated 16 audiobooks on Listento.it by 16 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 24 ratings. The most-rated is The Crucible.
The Crucible
Summary
In the rigid theocracy of Salem, Massachusetts, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town. In the ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor, The Crucible mirrors the anti-Communist hysteria in the 1950s.
(P)1994 L.A. Theatre Works
The Sum of Us
Summary
One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone - not just for people of color. “This is the book I’ve been waiting for.” (Ibram X. Kendi, number-one New York Times best-selling author of How to Be an Antiracist) Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy - and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for White people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out? McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Mississippi to California to Maine, tallying what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm - the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others. Along the way, she meets White people who confide in her about losing their homes, their dreams, and their shot at better jobs to the toxic mix of American racism and greed. This is the story of how public goods in this country - from parks and pools to functioning schools - have become private luxuries; of how unions collapsed, wages stagnated, and inequality increased; and of how this country, unique among the world’s advanced economies, has thwarted universal healthcare. But in unlikely places of worship and work, McGhee finds proof of what she calls the Solidarity Dividend: gains that come when people come together across race, to accomplish what we simply can’t do on our own. The Sum of Us is a brilliant analysis of how we arrived here: divided and self-destructing, materially rich but spiritually starved and vastly unequal. McGhee marshals economic and sociological research to paint an irrefutable story of racism’s costs, but at the heart of the book are the humble stories of people yearning to be part of a better America, including White supremacy’s collateral victims: White people themselves. With startling empathy, this heartfelt message from a Black woman to a multiracial America leaves us with a new vision for a future in which we finally realize that life can be more than zero-sum.
©2021 Heather McGhee (P)2021 Random House Audio
Romance
Summary
In this outrageous new comedy, playwright Mamet skewers everything from sexuality to the justice system to world peace. In a world where nothing is as it seems, prepare to be offended!
(P)2007 L.A. Theater Works
The Man in the Bottle
Summary
Experience one of television’s greatest science-fiction series, The Twilight Zone™ - fully dramatized for AUDIO! Featuring a full cast, music and sound effects, and today’s biggest celebrities in modern radio dramatizations. The Man in the Bottle: What if a genie granted your heart's desire? Is it possible to wish your way to happiness, or is the hidden price more than anyone can pay?
©2002 CBS and Falcon Picture Group (P)2002 CBS and Falcon Picture Group
Time Flies
Summary
A series of short comic vignettes from playwright David Ives. In the title work, two houseflies try to make the most out of their brief time on earth. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Fran Adams, Ed Begley Jr., Shannon Cochran, Evan Gore, Arye Gross, and Victoria Principal. Directed by Ron West. Recorded before a live audience in March 1998.
©2012 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2012 L.A. Theatre Works
Earth in the Balance
Summary
In this brave and provocative work, former US Vice President, Al Gore asserts that only a radical rethinking of our relationship with nature will save the earth's ecology for future generations. Gore's analysis of where we've gone wrong ranges across politics, history, science, economics, psychology, and religion. He argues that only a worldwide mobilization can save us from disaster and presents a brilliant and comprehensive plan for action that encompasses not only the earth's ecology, but also population trends, appropriate technology, and environmental education.
©1992 Senator Al Gore (P)1992 / 2017 Dove Audio / Phoenix Books
Halcyon Days
Summary
Senator Eddie Bowman cannot see the point of invading a miniscule Caribbean island to rescue a bunch of overly tanned medical students. But as the 1983 invasion of Grenada gets underway, the Senator finds himself at odds with a mysterious foreign-policy specialist who cultivates roses, the President's sexy new speechwriter-and his own son.
©2009 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2009 L.A. Theatre Works
I'd Rather Eat Pants
Summary
What do fast-talking New York octogenarians Abe and Mabel do when their lifelong grocery store, Pepperstein Produce, is driven out of business by Wonder Food? They embark on the ultimate road trip with a 19-year-old stoner, Wisdom, to Los Angeles to become actors. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast production, starring Edward Asner; Jonathan Banks; Ed Begley, Jr.; Emily Bergl; Dan Castellaneta; Derek Cecil; Bob Edwards; Clea Lewis; Anne Meara; Kendall Schmidt; and Susan Stamberg. Directed by Gordon Hunt. Recorded in front of a live audience by L.A. Theatre Works.
©2015 L.A Theatre Works (P)2015 L.A Theatre Works
Abundance
Summary
From the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Crimes of the Heart comes this poignant but unromanticized story of the hard lives of pioneers on the high plains of Wyoming in the 1860s. Macon and Bess are two mail-order brides, lured to the West by the promise of new beginnings through marriage to men they've never met. While waiting for their respective husbands-to-be, one bubbling with optimism, the other mousy and plain, the two women become instant best friends. As Abundance follows the two women through their friendship and adventures for the next 25 years, this Western epic unearths the dark underside of American mythology.
©2009 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2009 L.A. Theatre Works
Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex
Summary
If you loved Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, you'll love hearing him explain the stark reality of modern relationships. Barry on what women want: to be loved, to be listened to, to be desired, to be respected, and sometimes, just to be held. And Barry on what men want: tickets to the World Series. He'll offer tips on getting along with your mother-in-law: your best bet is drugs. And if you didn't know already, he'll alert you to the fact that dating simply means "going out with a potential mate and doing a lot of fun things that the two of you will never do again if you actually get married."
©1987 by Dave Barry (P)1990 by Audio Renaissance
Twilight's Last Gleaming
Summary
Harry Shearer’s parody of a presidential election. In this fantasy, Bob Dole Jr. faces off against a wrestler named Greenberg, as they fight for one family’s votes by camping out in their living room. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Fran Adams, Ed Begley Jr., Judyann Elder, Arye Gross, Daniel Passer, Richard Masur, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, and Kenny Williams. Directed by Harry Shearer. Recorded before a live audience.
©2012 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2012 L.A. Theatre Works
Bang the Drum Slowly (Dramatization)
Summary
A humorous and poignant story that follows a fictional major league baseball team through a summer season when the team comes together after one of the players is diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease.This play is based on the novel by Mark Harris.
(P)L.A. Theatre Works
Earth and Sky
Summary
Head firmly in the clouds, Sara McKeon moves in the rarefied world of library work and poetry readings. She seems completely unsuited to investigating the sudden brutal murder of her lover. A haunting mystery, infused with humor, poetry, and urban grit. Performed by a full cast starring Annette Bening, Ed Begley Jr., John Mahoney, Steven Weber, and more.
(P)1994 L.A. Theatre Works, All Rights Reserved
Atwater: Fixin' to Die
Summary
Gregory Itzin portrays the brilliant but flawed Lee Atwater, a self-styled master of negative campaigning and a tightly wound country boy from South Carolina, who rose to the chairmanship of the Republican Party. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance starring Gregory Itzin as Lee Atwater, with Fran Adams, Ed Begley Jr., Judyann Elder, Arye Gross, Richard Masur, Daniel Passer, Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, and Kenny Williams.
©2000 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2001 L.A. Theatre Works
Choice Cuts
Summary
"Every once in a while a writer of particular skills takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight." That's how David McCullough described Mark Kurlansky's Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, a work that revealed how a meal can be as important as it is edible and confirmed Kurlansky as one of the most erudite and entertaining food authors. Now, the winner of the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing shares a varied selection of "choice cuts" by others, as he leads us on a mouthwatering culinary tour around the world and through history and culture from the fifth century B.C. to the present day. Choice Cuts features more than two hundred pieces, from Cato to Cab Calloway. Here are essays by Plato on the art of cooking, Pablo Neruda on french fries, Balzac, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Chekhov, and many other writers on the passions of cuisine. In short, this wonderful collection, like the very best meal, is both nutritious and delicious.
©2002 Mark Kurlansky (P)2003 New Millennium Audio, All Rights Reserved
Babbitt (Dramatized)
Summary
This epic of the booming 20's captures the relentless culture of American business. A classic novel about conformity in small town America - celebrated for its comic tone, statire, and vivid dialogue. L.A. Theatre Works, then a fledgling radio theatre company, completed Babbitt in 1989. This production was so well received that L.A. Theatre Works has since become the world's premiere radio theatre company. Ed Asner as Babbitt leads this all star cast, which includes Ted Danson, Marsha Mason, Helen Hunt, John Lithgow, Stacy Keach, Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Irving, Ally Sheedy and many more. Babbitt was previously unreleased on CD and digital formats.
©2002 Sinclair Lewis (P)2008 L.A. Theatre Works