Leslie James has narrated 4 audiobooks on Listento.it by 3 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 5 ratings. The most-rated is The Money Mafia.
The Money Mafia
Summary
With more than 65 years of participation in and observation of political and economic systems -beginning with the Great Depression, extending through World War II, the postwar era of hope for a better life, the Cold War, the subjugation of democracy by oligarchy, and the subtle but continuous militarization of America - Paul T. Hellyer analyzes what he believes has gone wrong with the world and its economy and suggests radical measures to introduce a universal culture of peace and cooperation.
©2014 Trine Day (P)2017 SpokenTome Media (Thirteen Ventures Ltd)
The Lost Knowledge of the Imagination
Summary
Imagination is a core aspect of being human. Our imagination allows us to fully experience ourselves in relation to the world and reality. Imagination plays a key role in creativity and innovation. Since the 17th century, however, imagination has been sidelined and dismissed as "make believe". Four centuries ago, a new way of knowing the world and ourselves emerged in the west and has gone on to dominate human life: science. Imagination has been marginalized - depicted as a way of escaping reality, rather than coming to grips with it - and its significance to our humanity has been downplayed. Yet as we move further into the strange new world of the 21st century, the need to regain this lost knowledge seems more necessary that ever before. This insightful and inspiring book argues that, for the sake of the future of our world, we must redress the balance. Through the work of Owen Barfield, Goethe, Henry Corbin, Kathleen Raine, and others, and ranging from the teachings of ancient mystics to the latest developments in neuroscience, The Lost Knowledge of the Imagination introduces the listener to a philosophy and tradition that restores imagination to its rightful place, and argues that it is not only essential to our knowing reality to the full, but to our very humanity itself.
©2017 Floris Books (P)2018 SpokenTome.media
Inequality and the Collapse of Privilege
Summary
Inequality is rising globally, and rising inequality is destabilizing. A status quo of increasing inequality self-destructs. To avoid this fate, we must answer this question: Why is the gulf between the wealthy and everyone else widening so dramatically? The answer boils down to one word: privilege. What is privilege? There are many types of privilege, but they all share two characteristics: Privilege delivers benefits, wealth, and power that are unearned. Privilege is destabilizing for many reasons: The dead weight of privilege reduces productivity, generates perverse incentives, and fuels social injustice. Innovation and competition are threats to privileged monopolies and are therefore suppressed. The only way to foster sustainable stability is to eradicate privilege. We have a moral imperative to eradicate privilege: Privilege is immoral, as rising inequality is the only possible output of privilege. Privilege is exploitive, parasitic, predatory, and destructive to the society and economy and generates inequality by its very nature. Stripped to its essence, privilege is nothing but institutionalized racketeering. The only way to reverse rising inequality is to eradicate its source: privilege.
©2016 Charles Hugh Smith (P)2018 SpokenTome.Media
A Radically Beneficial World
Summary
What if we could hit the reset button on the way we create money, work, commerce, and community? This is not an idle question, for technology now enables us to hit that reset button and organize the creation of money, work, commerce, and community in new ways. If we could start from scratch, what would a new system look like? To answer that, we must understand why the current system is failing. The current system is based on five principles that are assumed to be true: Money created by banks trickles down to create work for all, technology creates more jobs than automation destroys, centralization is the solution to large-scale economic problems, expanding debt and consumption (i.e. growth) is the path to prosperity, and maximizing private gain organizes the economy to the benefit of all. All five have proven to be untrue. No wonder inequality is rising and opportunity is declining. Clearly, we need a new system that offers what the current system cannot: meaningful work for all. This book describes a global system that integrates money, work, commerce, and community in new ways, using social/technical innovations that are already in daily use. This book is the practical blueprint of a new system that offers opportunities for meaningful work and ownership of the sources of prosperity not just to a few, but to everyone. In this system, every individual has the power to change the system for the betterment of themselves and every other participant. Being at the top of the heap is no longer a prerequisite. Everyone who is powerless in the current arrangement is empowered in this new system. Empowered to not just better themselves and their family, but better their community and the larger community of planet Earth. A radically beneficial world beckons - what are we waiting for?
©2015 Charles Hugh Smith (P)2016 Thirteen Ventures Ltd. / SpokenTome.media