Audiobooks by David Kushner

The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise

A Wild West look at the early days of the internet—the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the online domain name Sex.com in an all-out war for control over the fuel that still powers the online world to this day: love and lust. In 1994, visionary entrepreneur Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com. Despite only 5 percent of Americans using the internet at the time, Kremen insisted his invention would transform our lives. That wasn't all he was accurately predicted. He also anticipated that internet addresses, or domain names, would be the bedrock of the dawning digital frontier, eventually gathering the same kind of value as real estate properties. So, while his friends thought he was crazy, he bought dozens up, including the domain Sex.com. Love and lust, he believed, would fuel this new world to new heights. But in 1995, as Kremen prepared to launch his next venture, he was shocked to learn that someone named Stephen Michael Cohen had stolen the rights to the Sex.com name and was making millions that Kremen had never seen. In The Players Ball, award-winning journalist David Kushner draws from years of research and interviews to vividly recreate the Wild West years online, when innovators and outlaws battled for power and money. He explores the risks, rewards, challenges, and back alleys of how the world online came to be and provides essential insights about where it's heading. The Players Ball is the rollicking true story of a decade-long cat-and-mouse game between a genius and a con man that changed the way people connect, and defined the digital age.

David Kushner (Author), George Newbern (Narrator)

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The World’s Most Dangerous Geek: And More True Hacking Stories

Every day, it seems, we hear stories about hackers. Hackers breaking into the computers of banks, governments, and corporations. Some are criminals, coding to exploit and destroy. Others are activists, using their tools to challenge institutions and fight for freedom. But often these characters linger in the shadows. Who are they? What makes them tick? Are they our allies, or our enemies? For the past twenty years, author David Kushner has been exploring these questions, interviewing key players, and providing much-needed answers. “The World’s Most Dangerous Geek: And More True Hacking Stories” is a riveting collection of his exclusive reports from the online underworld. We meet a fugitive hacktivist from the notorious collective, Anonymous; a lonely Floridian who hacked the emails of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood; and two artificial intelligence researchers who were both found dead in the same mysterious way. You will come away from these stories with an appreciation for the awesome power of the Internet both to make fortunes and erase them, to build lives and destroy them.

David Kushner (Author), Nan McNamara (Narrator)

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Alligator Candy: A Memoir

From award-winning journalist David Kushner, a regular contributor to Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other premier magazines, Alligator Candy is a reported memoir about family, survival, and the unwavering power of love. David Kushner grew up in the early 1970s in the Florida suburbs. It was when kids still ran free, riding bikes and disappearing into the nearby woods for hours at a time. One morning in 1973, however, everything changed. David's older brother Jon biked through the forest to the convenience store for candy, and never returned. Every life has a defining moment, a single act that charts the course we take and determines who we become. For Kushner, it was Jon's disappearance-a tragedy that shocked his family and the community at large. Decades later, now a grown man with kids of his own, Kushner found himself unsatisfied with his own memories and decided to revisit the episode a different way: through the eyes of a reporter. His investigation brought him back to the places and people he once knew and slowly made him realize just how much his past had affected his present. After sifting through hundreds of documents and reports, conducting dozens of interviews, and poring over numerous firsthand accounts, he has produced a powerful and inspiring story of loss, perseverance, and memory. Alligator Candy is searing and unforgettable.

David Kushner (Author), Bronson Pinchot (Narrator)

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Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto

Inside the making of the multibillion-dollar Grand Theft Auto videogame empire. Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes. Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA's wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games, the invention and evolution of the franchise, and the cultural and political backlash it has provoked. Written by David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom and a top journalist on gaming, this book is drawn from over ten years of interviews and research, including firsthand knowledge of Grand Theft Auto's creators and detractors. It explains how British prep school brothers Sam and Dan Houser took their dream of fame, fortune, and the glamor of American pop culture and transformed it into a worldwide videogame blockbuster. It also offers inside details on key episodes in the development of the series, including the financial turmoil of Rockstar games, the infamous "Hot Coffee" sex minigame incident, and more. Whether you love Grand Theft Auto or hate it-or just want to understand the defining entertainment product of a generation-you'll want to read Jacked and get the real story behind this boundary-pushing game. "A vigorous and often surprising narrative."-Wall Street Journal on Kushner's Levittown

David Kushner (Author), Adam Verner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto

Inside the making of the multibillion-dollar Grand Theft Auto video game empire Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial video game franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes. Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA's wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games, the invention and evolution of the franchise, and the cultural and political backlash it has provoked. –Explains how British prep school brothers Sam and Dan Houser took their dream of fame, fortune, and the glamor of American pop culture and transformed it into a worldwide video game blockbuster –Written by David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom and a top journalist on gaming, and drawn from over ten years of interviews and research, including firsthand knowledge of Grand Theft Auto's creators and detractors –Offers inside details on key episodes in the development of the series, including the financial turmoil of Rockstar games, the infamous 'Hot Coffee' sex minigame incident, and more Whether you love Grand Theft Auto or hate it—or just want to understand the defining entertainment product of a generation—you'll want to read Jacked and get the real story behind this boundary-pushing game.

David Kushner (Author), Adam Verner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Today's Authors' Series: A Q&A with David Kushner and Jon

If you think a gang of real-life geeks can't take on the world and win big...think again. And whatever you do, don't sit down across a gaming table from Jon Finkel, better known as Jonny Magic. Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids is his amazing true story: the jaw-dropping, zero-to-hero chronicle of a fat, friendless boy from New Jersey who found his edge in a game of cards'and turned it into a fortune!

David Kushner (Author), David Kushner (Narrator)

Audiobook