Audiobooks by Thom Hartmann

The Hidden History of the American Dream: The Demise of the Middle Class—and How to Rescue Our Futur

America's most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author explores the fall of the American Dream and the steps we can take to bring it back. The widening wealth gap is all too familiar to many Millennials and GenZers, especially when home ownership and the lack of debt seem like faraway fantasies. And it's no surprise when they only hold about 4.6% of the country's wealth while Boomers held 22% at around the same age. So what happened to the promise of the American Dream? In this new, final entry of his celebrated Hidden History series, Thom Hartmann uncovers the rise of the American middle class through the progressive policies of FDR, through to its downfall with the increasing privatization and economic deregulations of the Reagan era. He also explores potential solutions including wealth and inheritance taxes to lessen economic inequality, supporting unions through increasing labor rights, and renationalizing public spaces and transportation. The American Dream often remains just a dream for many, but this book highlights what needs to be done to take it back and help make it a reality for us all.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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The Hidden History of American Democracy: Rediscovering Humanity's Ancient Way of Living

America's most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann paves the way to saving our democracy. In this powerful, sweeping history and analysis of American democracy, Thom Hartmann shows how democracy is the one form of governance most likely to produce peace and happiness among people. With the violent exception of the Civil War, American democracy resisted the pressure to disintegrate into factionalism for nearly two centuries, and now our very system of democratic elections is at stake. So how do we save our democracy? Hartmann's newest book in the celebrated Hidden History Series offers a clear call to action and a set of solutions with road maps for individuals and communities to follow to create a safer, more just society and a more equitable and prosperous economy.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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Adult ADHD: How to Succeed as a Hunter in a Farmer's World

How to harness your ADHD "hunter" strengths to start your own business and prosper in the workplace • Provides organizational strategies, tips to maintain focus, and tools to set goals, build a business plan, and discover the right project to keep you motivated • Shares ADHD success stories from Fortune 500 CEOs, inventors, small business owners, and the author's own experience in launching new businesses • Explains the positive side of ADHD behavior in the context of creating a business, working within an existing company, and raising children with ADHD Most people do not "grow out" of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). For many, their ADHD traits have led to difficulties in school, relationships, and work. But for our hunter-gatherer ancestors these characteristics were necessary for survival. Hunters must be easily distractible, constantly scanning their environment, and unafraid of taking risks. When humanity experienced the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago, a vastly different type of personality--the methodical "Farmer"--became dominant. Most of our modern world is tailored to this Farmer personality, from 9-to-5 jobs to the structure of public schools, leaving ADHD Hunters feeling like unsuccessful outcasts. However, the Hunter skill set offers many opportunities for success in today's Farmer society--if you learn how to embrace your ADHD traits instead of fighting against them. In this step-by-step guide, Thom Hartmann explains the positive side of Hunter behavior. He reveals how Hunters make excellent entrepreneurs, sharing ADHD success stories from Fortune 500 CEOs, inventors, small business owners, and his own hands-on experience in launching new businesses. Drawing on solid scientific and psychological principles, he provides easy-to-follow organizational strategies, tips to maintain focus and create a distraction-free workspace, and tools to set goals, build a business plan, and discover the right business project to keep you motivated. Hartmann shares valuable advice for both the Hunter entrepreneur and the Hunter within an existing company and for curtailing the aggressive side of the Hunter personality in group situations or manager positions. Revealing the many ADHD opportunities hidden within the challenges of work, relationships, and day-to-day life, Hartmann also includes tips on navigating family relationships and parenting--for most Hunter parents are also raising Hunter children.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Michael Ellick (Narrator)

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The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness

America's most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why neoliberalism became so prevalent in the United States and why it's time for us to turn our backs to it. With four decades of neoliberal rule coming to an end, America is at a crossroads. In this powerful and accessible book, Thom Hartmann demystifies neoliberalism and explains how we can use this pivotal point in time to create a more positive future. This book traces the history of neoliberalism-a set of capitalistic philosophies favoring free trade, low taxes on the rich, financial austerity, and deregulation of big business-up to the present day. Hartmann explains how neoliberalism was sold as a cure for wars and the Great Depression. He outlines the destructive impact that it has had on America, looking at how it has increased poverty, damaged the middle class, and corrupted our nation's politics. America is standing on the edge of a new progressive era. We can continue down the road to a neoliberal oligarchy, as supported by many of the nation's billionaires and giant corporations. Or we can choose to return to Keynesian economics and Alexander Hamilton's American Plan by raising taxes on the rich, reversing free trade, and building a society that works for all.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance

America's most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how the government and corporate America misuse our personal data and shows how we can reclaim our privacy. Most Americans are worried about how companies like Facebook invade their privacy and harvest their data, but many people don't fully understand the details of how their information is being adapted and misused. In this thought-provoking and accessible book, Thom Hartmann reveals exactly how the government and corporations are tracking our every online move and using our data to buy elections, employ social control, and monetize our lives. Hartmann uses extensive, vivid examples to highlight the consequences of Big Data on all aspects of our lives. He traces the history of surveillance and social control, looking back to how Big Brother invented whiteness to keep order and how surveillance began to be employed as a way to modify behavior. As he states, "The goal of those who violate privacy and use surveillance is almost always social control and behavior modification." Along with covering the history, Hartmann shows how we got to where we are today, how China-with its new Social Credit System-serves as a warning, and how we can and must avoid a similarly dystopian future. By delving into the Constitutional right to privacy, Hartmann reminds us of our civil right and shows how we can restore it.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich

Popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why attempts to implement affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted and what we can do to finally make it a reality. 'For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people-one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s," says Thom Hartmann. Other countries have shown us that affordable universal healthcare is not only possible but also effective and efficient. Taiwan's single-payer system saved the country a fortune as well as saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, enabling the country to implement a nationwide coronavirus test-and-contact-trace program without shutting down the economy. This resulted in just ten deaths, while more than 500,000 people have died in the United States. Hartmann offers a deep dive into the shameful history of American healthcare, showing how greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption led to the current "sickness for profit" system. Modern attempts to create versions of government healthcare have been hobbled at every turn, including Obamacare. There is a simple solution: Medicare for all. Hartmann outlines the extraordinary benefits this system would provide the American people and economy and the steps we need to take to make it a reality. It's time for America to join every industrialized country in the world and make health a right, not a privilege.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class

Thom Hartmann, the most popular progressive radio host in America and a New York Times bestselling author, looks at the history of the battle against oligarchy in America—and how we can win the latest round. Billionaire oligarchs want to own our republic, and they're nearly there thanks to legislation and Supreme Court decisions that they have essentially bought. They put Trump and his political allies into office and support a vast network of think tanks, publications, and social media that every day push our nation closer and closer to police-state tyranny. The United States was born in a struggle against the oligarchs of the British aristocracy, and ever since then the history of America has been one of dynamic tension between democracy and oligarchy. And much like the shock of the 1929 crash woke America up to glaring inequality and the ongoing theft of democracy by that generation's oligarchs, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has laid bare how extensively oligarchs have looted our nation's economic system, gutted governmental institutions, and stolen the wealth of the former middle class. Thom Hartmann traces the history of this struggle against oligarchy from America's founding to the United States' war with the feudal Confederacy to President Franklin Roosevelt's struggle against “economic royalists,” who wanted to block the New Deal. In each of those cases, the oligarchs lost the battle. But with increasing right-wing control of the media, unlimited campaign contributions, and a conservative takeover of the judicial system, we're at a crisis point. Now is the time for action, before we flip into tyranny. We've beaten the oligarchs before, and we can do it again. Hartmann lays out practical measures we can take to break up media monopolies, limit the influence of money in politics, reclaim the wealth stolen over decades by the oligarchy, and build a movement that will return control of America to We the People.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream

“This is the most important, dynamic book on the cancers of monopoly by giant corporations written in our generation.”—from the foreword by Ralph Nader American monopolies dominate, control, and consume most of the energy of our entire economic system; they function the same as cancer does in a body, and, like cancer, they weaken our systems while threatening to crash the entire body economic. American monopolies have also seized massive political power and use it to maintain their obscene profits and CEO salaries while crushing small competitors. But Thom Hartmann, America's #1 progressive radio host, shows we've broken the control of behemoths like these before, and we can do it again. Hartmann takes us from the birth of America as a revolt against monopoly (remember the Boston Tea Party?), to the largely successful efforts of both Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and other like-minded leaders to restrain corporations' monopolistic urges, to the massive changes in the rules of business starting during the “Reagan Revolution” that have brought us to the cancer stage of capitalism. He shows the damage monopolies have done to so many industries: agriculture, healthcare, the media, and more. Individuals have taken a hit as well: the average American family pays a $5,000 a year “monopoly tax” in the form of higher prices for everything from pharmaceuticals to airfare to household goods and food. But Hartmann also describes commonsense, historically rooted measures we can take—such as revitalizing antitrust regulation, taxing great wealth, and getting money out of politics—to pry control of our country from the tentacles of the monopolists.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt, Thom Hartmann (Narrator)

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Living with ADHD: Simple Exercises to Change Your Daily Life

A practical system for those with ADHD to take back their personal power and embrace their unique talents for success in the modern world • Explains how those with ADHD grow up wounded by the negative labels and attitudes surrounding them and their "diagnosis" • Shares simple and fast-acting techniques from neurolinguistic programming (NLP) to recalibrate painful memories into valuable learning experiences, re-pattern learned behaviors and negative habits, and discover personal motivation • Reveals how the novelty-seeking behaviors of those with ADHD are valuable assets to society and should be embraced rather than suppressed One of the first rules of child-rearing is "condemn the behavior, not the child." Yet this commonsense rule doesn't seem to apply in the case of attention deficit disorder, or ADHD, where the very name of the condition implies that those labeled with it are "disordered," "deficient," and incapable of paying attention. Those with ADHD grow up wounded, told by teachers, guidance counselors, even parents that they are dysfunctional and unable to succeed in the "normal" world. But, as ADHD expert Thom Hartmann explains, those with ADHD are capable of great success if they can shift the negative self-image created by others and learn to work with their unique strengths. In this accessible guide for adults with ADHD and the parents and teachers of ADHD children, Hartmann offers a practical system of useful tools and strategies to heal the damage done to a person who grew up labeled as "dysfunctional" and help them cope with--and succeed at--daily life. He explains how the character traits of ADHD were once valuable assets in hunter-gatherer societies and that the later dominance of agricultural and industrial societies, where "farmer" and "worker" skillsets excel, left ADHD "hunters" as behavioral outcasts. Sharing simple and often fast-acting techniques from neurolinguistic programming (NLP), Hartmann explains how those with ADHD can take back their personal power, recalibrate painful memories into valuable learning experiences, shed fears and negative habits, and rebuild their self-image in a positive way. By integrating the strategies in this book into daily life, those with ADHD can transform their way of responding to the world, discover personal motivation, and teach their children to do the same. As Hartmann reveals, it is not ADHD that needs to be healed but our attitudes toward those born with the "hunter" gift.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Andy Rick (Narrator)

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The Hidden History of the War on Voting: Who Stole Your Vote—and How to Get It Back

In today's America, only a slim majority of people register to vote, and a large percentage of registered voters don't bother to show up: Donald Trump was elected by only 26 percent of eligible voters. Unfortunately, this is not a bug in our system, it's a feature. Thom Hartmann unveils the strategies and tactics that conservative elites in this country have used, from the foundation of the Electoral College to the latest voter ID laws, to protect their interests by preventing "the wrong people"-such as the poor, women, and people of color-from voting while making it more convenient for the wealthy and white. But he also lays out a wide variety of simple, commonsense ways that we the people can fight back and reclaim our right to rule through the ballot box.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America

Thom Hartmann, the most popular progressive radio host in America and a New York Times bestselling author, explains how the Supreme Court has spilled beyond its Constitutional powers and how we the people should take that power back. Taking his typically in-depth, historically informed view, Thom Hartmann asks, What if the Supreme Court didn't have the power to strike down laws? According to the Constitution, it doesn't. From the founding of the republic until 1803, the Supreme Court was the final court of appeals, as it was always meant to be. So where did the concept of judicial review start? As so much of modern American history, it began with the battle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and with Marbury v. Madison. Hartmann argues it is not the role of the Supreme Court to decide what the law is but rather the duty of the people themselves. He lays out the history of the Supreme Court of the United States, since Alexander Hamilton's defense to modern-day debates, with key examples of cases where the Supreme Court overstepped its constitutional powers. The ultimate remedy to the Supreme Court's abuse of power is with the people--the ultimate arbiter of the law--using the ballot box. America does not belong to the kings and queens; it belongs to the people.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer's World

A newly revised and updated edition of the classic guide to reframing our view of ADHD and embracing its benefits • Explains that people with ADHD are not disordered or dysfunctional, but simply "hunters in a farmer's world"--possessing a unique mental skill set that would have allowed them to thrive in a hunter-gatherer society • Offers concrete non-drug methods and practices to help hunters--and their parents, teachers, and managers--embrace their differences, nurture creativity, and find success in school, at work, and at home • Reveals how some of the world's most successful people can be labeled as ADHD hunters, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie With 10 percent of the Western world's children suspected of having Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADHD, and a growing number of adults self-diagnosing after decades of struggle, the question must be raised: How could Nature make such a "mistake"? In this updated edition of his groundbreaking classic, Thom Hartmann explains that people with ADHD are not abnormal, disordered, or dysfunctional, but simply "hunters in a farmer's world." Often highly creative and single-minded in pursuit of a self-chosen goal, those with ADHD symptoms possess a unique mental skill set that would have allowed them to thrive in a hunter-gatherer society. As hunters, they would have been constantly scanning their environment, looking for food or threats (distractibility); they'd have to act without hesitation (impulsivity); and they'd have to love the high-stimulation and risk-filled environment of the hunting field. With our structured public schools, office workplaces, and factories those who inherit a surplus of "hunter skills" are often left frustrated in a world that doesn't understand or support them. As Hartmann shows, by reframing our view of ADHD, we can begin to see it not as a disorder, but as simply a difference and, in some ways, an advantage. He reveals how some of the world's most successful people can be labeled as ADHD hunters and offers concrete non-drug methods and practices to help hunters--and their parents, teachers, and managers--embrace their differences, nurture creativity, and find success in school, at work, and at home. Providing a supportive "survival" guide to help fine tune your natural skill set, rather than suppress it, Hartmann shows that each mind--whether hunter, farmer, or somewhere in between--has value and great potential waiting to be tapped.

Thom Hartmann (Author), Robin Douglas (Narrator)

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