Audiobooks by William Patrick

The Next Pandemic: On the Front Lines Against Humankind's Gravest Dangers

An inside account of the fight to contain the world's deadliest diseases-and the panic and corruption that make them worse. Throughout history, humankind's biggest killers have been infectious diseases: the Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and AIDS alone account for over one hundred million deaths. We ignore this reality most of the time, but when a new threat-Ebola, SARS, Zika-seems imminent, we send our best and bravest doctors to contain it. People like Dr. Ali S. Khan. In his long career as a public health first responder-protected by a thin mask from infected patients, napping under nets to keep out scorpions, making life-and-death decisions on limited, suspect information-Khan has found that rogue microbes will always be a problem, but outbreaks are often caused by people. We make mistakes, politicize emergencies, and, too often, fail to imagine the consequences of our actions. The Next Pandemic is a firsthand account of disasters like anthrax, bird flu, and others-and how we could do more to prevent their return. It is both a gripping story of our brushes with fate and an urgent lesson on how we can keep ourselves safe from the inevitable next pandemic.

Ali Khan, Ali S Khan, William Patrick (Author), Ben Sullivan (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Right Kind of Crazy: A True Story of Teamwork, Leadership, and High-Stakes Innovation

From Adam Steltzner, who led the Entry, Descent, and Landing team in landing the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars, comes a profound book about breakthrough innovation in the face of the impossible The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is home to some of history"s most jaw-dropping feats of engineering. When NASA needed to land Curiosity-a 2,000-pound, $2.5 billion rover-on the surface of Mars, 140 million miles away, they turned to JPL. Steltzner"s team couldn"t test their kooky solution, the Sky Crane. They were on an unmissable deadline, and the world would be watching when they succeeded-or failed. At the helm of this effort was an unlikely rocket scientist and accidental leader, Adam Steltzner. After barely graduating from high school, he followed his curiosity to the local community college to find out why the stars moved. Soon he discovered an astonishing gift for math and physics. After getting his Ph.D. he ensconced himself within JPL, NASA"s decidedly unbureaucratic cousin, where success in a mission is the only metric that matters. The Right Kind of Crazy is a first-person account of innovation that is relevant to anyone working in science, art, or technology. For instance, Steltzner describes: -How his team learned to switch from fear-based to curiosity-based decision making -How to escape "The Dark Room"-the creative block caused by fear, uncertainty, and the lack of a clear path forward -How to tell when we"re too in love with our own ideas to be objective about them-and, conversely, when to fight for them -How to foster mutual respect within teams while still bashing bad ideas The Right Kind of Crazy is a book for anyone who wants to channel their craziness into creativity, balance discord and harmony, and find a signal in a flood of noise. From the Hardcover edition.

Adam Steltzner, William Patrick (Author), Christopher Grove (Narrator)

Audiobook

In My Shoes: A Memoir

A candid business narrative and memoir from the founder of Jimmy Choo Tamara Mellon made a fortune building Jimmy Choo into a billion-dollar fashion brand. She became the prime minister's trade envoy and was honored by the Queen with the Order of the British Empire, yet it's her personal glamour that keeps her an object of global media fascination. Vogue photographed her wedding; Vanity Fair covered her divorce and the criminal trial that followed. Harper's Bazaar toured her London town house and her New York mansion, right down to the closets. And the Wall Street Journal hinted at the real red meat: the three private equity deals, the relentless battle between 'the suits' and 'the creatives,' and Mellon's triumph against a brutally hostile takeover attempt. In this candid memoir she shares the whole larger-than-life story, with genuinely shocking insider detail that has never been presented anywhere. From her troubled childhood to her time as a young editor at Vogue to her partnership with cobbler Jimmy Choo to her very public relationships, Mellon offers a gripping account of the episodes that have made her who she is today. The result is a must read for entrepreneurs, fashionistas, and anyone who loves a juicy true story about sex, drugs, money, power, high heels, and overcoming adversity.

Tamara Mellon, William Patrick (Author), Polly Lee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection

John T. Cacioppo's groundbreaking research topples one of the pillars of modern medicine and psychology: the focus on the individual as the unit of inquiry. By employing brain scans, monitoring blood pressure, and analyzing immune function, he demonstrates the overpowering influence of social context—a factor so strong that it can alter DNA replication. He defines an unrecognized syndrome, chronic loneliness; brings it out of the shadow of its cousin, depression; and shows how this subjective sense of social isolation uniquely disrupts our perceptions, behavior, and physiology, becoming a trap that not only reinforces isolation but can also lead to early death. He gives the lie to the Hobbesian view of human nature as a "war of all against all," and he shows how social cooperation is, in fact, humanity's defining characteristic. Most important, he shows how we can break the trap of isolation for our benefit both as individuals and as a society.

John T. Cacioppo, William Patrick (Author), Dick Hill (Narrator)

Audiobook