Audiobooks narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter

Brought to you by Penguin. Rising star New York Times technology reporters, Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, tell for the first time the full and shocking inside story of Elon Musk’s unprecedented hostile takeover of Twitter and the forty-four-billion-dollar deal’s seismic political, social, and financial fallout. The billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become inextricable from the social media platform that until 2023 was known as Twitter. Started in the mid-2000s as a playful microblogging platform, Twitter quickly became a vital nexus of global politics, culture, and media—where the retweet button could instantly catapult any idea to hundreds of millions of screens around the world, unleashing raw collective emotion like nothing else before. While its founder had idealistically dreamed of building a 'digital town square,' he detested Wall Street and never focused on building a profitable business. Musk joined the platform in 2010 and, by 2022, had become one of the site’s most influential users, hooking over 80 million followers with his mix of provocative posts, promotion of his companies, and attacks on his enemies. To Musk, Twitter — once known for its almost absolute commitment to free speech — had badly lost its way. He blamed it for the proliferation of what he called the “woke mind virus” and claimed that the survival of democracy and the human race itself depended on the future of the site. In January of 2022, Musk began secretly accumulating Twitter stock. By April, he was its largest shareholder, and soon after, he made an unsolicited offer to purchase the company for the unimaginable sum of $44 billion dollars. Backed into a corner, Twitter’s board accepted his offer—but Musk quickly changed his mind, forcing Twitter to sue him to close the deal in October. The richest man on earth controlled one of the most powerful media platforms in the world—but at what price? Before long Twitter would be gone for good, replaced by something radically new and different, as Musk remade the company in his own image from the ground up. The story of the showdown between Musk and Twitter and his eventual takeover of the company is unlike anything in business or media that has come before. In vivid, cinematic detail, Conger and Mac follow the inner workings of the company as Musk lays siege to it, first from the outside as one of its most vocal users, and then finally from within as a contentious and mercurial leader. Musk has shared some of his version of events, but Conger and Mac have uncovered the full story through exclusive interviews, unreported documents, and internal recordings at Twitter following the billionaire’s takeover. With unparalleled sources from within and around the company, they provide a revelatory, three-dimensional, and definitive account of what really happened when Musk showed up, spoiling for a brawl and intent on revolution, with his merciless, sycophantic cadre of lawyers, investors, and bankers. This is the defining story of our time told with uncommon style and peerless rigor. In a world of viral ideas and emotion, who gets to control the narrative, who gets to be heard, and what does power really cost? © Kate Conger, Ryan Mac 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

Kate Conger, Ryan Mac (Author), Edoardo Ballerini, TBD (Narrator)

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Three Kings: Race, Class, and the Barrier-Breaking Rivals Who Redefined Sports and Launched the Mode

For fans of The Boys in the Boat, and marking the 100th anniversary of the Paris Olympics, the never-before-told story of three athletes who defied the odds to usher in a golden age of sports. Even today, it’s considered one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history. The one-hundred-meter sprint final at the 1924 Paris Games, featuring the world’s three fastest swimmers—American legends Duke Kahanamoku and Johnny Weissmuller and Japanese upstart Katsuo Takaishi—had the cultural impact of the Super Bowl and Wimbledon and the World Cup finals put together. Never before had a major swimming event featured athletes of different races, and never had it been broadcast live. Across the globe, fans held their breath. In less than a minute, an Olympic record would be shattered, and the three men would be scrutinized like few athletes before them. For the millions worldwide for whom swimming was a complete unknown, the trio did something few could imagine: moving faster through water than many could on land. As sportsmen, they were god-like heroes, embodying the hopes of those who called them their own in the US and abroad. They personified strength and speed and the glamor and innovation of the Roaring Twenties. But they also represented fraught assumptions about race and human performance. It was not only “East vs. West,” as newspapers in the 1920s described the competition with Japan. It was also brown versus white. Rich versus poor. New versus old. The race was about far more than swimming. Each man was a trailblazer and a bona fide celebrity in an age when athletes typically weren’t famous. Kahanamoku was Hawaii’s first superstar, largely responsible for making the state the popular travel destination it is today. Weissmuller, a poor immigrant, put Chicago on the sports map and would make it big as Hollywood’s first Tarzan. Takaishi inspired Japan to compete on the world stage and helped turn its swimmers into Olympic powerhouses. He and Kahanamoku in particular shattered the myth of white superiority when it came to sports, putting the lie to the decade’s burgeoning eugenics movement. Three Kings traces the careers and rivalries of these men and the epochal times they lived in. The 1920s were transformative not just socially but for sports as well. For the first time, athletes of color were given a fair (though still not equal) chance, and competition wasn’t limited to the wealthy and privileged. Our modern-day conception of athleticism and competition—especially as it relates to the Olympics—traces back to this era and athletes like Kahanamoku, Weissmuller, and Takaishi, whose hard-won victories paved the way for all who followed.

Todd Balf (Author), Edoardo Ballerini, Unknown (Narrator)

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Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of '70s New York

An evocative coming-of-age memoir-the story of the education of a wayward wild child and acidhead who, searching for meaning and purpose, found refuge in the demimonde of the ruined but magical metropolis that was New York City in the 1970s. "In his beautiful memoir, Do Something, Guy Trebay paints a picture of a vanished, pre-AIDS Gotham that's both gritty and dazzling." -The New York Times Book Review Born in the Bronx, Guy Trebay was raised in an atmosphere of privilege on Long Island's North Shore after his entrepreneurial father struck business gold with Hawaiian Surf, a wildly successful cologne company that capitalized on the optimism of the 1960s as marketed to "an adventurous new breed of men.'' But behind the facade of material prosperity lay the emotional disarray of a household dominated by a charismatic, con artist father, a glamorous yet lost and careless mother, a family haunted by tragedy. By the time Trebay established a foothold at the fringes of Andy Warhol's Factory and the diverse artistic tribes that thrived in Manhattan in that pre-digital era, his father had lost his fortune, his younger sister had been arrested for armed robbery and fled underground, the family house was in ashes, and his mother was dead. Unschooled and on his own, Trebay became a striver, wending his way through a seemingly apocalyptic landscape populated by a vibrant cast of characters, including washed-up Hollywood screenwriters of the '30s; Warhol superstars like Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling; fashion geniuses like Charles James; and emerging artists, filmmakers, writers, designers, photographers, and deejays who would powerfully influence mainstream culture in the decades to come.

Guy Trebay (Author), Edoardo Ballerini (Narrator)

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Maktub

Paulo Coelho (Author), Edoardo Ballerini (Narrator)

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Dangerous Visions

Dubbed “the most significant and controversial SF book” of its generation, Harlan Ellison’s groundbreaking collection launched an entire sub-genre: New Wave science fiction. With contributions from legendary authors and multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, Dangerous Visions returns to print in a stunning new edition perfect for new and returning fans alike. A landmark short story collection that put New Wave Science Fiction on the literary map, Dangerous Visions won several prestigious awards and was nominated for many others. This now-classic anthology includes thirty-three stories by thirty-two award-winning authors, over half of whom have won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards. Contributing authors include: Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Brian W. Aldiss, Philip K. Dick, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson, Theodore Sturgeon, J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, and Ellison himself. As relevant now as it was when first published, Dangerous Visions is a phenomenal collection that deserves a place on every bookshelf.

Harlan Ellison (Author), Bradford Hastings, Bronson Pinchot, Dion Graham, Edoardo Ballerini, Feodor Chin, Grover Gardner, Heath Miller, James Patrick Cronin, Jd Jackson, Jim Meskimen, Joe Hempel, Joel Froomkin, John Pirhalla, Johnny Heller, Mara Wilson, Mark Sanderlin, Natalie Naudus, Neil Hellegers, Neil Shah, P. J. Ochlan, Ramiz Monsef, Robert Fass, Scott Aiello, Scott Brick, Shiromi Arserio, Simon Vance, Stefan Rudnicki, Steve West, Steven Jay Cohen, Suzanne Toren, TBD, Thom Rivera, Tim Campbell, Vikas Adam (Narrator)

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Greatest Hits

A collection of award-winning short stories by Harlan Ellison, an eight-time Hugo Award winner, five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and four-time Nebula Award winner Harlan Ellison’s work shaped the science-fiction, fantasy, and horror genres in the twentieth century, and this collection of his best-known and most-acclaimed stories is a perfect treasury for old Ellison fans as well as listeners discovering this zany, polyphonic writer for the first time. Featuring these stories and many more: “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” - Hugo Award winner“Jeffty Is Five” - British Fantasy Award winner“The Whimper of Whipped Dogs” - Edgar Allan Poe Award winner

Harlan Ellison (Author), Angelo Di Loreto, Dion Graham, Edoardo Ballerini, Grover Gardner, Hillary Huber, Luis Moreno, Neil Hellegers, Robert Fass, Scott Brick, Stefan Rudnicki, Steven Jay Cohen, TBD, Tim Lounibos (Narrator)

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Peak Teams

The challenges and pressures faced by VC-backed CEOs and founders—and their teams—are unlike anything else. When you’re building something that’s never been done before, there’s no roadmap. You’re responsible for meeting the needs of your team, clients, and partners…and of course, your investors and board members. You’re juggling growth targets, internal misalignment, and raising capital—often all at once. And the whole time, you’re deeply aware of the pressure from all sides. Your drive to push forward—to build, solve, and create—is unstoppable, but it can often feel like everything is on your shoulders, and you’re hiking up a steep mountain buried in a fog. It doesn’t have to be that way. Build the right team, and you’ll go from facing challenges alone to maximizing opportunities together. Jeff James Martin has spent a two-decade career on the ground with VC-backed teams trying to answer the question: What makes some VC-backed companies succeed, and others fail? This book holds the answer. Peak Teams is a holistic blueprint for building an unstoppable team and empowering them with the core habits that create winning behaviors. In this book, you’ll learn the Peak Teams System, a framework of habits and tools designed specifically for venture-backed teams. With the alignment, focus, accountability, and visibility Peak provides, you’ll part the fog surrounding your business and get everyone—investors, partners, clients, and employees—heading up to the mountain’s peak together.

Jeff James Martin (Author), Edoardo Ballerini (Narrator)

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Mind Burn

Minority Report meets Ready Player One as a new investigator hunts down a dangerous criminal capable of high-jacking and controlling cybernetic implants. When your new employer tasks you with investigating the first successful mass shooting in twelve years, it’s understandable to be nervous. Fortunately, detective-in-training Cowan Soto has a Personal Brain Assistant—a cybernetic implant—that allows him to firewall pesky emotions like worry and guilt and redact memories of bullet-riddled corpses. Unfortunately, Cowan soon learns it was his suspect’s PBA which allowed a ruthless hacker to puppet her into a shooting rampage. Aided by a veteran investigator, a brilliant CFO, a nihilistic cybercriminal, and the best waifu madam in Kearny Mesa, Cowan must wade through a gauntlet of homicidal professional gamers, the Russian mafia, and the board of OneWorld to bring this ruthless puppetmaster to justice. All the while, the brand-new detective is concealing the fact that he’s the exact type of criminal OneWorld has hired him to arrest: a loose circuit—a human unbound by behavioral modification protocols. Grab your copy today and experience this breakneck technothriller from USA Today bestselling author Rhett C. Bruno and T. E. Bakutis. It’s perfect for fans of Douglas E. Richards, Richard K. Morgan, and William Gibson. Full of action, mystery, and loads of cybernetic future-tech, Mind Burn explores the very question of what it means to be free.

Rhett C. Bruno, T. E. Bakutis (Author), Edoardo Ballerini (Narrator)

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The Wolves of Eternity

Brought to you by Penguin. The future is no more, and eternity has begun. It's 1986 and a nuclear reactor has exploded in Chernobyl. Syvert Løyning returns home from military service to live with his mother and brother on the outskirts of a town in Southern Norway. One night, he dreams of his late father, and can't shake him from his mind. Searching through his father's belongings for clues and connections, he finds a cache of letters that lead to the Soviet Union. In present-day Russia, Alevtina is trying to balance work and family. She has always sought the answers to life's big questions, but is preoccupied with care of her young son. Her friend Vasilisa offers some nourishment: she is writing a book about an ancient feature of Russian culture, the belief in eternal life. Meantime, Alevtina is heading towards a meeting that will redraw the contours of her world. A searching and humane novel, The Wolves of Eternity is an intimate journey into the experiences of a half-brother and half-sister in their two different - yet deeply connected - lives. The second novel in Karl Ove Knausgaard's extraordinary new series, it expands the universe of The Morning Star in the decades before the blazing and mysterious star descends. ©2023 Karl Ove Knausgaard (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Karl Ove Knausgaard (Author), Edoardo Ballerini, Gilli Messer, Natasha Soudek, Vas Eli (Narrator)

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Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first issues of Weird Tales Magazine, 100 Years of Weird is a masterful compendium of new and classic stories, flash fiction, essays, and poems from the giants of speculative fiction, including R. L. Stine, Laurell K. Hamilton, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, Tennessee Williams, and Isaac Asimov. Marking a century of uniquely peculiar storytelling, each part of this anthology features a different genre, from Cosmic Horror, Sword and Sorcery, Space Opera, to the Truly Weird—things too strange to publish elsewhere, and the magazine’s raison d’etre. Landmark stories such as “The Call of Cthulhu,” “Worms of the Earth,” and “Legal Rites” stand beside original stories and insightful essays from today’s masters of speculative fiction. This visually stunning hardcover edition is a collector’s dream, illustrated throughout with classic full-color and black & white art from past issues of Weird Tales Magazine.

Jonathan Maberry (Author), Bronson Pinchot, Dion Graham, Edoardo Ballerini, Eric G. Dove, Gabrielle De Cuir, Grover Gardner, Hillary Huber, James Anderson Foster, James Patrick Cronin, Joe Hempel, Kimberly Alexis, Kirsten Potter, Natalie Naudus, Neil Hellegers, Peter Berkrot, Ramiz Monsef, Robin Miles, Scott Brick, Simon Vance, Stefan Rudnicki, Vikas Adam, Zura Johnson (Narrator)

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Savage Skies

From the NYT bestselling author of the Hell Divers series, comes a brand new look at the future in this thrilling sci-fi military novella. A hostile world that will doom the human race … or save it, if a few survivors can unlock its secrets … After waking up with no memories in an underground facility, a squad of elite soldiers and scientists must try to recall what their mission is. But first, it’s a race against the clock to escape their collapsing bunker before it becomes a tomb. Topside, an even more dangerous world of fiery skies and desolate terrain awaits. As they venture out to explore their strange new surroundings, bits of memory begin to return, though nothing can prepare them for the strange forces protecting this bleak landscape. Worse, it seems that not everyone on the team wants the mission—whatever it is—to succeed. One thing is certain: the world they remember is gone, destroyed by war or natural disaster. Soon, they will learn that they must unlock the past if they are to have any hope of ever seeing the future. Please note, this is a novella, and is the introduction to a brand new NSS universe.

Nicholas Sansbury Smith (Author), Edoardo Ballerini (Narrator)

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77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists

From a team of leading Ukrainian reporters, 77 Days of February is the bracingly powerful and intimate story of the early days of the Russian invasion of their thriving, independent nation. It brings to the world, in a way not seen before, the experiences of everyday Ukrainians whose lives have been forever torn apart by this brutal and illegal war, and celebrates their monumental strength and resilience. The twenty-four stories here, along with an introduction by Serhiy Zhadan, the internationally revered writer, musician, and activist, share the harrowing struggles of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and reveal compassion, sacrifice, and heroism at every turn. Written in real time, these reports bring the first days of Ukraine invasion viscerally to life. There is the man in Bucha who lost his entire family to the shelling and now gives interviews to journalists next to the graves of his wife and children, so that the world might better understand Russia’s crimes against humanity. There is the woman in Kharkiv, raped for a week by a Russian soldier who then shoots her ailing mother dead in front of her. The police patrol that collects bodies, victims of Russian rage. The fourteen-year-old boy who is taken by Russian soldiers to Belarus—one of thousands of such cases—and the remarkable campaign to bring about his return. The workers at the zoo in occupied Demydiv, near Kyiv, who endure near-constant threats of execution so that Archie the rhino, Lekha the camel, and 300 other animals have at least some chance of survival. The young Kharkiv family, moving from subway to basement to survive the bombing, until they have no choice but to make a daring escape from the city. The old man in the war-torn city of Irpin, alone and unable to walk—and the de-mining trainer who fights for days to reach the town, find him, starved and naked but alive, and rescue him…. These and so many other accounts of relentless courage amidst unspeakable violence make 77 Days of February an invaluable work of urgent, lived, history. The stories take place in the first 76 days of the war, between February 23 and May 9—two symbolic dates in Russian military ideology. On February 23, Russia celebrates Defender of the Fatherland Day; May 9 marks Victory Day over Nazi Germany. In contemporary Russia, under the influence of relentless propaganda, these dates are used to reinforce the Kremlin’s superiority toward its neighbors and the world, as well as its determination to restore the Russian empire through military force. For the title of this book, the journalists of Reporters decided to add one more day, as a reminder that the war did not end on May 9 and continues still. To read 77 Days of February is to be plunged into the lives of astonishing people joined by a shared determination to cope, resist, and persevere. It is a fiercely inspired work of journalism that may change the way you view not only this terrible war but the world and the heroes who live among us.

Reporters Magazine (Author), Edoardo Ballerini (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini