Audiobooks narrated by Graham Mack

First Class Comrades: The Stasi in the Cold War, 1945-1961

No country in history has been more deeply penetrated by spies than divided Germany after the Second World War. Fighting for the eastern corner were the 'first class comrades' of the Stasi—the East German Ministry for State Security. Rising from the ruins of a defeated country, and guided by its KGB masters, the early Cold War saw the Stasi establish itself as one of the world's most notorious spy and secret police agencies. These were years of fierce ideological battles, overshadowed by Joseph Stalin and his East German acolytes. At home the Stasi crushed dissent, using brutal—and increasingly crafty—methods to prop up a government that had no mandate to govern. The Berlin Wall was built and the borders sealed. At the same time, dramatic and fascinating spy warfare broke out. The Stasi learned to infiltrate foreign countries—including in the developing world—and to combat vigorous attempts by the west to spy on, and subvert, the German Democratic Republic. Gripping, intelligent and packed with information, First Class Comrades shines a light on this lesser-known period of Stasi history, and why its stories and lessons still matter today.

J. Boulter (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

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The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI

Can octopuses feel pain and pleasure? What about crabs, shrimps, insects, or spiders? How do we tell whether a person unresponsive after severe brain injury might be suffering? When does a fetus in the womb start to have conscious experiences? Could there even be rudimentary feelings in miniature models of the human brain, grown from human stem cells? And what about AI? These are questions about the edge of sentience, and they are subject to enormous, disorienting uncertainty. We desperately want certainty, but it is out of reach. The stakes are immense, and neglecting the risks can have terrible costs. We need to err on the side of caution, yet it's often far from clear what 'erring on the side of caution' should mean in practice. When are we going too far? When are we not doing enough? The Edge of Sentience presents a comprehensive precautionary framework designed to help us reach ethically sound, evidence-based decisions despite our uncertainty. The book is packed with specific, detailed proposals intended to generate discussion and debate. At no point, however, does it offer any magic tricks to make our uncertainty go away. Uncertainty is with us for the long term. We must manage our uncertainty by taking precautions that are proportionate to the risks. It's time to start debating what those steps should be.

Jonathan Birch (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

Audiobook

Gestapo Hunter: The Remarkable Wartime Career of Mosquito Navigator Ted Sismore

Gestapo Hunter explores the charmed life and exceptional career of Ted Sismore, widely considered one of the RAF's very best wartime navigators and leaders. A quiet, unassuming man who was nicknamed 'Daisy' on account of his youthful complexion, Ted was one of only a handful of aircrew to complete a tour of operations in Blenheims in the summer of 1941. He flew in the daylight attack on Berlin, timed to coincide with an address being given by Hermann Göring, for which he received the first of several awards for gallantry and which was widely publicized. Identified by Basil Embry, the mercurial AOC of 2 Group, as something of a kindred spirit, Ted joined the Group's HQ staff, planning Operation Jericho, the famous attack on the prison at Amiens on February 18, 1944, and taking part on October 31 later that year in another 'spectacular' to bomb the Gestapo HQ at Aarhus in Denmark. Raids on the SS and Gestapo became something of a specialty, Ted leading further pinpoint bombing attacks on 'Shell House' in Copenhagen (Operation Carthage) and the Gestapo HQ at Odense. After the war, Ted teamed up with Mick Martin, the famous Dambuster, to break the flying record from London to Cape Town, in 1947, a journey of almost 7,000 miles. He later qualified as a pilot, flying Meteors, Javelins, and Canberras, retiring as an air commodore. He died in 2012.

Sean Feast (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bald: How I Slowly Learned to Not Hate Having No Hair (And You Can Too)

This is a guide to life in the club that nobody wants to join. Nobody chooses to be bald. Nobody wants to look into the mirror and be confronted with an absence. Nobody gains any comfort from having a slightly better idea of what their skull looks like. Stuart Heritage has been bald for two years. But before he accepted the inevitable, he spent a number of years ineptly trying to conceal this fact with an array of expensive treatments and terrible haircuts. Can a man go bald with dignity? Maybe. But can a man go bald with more dignity than Stuart Heritage? Oh good god yes, and this book is his attempt to make that happen for you. Part-manual-part-tantrum, this is a self-deprecating, funny and genuinely helpful guide to being bald: what really happens, why it matters, and how to feel much less crap about it.

Stuart Heritage (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

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Digitally Curious: Your Simple Guide to Navigating the Future of AI and Beyond

In Digitally Curious, futurist, speaker, and technology trends expert Andrew Grill delivers an easy-to-follow and incisive discussion of current and future technologies, as well as how leading companies are deploying them. The author examines critical business concepts, like the future of work, from a technical and human-centric point of view and how Artificial Intelligence will impact us at work and in society. He includes a broad range of relevant technologies and platforms, offering examples that will be immediately relevant to any industry and business. Digitally Curious offers recent and relevant examples via accessible and revealing interviews with global business leaders from various fields. The book also provides actionable insights and end-of-chapter takeaways; complimentary access to a companion website created and updated by the author, a thirty-year veteran of technology and business; and immediately applicable steps you can implement right away to create positive change in your business. Digitally Curious is perfect for managers, executives, board members, and other business leaders. It is the ideal resource for anyone looking for a simple and straightforward explanation of how new and upcoming tech and digital trends will impact you at work and in broader society.

Andrew Grill (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

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Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior: What They Did and How We Know

Our understanding of dinosaur behavior has long been hampered by the inevitable lack of evidence from animals that went extinct more than sixty-five million years ago. Today, with the discovery of new specimens and the development of new and cutting-edge techniques, paleontologists are making major advances in reconstructing how dinosaurs lived and acted. Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior provides an unparalleled look at this emerging field of science, presenting the latest findings on dinosaur behavior and explaining how researchers interpret the often minimal and even conflicting information available to them. David Hone begins by introducing listeners to the fundamentals of dinosaur biology, diversity, and evolution, and goes on to describe their behaviors, from feeding and communication to reproduction, sociality, and combat. Speculation about dinosaur behavior goes back to the earliest scientific studies of these 'terrible lizards.' Hone traces how pioneering science is opening a window into prehistoric life as never before, and discusses future directions of research in this thrilling and rapidly growing area of paleontology. Written by one of the world's leading dinosaur experts, Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior is a foundational work on the subject and an invaluable reference for anyone interested in these amazing creatures.

David Hone (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

Audiobook

Surveillance: A Very Short Introduction

Surveillance permeates every aspect of our lives today. Every click on the keyboard, every call, text or email, every purchase, every contact with a doctor or the police or a government department, each time you walk under a video camera or pass through a security check, and in many other ways, you are recorded, identified, traced, and tracked. Who processes this free-flowing data, how, and with what consequences, is a critical question affecting everyone. Surveillance is not inherently good or bad but neither is it neutral. It urgently needs to be understood better because people's lives and life-chances depend on it. Today surveillance is central to doing business, meeting friends, organizing governance, maintaining security, and being entertained. Surveillance requires not just exploration and understanding but ethical guidance and political debate. How you get credit or welfare benefits or get on a no-fly list or are ranked as a consumer depends on surveillance. This Very Short Introduction investigates how surveillance makes people visible, how it grew to its present size and prevalence, how it came to rely on technologies of data-handling, and how it developed its own cultural features. Throughout, David Lyon also considers the ethics of surveillance, and explores its potential in prompting political struggles.

David Lyon (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

Audiobook

How to Kill an Asteroid: The Real Science of Planetary Defense

Robin George Andrews (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

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How to Make Money: An Ancient Guide to Wealth Management (series: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers)

Ancient Romans liked money. But how did they make a living and sometimes even become rich? The Roman economy was dominated by agriculture, but it was surprisingly modern in many ways: the Romans had companies with CEOs, shareholders, and detailed contracts regulated by meticulous laws; systems of banking and taxation; and a wide range of occupations, from merchant and doctor to architect and teacher. The Romans also enjoyed a relatively open society, where some could start from the bottom, work, invest, and grow rich. How to Make Money gathers a wide variety of ancient writings that show how Romans thought about, made, invested, spent, lost, and gave away money. The Roman elite idealized farming and service to the state but treated many other occupations with suspicion or contempt, from money lending to wage labor. But whatever their attitudes, pecunia made the Roman world go round. In the Satyricon, Trimalchio brags about his wealth. Seneca accumulated a fortune—but taught that money can't buy happiness. Eumachia inherited a brick factory from her father, married well, and turned to philanthropy after she was widowed. How to Make Money also takes up some of the most troubling aspects of the Roman economy, slavery and prostitution, which the elite deemed unrespectable but often profited from.

Pliny (Author), Graham Mack, James Cameron Stewart (Narrator)

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The Shortcut: Why Intelligent Machines Do Not Think Like Us

An influential scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) explains its fundamental concepts and how it is changing culture and society. A particular form of AI is now embedded in our tech, our infrastructure, and our lives. How did it get there? Where and why should we be concerned? And what should we do now? The Shortcut: Why Intelligent Machines Do Not Think Like Us provides an accessible yet probing exposure of AI in its prevalent form today, proposing a new narrative to connect and make sense of events that have happened in the recent tumultuous past, and enabling us to think soberly about the road ahead. This book is divided into ten carefully crafted and easily digestible chapters. Each chapter grapples with an important question for AI. Ranging from the scientific concepts that underpin the technology to wider implications for society, it develops a unified description using tools from different disciplines and avoiding unnecessary abstractions or words that end with -ism. The book uses real examples wherever possible, introducing the listener to the people who have created some of these technologies and to ideas shaping modern society that originate from the technical side of AI. It contains important practical advice about how we should approach AI in the future without promoting exaggerated hypes or fears.

Nello Cristianini (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

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Stanford Tuck: Hero of the Battle of Britain: The Life of the Great Fighter Ace

The first full reappraisal of one of Britain's great fighter aces, this book examines the truth behind Tuck's 1956 biography, Fly for Your Life. It looks at the evidence behind the myths, checks out some of the exaggerated stories and reveals the real Stanford Tuck. In January 1942 Bob Tuck was the top-scoring British fighter ace with an official score of twenty-nine enemy aircraft destroyed. During the Battle of Britain his legendary prowess grew and he was posted to command a leaderless and demoralized squadron, this time flying Hurricanes. He continued to prove he was an outstanding fighter ace, gaining the rare distinction of three DFCs and then the DSO for his leadership. He was shot down over France in January 1942. In January 1944 however, around twenty POWs, including Tuck, were purged to a new camp. Still determined to escape, Tuck and a Polish officer took a risky chance and made their way east to Russian forces and thence to England. This book reveals a more complex man than the one-dimensional hero of the previous biography. Post war, he became good friends with the Luftwaffe ace, Adolf Galland, and was a key advisor with him on the film Battle of Britain, and, often made many media appearances. His health suffered in later years from the impact of his war service and his imprisonment and he died aged seventy in 1987.

Helen Doe (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

Audiobook

In the Name of Sharks: 1st Edition

Twenty meters below water, the oceanographer François Sarano came face to face with a five-and-a-half-meter great white shark. Seduced by the gentle elegance of this majestic creature, Sarano experienced a profound sense of affinity with her as they swam side by side, shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye, cutting a single figure through the ocean depths. It was an experience which made him realize the depth of our ignorance of the lives of sharks, leading him to become a passionate advocate for their protection. Drawing on the latest scientific research on the biology and ethology of sharks and their exceptional characteristics, this book aims to break through the barrier of prejudice and to pay homage to their true nature. Representing a last vestige of wildness, their populations are nevertheless under threat-like so many species, they have been hunted and exploited by humans. Sarano argues for a change of mindset in which we lose ourselves in the world of the other, so that each living entity, human and non-human, can take their rightful place in the broader global ecosystem.

François Sarano (Author), Graham Mack (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Graham Mack