Audiobooks narrated by Jonathan Beville

Outmaneuvered: America's Tragic Encounter with Warfare from Vietnam to Afghanistan

From a celebrated military historian, a highly engaging and thought-provoking exploration of why the United States has failed again and again in irregular wars and military campaigns from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Since the early 1960s, the United States has fought in four major wars and a cluster of complicated and bloody irregular warfare campaigns. The majority have ended in failure, or something close to it. Why has the US been so ineffective, despite the American armed forces being universally recognized as the best in the world? Most scholars and analysts believe that the primary cause of our abysmal war record since Vietnam has been the US military's overwhelmingly conventional approach to conflict, which favors kinetic operations, highly mobile precision firepower, and sophisticated systems of command and control. Here, James Warren argues that a much more formidable obstacle to success has been pervasive strategic ineptitude at the highest levels of decision-making, including the presidency, the national security council, and the foreign policy community in DC. Time and time again, American presidents have committed military forces to operations in foreign countries whose politics and cultures they did not fully understand. Presidents of both political parties, including Johnson, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama have overestimated the capacity of US forces to alter the social and political landscape of foreign nations, and underestimated the ability of insurgents and terrorists to develop effective protracted war strategies that, in time, sap Washington's will to carry on the fight. In the War on Terror, Warren asserts that senior military officers have been complicit in extending bankrupt strategies by refusing to speak truthfully about them to their civilian bosses. So have the American people, who lost interest in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and refused to press their president and congress to bring an end to two futile conflicts. Warren advocates for a less hubristic foreign policy and a broader conception of warfare as a political and military enterprise. For readers of political, military, and US history—as well as anyone interested in international relations and geopolitical strategy—this book offers unparalleled insights into America's prior—and potentially future—military conflicts.

James A. Warren (Author), Jonathan Beville, Unknown (Narrator)

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The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, Investment, and Management Implications

THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING COMPANY GROWTH AND DECLINE -FROM THE UNDISPUTED EXPERT ON VALUATION Throughout his storied career, Aswath Damodaran has searched for the universal key to demystify corporate finance and valuation. Now, at last, he offers the groundbreaking answer to readers everywhere. It turns out there is a corporate lifecycle very much like our own - with unique stages of growth and decline. And just as we must learn to act our age, so too must companies. By better understanding how corporations age and the characteristics of each stage of their lifecycle, we can unlock the secrets behind any businesses behavior and optimize our management and investment decisions accordingly. In Aswath Damodaran's The Corporate Lifecycle, readers will learn- - What markers tell where a company falls on its corporate lifecycle, and crucial insights for managers as they navigate the different stages - Why the shape and timing of life cycles varies across different industries - When transition points pose special challenges to companies-and strategies to conquer them - How differences in investment philosophies, in particular the divide between growth and value investing, should lead investors towards companies at different lifecycle stages As the corporate lifecycle touches virtually every aspect of business, this book is for anyone with skin in the corporate finance game-from managers to investors, from novices to seasoned pros. Aswath Damodaran's The Corporate Lifecycle is the definitive guide to understanding businesses growth, behavior, and value.

Aswath Damodaran (Author), Jonathan Beville, TBD (Narrator)

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Our Biggest Fight: Reclaiming Liberty, Humanity, and Dignity in the Digital Age

The internet as we know it is broken. Here's how we can seize back control of our lives from the corporate algorithms and create a better internet-before it's too late. It was once a utopian dream. But today's internet, despite its conveniences and connectivity, is the primary cause of a pervasive unease that has taken hold in the U.S. and other democratic societies. It's why youth suicide rates are rising, why politics has become toxic, and why our most important institutions are faltering. Information is the lifeblood of any society, and our current system for distributing it is corrupted at its heart. Everything comes down to our ability to communicate openly and trustfully with each other. But, thanks to the dominant digital platforms and the ways they distort human behavior, we have lost that ability-while, at the same time, we've been robbed of the data that is rightfully ours. The roots of this crisis, argue Frank McCourt and Michael Casey, lie in the prevailing order of the internet. In plain but forceful language, the authors-a civic entrepreneur and an acclaimed journalist-show how a centralized system controlled by a small group of for-profit entities has set this catastrophe in motion and eroded our personhood. And then they describe a groundbreaking solution to reclaim it: rather than superficial, patchwork regulations, we must reimagine the very architecture of the internet. The resulting "third-generation internet" would replace the status quo with a new model marked by digital property rights, autonomy, and ownership. Inspired by historical calls to action like Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Our Biggest Fight argues that we must act now to embed the core values of a free, democratic society in the internet of tomorrow. Do it right and we will finally, properly, unlock its immense potential.

Frank H. Mccourt (Author), Frank H. Mccourt, Jonathan Beville, Michael J. Casey (Narrator)

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Nemesis

Robert Kroese (Author), Jonathan Beville (Narrator)

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Rikers: An Oral History

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE • A shocking, groundbreaking oral history of the infamous Rikers jail complex and an unflinching portrait of injustice and resilience told by the people whose lives have been forever altered by it "This mesmerizing and gut-wrenching book shows the brutal realities that tens of thousands of people have been forced to navigate, and survive, in America's most notorious jail."-Piper Kerman, New York Times bestselling author of Orange is the New Black What happens when you pack almost a dozen jails, bulging at the seams with society's cast-offs, onto a spit of landfill purposefully hidden from public view? Prize-winning journalists Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau have spent two years interviewing more than 130 people comprising a broad cross section of lives touched by New York City's Rikers Island prison complex-from incarcerated people and their relatives, to officers, lawyers, and commissioners, with stories spanning the 1970s to the present day. The portrait that emerges calls into question the very nature of justice in America. Offering a 360-degree view inside the country's largest detention complex, the deeply personal accounts-featured here for the first time-take readers on a harrowing journey into every corner of Rikers, a failed society unto itself that reflects society's failings as a whole. Dr. Homer Venters was shocked by the screams on his first day working at Rikers: "They're in solitary, just yelling . . . the yelling literally never stops." After a few months, though, Dr. Venters notes, one's ears adjust to the sounds. Nestor Eversley recalls how detainees made weapons from bones. Barry Campbell recalls hiding a razor blade in his mouth-"just in case". These are visceral stories of despair, brutality, resilience, humor, and hope, told by the people who were marooned on the island over the course of decades. As calls to shutter jails and reduce the number of incarcerated people grow louder across the country, with the movement to close the island complex itself at the forefront, Rikers is a resounding lesson about the human consequences of the incarceration industry.

Graham Rayman, Reuven Blau (Author), Cary Hite, Eric Jason Martin, Gisela Chipe, James Fouhey, Jonathan Beville, Jose T. Nateras, Kamali Minter, Karen Murray, Kiiri Sandy, Nancy Bober, Nathan Agin, Nicky Endres, Philip Hernandez (Narrator)

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Murder at Sleeping Tiger: Sheriff Ulysses Walker, Book One

C.R. Koons (Author), Jonathan Beville (Narrator)

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Survival of the Fastest: Weed, Speed, and the 1980s Drug Scandal that Shocked the Sports World

As featured on Netflix's "Bad Sport," the high-octane, Seabiscuit-meets-Scarface story of how Randy Lanier became a 1980s international sports star, soaring through the ranks of car racing while holding a dark secret: he was also one of the biggest pot smugglers in American history As a kid, Randy Lanier dreamed of achieving four-wheel glory at the Indianapolis 500, but knew he'd never be able to afford the most expensive sport on earth. That all changed when he bought a speedboat and began smuggling pot from the Bahamas. Fueled by what would become a historically massive smuggling operation, he started racing cars and became an overnight sensation. For Randy and his teammates, money was no object, and bigger hauls meant faster cars. At every event they attended, they were behind the wheel of the best machinery, flaunting their secret in front of huge crowds and live television cameras. But no matter how fast they drove, they couldn't outrun the law. As Randy came ever closer to reaching his dream of high-speed glory, one of the biggest drug scandals ever to hit the professional sports world was about to unfold. Set in the 1980s Florida of Miami Vice, this is the unbelievable, unforgettable, unparalleled story of an ordinary guy whose attempts to become famous doing the thing he wanted most-become a world class race car driver-devolved into a you-can't-make-this-up tale of one of the biggest crime rings and drug scandals of the 1980s. Now, with the help of New York Times bestselling author A.J. Baime, Randy tells the whole truth for the first time ever, a gripping narrative unlike any other, a sports story for the ages, and shocking a true crime epic.

Randy Lanier (Author), Jonathan Beville (Narrator)

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Messiah

Robert Kroese (Author), Jonathan Beville (Narrator)

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Why It's OK to Eat Meat

In Why It's OK to Eat Meat, Dan C. Shahar argues the answer is no: it's entirely possible to be an ethical person while continuing to eat meat-and not just the 'fancy' offerings from the farmers' market but also the regular meat we find at most supermarkets and restaurants. Shahar's examination forcefully echoes vegetarians' concerns about the meat industry's impacts on animals, workers, the environment, and public health. However, he shows that the most influential ethical arguments for avoiding meat on the basis of these considerations are ultimately unpersuasive. Instead of insisting we all become vegetarians, Shahar argues each of us has broad latitude to choose which of the world's problems to tackle. Key Features include: - First book-length defense of meat-eating written for a popular audience - Punchy, accessible introduction to the multifaceted debate over the ethics of eating meat - Includes pioneering new examinations of humane labeling practices - Shows why appeals to universalized patterns of behavior can't vindicate vegetarians' claims that there's a duty to avoid meat - Develops a novel theory of ethical activism with potential applications to a wide range of other issues

Dan C. Shahar (Author), Jonathan Beville (Narrator)

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Show No Mercy (A Steve Dane Thriller Book 5)

STEVE DANE AND NINA RETURN! When the deadly duo witnesses a catastrophic terrorist attack, they don't stand idly by. They run into the fray, engaging the enemy, and stumble upon a message the killers leave behind. Graypoole has resurrected. It's an impossible development. Dane knows Graypoole, a terrorist who targeted capitalists, is dead – killed by a black ops team. But as he and Nina follow the evidence, they learn Graypoole's son has taken over his father's organization. And Junior wants revenge. One incident of mass murder, and killing the men who murdered his father, isn't enough. He's planning a bigger attack for an encore, and thousands of lives are at risk. Only Steve Dane and Nina Talikova stand in his way. If they fail, the blood of innocents is on their hands.

Brian Drake (Author), Jonathan Beville (Narrator)

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The Puller

Alone at a remote cabin in the woods . . . attacked by a mysterious force that won't let him leave . . . but how can he fight an enemy that he can't even see? Matt Kearns just needed to get away from it all-to grieve for his father and let the rugged wilderness of Michigan's Upper Peninsula renew him, like it always had. But from the moment he arrives, nothing feels right. Strange happenings shake his confidence and have him questioning his sanity. Even the animals seem to know something is amiss. But each time he tries to leave, something-something truly malicious-violently pulls him back. What could it be? Why him? And what will he have to do to escape with his life? Michael Hodges's debut supernatural thriller delivers visceral, edge-of-your-seat suspense as one resourceful man desperately fights for his life against a force more savage and relentless than anything the locals here have ever seen.

Michael Hodges (Author), Jonathan Beville (Narrator)

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Titan

By the year 2032, the US federal debt has surpassed $50 trillion. The American empire is on the verge of collapse. An entrepreneur named Kade Kapur has an idea for rescuing the debt-ridden United States: the government will issue stock in a company with exclusive mining rights to an asteroid whose orbit will soon bring it near Earth. The asteroid, which contains $10 trillion in valuable minerals, is officially called 2015 RK 16 Maimonides, but it soon comes to be known by another name: Mammon. Fortunes are made and America seems to have avoided an economic collapse. But when the plan to capture the asteroid goes awry, the sky will fall . . .

Robert Kroese (Author), Jonathan Beville (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Jonathan Beville