Audiobooks Narrated by Kai Ryssdal

The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past

A vivid collection of surprising true stories that brings to life long-forgotten icons, heroes who never got their due, and ordinary people who never made it to the history books, from the creator of the popular podcast The Memory Palace. What was Dreamland, Brooklyn's most popular attraction, like before it burned down? Whatever happened to Shipwreck Kelly? What were the glistening orbs John Glenn saw from his capsule on his first trip to space? For more than a decade, Nate DiMeo has brought the big and small of American history to life in The Memory Palace, a podcast of crystalline short stories that are all completely true. In this beautifully designed collection, where DiMeo takes advantage of the visual form of a book by creating striking juxtapositions between images and text, he gathers the best of the show and adds brand-new stories exclusive to the book, which especially take their inspiration from photographs and the emergence of photography. The collection adds up to a unique take on the past that asks what gets to count as history in the first place, draws deep meaning from forgotten lives, and often dives into past crazes and the sometimes humorous and sometimes devastating fact that what or who is popular in one moment can become a barely remembered curiosity in the next. He resurrects stories that deserve to be memorialized, like that of the Surfmen of the Outer Banks who saved countless sailors' lives and the workers who risked theirs daily to dig the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. Each one of these poignant, vivid stories brings the past completely alive with the potential to shift our perspectives on the world today and to send readers out searching for all of the hidden stories it contains, just beyond the surface.

Nate Dimeo (Author), Betsy Brandt, Carrie Coon, Daniel Alarcón, Dominic Hoffman, Hrishikesh Hirway, Jad Abumrad, Kai Ryssdal, Lili Taylor, Nate DiMeo, Rebecca Lowman, Robin Miles, Roman Mars, Ryan Reynolds, TBD (Narrator)

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Devolution

Brought to you by Penguin. FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WORLD WAR Z As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now. But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing – and too earth-shattering in its implications – to be forgotten. In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the beasts behind it, once thought legendary but now known to be terrifyingly real. Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death. Yet it is also far more than that. Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us – and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity. Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it – and like none you’ve ever read before. 'Devolution is one of the greatest horror novels I’ve ever read. The characters soar, the ideas sing, and it’s all going to scare the living daylights out of you.' Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter and Recursion 'Devolution is spell binding. It is a horror story about how anyone, especially those who think they are above it, can slowly devolve into primal, instinctual behaviour. I was gripped from the first page to the last!' Les Stroud, creator of Survivorman 'Brooks packs his plot with action, information, and atmosphere, and captures both the foibles and the heroism of his characters. This slow-burning page-turner will appeal to Brooks’ devoted fans and speculative fiction readers who enjoy tales of monsters.’ Publishers Weekly 'Devolution is by Max Brooks, who wrote the stone cold classic that is World War Z, so I will follow him pretty much anywhere. Few things are pleasanter to read when cosy in bed than utterly dreadful dystopian things happening to somebody else.' Jenny Colgan © Max Brooks 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Max Brooks (Author), Jeff Daniels, Judy Greer, Kai Ryssdal, Kate Mulgrew, Kimberly Guerrero, Max Brooks, Mira Furlan, Nathan Fillion, Steven Weber, Terry Gross, Various (Narrator)

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