Audiobooks narrated by Linda Jones

Stories of Struggle: The Clash over Civil Rights in South Carolina

In this pioneering study of the long and arduous struggle for civil rights in South Carolina, longtime journalist Claudia Smith Brinson details the lynchings, beatings, bombings, cross burnings, death threats, arson, and venomous hatred that black South Carolinians endured—as well as those who risked their lives for equality. Through extensive research and interviews with more than 150 civil rights activists, Brinson chronicles twenty pivotal years of petitioning, preaching, picketing, boycotting, marching, and holding sit-ins. These firsthand accounts include those of the unsung petitioners who risked their lives by supporting Summerton's Briggs v. Elliot; and the black female employees and leaders who defied a governor and his armed troops during the 1969 hospital strike in Charleston. Brinson also highlights contributions made by remarkable but lesser-known activists, including Thomas W. Gaither, Congress of Racial Equality field secretary and scout for the Freedom Rides; and Mary Moultrie, grassroots leader of the 1969 hospital workers' strike. Although significant racial disparities remain, the sacrifices of these brave men and women produced real progress—and hope for the future.

Claudia Smith Brinson (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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Michigan's Haunted Lighthouses

Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state, with more than 120 dotting its expansive Great Lakes shoreline. Many of these lighthouses lay claim to haunted happenings. Former keepers like Captain Townshend at Seul Choix Point and prankster John Herman at Waugoshance Shoal maintain their watch long after death. At White River Light Station in Whitehall, Sarah Robinson still keeps a clean and tidy house, and a mysterious young girl at the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse seeks out other companions. Countless spirits remain between Whitefish Point and Point Iroquois in an area well known for its many tragic shipwrecks. Join author and Promote Michigan founder Dianna Stampfler as she recounts the tales from Michigan's ghostly beacons.

Dianna Higgs Stampfler (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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Mother Lode: Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver

'. . . makes you feel as though a kindred soul is speaking to you.' —Readers' Favorite At the age of sixty, Gretchen Staebler promises to spend one year in her childhood home caring for her stubbornly independent ninety-six-year-old mother—sort of a middle-aged gap year. Then her mother will move to assisted living and she will return to her own life. It doesn't go as planned. Rather than a retrospective, this mother-daughter story unfolds in real time with gripping honesty, bringing the listener along with the narrator through the struggle, doubts, and complexities of caregiving and daughterhood—and the beacons of light. Penetrating the fog of her mother's advancing dementia and myriad health issues with humor, frustration, and compassion, Staebler slowly comes to accept and respect the mother she got, if not the one she wished for. In the process, she manifests non-negotiable self-care and learns more than she wants to know about aging, cognitive loss, and the healthcare system. Any listener who is looking for a road map in caring for a family member, has ever had a mother, or is looking aging in the eye will find company on the journey in this candid, multi-award-winning memoir.

Gretchen Staebler (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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Sunk Cost: Who's to Blame for the Nation’s Broken Student Loan System and How to Fix It

Student-loan horror stories are a dime a dozen. But students today are faced with a seemingly insurmountable paradox: Research consistently shows that the clearest viable option to financial stability is a college degree. But if and when Americans decide to pursue diplomas, student loan payments quickly follow, and even after securing full-time employment, many borrowers struggle to make ends meet for years. In Sunk Cost, journalist Jillian Berman explores how the nation's student loan program went from a well-intentioned initiative aimed at helping low- and middle-income students afford college to one that traps borrowers in long-term debt. Berman interviewed dozens of borrowers and policymakers and dug into the archives to unearth the true causes of the student loan problem. A couple of generations ago, policy makers generously subsidized Americans' college educations because they knew it would be advantageous for the entire country: a more educated population meant better quality of life for all. But today, higher education is viewed as an individual goal, so students and their families are expected to be on the hook for it themselves. Berman explains how this enormous shift happened, which industries benefit from it, and what it means for college-going Americans today.

Jillian Berman (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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American Apocalypse: The Six Far-Right Groups Waging War on Democracy

The war on American democracy is at a fever pitch. Such a corrosive state of affairs did not arise spontaneously but instead was pushed, top-down, by six private sector special interest groups. In American Apocalypse Rena Steinzor argues that these groups are nothing more than well-financed armies fighting a battle of attrition against the national government. The book begins at the end of Lyndon Johnson's presidency, when the modern regulatory state was born. Agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration ensured that everything from our air to our medicine was safe. But efforts to thwart this 'big government' agenda began swiftly. Business leaders built a multi-billion dollar presence in the Capitol, and the rest of the six interest groups followed. While the groups do not coordinate their attacks, their priorities fall within a tight bullseye. Over the long-term, as the prevalence of global pandemics and climate crises increase, an incapacitated national government will usher in unimaginable harm. This book is the first to conceptualize these groups together, as one deconstructive, awe-inspiring force. Steinzor delves into their histories, mapping strategies, tactics, and characteristics that make them so powerful. She offers a comprehensive story about the downfall of American democracy.

Rena Steinzor (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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Breaking Midnight: A True Story

NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS, FINALIST INDEPENDENT AUTHOR NETWORK BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS, FINALIST John Walker was a Miami undercover narcotics agent in the 1970s. Ten years later, he was in prison for smuggling 12,000 pounds of marijuana. In prison, he connected with a South American drug lord who was still running the family operation from inside the federal pen. Within months of being paroled, John began smuggling again—this time uncut Colombian cocaine. And this time, he put everything on the line: his freedom, his family and, ultimately, his life. Breaking Midnight: A True Story shines a light on the gritty underbelly of Miami drug trafficking and the dangers of leading a double life—as an undercover narc or a smuggler. Written by Lynn Walker based on numerous interviews with her father, John, this is an uncensored, up-close-and-personal account of how a good cop goes bad.

Lynn Walker (Author), Gary Tiedemann, Linda Jones (Narrator)

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The Mentorship Edge: Unlocking Potential, Nurturing Growth, and Creating Explosive Impact

The Mentorship Edge: Unlocking Potential, Nurturing Growth, and Creating Explosive Impact explores how we connect to others, feel valued, get pleasure from life, and believe our lives have meaning through forming mentor relationships with others. This book covers traditional hierarchical mentorship we're all familiar with, along with lateral mentoring, where you connect with a friend or colleague—someone you can be vulnerable with—whether they work in your department, another department, or outside of your organization entirely. Insight in this book is drawn from Deborah Heiser's experience running The Mentor Project, a nonprofit mentoring organization with more than 100 mentors at the absolute top of their fields. In this book, listeners will learn about the proven benefits of mentorship in both work and home life; mentorship in various fields, including business, research, entrepreneurship, and art; and classic examples of the power of mentorship, like when Steve Jobs asked Steve Wozniak for engineering help when he was at Atari. The Mentorship Edge is an essential guide to demystify the special concept of mentoring and inspire individuals to engage in mentoring naturally, whether hierarchically or laterally, based on their goals and passions.

Deborah Heiser (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy for Healthcare: (featuring articles by Michael E. Porter and Thomas

Is your healthcare organization spending too much time on strategy—with too little to show for it? If you read (or listen to) nothing else on strategy, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones for healthcare professionals to help you catalyze your organization's strategy development and execution. This collection of articles includes 'What Is Strategy?' by Michael E. Porter; 'The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy,' by Michael E. Porter; 'Health Care Needs Real Competition,' by Leemore S. Dafny and Thomas H. Lee; 'Building Your Company's Vision,' by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras; 'Reinventing Your Business Model,' by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagermann; 'Will Disruptive Innovations Cure Health Care?' by Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Bohmer, and John Kenagy; 'Blue Ocean Strategy,' by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne; 'Rediscovering Market Segmentation,' by Daniel Yankelovich and David Meer; 'The Office of Strategy Management,' by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton; and 'The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care,' by Michael E. Porter and Thomas H. Lee.

Harvard Business Review, James C. Collins, Michael E. Porter, Renée Mauborgne, W. Chan Kim (Author), Linda Jones, Tim Fannon (Narrator)

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The CIA Intelligence Analyst: Views from the Inside

The common perception of a CIA officer is someone who collects secret intelligence abroad—a spy. However, the critical link between secrets and policy is the intelligence analyst. The CIA Intelligence Analyst brings to light the vital, but often-unseen, work of these officers. Roger Z. George, Robert Levine, and the contributors to this book demystify the profession of intelligence analyst at the CIA and describe how the wide array of analytic specialties—or 'disciplines' in the language of the CIA—function. The disciplines range from political, economic, leadership, and military matters to science and technology, cyber, counterterrorism, and counterintelligence. Each of the chapters—written by former or current CIA analysts—discusses how analysts interact with those who collect raw intelligence. Just as important, the chapters describe the relationships analysts develop with the diverse set of policymakers who use CIA analyses. The contributors reveal the key intelligence questions that analysts address, their methods, their products, and their challenges. This book will be an invaluable resource for scholars of national security and intelligence who want to develop a fuller picture of the internal workings of the CIA and for those who are considering a career as an analyst.

Adam Wasserman, Blake Mobley, Clark Shannon, Cynthia S. Barkanic, James B. Bruce, Jane P. Fletcher, Jeffrey W. Waggett, Peter Clement, Robert Levine, Roger Z. George, Steven M. Stigall (Author), Bob Johnson, Linda Jones (Narrator)

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A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

At the end of summer 1839, the light changing and autumn in the air, Henry David Thoreau and his brother John clambered into their 15-foot-long homemade boat on an adventure north. They traveled the rivers from Concord, Massachusetts, to Concord, New Hampshire. Henry was two years out of Harvard, and his brother John was a few years older. They wound their way up the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by day and camped along the shores at night. This book, Thoreau’s first, ribbons through and around that journey, describing their travels, and musing on history, literature, philosophy, the environment, politics, and the essence of the natural world. The book is also an elegy to his brother—companion on the journey and his best friend—who died a few years after, and whose presence is felt throughout.

Henry David Thoreau (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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States of Health: The Ethics and Consequences of Policy Variation in a Federal System

Is it morally or politically acceptable to have wide differences in the quality of health care when one crosses a state line? Federalism in the United States has been defended as a political structure that enables people to coexist in a single polity despite deep disagreements about some of the most fundamental aspects of human life. Federalism can create space for difference and latitude for innovation, and its flexibility in levels of policy enactment can allow for fruitful state-level experimentation, especially in the areas of health and health care, which has long been celebrated. However, when federalism results in significant differences in health care availability within a single country, it can generate ethical challenges for health care providers and their patients. These challenges often engender questions of what should be considered an enduring right: Which freedoms should transcend borders? States of Health identifies the practical relevance of federalism to people facing ethical decisions about health and health care, and it considers the theoretical justifications for permissible differences among states. It asks whether authority over important aspects of health is misaligned in the United States today, with some matters problematically left to the states while others are taken over by the federal government.

John G. Francis, Leslie P. Francis (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires

Obtaining a new citizenship is rarely easy. But for those with the means, it's just a question of price. More than a dozen countries, many of them small islands in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and South Pacific, sell citizenship to 50,000 people annually. Through six years of fieldwork on four continents, Kristin Surak discovered how the initially dubious sale of passports has transformed into a full-blown citizenship industry that thrives on global inequalities. Some 'investor citizens' hope to parlay their new passport into visa-free travel-or use it as a stepping stone to residence in countries like the US. Other buyers take out a new citizenship as an insurance policy or to escape state control at home. Almost none, though, intend to move to their selected country and live among their new compatriots, whose relationship with these global elites is complex. A groundbreaking study of a contentious practice that has become popular among the nouveaux riches, The Golden Passport takes listeners from the details of the application process to the geopolitical hydraulics of the citizenship industry. It's a business that thrives on uncertainty and imbalances of power between big, globalized economies and tiny states desperate for investment. In between are the fascinating stories of buyers, brokers, and sellers, all ready to profit from the citizenship trade.

Kristin Surak (Author), Linda Jones (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Linda Jones