Audiobooks narrated by Michael Butler Murray

For the Win, Revised and Updated Edition: The Power of Gamification and Game Thinking in Business, E

For thousands of years, we've created things called games that tap the tremendous psychic power of fun. In a revised and updated edition of For the Win, authors Kevin Werbach and Dan Hunter argue that applying the lessons of gamification could change your business, the way you learn or teach, and even your life. Werbach and Hunter explain how games can be used as a valuable tool to address serious pursuits like marketing, productivity enhancement, education, innovation, customer engagement, human resources, and sustainability. They reveal how, why, and when gamification works-and what not to do. Discover the successes-and failures-of organizations that are using gamification: - How a South Korean company called Neofect is using gamification to help people recover from strokes - How a tool called SuperBetter has demonstrated significant results treating depression, concussion symptoms, and the mental health harms of the COVID-19 pandemic through game thinking - How the ride-hailing giant Uber once used gamification to influence their drivers to work longer hours than they otherwise wanted to, causing swift backlash.

Dan Hunter, Kevin Werbach (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Taxocracy: What You Don't Know About Taxes and How They Rule Your Daily Life

Did you ever wonder why the costs of health care, housing, and college tuition keep going up? Or how your neighbor could afford that fancy electric car? Or why there are so many hard seltzers on the market? Your first guess might not be 'taxes,' but they play a big role. We live in a world ruled by taxes—a taxocracy. History is full of misguided tax policies that led to 'see-through' buildings, tax-free attics, three-wheeled cars, women in children's clothing, and baked chips to go along with our hard seltzer. Written by former Tax Foundation CEO Scott Hodge, Taxocracy: What You Don't Know About Taxes and How They Rule Your Daily Life uses amusing lessons from past tax policies gone wrong to explore how the US tax code caused serious consequences, affecting how we get our health insurance, the price of a college education, what car we buy, where we bank, and, in some cases, even when we die. Taxocracy outlines economic principles for designing a tax code that doesn't rule our daily lives—a tax code that promotes economic growth, free-enterprise, and takes the politics out of tax policy.

Scott Hodge (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Lifehouse: Building Care in the Long Emergency

How to reclaim power in a time of perpetual crisis We are living through a Long Emergency: a near-continuous train of pandemics, heatwaves, droughts, resource wars, and other climate-driven disasters. In Lifehouse, Adam Greenfield asks what might happen if the tactics and networks of care that spring up in response to these times might be brought together in a single, coherent way of life? Using examples from the Black Panthers' 'survival programs,' the astonishingly effective Occupy Sandy disaster-relief effort, and the neighborhood-based mutual aid groups that sustained many during COVID lockdowns to the large-scale, self-organized polities of municipalist Spain and Kurdish Rojava, Greenfield argues for rethinking local power as a bulwark against despair-a way to discover and develop the individual and collective capacities that have gone underutilized during all the long years of late capitalism, and a means for thriving in the face of impending catastrophe.

Adam Greenfield (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Buying a Business For Dummies

Prospect, evaluate, purchase, and grow an existing business Buying a Business For Dummies guides you through the process of becoming an entrepreneur without starting from scratch. Before you purchase an existing business, you'll need to know what types of opportunities are out there, how to identify the right fit for your goals, and which strategies to use as you negotiate the deal and manage a smooth transition. This book gives you step-by-step advice on all of that. What about actually running the business successfully? You're covered there, too, with clear information on executing a smooth ownership transition and growing your new business. Let this friendly Dummies guide be your mentor as you embark on your business ownership adventure. - Know what's involved in buying a business and see if it's for you - Evaluate your risk tolerance and identify businesses worth buying - Negotiating a great deal and managing a seamless handover - Making changes to your new business-without making enemies Buying a Business For Dummies is a great starting point for entrepreneurs interested in a lower-risk route to business ownership.

Eric Tyson Mba, Jim Schell (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Polymath: The Life and Professions of Dr. Alex Comfort, Author of The Joy of Sex

Alex Comfort was a British poet, novelist, biologist, cultural critic, activist, and anarchist, and the author of the international bestseller, The Joy of Sex. He played a vital role in making gerontology (the study of aging) a viable branch of modern science, energizing the direct-action movement for nuclear disarmament, revitalizing anarchism as a political philosophy in the post-WWII decades, and persuading twelve million readers of his most popular book to banish guilt and anxiety from sex in favor of pleasure and closer human understanding. Comfort liked to say that everything he did was part of 'one big project': to bring about a new consciousness, grounded in science, of the importance of personal responsibility in human relationships, including the obligation to disobey when authority was being exercised abusively. Polymath traces the intersection in Comfort's life and work between biology and literature, anarchism and humanism, sex and sociality, and how his writings, research, and activism continue to shed critical light on the moral and political choices we make today. Laursen's book relates the event-filled life of a brilliant and complex figure, including his victory over a possibly career-ending disability, his tumultuous second marriage, his struggles with the scientific establishment, and the fascinating story of the making of The Joy of Sex.

Eric Laursen (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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DARE to Say No: Policing and the War on Drugs in Schools

With its signature 'DARE to keep kids off drugs' slogan and iconic t-shirts, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) was the most popular drug education program of the 1980s and 1990s. But behind the cultural phenomenon is the story of how DARE and other antidrug education programs brought the War on Drugs into schools and ensured that the velvet glove of antidrug education would be backed by the iron fist of rigorous policing and harsh sentencing. Max Felker-Kantor has assembled the first history of DARE, which began in Los Angeles in 1983 as a joint venture between the police department and the unified school district. By the mid-'90s, it was taught in seventy-five percent of school districts across the United States. DARE received near-universal praise from parents, educators, police officers, and politicians and left an indelible stamp on many millennial memories. But the program had more nefarious ends, and Felker-Kantor complicates simplistic narratives of the War on Drugs. He shows how policing entered US schools and framed drug use as the result of personal responsibility, moral failure, and poor behavior deserving of punishment rather than something deeply rooted in state retrenchment, the abandonment of social service provisions, and structures of social and economic inequality.

Max Felker-Kantor (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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The Stigma Trap: College-Educated, Experienced, and Long-Term Unemployed

After receiving a PhD in mathematics from MIT, Larry spent three decades working at prestigious companies in the tech industry. Initially he was not worried when he lost his job as part of a large layoff, but the prolonged unemployment that followed decimated his finances and nearly ended his marriage. Larry's story is not an anomaly. In The Stigma Trap, Ofer Sharone explains how the stigma of unemployment can render past educational and professional achievements irrelevant, and how it leaves all American workers vulnerable to becoming trapped in unemployment. Drawing on interviews with unemployed workers, job recruiters, and career coaches, Sharone brings to light the subtle ways that stigmatization prevents even the most educated and experienced workers from gaining middle-class jobs. Stigma also means that an American worker risks more than financial calamity from a protracted period of unemployment. One's closest relationships and sense of self are also on the line. Eye-opening and clearly written, The Stigma Trap is an essential listen for anyone who has experienced unemployment, has a family member or friend who is unemployed, or who wants to understand the forces that underlie the anxiety-filled lives of contemporary American workers.

Ofer Sharone (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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On Locations: Lessons Learned from My Life On Set with The Sopranos and in the Film Industry

This must-listen account of starting at the lowest rung on the production ladder among enormously famous and outrageously demanding people will be devoured for its insights, gossip, humor, and storytelling. Married and with a child, the author takes unpaid gigs to get a foot in the door and eventually ends up working on all seasons of The Sopranos, often named the best TV show ever. The show's setting and its creator's insistence on accuracy placed the native New Jersey author in the right place at the right time to become part of television history. Includes many stories about guest stars like Steve Buscemi, Peter Bogdanovich, and Lauren Bacall, as well as the beloved cast, including new tales of James Gandolfini, who Kamine first meets after David Chase casts him as the Dean of Admissions in the classic first season 'College' episode. Woven in is a personal story of home life and strife, achievement and frustration, anxiety and accomplishment. The book's epilogue brings listeners up to the moment as the author, after many more years as an anonymous everyman, eventually enjoys outsize professional success as executive producer of the HBO hit series created by Mike White, The White Lotus.

Mark Kamine (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Livin' Just to Find Emotion: Journey and the Story of American Rock

Since exploding on the scene in the late 1970s, Journey has inspired generations of fans with hit after hit. But hidden under this rock 'n' roll glory is a complex story of ambition, larger-than-life personalities, and clashes. David Hamilton Golland unearths the band's true and complete biography, based on over a decade of interviews and thousands of sources. When Steve Perry joined jazz-blues progressive rock band Journey in 1977, they saw a rise to the top, and their 1981 album Escape hit #1. But Perry's quest for control led to Journey's demise. They lost their record contract and much of their audience. After the unlikely comeback of 'Don't Stop Believin'' in movies, television, and sports stadiums, a new generation discovered Journey. A professional historian, Golland dispels rehashed myths and also shows how race in popular music contributed to their breakout success. As the economy collapsed and as people abandoned the spirit of Woodstock in the late 70s, Journey used the rhythm of soul and Motown to inspire hope in primarily white teenagers' lives. Decades later, the band and their signature song remain classics, and now, with singer Arnel Pineda, they are again a fixture in major stadiums worldwide.

David Hamilton Golland (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Falling Short: The Coming Retirement Crisis and What to Do About It

The United States faces a serious retirement challenge. Many of today's workers will lack the resources to retire at traditional ages and maintain their standard of living in retirement. Solving the problem is a major challenge in today's environment in which risk and responsibility have shifted from government and employers to individuals. For this reason, Charles D. Ellis, Alicia H. Munnell, and Andrew D. Eschtruth have written this concise guide for anyone concerned about their own-and the nation's-retirement security. Falling Short offers the necessary context for understanding the nature and size of the retirement income shortfall, which is caused by both increasing income needs-due to longer lifespans and rising health costs-and decreasing support from Social Security and employer-sponsored pension plans. The solutions are to work longer and save more by building on the existing retirement system. To work longer, individuals should plan to stay in the labor force until age seventy if possible. To save more, policymakers should shore up Social Security's long-term finances; make all 401(k) plans fully automatic, with workers allowed to opt out; and ensure that everyone has access to a retirement savings plan. Individuals should also recognize that their house is a source of saving, which they can tap in retirement.

Alicia H. Munnell, Andrew D. Eschtruth, Charles D. Ellis (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education

In Teach for Climate Justice, accomplished educator and social and emotional learning expert Tom Roderick proposes a visionary interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to PreK-12 climate education. He argues that meaningful instruction on this urgent issue of our time must focus on climate justice-the convergence of climate change and social justice-in a way that is emotionally safe, developmentally appropriate, and ultimately empowering. Drawing on examples of real-life educators teaching climate change, Roderick identifies eight key dimensions of climate education that will prepare students to face the challenges of the climate crisis and give them the means to take action. These dimensions include not only educating for a deep understanding of the scientific, geopolitical, and socioeconomic equity issues that surround global warming, but also cultivating appreciation for the environment, building a supportive community, and fostering active hope for the future. In support of this crucial endeavor, Roderick suggests evidence-based teaching strategies, practices that promote inclusivity, and tools for social and emotional learning. This timely and uplifting book lays out a powerful vision for teaching, learning, and curriculum development to nurture a generation of courageous, informed advocates for climate justice.

Tom Roderick (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Connery, Sean Connery: Before, During, and After His Most Famous Role

With an in-depth perspective, Connery, Sean Connery defines and distinguishes the iconic star's life and career before, during, and after his most famous role. With a foreword by Barbara Carrera, the actor's costar from Never Say Never Again (his final British secret agent film), and an introduction by Richard Demarco (Connery's lifelong friend), this book also features exclusive commentary from actors like Brendan Lynch (another of Connery's lifelong friends), Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball), Tippi Hedren (Marnie), and more.

Herbie J Pilato (Author), Herbie J Pilato, Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Michael Butler Murray