Audiobooks narrated by Michael Butler Murray

Carnie King: The Story of Patty Conklin and Conklin Shows

Enter the realm of the carnie king, Patty Conklin, the flamboyant founder of what would become the world's largest carnival company. Patty started on the mean streets of New York selling peanuts before becoming a a small-time operator. Winning the midway contract for the Canadian National Exhibition in 1937, he made it his personal world's fair. It became the foundation for his son and grandson to expand Conklin Shows until they were playing the biggest fairs and exhibitions throughout North America. Carnie King begins with the birth of Joseph Renker to German immigrant parents, tells of his personal transformation into Patty Conklin, and follows his incredible life through to his death in 1970. It covers his company's history after Jim Conklin took over, expanded it beyond recognition, then handed it on to his own son. Not only a history of Conklin Shows, Carnie King explores how midways work and their commercial and popular presence in North America. The story it tells is based on dozens of interviews with carnies and access to the Conklin archives. It includes anecdotes about a range of characters and insights about life on the midway. Carnie King is at once a revealing look at a unique part of twentieth-century culture and a vivid account of three generations of showmen and their dominance of midways across the continent.

John Thurston (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Good Sport: Reflections on a Full Life in College Sports

In The Good Sport, Kevin White takes an unflinching look at the current state of intercollegiate sports, including the tumultuous changes brought on by the Supreme Court's landmark decision on name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. Drawing on his decades of leadership, White examines the chaos, challenges, and opportunities of this new era—and why he believes the future of college sports hangs in the balance.

Kevin White (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

Book Yourself Solid for Creatives: The Fastest, Easiest, Most Reliable System for Getting More Clien

In Book Yourself Solid for Creatives, bestselling author Michael Port and Joana Galvao deliver a game-changing and super-specific playbook for creative professionals seeking to fill their pipeline with dozens or hundreds of qualified leads and convert them into paying clients. The authors explain how to achieve your business goals, pack your calendar with high-value clients, and increase your top- and bottom-lines. In the book, you'll find effective strategies adapted from the author's bestselling Book Yourself Solid that work perfectly in the challenging and unique space occupied by creative professionals. You'll also discover: ● Actionable techniques and frameworks you can implement immediately to dramatically increase the number of valuable and qualified leads in your pipeline ● How to differentiate your services from your most relevant and closest competitors ● How to improve your workflows and efficiency so you can accommodate your newly expanded pipeline Perfect for graphic designers, artists, writers, freelance artists, and other creative professionals, Book Yourself Solid for Creatives is the blueprint for agency and business growth that you've been waiting for.

Michael Port (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

Landing the Paris Climate Agreement: How It Happened, Why It Matters, and What Comes Next

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change was one of the most difficult and hopeful achievements of the twenty-first century: 195 nations finally agreed, after twenty years of trying, to establish an ambitious, operational regime to address one of the greatest civilizational challenges of our time. In Landing the Paris Climate Agreement, Todd Stern provides an engaging account from inside the rooms where it happened: the full, charged, seven-year story of how the Paris Agreement came to be, following an arc from Copenhagen, to Durban, to the secret US-China climate deal in 2014, to Paris itself. With a storyteller's gift for character, suspense, and detail, Stern crafts a high-stakes narrative that illuminates the strategy, policy, politics, and diplomacy that made Paris possible. Introducing listeners to a vivid cast of characters, including Xie Zenhua, Vice Minister of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Bo Lidegaard, chief strategist for Denmark's Prime Minster, and Indian minister Jairam Ramesh, Stern depicts the pitfalls and challenges overcome, the shifting alliances, the last-minute maneuvering, and the ultimate historic success. The book concludes with a final chapter that describes key developments since 2015 and the author's reflections on what needs to be done going forward to contain the climate threat.

Todd Stern (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

Inevitable: Inside the Messy, Unstoppable Transition to Electric Vehicles

For electric vehicles, the question is no longer if they'll happen, or even when, but how—and veteran automotive beat reporter Mike Colias shows you just that. This is his deeply reported insider view of the hard pivot in the car business, a $2 trillion industry that hasn't undergone a change this profound in its 120-year history. Already, the transition to EVs is sending ripples across all aspects of the global economy. Colias documents the massive transformation from internal combustion engines to battery-powered vehicles from every angle. He takes you inside the boardrooms where executives chasing Tesla battle over EV strategies, in fear of being left behind. He brings you to family-run car dealerships wrestling with the decision of whether to sell EVs—or sell their business. He follows entrepreneurs looking for hidden opportunities along lonely stretches of road that will soon need charging stations. He walks the floors of battery factories where scientists try to pack ever more power into the same space. He talks to power train engineers whose skills, once the beating heart of the car business, are rapidly becoming obsolete. Change is inevitable, but rarely have we seen someone capture what business transformation means in so much detail, bringing to life such change's profound effect on everything and everyone.

Mike Colias (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul

Something's gone badly awry with environmentalism. We faithfully separate our waste into different streams, but wonder whether it really makes a difference. Global companies announce their commitment to carbon negativity while simultaneously sponsoring oil conferences. American businesses, communities, and individuals assiduously measure their carbon footprints, then implement voluntary emissions-reduction programs, all while trumpeting their do-gooderism. The problem is, none of this—whether individual efforts or corporate sustainability tactics—will make a dent in solving the civilizational threat of climate change. We only pretend it will, at our peril. As Auden Schendler argues in this provocative, powerful book, we're living a big green lie. The hard truth is that much of the modern environmental road map could have been written by the fossil fuel industry specifically to avoid disrupting the status quo. But there is another truth: while ineffective or duplicitous environmentalism has become standard practice, we all have friends and family we love and care about, whose future depends on solving the problem of climate change. Conscience tells us we have an obligation to repair the world. How can our common dreams be so at odds with our daily practice? And how might we meld our spirit and our passion to create a better future?

Auden Schendler (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Ultimate Guide to Responsible Franchising: Identifying and Investigating the Right Franchise to

In The Ultimate Guide to Responsible Franchising, straight-shooting author Joe Mathews delivers a practical and hands-on 'how-to' guide for aspiring franchisees seeking to start their own businesses. In the book, you'll explore real-life stories from the franchising trenches that illustrate how to effectively look past the obvious and dig deep into the bones of a franchise to establish fit, predict success, and mitigate risk. You'll discover the personality types most likely to experience success and failure at franchising and identify the entrepreneurial traits that can expose you to additional risk. You'll also find all the info you need to know about franchising before you start looking for the right fit; strategies for properly and fully investigating a franchise opportunity in your area; and techniques for conducting proper diligence to determine a franchisor's skills and viability. Perfect for budding entrepreneurs, founders, and other business-minded professionals, as well as employees, leaders, and suppliers to franchise brands who want a better understanding and appreciation for how franchising works, The Ultimate Guide to Responsible Franchising will earn a place on the bookshelves of anyone serious about opening their own franchise as well as those who have already begun their franchising journeys.

Joe Mathews (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

NeuroAI: Winning the Minds of Consumers with Neuroscience Powered GenAi

Neuroscience-powered GenAI enables massive impact on everything from medicine to marketing, entertainment to education, flavors to fragrances, and much more. Simply by blending cutting edge neuroscience with bleeding edge GenAI. Put humanity back at the center of GenAI. NeuroAI is the master guide for everyone seeking to understand this breakthrough technology; what it is, how it works, and most especially how to put it to work for competitive advantage in the marketplace. The book explores key topics, including: ● How the non-conscious mind interacts with GenAI to trigger the most relevant and impactful consumer responses ● How activating desireGPT, the brain's desire framework, strongly drives purchase intent and brand loyalty ● How a wide range of consumer product categories worldwide are applying neuroscience-powered GenAI to foster innovation, spur sales, and build brands ● And more For business leaders and all who seek expert insight and practical guidance on how to harness this astounding technology with maximum effect for business and personal success, NeuroAI serves as an inspiring and accessible resource for successful marketing in the Age of the Machine.

A. K. Pradeep, A.K. Pradeep, Anirudh Acharya, Rajat Chakravarty, Ratnakar Dev (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

Jimi and Me: The Experience of a Lifetime

In 1969, a twenty-something screenwriter with one movie credit to his name is approached by Jimi Hendrix's management after the legendary guitarist saw the obscure indie film in London and wanted to collaborate on a project of his own. Jonathan Stathakis had no idea how thrilling the next eighteen months would be, as he and Hendrix formed not just a working partnership but a unique friendship. Hendrix ushered Jonathan into his world, where plenty of sex and drugs surrounded the rock 'n' roll. From Woodstock to Electric Ladyland, Jonathan leads listeners inside one of the craziest trips ever taken in music history. While writing their script, Jonathan and Hendrix talked about life and where their roads were leading. Hendrix the performer was a flamboyant unpredictable force of nature. But Hendrix the friend was a thoughtful, frustrated, dedicated artist who oftentimes just needed somebody to talk to. Sadly, Hendrix's journey ended far too soon, and his last phone call to Jonathan—just two days before his death in London—almost seemed to foretell his fate. With many never-before-told stories, Jimi Hendrix comes back to life as you've never experienced him before. Backstage, on stage, and everyplace in between, get ready to ride through the purple haze and experience one of the most creative and powerful cultural eras in history.

Jonathan Stathakis (Author), Michael Butler Murray (Narrator)

Audiobook

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)

Audiobook

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)

Audiobook

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)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Michael Butler Murray