Audiobooks narrated by Sean Patrick Hopkins

Gangster Hunters: How Hoover's G-Men Vanquished America's Deadliest Public Enemies

J. Edgar Hoover was the face of the FBI. But the federal agents in the field, relentlessly chasing the most notorious gangsters of the 1930s with their own lives on the line, truly transformed the Bureau. Gangster Hunters details the fascinating story of the birth of the modern FBI. In 1932, the FBI lacked jurisdiction over murder cases. It also could not pursue bank robberies or kidnappings, and it had no power of arrest. Relegated to the sidelines, the Bureau mostly investigated corporate wrongdoing, such as bank fraud and antitrust violations. Agents spent their days at their desks. But all of that changed during the War on Crime, which began in 1933 and lasted until 1936. Hunting down infamous public enemies in tense, frequently blood-soaked shootouts, the Bureau was thrust onto the front pages for the first time. Young agents, fresh out of law school and anticipating a quiet, white-collar job, faced off with murderous felons who were heavily armed, clad in bulletproof vests, and owned cars that outraced the best vehicles the Bureau had. But the federal men were fiercely devoted-to the Bureau, to each other, and to bringing America's most wanted criminals to justice. The G-men crisscrossed the United States in pursuit of the likes of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker's criminal family, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. But they were always one step behind and a moment too late, the criminals slipping between their fingers and leaving bodies in their wake. Facing mounting criticism, the agents had to learn to adapt. After all, more than their reputations were at stake. John Oller transports readers right to the most harrowing and consequential raids of the 1930s, with fast-paced action that shows the lengths both sides would go to win.

John Oller (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins, TBD (Narrator)

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The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture

From entomologist Barrett Klein comes a buzz-worthy exploration of the many ways insects have affected human society, history, and culture Insects surround us. They fuel life on earth through their natural biological functions as pollinators, predators, and prey, but they also play an often overlooked role in our culture. Their anatomy and habitats have informed how we live, how we build, how we create art, and how we take flight. In Insect Epiphany, author Barrett Klein shares his expert insights into the outsize influence that insects have had on civilization. Our world would look very different without insects, not just because they are part of the food chain, but because they have inspired so many aspects of our cultural output.

Barrett Klein (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins, TBD (Narrator)

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The Myth of American Idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World

Nathan J. Robinson, Noam Chomsky (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins, TBD (Narrator)

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Should We Go Extinct?: A Philosophical Dilemma for Our Unbearable Times

Should we bring new humans into the world? Or would it be better off without us? These days it's harder than ever to watch TV, scroll social media, or even just sit at home looking out the window without contemplating the question at the heart of philosopher Todd May's new book: Should we go extinct? (And if so, should we go sooner rather than later?) Facing climate destruction and the revived specter of nuclear annihilation even as humans continue to cause untold suffering to our fellow creatures on planet Earth, we are forced each day to contemplate whether the world would be better off in our absence. That the answer is unclear underscores our need for a book just such as this one. In this timely, fascinating examination, May, a renowned philosopher and advisor to the acclaimed TV show The Good Place, reasons both for and against the continuation of our species, trying to help us understand how, and whether, the positive and negative tallies of the human ledger are comparable, and what conclusions we might draw about ourselves and our future from doing so. He discusses the value that only humans can bring to the world and to one another as well as the goods, like art and music, that would be lost were we no longer to be here. On the other side of the ledger, he walks us through the harm we cause to nature and the non-human world, seeking to understand if it's possible to justify such suffering against our merits, and if not, what changes we could make to reduce the harm we cause. In this moment of rising pessimism about the future, and as many people wonder whether they should bring children into such a dark and difficult world, the questions May tackles in Should We Go Extinct? are hardly theoretical. As he explores the complexities involved with changes such as an end to factory farming, curbing scientific testing of animals, reducing the human population, and seeking to develop empathy with our fellow creatures, May sketches a powerful framework for establishing our responsibilities as a species and gives hope that we might one day find universal agreement that the answer to his title question should be no.

Todd May (Author), Michael Schur, Sean Patrick Hopkins, TBD (Narrator)

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Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere

Rob Jackson, Robert B. Jackson (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins, TBD (Narrator)

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Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War

Shortlisted for the 2024 Financial Times Business Book of the Year A riveting inside look at an elite unit within the Pentagon—the Defense Innovation Unit, also known as Unit X—whose mission is to bring Silicon Valley's cutting-edge technology to America's military: from the two men who launched the unit. A vast and largely unseen transformation of how war is fought as profound as the invention of gunpowder or advent of the nuclear age is occurring. Flying cars that can land like helicopters, artificial intelligence-powered drones that can fly into buildings and map their interiors, microsatellites that can see through clouds and monitor rogue missile sites—all these and more are becoming part of America's DIU-fast-tracked arsenal. Until recently, the Pentagon was known for its uncomfortable relationship with Silicon Valley and for slow-moving processes that acted as a brake on innovation. Unit X was specifically designed as a bridge to Valley technologists that would accelerate bringing state of the art software and hardware to the battle space. Given authority to cut through red tape and function almost as a venture capital firm, Shah, Kirchhoff, and others in the Unit who came after were tasked particularly with meeting immediate military needs with technology from Valley startups rather than from so-called "primes"—behemoth companies like Lockheed, Raytheon, and Boeing. Taking us inside AI labs, drone workshops, and battle command centers—and, also, overseas to Ukraine's frontlines—Shah and Kirchhoff paint a fascinating picture of what it takes to stay dominant in a fast-changing and often precarious geopolitical landscape. In an era when America's chief rival, China, has ordered that all commercial firms within its borders make their research and technology available for military exploitation, strengthening the relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley was always advisable. Today, it is an urgent necessity.

Christopher Kirchhoff, Raj M. Shah (Author), Christopher Kirchhoff, Raj M. Shah, Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

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The Bonfire Moment: Bring Your Team Together to Solve the Hardest Issues Startups Face

Unique insights from pioneers of Google’s Startup Accelerator on why building teams is harder than building tech—and a proven way to develop a strong, resilient and effective team. Most startups fail not because of a bad product, poor timing, or mismanaged cash, but because of people problems: conflicts over strategy, decision-making, and team culture. Even the smartest entrepreneurs have been derailed by these soft problems: How do you fire a loyal friend who’s not up to par? How do you motivate your team to give their all? What happens when egos and emotions overpower facts and reason? The soft stuff can be shockingly hard. Martin Gonzalez and Josh Yellin outline the common traps startup teams fall into, and share their powerful one-day workshop that helps teams escape those traps. The unique process of The Bonfire Moment brings colleagues together for a full day of facing hard truths, noticing hidden dynamics, and gearing up for the intense challenges of startup life. When the constant hustle feels overwhelming, a team’s Bonfire Moment pulls them out of the day-to-day intensity to reflect and reboot. The Bonfire Moment has proven effective with hundreds of teams of all sizes around the world—from the smallest startups to large organizations—significantly improving their cohesion, focus and effectiveness. Now this book will teach leaders the principles behind The Bonfire Moment and how to run the workshop on their own. It’s ideal for anyone who needs a committed and resilient team to achieve big goals.

Joshua Yellin, Martin Gonzalez (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

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A House Restored: The Tragedies and Triumphs of Saving a New England Colonial

Shop Class as Soulcraft meets A Place of My Own in this lyrical meditation of a woodworker steadfastly repairing a historic home. Old houses share their secrets only if they survive. Trading the corporate ladder for a stepladder, Lee McColgan commits to preserving the ramshackle Loring House, built in 1702, using period materials and methods and on a holiday deadline. But his enchantment withers as he discovers the massive repairs it needs. A small kitchen fix reveals that the structure’s rotten frame could collapse at any moment. In a bathroom, mold appears and spreads. He fights deteriorating bricks, frozen pipes, shattered windows, a punctured foundation, and even an airborne chimney cap while learning from a diverse cast of preservationists, including a master mason named Irons, a stone whisperer, and the Window Witch. But can he meet his deadline before family and friends arrive, or will it all come crashing down? McColgan’s journey expertly examines our relationship to history through the homes we inhabit, beautifully articulating the philosophy of preserving the past to find purpose for the future.

Lee Mccolgan (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

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The Lie Detectives: In Search of a Playbook for Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age

How can political campaigns fight back against disinformation? A decade after The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns, which Politico called 'Moneyball for politics,' journalist Sasha Issenberg returns to the cutting edge of political innovation to reveal how campaigns are navigating the era's most pressing challenge: how to win in a world awash in lies. The Lie Detectives is a lively and deep secret history of Democratic politics in the Trump years. Our main character, Jiore Craig, is a young but battle-hardened veteran of the misinformation wars, and she leads a memorable cast including LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, whose emergence as one of the American left's biggest donors has forced his adviser Dmitri Mehlhorn into the role of moral compass for a movement still wrestling with whether it should counter fake news by producing its own, and David Goldstein and Jehmu Greene, who are confronting 'the Big Lie,' in the vernacular of online conspiracy theories, with gifs, memes, and ugly graphics of their own. The Lie Detectives presents a vivid snapshot of a political class trying to come to terms with an exploding social media landscape and using every weapon in its arsenal to counter the biggest threat it has ever faced to its way of doing business and winning power.

Sasha Issenberg (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

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The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder

Brought to you by Penguin. No organization is totally free from destructive friction; the forces that make it harder, more complicated and sometimes downright impossible to get things done. Drawing on years of research and featuring case studies on the likes of Uber, Netflix and Boeing, The Friction Project teaches readers how to become 'friction fixers'. Stanford professors Sutton and Rao unpack how we should think and act like trustees of others' time. They provide friction forensics to help readers identify where to avert and repair bad friction, and where to maintain and inject good friction. Their help pyramid shows how friction fixers do their work, which ranges from reframing issues they can't fix in the short term, to ultimately redesigning and repairing organizations. The Friction Project is the essential guide to understanding and resolving workplace difficulties, and establishing a thriving culture of positivity and productivity in their place. 'Hard to put down and easy to like' - Tim Harford, author of The Data Detective and host of Cautionary Tales ©2024 Huggy Rao & Robert I. Sutton (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Huggy Rao, Robert I. Sutton (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins, TBD (Narrator)

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The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset that Drives Extraordinary Results

With a foreword by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn 'A handbook for disruptors' - Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google We're living in a time of amazing innovation, but we're not paying enough attention to one of the most important of all: the innovation to the company itself. Now, bestselling author of The Second Machine Age, Andrew McAfee, explains how engineers and geeks are changing the world of business - with extraordinary results. A new model is being pioneered by geeks; a radical new mindset that has shifted the paradigm entirely on what a business can - and should - be. They do not follow the rules of the Industrial era, with their hierarchies and bureaucratic ways of thinking. They do not follow the principles preached in business schools since the dawn of time. They have all dedicated themselves to approaching business as a geek would: through trial and error, egalitarianism, evidence and stress-testing ideas in a group setting - rather than relying on the boss's instincts. By investigating and surveying the contemporary research in psychology, economics and the behavioural sciences, as well as first-hand accounts from the 'geek' leaders of today, McAfee's groundbreaking exploration of this emerging phenomenon gets to the heart of the tectonic shifts taking place all over the business world. We have entered a new age. And this age will transform how we achieve great things, now and into the future. The future is geek. 'The most compelling analysis I've seen of what Silicon Valley has learned about building more effective organisations' - Adam Grant, host of TED podcast Re: Thinking and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again

Andrew McAfee (Author), Andrew McAfee, Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

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The Performance Paradox: How to Learn and Grow Without Compromising Results

Brought to you by Penguin. We all know we should be learning and growing. But how do you make time while under pressure to perform? Too many of us suffer from 'chronic performance': we feel constant pressure to look like we know what we're doing, to always be on, to rack up success after success and have all the answers, all because we assume that greater effort leads to greater success. But this temptation to portray ourselves as infallible is affecting both our work and personal lives and is blocking our ability for true growth. Through his work with over a hundred companies, co-founder of Mindset Works Eduardo Briceño has solved this by coming up with a game-changing framework that breaks our habit of chronic performance. He's discovered that long-term success as an individual or business - personal, financial and, organisational - relies on integrating and being proficient at learning and performing. In The Performance Paradox, you will learn how to: - Unlock the power of mistakes - Integrate learning into daily habits - Move seamlessly between learning and performing - Solicit the most useful feedback - Lead teams that constantly improve and outperform their targets Ground-breaking and empowering, The Performance Paradox will break your chronic performance habit and revolutionise the way you approach growth mindset to get you on your way to thriving in both work and life. ©2023 Eduardo Briceno (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Eduardo Briceno (Author), Eduardo Briceno, Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Sean Patrick Hopkins