Audiobooks narrated by Steve Knupp

Anatoliy Golitsyn: The Life and Legacy of the KGB Defector Who Became a CIA Asset

Many people remain fascinated by stories about the Cold War, particularly the espionage that was covertly conducted across the globe by both sides. Indeed, from the beginning of the Cold War, there were hundreds if not thousands of spies positioned in each side’s governments. Some worked as double agents, while others worked to plant pivotal pieces of information or disinformation to persuade government officials within these warring countries. Inevitably, some of the Cold War’s most shadowy actions involved trying to turn Soviet assets, whether for propaganda or intelligence purposes, but the Soviet system constantly had to worry about defections, as evidenced by the construction of the Berlin Wall in the early 1960s. That said, while the whistleblowers may be celebrated if they damage the public relations of an adversary, they can be controversial if they damage one’s own country, as evidenced by the polarizing reputations of individuals like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. During Congressional testimony concerning President Kennedy’s assassination many years after Anatoliy Golitsyn’s defection, James Jesus Angleton claimed he was “probably without any question the most major defection since World War II as far as Soviet intentions, Soviet organization, and Soviet operations are concerned.” He would later become a voice for the Soviets’ disinformation strategy through his studies and his work as a KGB agent and with the CIA’s Counterintelligence Unit. Golitsyn became disenchanted with Moscow and the Soviet way of life after having spent his life protecting it. Thanks to his schooling and training, Golitsyn had deep inside knowledge of the USSR’s (communist) strategy to rule the world. Angleton, the chief of the CIA’s Counterintelligence Unit, was a huge supporter and believer of Golitsyn’s ideas and theories.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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Elevate Your Life: Crafting Your Life’s Masterpiece Through Your Decisions

Are you hungry for growth? Southern Utah entrepreneur, Steve Holm is dedicated to being a student of leadership. On his own personal journey, he's found guidance in countless self-help books. Now, he's condensed the best mentors advice and his most valuable life lessons into one approachable and easy-to-read book. With a perfect combination of personal experience and professional wisdom, Elevate Your Life is an accessible guide to improvement and long-term growth. You'll find fundamental self-help secrets, business-building essentials, and expertly compiled references to guide your future education. You're looking at an all-in-one overview of health, finances, leadership, and more. From positive mindsets to financial education, Elevate Your Life highlights the power of choice. Just one great decision could change your life. It's time to get started. Set yourself on the path of constant growth. Elevate your life. Stay hungry for continual learning, and never live life in idle mode. Live with passion. Live with purpose. And love the beautiful life that you’ve been given.

Steve Holm (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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If the Truth Be Told

You can accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior and Lord and become a child of God by faith through prayer at this moment. 'If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Roman 10:9 Prayer “Dear Father, I am a sinner. Please forgive me of my sins I believe You died on the cross for my sins I trust Jesus alone as my Lord and Savior Thank You for Your forgiveness and everlasting life. Come into my life, save me, and help me walk with You daily. In Jesus' name, I pray.” If you prayed this prayer and believed in your heart, you would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And you will never be the same. You will know you are a child of God. Evangelist Moses Williams praying for you.

Evangelist Moses Williams (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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The Stanford Prison Experiment: The History of the Notorious Psychological Experiment on Guards’ Tre

What happens when you put good people in a bad place? That was the question that an experiment in 1971 set out to answer when Stanford University professor and psychologist Philip Zimbardo used funding provided by the U.S. Office of Naval Research to create a make-believe prison in the basement of a university building. Male students were offered the chance to take part in the two-week experiment (and to make $15 per day). All applicants were carefully screened to ensure that they were healthy, emotionally and psychologically stable. 24 men were selected out of 75 that had applied. These men were then randomly assigned to play the role of either prisoners or guards in the “prison.” Initially, nobody was particularly concerned: after all, these were stable, intelligent young men who understood that they would be playing a role for just two weeks. Some people even considered that the experiment was pointless because everyone involved knew that they were simply acting roles for a limited time, so they couldn’t be expected to behave in the ways that real prisoners and guards did. Nonetheless, the experiment began on August 15th, 1971, and just six days later, on August 20th, it was abruptly and unexpectedly terminated after the “guards” had become brutal and sadistic and the “prisoners” had become withdrawn, fearful, and apathetic. There were real concerns that someone might end up being seriously hurt or suffer long-term psychological damage. How could a group of nice, healthy, intelligent young men suddenly transform into sadistic thugs? How could another equally intelligent group of young men suddenly become apathetic victims of this brutality? What did this say about the malleability of human behavior, even when everyone involved knew that this wasn’t real?

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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Escaping America in World War II: The History of Attempted Prison Escapes by Axis Prisoners in the U

Though it’s often overlooked today, during World War II, the United States held hundreds of thousands of enemy prisoners of war, and the country was unprepared for the influx, despite the fact that only weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the government started detaining Japanese Americans and foreigners from Axis countries. Some camps, used for training Army recruits, were repurposed as prison camps, and the experience of building camps for the 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans was useful in building camps for the POWs. In addition to the Japanese, about 31,000 German, Japanese, and Italian residents were placed in camps. At first, there were few POWs because it took months for the American military to get ready to participate in campaigns. The first POW was a Japanese sailor who’d survived the sinking of his midget submarine at Pearl Harbor. The first German prisoners were survivors of U-boats sunk off the American coasts. There were also a few hundred German and Italian merchant sailors on ships seized in American ports (these sailors were interned as enemy aliens, not POWs). Soon, the prisoners came in waves. A sizable number came to the US at the request of Britain, which had too many prisoners and sent tens of thousands to Canada and the US. The first large number of enemy POWs captured by American forces came at the end of the North Africa campaign in May 1943, when the Allied forces trapped most of the vaunted Afrika Korps in Tunisia (then a French colony) and forced it to surrender. About 280,000 German and Italian troops surrendered. These were different from later prisoners; they tended to be volunteers, with many of them fervent Nazis (if German) and diehard Fascists (if Italian). They were generally confident of an ultimate German victory.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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The Chindits: The History of the Indian and British Special Operations Forces in Burma during World

While the fighting on the Asian mainland is often overlooked in favor of other theaters, at the beginning of 1942, Japanese soldiers in the 15th Army invaded Burma and drove out the British forces in a state of disorder. In fact, it was a headlong retreat, and with the fall of Burma, the Japanese posed a threat to India itself. As Britain scrambled to rebuild its forces and morale to hold back the Japanese, one British officer, Orde Wingate, with considerable experience with irregular operations in the Middle East, formed a radical plan to disrupt the Japanese forces now at the gates of India. He advocated taking the fight to the enemy by using a relatively small group of highly trained soldiers to attack the vulnerable Japanese supply lines that extended precariously through the Burmese jungle. The “Chindits” came about as a result of Wingate’s idea. They were a British-trained force of British, Indian, and Gurkha soldiers designed to be employed on long-range offensive operations behind the lines of the Japanese. They were launched on two major campaigns, one in 1943 and one in 1944, and they fought in some of the most brutal and grueling terrain and climatic environments on the planet. In addition to facing enemy fire, soldiers in Burma had to deal with monsoons, tropical diseases, thick jungles, bad water, and poor nutrition, along with hidden booby traps and the potential of being ambushed by local villagers. On top of all that, the Chindits were up against an experienced, tenacious, and savage enemy who rarely took prisoners. Training for the operations was intense, fighting was fierce, and the casualties were high, which has ensured their service is still a subject of heated debate.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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Winston Churchill’s Great Escapes: The Story of the British Bulldog’s Death-Defying Life Before He B

When Winston Churchill died at the age of 90 in 1965, one of the most important figures in modern history had left the stage. From providing some of the 20th century’s greatest soundbites to successfully navigating Great Britain to victory in World War II against great odds, Churchill was at the forefront of events for decades, becoming one of the most influential Britons in history. In 2002, he was named the Greatest Briton of All Time, and 40 years earlier he was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States. Churchill will forever be most associated with World War II, but his life was far more adventurous and complex than that, and these other aspects of the man are often overlooked and overshadowed. He came from an aristocratic family, but his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was not the firstborn son. That was important because the family estate was entailed, meaning the oldest son inherited the title of duke along with the land and the wealth. Thus, while Churchill grew up in Blenheim Palace, he did not inherit his family’s wealth, and that is one reason he became a correspondent and negotiated high rates of pay: he needed the income. The family’s aristocratic connections greatly facilitated his career, but it was his own courage, determination, and ability that led to his fame and historical importance, along with some phenomenal luck. Before politics, Churchill was an officer in a cavalry regiment and a war correspondent, which took him to conflicts on four continents, and he escaped death more than once. His greatest escape was from a South African prison camp, which made him a national hero and greatly facilitated his election to Parliament.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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Mythology and Religion in Ancient Babylon: The History of Babylonian Legends and Religious Practices

The ancient world was full of many fantastic cities and places, and like today’s major cities, the great ancient cities were hubs of trade, religion, and science. Writing was first invented in ancient cities, and many important scientific discoveries were also made in them, some of which are still used in the modern world. Among the many cities of the ancient world, Rome and Athens may come to mind first, but the city of Babylon in the land of Mesopotamia was already an ancient, venerated city when the others were still inconsequential settlements. Today, Babylon has become a byword for greed, excess, and licentiousness, mostly due to its mention in the Bible, but a closer examination reveals that Babylon was so much more, and even perhaps the most important city in the ancient world. Ancient Babylon was home to great dynasties that produced some of the world’s most influential leaders, most notably Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, and these rulers invoked their wills on the entire ancient Near East and have been remembered as both progressive and cruel all at the same time. Babylon was also the seat of culture in ancient Mesopotamia and the place where scholars made amazing scientific advances that would not be eclipsed for several centuries. An examination of ancient Babylon demonstrates that it was truly the first great city in the ancient world. Babylon was also instrumental in the development of the region’s religions, and the religions continue to captivate people for many of the same reasons today’s best known religions and their histories fascinate people. The religion practiced by the ancient Mesopotamians provides a certain mix between the mundane and the surreal, and at the same time aspects of it are both familiar and bizarre to people today. Some find themselves drawn to it based on its preeminent position in religious history as the oldest documented religion in the world.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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The Disappearance of the Surcouf: The Mysterious Sinking of the Allies’ Largest Submarine during Wor

When the Surcouf launched in 1929, it was a technological marvel. This wasn’t a conventional submarine at all, but a 3,300-ton, 300-foot-long submersible light cruiser. Armed not just with torpedoes but also a pair of eight-inch guns, the Surcouf had a range of over 10,000 miles and was equipped with a seaplane in a hanger and a prison capable of holding up to 40 prisoners. When it was launched, the submarine looked like something out of the novels of Jules Verne, and many people believed it would make all existing submarines (and many surface warships) obsolete. However, by the time France found itself at war with Nazi Germany in 1939, the Surcouf was outdated and basically irrelevant, though it was still in active service with the French Navy. When France was defeated by Nazi Germany in June 1940, the majority of French troops and warships ceased fighting. However, some relocated to Britain, the only nation still fighting Germany, to join Free French forces under the command of the charismatic General Charles De Gaulle. The crew of the Surcouf joined the Free French Navy and served from late 1940 to February 1942, when she called in at the British port of Bermuda before sailing for the island of Tahiti, French Polynesia, in the South Pacific. On February 12, the Surcouf left Bermuda en route for Tahiti via the Panama Canal and was never seen again. There have been many theories about what might have happened to the Surcouf and her 130-man crew, ranging from an accidental collision to sabotage and even accidental (or deliberate) attacks by her allies. As a result, the fate of the Surcouf has become one of the most enduring and baffling maritime mysteries, and it still generates a great deal of debate.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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The Clovis Culture: The History and Legacy of the Prehistoric Paleoamericans

In popular media and culture, the Paleolithic era is often depicted as a time when humans were completely savage, spoke with little more than grunts, hit women over their heads with clubs and kidnapped them, and of course, everyone lived in caves. The reality is that the Paleolithic era was a time of great change when humans coalesced into groups and developed different technologies that helped them survive and ultimately thrive in harsh environments. Among the most important technologies developed by Paleolithic humans were those helping them hunt because, after all, the Paleolithic era was when humans lived as hunters and gatherers, so human survival and advancement were contingent upon developing better tools and weapons. Any examination of the Clovis culture begins with what is known. Archaeologists know the approximate chronological and geographic range of the Clovis culture, and they can identify what made the Clovis people unique. These were the projectile points the Clovis people made, setting them apart from most people that came before and after them, and it was those same tools that made them a successful people for such an extended period in the harsh climate of the Upper Paleolithic era (50,000 to 12,000 years ago). Scholars have also determined that the Clovis people were big game hunters, chasing and killing mammoths and other now-extinct animals across North America. The picture that has emerged of the Clovis people is one of an industrious, resourceful, and prolific people who became masters of the environment and North America for approximately 2,000 years. That being said, there is also much that is not known about the Clovis culture. For example, the Clovis people’s religious ideas, particularly about their views on an afterlife, remain a mystery. The lack of art at Clovis sites has also raised more questions, including if it was the result of a dearth of materials or societal norms and taboos.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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The Battle of Fornovo: The History of the Italian Wars’ First Major Battle

In 1494, there were five sovereign regional powers in Italy: Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States and Naples. In 1536, only one remained: Venice. These decades of conflict precipitated great anxiety among Western thinkers, and Italians responded to the fragmentation, forevermore, of Latin Christendom, the end of self-governance for Italians, and the beginning of the early modern era in a myriad of ways. They were always heavily influenced by the lived experience of warfare between large Christian armies on the peninsula. The diplomatic and military history of this 30-year period was a complex situation that one eminent Renaissance historian, Lauro Martines, has described as 'best told by a computer, so many and tangled are the treatises, negotiations and battles.' At the same time, the fighting went in tandem with the Renaissance and was influenced by it. Most historians credit the city-state of Florence as the place that started and developed the Italian Renaissance, a process carried out through the patronage and commission of artists during the late 12th century. If Florence is receiving its due credit, much of it belongs to the Medicis, the family dynasty of Florence that ruled at the height of the Renaissance. The dynasty held such influence that some of its family members even became Pope. Meanwhile, plans for a French invasion were years in the making, and France’s young King Charles VIII, heavily influenced by chivalric tales and his men of finance, had begun his preparations for conquering Naples as a base from which to launch a crusade in 1491. Two key events were the catalysts for these plans. The first was the arrival of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere at Avignon in May 1494.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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Crooks and Spies I've Known

'Crooks And Spies I’ve Known' is a riveting autobiography by Keith Laws, a four-time successful escapee who spent an astounding 15 years on the run in Europe. Laws shares his firsthand experiences, having rubbed shoulders with notorious figures such as mobsters, bank robbers, and traitorous spies, including infamous names like John Walker, Aldridge Ames, and his surprising CIA acquaintance, Edwin Wilson. The narrative unfolds with gripping tales of daring escapes. It sheds light on the underbelly of the criminal world, providing readers with a firsthand account of the author's encounters with some of the most infamous characters of our time. Laws doesn't just stop at sharing his escapades; he delves into the intricacies of bank robberies, offering true, detailed stories that will leave readers on the edge of their seats. Additionally, the book unveils lesser-known spy information, adding an extra layer of intrigue to this captivating memoir. 'Crooks And Spies I’ve Known' is an extraordinary journey through a life marked by danger, deception, and the resilience of a man who lived on the fringes of society.

Keith R. Laws (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Steve Knupp