Audiobooks narrated by Tom Beyer

We all keep secrets—from our locker codes to our passwords to our online interactions. And we choose to share those secrets only with those whom we trust. So, too, do organizations, businesses, governments, and armies. In Cryptography, Panos Louridas provides a broad and accessible introduction to cryptography, the art and science of keeping and revealing secrets. Louridas explains just how cryptography works to keep our communications confidential, tracing it back all the way to its ancient roots. Then he follows its long and winding path to where we are today and reads the signs that point to where it may go tomorrow. A few years back, interest in cryptography was restricted to specialists. Today, as we all live our lives attuned to our digital footprint and the privacy issues it entails, it becomes more and more essential to have a basic understanding of cryptography and its applications to everyday life. Starting with classical cryptography, Cryptography takes the listener all the way up to the twenty-first century cryptographic applications that underpin our lives in the digital realm. Along the way, Louridas also explains concepts such as symmetric cryptography, asymmetric cryptography, cryptographic protocols and applications, and finally, quantum and post-Quantum cryptography as well as the links between cryptography and computer security.

Panos Louridas (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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The Wehrmacht's Last Stand: The German Campaigns of 1944-1945

By 1943, the war was lost, and most German officers knew it. What kept the German army going in an increasingly hopeless situation? Where some historians have found explanations in the power of Hitler or the role of ideology, Robert M. Citino, the world's leading scholar on the subject, posits a more straightforward solution: Bewegungskrieg, the way of war cultivated by the Germans over the course of history. In this book, Citino charts the path by which Bewegungskrieg, or a 'war of movement,' inexorably led to Nazi Germany's defeat. The Wehrmacht's Last Stand analyzes the German Totenritt, or 'death ride,' from January 1944-with simultaneous Allied offensives at Anzio and Ukraine-until May 1945, the collapse of the Wehrmacht in the field, and the Soviet storming of Berlin. In clear and compelling prose, and bringing extensive reading of the German-language literature to bear, Citino focuses on the German view of these campaigns. Often very different from the Allied perspective, this approach allows for a more nuanced and far-reaching understanding of the last battles of the Wehrmacht than any now available. With Citino's previous volumes, Death of the Wehrmacht and The Wehrmacht Retreats, The Wehrmacht's Last Stand completes a uniquely comprehensive picture of the German army's strategy, operations, and performance against the Allies in World War II.

Robert M. Citino (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942

For Hitler and the German military, 1942 was a key turning point of World War II, as an overstretched but still lethal Wehrmacht replaced brilliant victories and huge territorial gains with stalemates and strategic retreats. In this major reevaluation of that crucial year, Robert Citino shows that the German army's emerging woes were rooted as much in its addiction to the 'war of movement'-attempts to smash the enemy in 'short and lively' campaigns-as they were in Hitler's deeply flawed management of the war. From the overwhelming operational victories at Kerch and Kharkov in May to the catastrophic defeats at El Alamein and Stalingrad, Death of the Wehrmacht offers an eye-opening new view of that decisive year. Building upon his widely respected critique in The German Way of War, Citino shows how the campaigns of 1942 fit within the centuries-old patterns of Prussian/German warmaking and ultimately doomed Hitler's expansionist ambitions. He examines every major campaign and battle in the Russian and North African theaters throughout the year to assess how a military geared to quick and decisive victories coped when the tide turned against it. More than the turning point of a war, 1942 marked the death of a very old and traditional pattern of warmaking, with the classic 'German way of war' unable to meet the challenges of the twentieth century.

Robert M. Citino (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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The Diplomacy of the American Revolution

'To the superficial observer there would seem never to have been an age less propitious for the birth of a new nation. The tendency of the times was altogether for the aggrandizement of big states and the consolidation of their territory at the expense of the little ones, for the extinction of the weaker nations and governments rather than for the creation of new ones. Nevertheless it was this bitter cut-throat international rivalry which was to make American independence possible.' On April 15th, 1783, the Articles of Peace between the United States and Great Britain went into effect proclaiming that 'His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the United States . . . to be free Sovereign and independent States.' That recognition represented a monumental achievement for the new American nation. It also, as Samuel Flagg Bemis shows us, marked the end of a world war. France's search for revenge against Britain after the French and Indian War, Spain's attempt to retake Gibraltar, the complicated trade interests of the Netherlands and Russia, Austria's fears of a two-front war-each of these saw America's struggle for independence as an event that affected their own strategies. And, as Bemis shows us, it is through that prism that we should consider the actions of those who supported America and Great Britain.

Samuel Flagg Bemis (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be

It's hard to imagine our world without its stars and celebrity geniuses-they become a part of our culture and history, seeming permanent and preordained. But as Cass Sunstein shows in this startling book, that is far from the case. Focusing on both famous and forgotten (or simply overlooked) artists and luminaries in music, literature, business, science, politics, and other fields, he explores why some individuals become famous and others don't and offers a new understanding of the role of greatness, luck, and contingency in the achievement of fame. First, Sunstein examines recent research-on informational cascades, power laws, network effects, and group polarization-to probe the question of how people become famous. He explores what ends up in the history books, in the great religious texts, and in the literary canon-and how that changes radically over time. He delves into the rich and entertaining stories of a diverse cast of famous characters, from John Keats, William Blake, and Jane Austen to Bob Dylan, Ayn Rand, and Stan Lee-as well as John, Paul, George, and Ringo. How to Become Famous takes you on a fun, captivating, and at times profound journey that will forever change your perspective on the latest celebrity's 'fifteen minutes,' the nature of memory, success and failure in business, and our enduring fascination with fame.

Cass R. Sunstein (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics

America's political parties are hollow shells of what they could be, locked in a polarized struggle for power and unrooted as civic organizations. The Hollow Parties takes listeners from the rise of mass party politics in the Jacksonian era through the years of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Today's parties, overbearing and ineffectual, have emerged from the interplay of multiple party traditions that reach back to the Founding. Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld paint unforgettable portraits of figures such as Martin Van Buren, whose pioneering Democrats invented the machinery of the mass political party, and Abraham Lincoln and other heroic Republicans of that party's first generation who stood up to the Slave Power. And they show how today's fractious party politics arose from the ashes of the New Deal order in the 1970s. Activists in the wake of the 1968 Democratic National Convention transformed presidential nominations but failed to lay the foundations for robust, movement-driven parties. Instead, modern American conservatism hollowed out the party system. Party hollowness lies at the heart of our democratic discontents. With historical sweep and political acuity, The Hollow Parties offers answers to pressing questions about how the nation's parties became so dysfunctional-and how they might yet realize their promise.

Daniel Schlozman, Sam Rosenfeld (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy

Meet today's almost fascists and learn the warning signs to intercept them on the road from populism to dictatorship. With The Wannabe Fascists, historian Federico Finchelstein offers a precise explanation of why Trumpism and similar movements across the world belong to a new political breed, the last outcome of the combined histories of fascism and populism: the wannabe fascists. This new type of populist politician is typically a legally elected leader who, unlike previous populists who were eager to distance themselves from fascism, turns to totalitarian lies, racism, and illegal means to destroy democracy from within. Drawing on almost three decades of research on the histories of fascism and populism around the world, this book lays out in clear language what the author calls the 'four pillars of fascism'-xenophobia, propaganda, political violence, and ultimately dictatorship. Finchelstein carefully explains how and why wannabe fascists like Trump, Bolsonaro, and Modi embrace the first three pillars but don't quite succeed in dictatorship and total suppression of the popular vote. The Wannabe Fascists stresses the importance of preventing despots from reaching this tipping point and offers a clear warning for what's at stake.

Federico Finchelstein (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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Make Them Smile: Why Customer Satisfaction Is the Key to Rapid and Sustainable Growth

As a dental student at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston just four years after leaving Zimbabwe for America, Dr. Sulman Ahmed was already looking ahead to an alternative future to private practice, determined to help as many people as possible, innovate within a stagnant industry by putting the customer experience first, and maximize his earning potential. In Make Them Smile, Dr. Ahmed shows listeners how he scaled his customer-centric services and built a national brand-known as the 'Starbucks of dentistry'-and offers guidance on how to identify the ideal gap to fill in your market; leverage your expertise as your competitive advantage; become a compassionate, highly capable leader; standardize operations and scale; navigate the various financing vehicles available at different stages of growth; and build sustainable wealth while creating a legacy of improving customers' lives. For hardworking and dedicated professional service providers, Make Them Smile offers a way out of the grind of living hour to billable hour, providing a road map for how to build a scalable, standardized brand that provides a consistent, repeatable, and high-quality customer experience.

Dr. Sulman Ahmed (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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Everest: The West Ridge

In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to summit Everest via the South Col route. Roughly two weeks after Whittaker's achievement, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, fellow American mountaineers on the same expedition, became the first climbers ever to summit the world's highest peak via the dangerous and forbidding West Ridge-a route on which only a handful of climbers have since succeeded. This special fiftieth anniversary edition reintroduces the adventure in a larger format by members of the expedition, including leader Norman G. Dyhrenfurth and team doctor Jim Lester. In addition to a new foreword by Jon Krakauer, this volume also features a new preface by Hornbein along with a series of prefaces he wrote for earlier editions, including the original from 1965.

Thomas Hornbein (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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The Battle of Kings Mountain: Eyewitness Accounts: The Battle That Turned The Tide of the American R

A pivotal moment in American history, as told by our forefathers On October 7, 1780, American Patriot and Loyalist soldiers battled each other at Kings Mountain, near the border of North and South Carolina. With over one hundred eyewitness accounts, this collection of participant statements from men of both sides includes letters and statements in their original form-the soldiers' own words-unedited and unabridged. Rife with previously unpublished details of this historic turning point in the American Revolution, described as the war's 'largest all-American fight,' these accounts expose the dramatic happenings of the battle, including new perspectives on the debate over Patriot Colonel William Campbell's bravery during the fight. Robert M. Dunkerley's work is an invaluable resource to historians studying the flow of combat, genealogists tracing their ancestors, and anyone interested in Kings Mountain and the Southern Campaign.

Robert M. Dunkerly (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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The Nixon-Gleason Alien Encounter

Under the cover of night, on February 19, 1973, another U.S. president witnessed extraterrestrials. President Richard Nixon made a secret trip to a top security U.S. Air Force base, as his former boss, President Dwight Eisenhower, did in 1954. Nixon was said to have taken his golfing buddy, comedian Jackie Gleason. According to Gleason's then wife, Beverly McKittrick Gleason, Jackie was deeply shaken later that night when he returned home and confessed to their clandestine trip. As established in Smith's previous work, President Eisenhower's Close Encounters, this meeting was reminiscent of and perhaps even predicated by similar visits made by the president's predecessors, as well as others in the American government and entertainment industry. This in-depth book will attempt to separate fact from fiction. These events were carried off without the public learning the hushed facts and data connecting the two different presidential administrations . . . until now.

Paul Blake Smith (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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Secrets, Lies, and Consequences: A Great Scholar's Hidden Past and his Protégé's Unsolved Murder

In 1991, Ioan Culianu was on the precipice of a brilliant academic career. Culianu had fled his native Romania and established himself as a widely admired scholar at just forty-one years old. He was teaching at the University of Chicago Divinity School where he was seen as the heir apparent to his mentor, Mircea Eliade, a fellow Romanian expatriate and the founding father of the field of religious studies, who had died a few years earlier. When Culianu began to receive threatening messages, he asked a colleague to hold onto some papers for safekeeping. A week later someone fired a bullet into the back of his head, killing him instantly. The case was never solved, though the prevailing theory is that Culianu was targeted by the Romanian secret police as a result of critical articles he wrote after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu. What was in those papers and what connection might they have to Culianu's death? The papers eventually passed into the hands of Bruce Lincoln, and their story is at the heart of this book. The documents were English translations of articles that Eliade wrote in the 1930s, some of which voiced Eliade's support for the Iron Guard. Bruce Lincoln explores what the articles reveal about Eliade's past, his subsequent efforts to conceal that past, his complex relations with Culianu, and the possible motives for Culianu's shocking murder.

Bruce Lincoln (Author), Tom Beyer (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Tom Beyer