Current Affairs Audiobooks | Politics

Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life

A groundbreaking history of how the decades-long war on terror changed virtually every aspect of American life, from the erosion of citizenship down to the cars we bought and TV we watched-by an acclaimed n+1 writer For twenty years after September 11, the war on terror was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. With all of the military violence occurring overseas even as the threat of sudden mass death permeated life at home, Americans found themselves living in two worlds at the same time. In one of them, soldiers fought overseas so that nothing at home would have to change at all. In the other, life in the United States took on all kinds of unfamiliar shapes, changing people's sense of themselves, their neighbors, and the strangers they sat next to on airplanes. In Homeland, Richard Beck delivers a gripping exploration of how much the war changed life in the United States and explains why there is no going back. Though much has been made of the damage that Donald Trump did to the American political system, Beck argues that it was the war on terror that made Trump's presidency possible, fueling and exacerbating a series of crises that all came to a head with his rise to power. Homeland brilliantly isolates and explores four key issues: the militarism that swept through American politics and culture; the racism and xenophobia that boiled over in much of the country; an economic crisis that, Beck convincingly argues, connects the endurance of the war on terror to at least the end of the Second World War; and a lack of accountability that produced our "impunity culture"-the government-wide inability or refusal to face consequences that has transformed how the U.S. government relates to the people it governs. To see American life through the lens of Homeland's sweeping argument is to understand the roots of our current condition. In its startling analysis of how the war on terror hollowed out the very idea of citizenship in the United States, Beck gives the most compelling explanation yet offered for the ongoing disintegration of America's social, political, and cultural fabric.

Richard Beck (Author), Patrick Harrison, TBD (Narrator)

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Shameless: Destroying the Republican Playbook for Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy

Brian Tyler Cohen (Author), Brian Tyler Cohen, TBD (Narrator)

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The Big Guy: The Big Guy:Inside the Biden Family Scandal Machine

The New York Post columnist, Fox News contributor, and national bestselling author of Laptop from Hell returns with the explosive, definitive account of the Biden family scandals. It’s rare that a campaign season has anything like an IRS whistleblower and a California US attorney saying they were blocked from pursuing charges, foreign wire transfers of millions of dollars going to several members of politician’s family, suspicious slap-on-the-wrist plea deals, mounds of incrimination texts, a previously unacknowledged child with a stripper, and multiple congressional investigations. It’s unprecedented to have them all tied to one politician like Joe Biden. The federal government and the mainstream media have been selling the narrative for years that Hunter Biden is a good son with addiction problems who has suffered enough. But what if the Biden family has been involved in sketchy financial dealings and coverups that get bigger every passing year? Miranda Devine goes deep into the dark underbelly of American politics, where it’s okay to break the law as long as you follow the rest of the elite’s rules. With a surgeon’s precision she dissects the shady dealings of the Biden family in China and Eastern Europe, exposing the cover-up within the government and media. With meticulous research and insider sources, Devine uncovers the shocking truth about Joe Biden's involvement in his son Hunter's business dealings and the extent of their corruption. Many have argued that intelligence agents and social media companies tilted the 2020 election in Biden’s favor by hiding the contents of Hunter’s laptop. Devine goes beyond their coverage to “silence the truth” and in The Big Guy finally reveals the corruption within the Biden family and the government.

Miranda Devine (Author), Charles Constant, TBD (Narrator)

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All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians

A bridge-burning, riotous memoir by a top PR operative in Washington who exposes the secrets of the $129-billion industry that controls so much of what we see and hear in the media—from a man who used to pull the strings, and who is now pulling back the curtain. After nearly two decades in the Washington PR business, Elwood wants to come clean, by exposing the dark underbelly of the very industry that’s made him so successful. The first step is revealing exactly what he’s been up to for the past twenty years—and it isn’t pretty. Elwood has worked for a murderer’s row of clients, including Gaddafi, Assad, and the government of Qatar—namely, the bad guys. In All the Worst Humans, Elwood unveils how the PR business works, and how the truth gets made, spun, and sold to the public—not shying away from the gritty details of his unlikely career. This is a piercing look into the corridors of money, power, politics, and control, all told in Elwood’s disarmingly funny and entertaining voice. He recounts a four-day Las Vegas bacchanal with a dictator’s son, plotting communications strategies against a terrorist organization in Western Africa, and helping to land a Middle Eastern dictator’s wife a glowing profile in Vogue on the same time the Arab Spring broke out. And he reveals all his slippery tricks for seducing journalists in order to create chaos and ultimately cover for politicians, dictators, and spies—the industry-secret tactics that led to his rise as a political PR pro. Along the way, Phil walks the halls of the Capitol, rides in armored cars through Abuja, and watches his client lose his annual income at the roulette table. But as he moved up the ranks, he felt worse and worse about the sleaziness of it all—until Elwood receives a shocking wake-up call from the FBI. This risky game nearly cost Elwood his life and his freedom. Seeing the light, Elwood decides to change his ways, and his clients, and to tell the full truth about who is the worst human.

Phil Elwood (Author), Holter Graham, TBD (Narrator)

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The Death of Truth

A best-selling author documents how facts-shared truths-have lost their power to hold us together as a community, as a country, globally, and how belief in "alternative facts" and conspiracy theories has destroyed trust in institutions, leaders, and legitimate experts. Drawing on the front-row seat he has had as the cofounder of a company that uses journalists to track online misinformation, Steven Brill takes us inside the decisions made by executives in Silicon Valley to code the algorithms embedded in their social media platforms to maximize profits by pushing divisive content. He unravels the ingenious creation of automated advertising buying systems that reward that eye-attracting content, and describes the exploitation of that ad-driven machinery by politicians, hucksters, and conspiracy theorists. He also explains how the most powerful adversaries of America have used these American-made social media and advertising tools against us with massive disinformation campaigns. Brill explains how with the development of generative artificial intelligence everything could get exponentially worse-unless we act. Apropos of that, in The Death of Truth, he offers thoughtful, provocative but realistic prescriptions for how we can act and reverse course-proposals that are certain to stir debate, and even action. Finally, Brill chillingly recounts how his company's role in exposing Russian disinformation operations resulted in a Russian agent targeting him and his family.

Steven Brill (Author), Dan Woren, TBD (Narrator)

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Progressively Worse: Why Today's Democrats Ain't Your Daddy's Donkeys

The beloved Fox News contributor and national bestselling author delves into the ideological war between today’s Democrats and opinions they held just a few years ago. In the 1990s, Democrats supported balanced budgets, smaller government, border security, equal opportunity (not outcomes), reducing the deficit, and prioritizing blue-collar issues. However, according to Joe Concha, these are things that Democrats are against now. Today, Democrats want people to believe that they know what is morally right and that they have always supported their current views. However, Concha argues that nothing sums up the Democrats better than John Kerry's famous quote, 'I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it.' In his book, Progressively Worse, Concha delves deep into the political landscape, unearthing how the Democratic Party has changed. He covers every hot-button issue, from identity politics to socialism to the war in Ukraine, as he criticizes today's left and its allies in the media.

Joe Concha (Author), John Pruden, TBD (Narrator)

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The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective

A sweeping account of the anarchists who terrorized the streets of New York and the detective duo who transformed policing to meet the threat-a tale of fanaticism, forensic science, and dynamite from the bestselling author of The Ghost Map Steven Johnson's engrossing account of the epic struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and between two centuries-from Alfred Nobel's invention of dynamite and the assassination of Czar Alexander II to New York City in the shadow of World War I. April 1914. The NYPD is still largely the corrupt, low-tech organization of the Tammany Hall era. To the extent the police are stopping crime-as opposed to committing it-their role has been almost entirely defined by physical force: the brawn of the cop on the beat keeping criminals at bay with nightsticks and fists. The solving of crimes is largely outside their purview. The new commissioner, Arthur Woods, is determined to change that, but he cannot anticipate the maelstrom of violence that soon tests his science-based approach to policing. Within weeks of his tenure, New York City is engulfed in the most concentrated terrorism campaign in the nation's history: a five-year period of relentless bombings, many of them perpetrated by the anarchist movement led by legendary radicals Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. Coming to Woods's aide are Inspector Joseph Faurot, a science-first detective who works closely with him in reforming the police force and Amadeo Polignani, the young Italian undercover detective who infiltrates the notorious Bresci Circle. Johnson reveals a mostly forgotten period of political conviction, scientific discovery, assassination plots, bombings, undercover operations, and innovative sleuthing. The Infernal Machine is the complex pre-history of our current moment, when decentralized anarchist networks have once again taken to the streets to protest law enforcement abuses, right-wing militia groups have attacked government buildings, and surveillance is almost ubiquitous.

Steven Johnson (Author), Steven Johnson, TBD (Narrator)

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Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That's Lost its Mind

America's most sought-after voice in the fight to save female sports from woke destruction shares her unbelievable story and inspires readers to embrace common sense and truth in discussions about women's rights. Riley Gaines has been called many things: Collegiate athlete. All-American. Olympic hopeful. But in 2022, everything changed. The narrative shifted. Now, critics smeared her as: Transphobic. Narrow-minded. Evil. What changed? Riley gave the truth a voice. She stood up, spoke out, and dared to ask questions -- not just for herself, but for all female athletes who refuse to accept an ideology where "inclusivity" for transgender athletes now means treating women unfairly. Riley Gaines is changing minds in the process, and this highly anticipated, fearless, pro-woman book takes on controversial, uncomfortable, but critical questions we must confront about women (and sports) in America. Can't we embrace policies that give everyone the chance to compete but still protect women and ensure they have a fair shot at success? In this book, Riley scrutinizes the perspectives of athletes on the opposing side of this debate, deconstructing their arguments with science, facts, and logic. She also asks what has happened to free speech and dissent in this country, where it now seems nearly impossible to have a well-reasoned debate. And in telling her story, Riley reveals what's at stake if the truth-seekers remain silent about the injustices women face from radical agendas.

Riley Gaines (Author), Riley Gaines, TBD (Narrator)

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No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward

The New York Times bestselling author, governor of South Dakota, and former congresswoman shares eye-opening realities of DC dysfunction, revelations from leading her state through unprecedented challenge, and how we seize this moment to move America forward. Any elected official can talk about how broken our government is. But their solutions always seem to involve more money, new programs-and reelection to another term. Few offer an unfiltered glimpse into how government actually works, empowering citizens with the knowledge to be part of the solution. Governor Kristi Noem never planned on being in politics. But her concern for our nation compelled her, on a local, national, and global level. Because she took a different path into public service, as a concerned mom and rancher, her insights help every citizen understand how positive change really happens, despite the dysfunction in Washington DC. Governor Noem explains how the country is not going back to the Republican party of the 2000s. And that's a good thing. This book is packed with surprising stories and practical lessons from the front lines of the battle. And she names names. A lot has changed since 2016, and based on her accomplishments in Congress and as Governor, no one is better equipped than Kristi Noem to explain the tremendous opportunities this opens up for every American.

Kristi Noem (Author), Kristi Noem, TBD (Narrator)

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American Tyrannies in the Long Age of Napoleon

What if the American experiment is twofold, encompassing both democracy and tyranny? That is the question at the core of this book, which traces some of ways that Americans across the nineteenth century understood the perversions tyranny introduced into both their polity and society. While some informed their thinking with reference to classical texts, which comprehensively consider tyranny's dangers, most drew on a more contemporary source-Napoleon Bonaparte, the century's most famous man and its most notorious tyrant. Because Napoleon defined tyranny around the nineteenth-century Atlantic world-its features and emergence, its relationship to democratic institutions, its effects on persons and peoples-he provides a way for nineteenth-century Americans to explore the parameters of tyranny and their complicity in its cruelties. Napoleon helps us see the decidedly plural forms of tyranny in the US, bringing their fictions into focus. At the same time, however, there are distinctly American modes of tyranny. From the tyrannical style of the American imagination to the usurping potential of American individualism, Elizabeth Duquette shows that tyranny is as American as democracy.

Elizabeth Duquette (Author), Diana Blue (Narrator)

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The Age of Grievance

From bestselling author and longtime New York Times columnist Frank Bruni comes a lucid, powerful examination of the ways in which grievance has come to define our current culture and politics, on both the right and left. The twists and turns of American politics have become nearly impossible to predict, but the tone is a troubling given. It's one of grievance. A perilous share of Americans across the full breadth of the political spectrum respond to every big disappointment, every little frustration, every way in which the world doesn't hew precisely to their liking by deciding that they've been wronged, identifying the people responsible for that and raging at the injustice of it all. The blame game is the country's most popular sport and victimhood its most fashionable garb. Grievance isn't always and necessarily bad. It has often done enormous good. The United States is a nation born of grievance, in the revolt of royal subjects unwilling to accept a bad deal, and across the nearly 250 years of our existence as a country, grievance has been the engine of morally urgent change. But what happens when all sorts of grievances—the greater ones, the lesser ones, the authentic, the invented—are jumbled together? When grievances become all-encompassing lenses, all-purpose reflexes, default settings? When people take their grievances to extreme and even violent lengths that they didn't before? A mob storms the US Capitol, rejecting the results of a presidential election and embracing the fiction that it was rigged. Conspiracy theories flourish. Politicians appeal not to our better angels but to our worst impulses, encouraging selfishness instead of selflessness, trading inspiration for retribution. Fox News, the country's most watched cable news network, and Tucker Carlson, its sneering star, knowingly peddle lies in the service of profit. The Supreme Court loses touch with the country, overturning Roe v. Wade and shrugging off Clarence Thomas's transgressions. College students chase away speakers and college administrators dismiss instructors for dissenting from progressive orthodoxy. Will Smith slaps Chris Rock. And there's a potentially devastating erosion of the civility, common ground and compromise necessary for our democracy to survive. How did we get here? What does it say about us, and where does it leave us? Timely, important, and enlightening, The Age of Grievance examines these critical questions and charts a path forward for a nation that may be growing tired of outrage.

Frank Bruni (Author), Frank Bruni, TBD (Narrator)

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Apocalypse Television: How The Day After Helped End the Cold War

On November 20, 1983, a three-hour made-for-TV movie, The Day After, premiered on ABC. Set in the heartland of Lawrence, Kansas, the film depicted the events before, during, and after a Soviet nuclear attack with vivid scenes of the post-apocalyptic hellscape that would follow. The film was viewed by over 100 million Americans and remains the highest rated TV movie in history. The path to primetime for The Day After proved nearly as treacherous as the film's narrative. Battles ensued behind the scenes at the network, between the network and the filmmakers. But these skirmishes pale in comparison to the culture wars triggered by the film in the press, alongside a growing Nuclear Freeze movement, and from a united, pro-nuclear Right. Once efforts to alter the script failed, the White House conducted a full-throttled propaganda campaign to hijack the film's message. Apocalypse Television features a dramatic insider's account of the making of and backlash against The Day After. No other book has told this story in similar fashion, venturing behind-the-scenes of the programming and news divisions at ABC, the backlash from the conservative movement and Religious Right, the challenges encountered by the film's production team, and the experiences of the citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, where the film was set and shot.

David Craig (Author), Kim Niemi (Narrator)

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Current Affairs Audiobooks in Politics