Current Affairs Audiobooks | Politics

World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech

Franklin Foer reveals the existential threat posed by big tech, and in his brilliant polemic gives us the toolkit to fight their pervasive influence. Over the past few decades there has been a revolution in terms of who controls knowledge and information. This rapid change has imperiled the way we think. Without pausing to consider the cost, the world has rushed to embrace the products and services of four titanic corporations. We shop with Amazon; socialize on Facebook; turn to Apple for entertainment; and rely on Google for information. These firms sell their efficiency and purport to make the world a better place, but what they have done instead is to enable an intoxicating level of daily convenience. As these companies have expanded, marketing themselves as champions of individuality and pluralism, their algorithms have pressed us into conformity and laid waste to privacy. They have produced an unstable and narrow culture of misinformation, and put us on a path to a world without private contemplation, autonomous thought, or solitary introspection-a world without mind. In order to restore our inner lives, we must avoid being coopted by these gigantic companies, and understand the ideas that underpin their success. Elegantly tracing the intellectual history of computer science-from Descartes and the enlightenment to Alan Turing to Stuart Brand and the hippie origins of today's Silicon Valley-Foer exposes the dark underpinnings of our most idealistic dreams for technology. The corporate ambitions of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, he argues, are trampling longstanding liberal values, especially intellectual property and privacy. This is a nascent stage in the total automation and homogenization of social, political, and intellectual life. By reclaiming our private authority over how we intellectually engage with the world, we have the power to stem the tide. At stake is nothing less than who we are, and what we will become. There have been monopolists in the past but today's corporate giants have far more nefarious aims. They're monopolists who want access to every facet of our identities and influence over every corner of our decision-making. Until now few have grasped the sheer scale of the threat. Foer explains not just the looming existential crisis but the imperative of resistance.

Franklin Foer (Author), Marc Cashman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream

Why is an unarmed young black woman who knocks on a stranger's front door to ask for help after her car breaks down perceived to be so threatening that he shoots her dead? Why do we fear infrequent acts of terrorism more far more common acts of violence? Why does a disease like Ebola, which killed only a handful of Americans, provoke panic, whereas the flu--which kills tens of thousands each year--is dismissed with a yawn? Jumping at Shadows is Sasha Abramsky's searing account of America's most dangerous epidemic: irrational fear. Taking readers on a dramatic journey through a divided nation, where everything from immigration to disease, gun control to health care has become fodder for fearmongers and conspiracists, he delivers an eye-popping analysis of our misconceptions about risk and threats. What emerges is a shocking portrait of a political and cultural landscape that is, increasingly, defined by our worst fears and rampant anxieties. Ultimately, Abramsky shows that how we calculate risk and deal with fear can teach us a great deal about ourselves, exposing deeply ingrained strains of racism, classism, and xenophobia within our culture, as well as our growing susceptibility to the toxic messages of demagogues. **Contact Customer Service for Additional Material**

Sasha Abramsky (Author), Matthew Waterson (Narrator)

Audiobook

We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Movement That Restores the Planet

Sixteen-year-old climate activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez and his group the Earth Guardians believe that choices made now will have a lasting impact on the world of tomorrow, and they want to ensure a positive, just, and sustainable future. Beginning with their empowering story, We Rise explores many aspects of effective activism and provides step-by-step information on how to start and join solution-oriented movements. With conversations between Xiuhtezcatl and well-known activists, revolutionaries, and celebrities, practical advice for living a more sustainable lifestyle, and ideas and tools for building resilient communities, We Rise is an action guide for how to face the biggest problems of today. If you are interested in creating real and tangible change, We Rise will give you the inspiration and information you need to do your part in making the world a better place.

Justin Spizman, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez (Author), Drew Caiden (Narrator)

Audiobook

Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump

A landmark book, from one of the world's most prominent psychiatrists (The Atlantic, June 2017): Eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances analyzes the national psyche, viewing the rise of Donald J. Trump as darkly symptomatic of a deeper societal distress. Equally challenging and profound, Twlilight of American Sanity makes sense of our time and charts the way forward. It is comforting to see President Donald Trump as a crazy man, a one-off, an exception not a reflection on us or our democracy. But in ways I never anticipated, his rise was absolutely predictable and a mirror on our soul. What does it say about us, that we elected someone so manifestly unfit and unprepared to determine mankind's future? Trump is a symptom of a world in distress, not its sole cause. Blaming him for all our troubles misses the deeper, underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent. Calling Trump crazy allows us to avoid confronting the craziness in our society if we want to get sane, we must first gain insight about ourselves. Simply put: Trump isn't crazy, but our society is. from TWILIGHT OF AMERICAN SANITY. More than three years in the making: the world's leading expert on psychiatric diagnosis, past leader of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM (the bible of psychology), and author of the influential international bestseller on the medicalization of ordinary life, Saving Normal, draws upon his vast experience to deliver a powerful critique of modern American society's collective slide away from sanity and offers an urgently needed prescription for reclaiming our bearings. Widely cited in recent months as the man who quite literally wrote the diagnostic criteria for narcissism, Allen Frances, M.D., has been at the center of the debate surrounding President Trump's mental state quoted in Evan Osnos's May 2017 New Yorker article (How Trump Could Get Fired) and publishing a much-shared opinion letter in the New York Times (An Eminent Psychiatrist Demurs on Trump's Mental State). Frances argues that Trump is "bad not mad"--that the real question to wrestle with is how we as a country could have chosen him as our leader. Twilight of American Sanity is an essential work for understanding our national crisis.

Allen Frances (Author), Christopher Grove (Narrator)

Audiobook

Über den Anstand in schwierigen Zeiten und die Frage, wie wir miteinander umgehen

Wir leben in aufgewühlten und aufwühlenden Zeiten, die Grundlagen unseres bisherigen Zusammenlebens sind bedroht: Zeit, sich wieder einmal ein paar wichtige Fragen zu stellen. Was bedeutet es eigentlich für jeden Einzelnen, wenn Lüge, Rücksichtslosigkeit und Niedertracht an die Macht drängen oder sie schon errungen haben? Wenn so erfolgreich in der Öffentlichkeit gegen alle bekannten Regeln des Anstands verstoßen wird? Was heißt unter diesen Bedingungen genau: ein anständiges Leben zu führen? Axel Hackes Buch ist kein Pamphlet, denn Pamphlete gibt es genug; es ist vielmehr ein assoziatives Nachdenken über das Zusammenleben der Menschen und die schon von Anton Tschechow gestellte Frage: 'Warum leben wir nicht so, wie wir leben könnten?' Es ist ein Plädoyer dafür, die Antwort erst einmal nicht bei anderen, sondern bei sich selbst zu suchen - und dabei vielleicht am Ende ein wenig Demut, auch etwas Neugier auf andere zu entdecken. Denn vermutlich geht es in unserer komplizierten Welt zuallererst nicht um die Lösung aller Probleme. Die hat ohnehin keiner, und wer so tut, als hätte er sie, dem sollte man misstrauen. Sondern es gilt, eben diese Tatsache mit Anstand zu ertragen und sich dabei mit der großen und immer neu zu stellenden Frage zu beschäftigen: Wie wollen wir eigentlich miteinander umgehen?

Axel Hacke (Author), Axel Hacke (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Preface to Politics

Walter Lippmann still stands today as one of the foremost figures of American political journalism, social commentary, and cultural criticism. At the age of 24, he published A Preface to Politics; that same year, along with Herbert Croly and Walter Weyl, he founded The New Republic magazine. In short, he burst upon the scene. He went on to become an advisor to Woodrow Wilson and was involved in drafting Wilson's famous "Fourteen Points." He won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, the Pulitzer Prise in 1958 and again in 1961. The fundamental message of A Preface to Politics is that statesmanship cannot succeed if it focuses merely on the forms and mechanics of government and the technical development and administration of policy. Political leadership can only be successful if political leaders attune themselves to the human beings they lead, keeping themselves abreast of their wants and needs and the social and cultural movements among them. No political mechanism can function without intelligent, perceptive, and responsive people to make it work. It is startling to see how relevant, indeed important, Lippmann's message still is, over a century after it was written. In our day as in his, deliberate lies and deception is the rule in the highest offices of our government. He saw the same fundamental corruption at work in our national politics as still pollutes it today. Then, as now, he emphasizes the vital importance of informal leadership exercised by educated, informed, energetic people who function as activists and visionaries in the endless process of maintaining a responsive society and government. Over and over again, Lippmann's message will make us open our eyes to what is still critically important. Enjoy!

Walter Lippmann (Author), Robert Bethune (Narrator)

Audiobook

Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration & Resettlement Jihad

Americans are shocked by ongoing news reports chronicling growing chaos in Europe, where massive Muslim migration is wreaking havoc on the continent including horrendous acts of mass terrorism, an epidemic of rape and sexual assault against European women, and large, jihadist-rich enclaves where even police are hesitant to enter. Yet, few realize that America is heading down the same suicidal path. As veteran investigative journalist Leo Hohmann documents in Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad, an international network of mostly Muslim Brotherhood-linked activists has been building its ranks within the United States for more than three decades, aided by a U.S. immigration system seemingly obsessed with welcoming as many unassimilable migrants with anti-Western values as possible. As a result, largely secret plans for major population changes in hundreds of U.S. cities and towns are already being implemented. As Stealth Invasion reveals, the Muslim Brotherhood has a well-defined strategy for conquering America, not necessarily with violent jihadist attacks although we should expect those to increase but through more subtle means collectively called "civilization jihad." According to the Brotherhood's own documents seized by the FBI, "civilization jihad" involves infiltrating and conquering Western democracies from within. Very simply, civilization jihad calls for changing a nation by changing its people and its values gradually, over time. Meanwhile, the world is undergoing a historic shift of populations out of the Middle East and Africa, and into Europe, Canada and the United States. Stealth Invasion connects the dots between the problems of growing violence and unrest that have plagued Europe and what is now unfolding across America and blows the lid off a corrupt, fraudulent program that has been secretly dumping Third World refugees, many of them radical, on American cities for three decades. Readers will meet the people and groups behind this shadowy resettlement network, which starts at the United Nations and includes the White House, the U.S. State Department, some surprising church groups, and corporate honchos involved in everything from investment banking and meatpacking, to Florida vacations and yogurt manufacturing. In Stealth Invasion, Leo Hohmann reveals how Congress has turned a blind eye to the program since President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Refugee Act of 1980, allowing the United Nations not American officials to select the refugees sent to our cities. As a result, those selected are increasingly coming from hotbeds of Sunni radicalism like Syria, Iraq, and Somalia while a growing population of persecuted Christians are left behind. The government uses a network of private agencies, most with churchy names tied to Lutherans, Catholics, Episcopalians, Jews and even evangelicals, to do the resettlement work, but the public is shut out of the process from beginning to end. No public hearings, no public notices in the local newspaper asking for their input. Americans have been kept largely in the dark about the radical plans to permanently transform their nation. Until now.In Stealth Invasion, Leo Hohmann shows that the breakdown is no coincidence and it hasn't manifested overnight. It's been brewing since the 1980s, but is now reaching the point where it is about to metastasize and overtake us all unless it is stopped now.

Leo Hohmann (Author), Jerry Sciarrio (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left

The explosive new book from Dinesh D'Souza, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Hillary's America, America, and Obama's AmericaWhat is "the big lie" of the Democratic Party? That conservatives-and President Donald Trump in particular-are fascists. Nazis, even. In a typical comment, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow says the Trump era is reminiscent of "what it was like when Hitler first became chancellor."But in fact, this audacious lie is a complete inversion of the truth. Yes, there is a fascist threat in America-but that threat is from the Left and the Democratic Party. The Democratic Left has an ideology virtually identical with fascism and routinely borrows tactics of intimidation and political terror from the Nazi Brownshirts.To cover up their insidious fascist agenda, Democrats loudly accuse President Trump and other Republicans of being Nazis-an obvious lie, considering the GOP has been fighting the Democrats over slavery, genocide, racism, and fascism from the beginning.Now, finally, Dinesh D'Souza explodes the Left's big lie. He expertly exonerates President Trump and his supporters, then uncovers the Democratic Left's long, cozy relationship with Nazism: how the racist and genocidal acts of early Democrats inspired Adolf Hitler's campaign of death; how fascist philosophers influenced the great twentieth-century lions of the American Left; and how today's anti-free speech, anti-capitalist, anti-religious liberty, pro-violence Democratic Party is a frightening simulacrum of the Nazi Party. Hitler coined the term "the big lie" to describe a lie that "the great masses of the people" will fall for precisely because of how bold and monstrous the lie is. In The Big Lie, D'Souza shows that the Democratic Left's orchestrated campaign to paint President Trump and conservatives as Nazis to cover up its own fascism is, in fact, the biggest lie of all.

Dinesh D'Souza, Dinesh D’souza (Author), David Cochran Heath (Narrator)

Audiobook

Angry White Male: How the Donald Trump Phenomenon is Changing America--and What We Can All Do to Sav

The mainstream media and ultra-liberal Democrats can’t understand why white voters, especially white men, are so angry. Wayne Allyn Root is an angry white male, and he knows why. This is his story, his testimony, and a look at what’s happening to an entire group of good people: law-abiding, tax-paying, hard-working, middle-class people. They’re being targeted, silenced, intimidated—persecuted virtually wiped off the planet—in order to make guilty, politically correct white liberals feel better about themselves. It’s open season on white males. And yes, you’re damn right they’re angry. In Angry White Male, Root makes his case why he and his brethren have every right to be angry. Millions of angry white males are not on the attack but rather responding in self-defense. Root urges the middle class to take charge before they are protested and legislated out of existence—penniless, powerless, jobless, afraid to speak for fear of being shouted down and immediately labeled “racist.” Not afraid of being politically incorrect, Angry White Male exposes the unfair and unregulated policies, politically correct attitudes, and reverse racism that have recently oppressed and depressed the shrinking middle class—in voting, housing, guns, taxes, regulation, and jobs—and provides the playbook to empower readers to protect their rights. They can do this by verbalizing, mobilizing, and protesting, getting out to vote in record numbers, pushing for term limits, fighting the “not so free” trade battle, fighting for a “Middle-Class Contract with America” and “Middle-Class Income Tax Vacation,” and arming themselves with the “Middle-Class Weapon of Self-Defense.” Let the revolution begin!

Wayne Allyn Root (Author), Thomas Allen (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Swamp: Washington's Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism and How Trump Can Drain It

This program is read by the author. When Washington D.C. was first built, it was on top of a swamp that had to be drained. Donald Trump says it's time to drain it again. In The Swamp, bestselling author and Fox News Channel host Eric Bolling presents an infuriating, amusing, revealing, and outrageous history of American politics, past and present, Republican and Democrat. From national political scandals to tempests in a teapot that blew up; bribery, blackmail, bullying, and backroom deals that contradicted public policies; cronyism that cost taxpayers hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars; and personal conduct that can only be described as regrettable, The Swamp is a journey downriver through the bayous and marshes of Capitol Hill and Foggy Bottom. The presidential election of 2016 was ugly, but it exposed a political, media, industry, and elite establishment that desperately wanted to elect a politician who received millions of dollars from terror-funding states over a businessman willing to tell the corrupt or incompetent, "You're fired." The audiobook concludes with a series of recommendations for President Trump: practical, hard-headed, and concise ways to drain the swamp and force Washington to be more transparent, more accountable, and more effective in how it serves those who have elected its politicians and pay the bills for their decisions. Last year President Trump declared Wake Up America to be a "huge" book; Eric Bolling's second audiobook is surely to build on that success. Entertaining and timely, The Swamp is the perfect audiobook for today's political climate.

Eric Bolling (Author), Eric Bolling (Narrator)

Audiobook

No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need

A road map to resistance in the Trump era from internationally acclaimed journalist, activist, and bestselling author Naomi Klein... "This book is a toolkit to help understand how we arrived at this surreal political moment, how to keep it from getting a lot worse, and how, if we keep our heads, we can flip the script and seize the opportunity to make things a whole lot better in a time of urgent need. A toolkit for shock-resistance."-Naomi Klein, from the Preface The election of Donald Trump is a dangerous escalation in a world of cascading crises. Trump's vision-a radical deregulation of the U.S. economy in the interest of corporations, an all-out war on "radical Islamic terrorism," and sweeping aside climate science to unleash a domestic fossil fuel frenzy-will generate wave after wave of crises and shocks, to the economy, to national security, to the environment. In No Is Not Enough, Naomi Klein explains that Trump, extreme as he is, is not an aberration but a logical extension of the worst and most dangerous trends of the past half-century. In exposing the malignant forces behind Trump's rise, she puts forward a bold vision for a mass movement to counter rising militarism, racism, and corporatism in the United States and around the world.

Naomi Klein (Author), Brit Marling (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright’s remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of interviews that he conducted in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, England, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States. The Looming Tower achieves an unprecedented level of intimacy and insight by telling the story through the interweaving lives of four men: the two leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri; the FBI’s counterterrorism chief, John O’Neill; and the former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki al-Faisal. As these lives unfold, we see revealed: the crosscurrents of modern Islam that helped to radicalize Zawahiri and bin Laden . . . the birth of al-Qaeda and its unsteady development into an organization capable of the American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the attack on the USS Cole . . . O’Neill’s heroic efforts to track al-Qaeda before 9/11, and his tragic death in the World Trade towers . . . Prince Turki’s transformation from bin Laden’s ally to his enemy . . . the failures of the FBI, CIA, and NSA to share intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks. The Looming Tower broadens and deepens our knowledge of these signal events by taking us behind the scenes. Here is Sayyid Qutb, founder of the modern Islamist movement, lonely and despairing as he meets Western culture up close in 1940s America; the privileged childhoods of bin Laden and Zawahiri; family life in the al-Qaeda compounds of Sudan and Afghanistan; O’Neill’s high-wire act in balancing his all-consuming career with his equally entangling personal life—he was living with three women, each of them unaware of the others’ existence—and the nitty-gritty of turf battles among U.S. intelligence agencies. Brilliantly conceived and written, The Looming Tower draws all elements of the story into a galvanizing narrative that adds immeasurably to our understanding of how we arrived at September 11, 2001. The richness of its new information, and the depth of its perceptions, can help us deal more wisely and effectively with the continuing terrorist threat.

Lawrence Wright (Author), Lawrence Wright (Narrator)

Audiobook

Current Affairs Audiobooks in Politics