Global Politics Audiobooks | Politics

Empathy: Turning Compassion into Action Audiobook

The 28th Governor General's most personal and timely book to date: a passionate and practical guide for turning empathy into action. As the world stumbles through the most severe pandemic of the last century, threatened by teetering economies, torn by political division, separated by unequal access to resources, and wrestling with issues as diverse as racism, gender, cybercrime, and climate change, the nations that best adapt and prosper are those in which empathy is fully alive and widely active. Written for a post-pandemic world, Empathy is a book about learning to be empathetic and then turning that empathy into action. Based on the personal experiences of author David Johnston, the book explores how awakening to the transformative power of listening and caring permanently changes individuals, families, communities, and nations. A how-to manual for a world craving kindness, Empathy offers proof of the inherent goodness of people, and shows how exercising the instinct for kindness creates societies that are both smart and caring. Through poignant stories and crisp observations, David contends that "Everyone has power over some things that other people don't. When they learn ways to turn that power into action, they change the future dramatically." With clear and practical focus, Empathy looks at a host of issues that demand our attention, from education and immigration, to healthcare, the law, policing, business ethics, and criminal justice. In each of these areas, Johnston highlights the deeper understandings that have arisen during the COVID-19 crisis, with sharp emphasis on the positive and negative lessons now in crisp focus. Convinced that empathy is the fastest route to peace and progress in all their forms, David ends each short chapter with a set of practical steps the reader can take to make the world better, one deliberate action at a time.

David Johnston (Author), David Johnston (Narrator)

Audiobook

Everyday War: The Conflict over Donbas, Ukraine

Everyday War provides an accessible lens through which to understand what noncombatant civilians go through in a country at war. What goes through the mind of a mother who must send her child to school across a minefield or the men who belong to groups of volunteer body collectors? In Ukraine, such questions have been part of the daily calculus of life. Greta Uehling engages with the lives of ordinary people living in and around the armed conflict over Donbas that began in 2014 and shows how conventional understandings of war are incomplete. In Ukraine, landscapes filled with death and destruction prompted attentiveness to human vulnerabilities and the cultivation of everyday, interpersonal peace. Uehling explores a constellation of social practices where ethics of care were in operation. People were also drawn into the conflict in an everyday form of war that included provisioning fighters with military equipment they purchased themselves, smuggling insulin, and cutting ties to former friends. Each chapter considers a different site where care can produce interpersonal peace or its antipode, everyday war. Bridging the fields of political geography, international relations, peace and conflict studies, and anthropology, Everyday War considers where peace can be cultivated at an everyday level.

Greta Lynn Uehling (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out

A New Architecture for Peace Our world desperately needs new ways to support community transformation. In The Answers Are There, Libby Hoffman shows us what is possible when outside aid animates, rather than obstructs, local leadership and recognizes and honors community wisdom, priorities, and resources. This book shares stories of individual and communal transformation in Sierra Leone, where the culture of community was nearly destroyed by civil war. But the unique approach of Fambul Tok (“family talk”)—anchoring reconciliation in indigenous traditions of communal truth-telling, apology, and forgiveness—restored that culture and unleashed a powerful resource for national healing. Fambul Tok’s core conviction—that ordinary people have the creativity, capacity, and determination to transform their communities according to their own needs and desires—changed a country, and with it, international peace and development. Hoffman shares her learning journey as a peacebuilder and as Fambul Tok’s co-founder, funder, and program partner. Her diligent, compassionate reflection on tending to community, to systemic failures, and to her own heart invites readers into “building peace from the inside out.” The Answers Are There masterfully blends lived experience, thought leadership, and actionable techniques, inspiring and equipping readers to grow whole, healthy systems in the world.

Libby Hoffman (Author), Clare Lockhart, Francess Alghali, John Caulker, Libby Hoffman (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend them Back

It’s not just computers—hacking is everywhere. A hack is any means of subverting a system’s rules in unintended ways. The tax code isn’t computer code, but a series of complex formulas. It has vulnerabilities; we call them “loopholes.” We call exploits “tax avoidance strategies.” And there is an entire industry of “black hat” hackers intent on finding exploitable loopholes in the tax code. We call them accountants and tax attorneys. In A Hacker’s Mind, Bruce Schneier takes hacking out of the world of computing and uses it to analyze the systems that underpin our society: from tax laws to financial markets to politics. He reveals an array of powerful actors whose hacks bend our economic, political, and legal systems to their advantage, at the expense of everyone else. Once you learn how to notice hacks, you’ll start seeing them everywhere—and you’ll never look at the world the same way again. Almost all systems have loopholes, and this is by design. Because if you can take advantage of them, the rules no longer apply to you. Unchecked, these hacks threaten to upend our financial markets, weaken our democracy, and even affect the way we think. And when artificial intelligence starts thinking like a hacker—at inhuman speed and scale—the results could be catastrophic. But for those who would don the “white hat,” we can understand the hackingmindset and rebuild our economic, political, and legal systems to counter those who would exploit our society. And we can harness artificial intelligence to improve existing systems, predict and defend against hacks, and realize a more equitable world.

Bruce Schneier (Author), Dan John Miller (Narrator)

Audiobook

Killer in the Kremlin: Expanded Edition, The instant bestseller - a gripping and explosive account o

Brought to you by Penguin. THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER - NOW UPDATED WITH FOUR NEW CHAPTERS A gripping and explosive account of Vladimir Putin's tyranny, charting his rise from spy to tsar, exposing the events that led to his invasion of Ukraine and his assault on Europe. In Killer in the Kremlin, award-winning journalist John Sweeney takes readers from the heart of Putin's Russia to the killing fields of Chechnya, to the embattled cities of an invaded Ukraine. In a disturbing exposé of Putin's sinister ambition, Sweeney draws on thirty years of his own reporting - from the Moscow apartment bombings to the atrocities committed by the Russian Army in Chechnya, to the annexation of Crimea and a confrontation with Putin over the shooting down of flight MH17 - to understand the true extent of Putin's long war. Drawing on eyewitness accounts and compelling testimony from those who have suffered at Putin's hand, we see the heroism of the Russian opposition, the bravery of the Ukrainian resistance, and the brutality with which the Kremlin responds to such acts of defiance, assassinating or locking away its critics, and stopping at nothing to achieve its imperialist aims. In the midst of one of the darkest acts of aggression in modern history - Russia's invasion of Ukraine - this book shines a light on Putin's rule and poses urgent questions about how the world must respond. 'No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful people.' - VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE 'An extraordinarily prescient and fascinating book.' - NIHAL ARTHANAYAKE 'This swashbuckling book is a furious attack on the Russian president. Killer in the Kremlin traces Putin's bloody career... a life littered with corpses.' - THE TIMES ©2023 John Sweeney (P)2023 Penguin Audio

John Sweeney (Author), John Sweeney (Narrator)

Audiobook

Russia's War on Everybody: And What it Means for You

Russia's 2022 attack on Ukraine saw confrontation between Moscow and the West spill over into open conflict once again. But Russia has also been waging a clandestine war against the West for decades. Hostile acts abroad, from poisoning dissidents to shooting down airliners, interfering in elections, spying, hacking, and murdering, have long seemed to be the Kremlin's daily business. But what is it all for? Why does Russia consistently behave like this? And what does it achieve? In this book, Keir Giles explains how and why Russia pushes for more power and influence wherever it can reach, far beyond Ukraine-and what it means not just for governments, but for ordinary people. Bringing together stories from the military, politics, diplomacy, espionage, cyber power, organized crime, and more, Giles describes how Moscow conducts its campaigns across the globe, and how nobody is too unimportant to be caught up in them. By lifting the lid on the daily struggle going on behind the scenes to protect governments, businesses, societies, and people from Russian hostile activity, Russia's War On Everybody shows how Moscow's hostile intentions for the rest of the world are far broader and more ambitious, and the ways it tries to achieve them far more pervasive and damaging, than we realize.

Keir Giles (Author), Keir Giles (Narrator)

Audiobook

Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China

A unique analysis of the numbers that came to define Chinese politics and how this quantification evolved over time. For decades, a few numbers came to define Chinese politics-until those numbers did not count what mattered and what they counted did not measure up. Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts argues that the Chinese government adopted a system of limited, quantified vision in order to survive the disasters unleashed by Mao Zedong's ideological leadership. Jeremy Wallace explains how that system worked and analyzes how the problems that accumulated in its blind spots led Xi Jinping to take drastic action. Xi's neopolitical turn-aggressive anti-corruption campaigns, reassertion of party authority, and personalization of power-is an attempt fix the problems of the prior system, as well as a hedge against an inability to do so. The book argues that while of course dictators stay in power through coercion and cooptation, they also do so by convincing their populations and themselves of their right to rule. Quantification is one tool in this persuasive arsenal, but it comes with its own perils.

Jeremy L. Wallace (Author), P.J. Ochlan (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea

What happens when democracy produces 'bad' outcomes? Is democracy good because of its outcomes or despite them? This 'democratic dilemma' is one of the most persistent, vexing problems for America abroad, particularly in the Middle East-we want democracy in theory but not necessarily in practice. When Islamist parties rise to power through free elections, the United States has too often been ambivalent or opposed, preferring instead pliable dictators. With this legacy of democratic disrespect in mind, and drawing on new interviews with top American officials, Shadi Hamid explores universal questions of morality, power, and hypocrisy. Why has the United States failed so completely to live up to its own stated ideals in the Arab world? And is it possible for it to change? In The Problem of Democracy, Hamid offers an ambitious reimagining of this ongoing debate and argues for 'democratic minimalism' as a path to resolving democratic dilemmas in the Middle East and beyond. In the seemingly eternal tension between democracy and liberalism, recognized by the ancient Greeks and the American founders alike, it may be time to prioritize one over the other, rather than acting as if the two are intertwined when increasingly they are not.

Shadi Hamid (Author), Amin El Gamin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Social Democracy 101: Jack London at Yale: The Roots of Socialism in the United States

In 1906, my great-grandfather Dr. Alexander Fitzgerald Irvine was the secretary of the Socialist Party of Connecticut and a fellow at Yale University where he taught studies in divinity. He sought to shed some light on the subject of social protection. He had first-hand experience as a reverend in the New Haven religious community. He became very aware of parishioner stealing and other forms of skulduggery used to acquire the most prosperous benefactors. He despised the practice of selectively seeking profitable parishioners while ignoring the plight of the downtrodden. He felt that this practice was in conflict with Jesus’ teachings. He thereafter invited Jack London to speak at Yale on the subject of socialism. This book is derivative of my great-grandfather's book, Jack London at Yale. My great-grandfather further believed that, due to this hypocrisy involving the church’s duty to the poor, the government needed to take an active role in offering a hand up to those in need. He strongly advocated that it should not be assumed that the church and pity be the sole final resources for those in need, and the government needed to take an active role in providing social networks. Health, education, and welfare are major barriers to entrepreneurial opportunity. Without forms of social democracy such as universal healthcare and education, the potential for mass enterprise is squandered. People are precluded by these basic economic barriers from reaching their potential. It is these issues that have continued to plague workers worldwide, and people of all persuasions and walks of life are affected by this ongoing class struggle. We need individualism and a free market society, and we also need it to be tamed with a fairness that, along with prosperity, provides protections for the vulnerable and opportunity for all. Health, education, and welfare are just as important as a strong military. All of them are forms of social democracy.

Alexander Irvine, Jack London, Shane Irvine (Author), Shane Irvine (Narrator)

Audiobook

Revanche: Wie Putin das bedrohlichste Regime der Welt geschaffen hat

Kaum einer kennt Russland besser als Michael Thumann, der seit über 25 Jahren aus Osteuropa für die ZEIT berichtet. Er legt nun ein atemberaubend geschriebenes Buch vor, das Russlands Absturz in eine zunehmend totalitäre Diktatur und den Weg in Putins imperialistischen Krieg aus nächster Nähe nachzeichnet. Das Motiv des Diktators und seiner Getreuen: Revanche zu nehmen für die demokratische Öffnung nach 1991 und die vermeintliche Demütigung durch den Westen. Putins Herrschaft radikalisiert sich weiter. Es ist das bedrohlichste Regime der Welt. «Unter Wladimir Putin verabschiedet sich Russland, das eigentlich größte europäische Land, aus Europa. Erneut senkt sich ein Eiserner Vorhang quer durch den Kontinent. Reise ich in dieses Land, werde ich am Flughafen in aller Regel aufgehalten. Der Grenzbeamte hält meinen Pass fest und telefoniert lange mit seinen Vorgesetzten. Ein Mensch im dunklen Anzug, wahrscheinlich Geheimdienst, holt mich ab und führt mich in einen Kellerraum. Darin ein Schreibtisch, eine alte Matratze mit Sprungfedern, kaputte Stühle, Staub in den Ecken. Ich muss Fragen beantworten: Wo wohnen Sie? Was denken Sie über die Militäroperation? Was haben Sie vor in Russland? Ich antworte knapp und frage mich selbst: Komme ich überhaupt noch in das Land? Und komme ich wieder heraus?» Michael Thumann

Michael Thumann (Author), Alexander Bandilla (Narrator)

Audiobook

15 Minuten Städte / Gefängnisse

Dawid Snowden (Author), Dawid Snowden (Narrator)

Audiobook

Die Evolution der Menschenzüchter

Heute geht es um die Menschenzuchthalter, in Fachkreisen Regierungen, Politiker oder ganz einfach dystopische Endzeitsekten genannt, die im Hintergrund agieren und inzwischen die Ganze Welt beherrschen. Was haben diese Individueen eigentlich für Strategien entwickelt, in der Evolution der Sklavenzucht, um ihr Eigentum besser kontrollieren und steuern zu können. Was haben sie alles auf ihre Todo listen schreiben müssen, um die Menschen, soweit zu kontrollieren und zu modifizieren, dass sie weder ihre Gefangenschaft noch den Verlust ihrer Freiheit in Frage stellen, und ihre Haft schon fast als Gott gegeben ansehen. Es ist für sie etwas Selbstverständliches, wie die Luft zum Atmen, sich wie Kühe oder Schafe einer Herde zu verhalten, umgeben von Grenzen statt Zäunen, wo sie ihre Zäune unter keinen Umständen umrennen, wenn ein Hirte diese gut mit seinen Hunden bewacht.

Dawid Snowden (Author), Dawid Snowden (Narrator)

Audiobook

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