Philosophy bestsellers

Four Thousand Weeks

Time Management for Mortals

By: Oliver Burkeman
Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
Length: 5 hours 53 minutes

“Burkeman’s title emphasizes that if we make it to 80 years of age, we live roughly four thousand weeks. That intro alone sounds pretty sobering, but Burkeman takes us through philosophers’ and scientists’ wisdom across centuries with conclusions that are very optimistic. Burke reassures us with stories such as the American who in 1969 went... Read more

How to Be Perfect

The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

By: Michael Schur
Narrated by: Michael Schur, Kristen Bell, D'Arcy Carden, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Manny Jacinto, Marc Evan Jackson, Jameela Jamil & Todd May
Length: 9 hours 13 minutes

“This is the kind of book that has you taking notes and trying to find ways to recall all the concepts when you'll certainly need them in the future. Invitingly straightforward and charmingly relatable, Schur navigates big ethics questions and players. He delivers hilarious conversational sidebars about how to pronounce words that had me in... Read more

How to Know a Person

The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

By: David Brooks
Narrated by: David Brooks
Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

“Brooks went from zero to hero in my mind. His deep research and obvious self-reflection glows in this book. I not only have new terminology to grapple with people who don't listen, but also used his story telling inquiry for richer conversations with my family. Read more

When Breath Becomes Air

By: Paul Kalanithi
Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra & Cassandra Campbell
Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

“With a message both mournful and life-affirming, When Breath Becomes Air chronicles a young doctor's journey from literature student to promising neurosurgeon and finally to a patient in his own hospital after being diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Always profound, never sentimental, this important book refuses to take refuge in platitudes,... Read more

The Persuaders

At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy

By: Anand Giridharadas
Narrated by: Anand Giridharadas
Length: 12 hours 21 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An insider account of activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy—from disinformation fighters to a leader of Black Lives Matter to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and more—by the best-selling author of Winners Take All and... Read more

The Book of Hope

A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Global Icons Series

By: Jane Goodall & Douglas Abrams
Narrated by: Douglas Abrams & Jane Goodall
Length: 6 hours 49 minutes

“Fascinating interview of naturalist Dr Jane Goodall by biographer Douglas Adams. I listened to the Libro.fm edition which is narrated by both. Interesting to learn how she first got interested in studying animal behavior and how the field has changed. Her research at Gombe National Park has given us an in-depth understanding of chimpanzee... Read more

White Evangelical Racism

The Politics of Morality in America

By: Anthea Butler
Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
Length: 3 hours 44 minutes

The American political scene today is poisonously divided, and the vast majority of white evangelicals plays a strikingly unified, powerful role in the disunion. These evangelicals raise a starkly consequential question for electoral politics: Why do they claim morality while supporting politicians who act immorally by most Christian measures?... Read more

The Two Hands of God

By: Alan Watts
Narrated by: Jeremy Stockwell
Length: 9 hours 25 minutes

The forgotten book on world mythology by Alan Watts is now an audiobook for the first time.

Alan Watts is today remembered as a trailblazing interpreter of Eastern philosophy, but The Two Hands of God reveals a different side of his multifaceted genius.

In this ambitious work, Watts takes listeners on a fascinating journey through the mythology... Read more

12 Rules for Life

An Antidote to Chaos

By: Jordan B. Peterson
Narrated by: Jordan B. Peterson
Length: 15 hours 56 minutes

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER 

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

What does everyone in the modern world need to know?

Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.

Humorous, surprising and... Read more

Determined

A Science of Life without Free Will

By: Robert M. Sapolsky
Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
Length: 14 hours 4 minutes

The instant New York Times bestseller

“Excellent…Outstanding for its breadth of research, the liveliness of the writing, and the depth of humanity it conveys.” – Wall Street Journal

One of our great behavioral scientists, the bestselling author of Behave, plumbs the depths of the science and philosophy of decision-making to mount a devastating... Read more

Make It Scream, Make It Burn

Essays

By: Leslie Jamison
Narrated by: Leslie Jamison
Length: 9 hours 3 minutes

“Jamison's skills as a journalist and essayist, very much in the tradition of Didion and New Journalism, have earned her much praise, and I can only heap onto the pile. The essay, "Maximum Exposure," about the outsider photographer Annie Appel, is a masterpiece in particular. Layered like an onion, it explores the relationship between... Read more

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

By: Marie Kondo
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
Length: 4 hours 50 minutes

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you'll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate... Read more

101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

By: Brianna Wiest
Narrated by: Abby Craden
Length: 10 hours 45 minutes

Over the past few years, Brianna Wiest has gained renown for her deeply moving, philosophical writing. This new compilation of her published work features pieces on why you should pursue purpose over passion, embrace negative thinking, see the wisdom in daily routine, and become aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way you see... Read more

The Five Invitations

Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully

By: Frank Ostaseski
Narrated by: Frank Ostaseski
Length: 12 hours 15 minutes

The cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project and pioneer behind the compassionate care movement shares an inspiring exploration of the lessons dying has to offer about living a fulfilling life.

Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in... Read more

The Queer Art of Failure

By: Jack Halberstam
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
Length: 10 hours 1 minute

The Queer Art of Failure is about finding alternatives—to conventional understandings of success in a heteronormative, capitalist society; to academic disciplines that confirm what is already known according to approved methods of knowing; and to cultural criticism that claims to break new ground but cleaves to conventional archives. Halberstam... Read more

How to Think Like a Woman

Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind

By: Regan Penaluna
Narrated by: Angie Kane
Length: 8 hours 26 minutes

As a young woman growing up in Iowa, Regan Penaluna daydreamed about the big questions: Who are we, and what is this strange world we find ourselves in? In college she fell in love with philosophy and chose to pursue it as an academic—the first step, she believed, to becoming a self-determined person living a life of the mind. What she didn’t... Read more

Why Buddhism is True

The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

By: Robert Wright
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

From one of America’s most brilliant writers, a New York Times bestselling journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness.

At the heart of Buddhism is a simple claim: The reason we suffer—and the reason we make other people suffer—is that we don’t see the... Read more

What We Owe the Future

By: William MacAskill
Narrated by: William MacAskill
Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

An Oxford philosopher makes the case for “longtermism”—that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our timeThe fate of the world is in our hands. Humanity’s written history spans only five thousand years. Our yet-unwritten future could last for millions more—or it could end tomorrow. Astonishing numbers of people... Read more

The Happiness Hypothesis

Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

By: Jonathan Haidt
Narrated by: Ryan Vincent Anderson
Length: 10 hours 18 minutes

Jonathan Haidt skillfully combines two genres-philosophical wisdom and scientific research-delighting the reader with surprising insights. He explains, for example, why we have such difficulty controlling ourselves and sticking to our plans; why no achievement brings lasting happiness, yet a few changes in your life can have profound effects,... Read more

Many Lives, Many Masters

The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives

By: Brian L. Weiss
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
Length: 5 hours 49 minutes

From author and psychotherapist Dr. Brian Weiss comes the classic New York Times bestseller on the true case of the past-life therapy that changed the lives of both the prominent psychiatrist and young patient involved—now featuring a new afterword by the author.

As a traditional psychotherapist, Dr. Brian Weiss was astonished and skeptical when... Read more

The Courage to Be Disliked

How to Free Yourself, Change Your Life, and Achieve Real Happiness

By: Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
Narrated by: Noah Galvin, Graeme Malcolm & January LaVoy
Length: 6 hours 28 minutes

An international bestseller and TikTok sensation with more than 10 million copies sold worldwide, The Courage to Be Disliked is a transformative and practical guide to personal happiness and self-fulfillment.

Now you can unlock your full potential and free yourself from the shackles of past traumas and societal expectations to find true personal... Read more

The World as I See It

By: Albert Einstein
Narrated by: Pete Cross
Length: 3 hours 40 minutes

In the aftermath of the First World War, Albert Einstein wrote about his hopes for the League of Nations, his feelings as a German citizen among the growing anti-Semitism and nationalism of his country, and his myriad opinions about the current affairs of his day. In addition to these political perspectives, The World as I See It reveals the... Read more

The Force of Nonviolence

An Ethico-Political Bind

By: Judith Butler
Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
Length: 5 hours 51 minutes

Judith Butler's new book shows how an ethic of nonviolence must be connected to a broader political struggle for social equality. Further, it argues that nonviolence is often misunderstood as a passive practice, or as an individualist ethical relation to existing forms of power. But, in fact, nonviolence is an ethical position found in the midst... Read more

Justice for Animals

Our Collective Responsibility

By: Martha C. Nussbaum
Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
Length: 15 hours 19 minutes

A “brilliant” (Chicago Review of Books), “elegantly written, and compelling” (National Review) new theory and call to action on animal rights, ethics, and law from the renowned philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum.

Animals are in trouble all over the world. Whether through the cruelties of the factory meat industry, poaching and game hunting, habitat... Read more

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

By: Friedrich Nietzsche
Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
Length: 14 hours 31 minutes

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Saul Reichlin, known for their roles in War and Peace and Miss Marple. This definitive recording includes an introduction by R.J. Hollingdale, also read by Saul Reichlin.

Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his... Read more

The Myths We Live By

By: Mary Midgley
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Myths, as Mary Midgley argues in this powerful audiobook, are everywhere. In political thought they sit at the heart of theories of human nature and the social contract; in economics in the pursuit of self interest; and in science the idea of human beings as machines, which originates in the seventeenth century, is a today a potent force. Far... Read more

Is Your Work Worth It?

How to Think About Meaningful Work

By: Christopher Wong Michaelson & Jennifer Tosti-Kharas
Narrated by: Andrew Sellon, Jennifer Tosti-Kharas & Christopher Wong Michaelson
Length: 9 hours 32 minutes

What is work that’s worth doing in a life worth living? A revealing exploration of the questions we ask and the stories we tell about our work.

According to recent studies, barely a third of American workers feel “engaged” at work, and for many people around the world, happiness is lowest when earning power is highest. After a global pandemic... Read more

How to Sit

Mindfulness Essentials: Book #1

By: Thich Nhat Hanh
Narrated by: John Sackville
Length: 1 hour 7 minutes

“Sit” = “Meditate.” Here are clear, simple directions for anyone wanting to explore mindfulness meditation.This first book in the Mindfulness Essentials series, a back-to-basics collection from world-renowned Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, introduces everyone to the essentials of mindfulness practice. In short, single-paragraph chapters, Nhat Hanh... Read more

Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy

By: René Descartes
Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson
Length: 3 hours 31 minutes

René Descartes is often described as the first modern philosopher, but much of the content of his "Meditations on First Philosophy" can be found in the medieval period that had already existed for more than a thousand years. Does God exist? If so, what is his nature? Is the human soul immortal? How does it differ from the body? What role do... Read more

Plato's Apology

By: Plato
Narrated by: Ray Childs
Length: 1 hour

Socrates is on trial for his life. He is charged with impiety and corrupting young people. He presents his own defense, explaining why he has devoted his life to challenging the most powerful and important people in the Greek world. The reason is that rich and famous politicians, priests, poets, and a host of others pretend to know what is good,... Read more

Isis Unveiled Volume 1

The "Infallibility" of Modern Science

Isis Unveiled

By: Helena Blavatsky
Narrated by: Graham Dunlop
Length: 29 hours 23 minutes

THE work now submitted to public judgment is the fruit of a somewhat intimate acquaintance with Eastern adepts and study of their science. It is offered to such as are willing to accept truth wherever it may be found, and to defend it, even looking popular prejudice straight in the face. It is an attempt to aid the student to detect the vital... Read more

Fierce Self-Compassion

How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive

By: Kristin Neff
Narrated by: Jean Ann Douglass
Length: 12 hours 34 minutes

The author of Self-Compassion follows up her groundbreaking book with new ideas that expand our notion of self-kindness and its capacity to transform our lives, showing women how to balance tender self-acceptance with fierce action to claim their power and change the world.

Kristin Neff changed how we talk about self-care with her enormously... Read more

A Brief History of Equality

By: Thomas Piketty
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
Length: 8 hours 43 minutes

“A refreshing perspective from a leading economist on the interplay between economic development, the distribution of wealth and income, political conflict, and equality. Pure Piketty! Read more

Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing The Uncommon

By: Dr. Joe Dispenza
Narrated by: Adam Boyce
Length: 14 hours 6 minutes

The author of the New York Times bestseller You Are the Placebo, as well as Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and Evolve Your Brain, draws on research conducted at his advanced workshops since 2012 to explore how common people are doing the uncommon to transform themselves and their lives. Becoming Supernatural marries the some of the most... Read more

The Book of Eels

Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World

By: Patrik Svensson
Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
Length: 6 hours 24 minutes

Part H Is for Hawk, part The Soul of an Octopus, The Book of Eels is both a meditation on the world’s most elusive fish—the eel—and a reflection on the human condition.Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. So little, in fact, that scientists and philosophers have, for centuries, been obsessed with what has... Read more

Humanly Possible

Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope

By: Sarah Bakewell
Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
Length: 14 hours 26 minutes

The New York Times bestseller • One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2023 • A New York Times Notable Book

“A book of big and bold ideas, Humanly Possible is humane in approach and, more important, readable and worth reading. . . Bakewell is wide-ranging, witty and compassionate.” –Wall Street Journal

“Sweeping . . . linking philosophical... Read more

Courage Is Calling

Fortune Favors the Brave

The Stoic Virtues Series

By: Ryan Holiday
Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
Length: 6 hours 4 minutes

The instant New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestseller!
 
Ryan Holiday’s bestselling trilogy—The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, and Stillness is the Key—captivated professional athletes, CEOs, politicians, and entrepreneurs and helped bring Stoicism to millions of readers. Now, in the first book of an exciting new series... Read more

Neuroqueer Heresies

Notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities

By: Nick Walker
Narrated by: Janet Metzger
Length: 6 hours 16 minutes

The work of queer autistic scholar Nick Walker has played a key role in the evolving discourse on human neurodiversity.

Neuroqueer Heresies collects a decade's worth of Dr. Walker's most influential writings, along with new commentary by the author and new material on her radical conceptualization of Neuroqueer Theory.

This book is essential... Read more

The Rigor of Angels

Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality

By: William Egginton
Narrated by: David Glass
Length: 10 hours 14 minutes

A NEW YORK TIMES AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A poet, a physicist, and a philosopher explored the greatest enigmas in the universe—the nature of free will, the strange fabric of the cosmos, the true limits of the mind—and each in their own way uncovered a revelatory truth about our place in the world

“[A] mind-expanding book. . . .... Read more

Solidarity

The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea

By: Leah Hunt-Hendrix & Astra Taylor
Narrated by: Veronica Giguere
Length: 14 hours 12 minutes

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From renowned organizers and activists Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor, comes the first in-depth examination of Solidarity—not just as a rallying cry, but as potent political movement with potential to effect lasting change.

“A window into what is possible when we reject the politics of division, trade... Read more

On Freedom

Four Songs of Care and Constraint

By: Maggie Nelson
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
Length: 10 hours 5 minutes

An expansive, exhilarating work of criticism by one of the most significant writers of our day.

So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom's long... Read more

Tao Te Ching

A New English Version

By: Stephen Mitchell & Lao Tzu
Narrated by: Stephen Mitchell
Length: 1 hour 40 minutes

In 81 brief chapters, Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, provides advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit, and teaches us how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao—the basic principle of the universe. Stephen Mitchell's bestselling version has been... Read more

The Bright Ages

A New History of Medieval Europe

By: Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry
Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
Length: 9 hours 30 minutes

""Traveling easily through a thousand years of history, The Bright Ages reminds us society never collapsed when the Roman Empire fell, nor did the modern world did wake civilization from a thousand year hibernation. Thoroughly enjoyable, thoughtful and accessible; a fresh look on an age full of light, color, and illumination."" —Mike Duncan,... Read more

Unshrinking

How to Face Fatphobia

By: Kate Manne
Narrated by: Kate Manne
Length: 6 hours 38 minutes

The definitive takedown of fatphobia, drawing on personal experience as well as rigorous research to expose how size discrimination harms everyone, and how to combat it—from the acclaimed author of Down Girl and Entitled

“An elegant, fierce, and profound argument for fighting fat oppression in ourselves, our communities, and our culture.”—Roxane... Read more

Hospicing Modernity

Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism

By: Vanessa Machado de Oliveira
Narrated by: Dougald Hine & Vanessa Machado de Oliveira
Length: 11 hours 54 minutes

For fans of Everything Is F*cked and Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times, a book about facing the multiple crises of modernity--and hospicing modernity--with maturity, humility, and integrity.

This book is not easy: it contains no quick-fix plan for a better, brighter tomorrow, and gives no ready-made answers. Instead, Vanessa... Read more

The Art of Living

Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now

By: Thich Nhat Hanh
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini & Gabra Zackman
Length: 5 hours

In troubled times, there is an urgency to understand ourselves and our world. We have so many questions, and they tug at us night and day, consciously and unconsciously. In this important volume Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh—one of the most revered spiritual leaders in the world today—reveals an art of living in mindfulness that helps us answer... Read more

All Things Are Too Small

Essays in Praise of Excess

By: Becca Rothfeld
Narrated by: Ruth Crawford
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

A glorious call to throw off restraint and balance in favor of excess, abandon, and disproportion, in essays ranging from such topics as decluttering, mindfulness, David Cronenberg, sadomasochism, and women who wait. All Things Are Too Small is brilliant cultural and literary critic Becca Rothfeld’s plea for derangement: imbalance, obsession,... Read more

The Obstacle Is the Way

The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

By: Ryan Holiday
Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
Length: 4 hours 38 minutes

#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller

The Obstacle is the Way has become a cult classic, beloved by men and women around the world who apply its wisdom to become more successful at whatever they do.

Its many fans include a former governor and movie star (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a hip hop icon (LL Cool J), an Irish tennis pro (James McGee), an NBC... Read more

The Second Sex

By: Simone De Beauvoir
Narrated by: Ellen Archer & Judith Thurman
Length: 39 hours 9 minutes

UNABRIDGED AND AVAILABLE ON AUDIO FOR THE FIRST TIME

Simone de Beauvoir’s essential masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a revolutionary exploration of inequality and otherness. This unabridged edition of the text reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English... Read more

God, Human, Animal, Machine

Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning

By: Meghan O'Gieblyn
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
Length: 9 hours 19 minutes

A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Interior States. • "At times personal, at times philosophical, with a bracing mixture of openness and skepticism, it speaks thoughtfully and articulately to the most crucial issues... Read more