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

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

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

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A practical, heartfelt guide to the art of truly knowing another person in order to foster deeper connections at home, at work, and throughout our lives—from the author of The Road to Character and The Second Mountain

As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, 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 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

Fathoms

The World in the Whale

By: Rebecca Giggs
Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio
Length: 12 hours 5 minutes

“This isn't a scientists memoir about their life studying whales; it's really just a rambling of facts that held me and my friends in fascination as we listened to it on libro.fm during a road trip. WHALES ARE SO INTERESTING! Rebecca lives in Australia and became obsessed with whales when a young humpback washed up too high on her local beach and... 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

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

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Incerto: Book #3

By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Narrated by: Joe Ochman
Length: 16 hours 13 minutes

Antifragile is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and The Bed of Procrustes.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the... 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

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

Stoic Foundations

The Cornerstone Works of Stoicism

By: Marcus Aurelius, Seneca & Epictetus
Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
Length: 13 hours 1 minute

An essential guide to the core texts of Stoic philosophy, featuring a new introduction from Massimo Pigliucci, author of How To Be A Stoic

Stoicism is a philosophy, a worldview, and a transformational practice. Throughout the centuries everyone from kings and presidents to Silicone Valley entrepreneurs have drawn inspiration and wisdom from... Read more

The Essence of Chan

A Guide to Life and Practice according to the Teachings of Bodhidharma

By: Guo Gu
Narrated by: Daniel Henning
Length: 3 hours 21 minutes

Clear and illuminating commentary on one of Bodhidharma's most important texts—designed to help Chan practitioners apply timeless and essential advice to their practice

Legend has it that more than a thousand years ago an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma arrived in China. His approach to teaching was unlike that of any of the Buddhist... Read more

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

By: Charlie Mackesy
Narrated by: Charlie Mackesy
Length: 58 minutes

Charlie Mackesy’s beloved The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse has been adapted into an animated short film, now available to stream on Apple TV+
“A surprise bestseller about kindness and vulnerability is bringing people together.” – Washington Post
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” asked the mole.
“Kind,” said the boy.

Charlie Mackesy... 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 Human Condition

Second Edition

By: Hannah Arendt
Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
Length: 15 hours 41 minutes

The past year has seen a resurgence of interest in the political thinker Hannah Arendt, "the theorist of beginnings," whose work probes the logics underlying unexpected transformations—from totalitarianism to revolution.

A work of striking originality, The Human Condition is in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in... Read more

If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal

What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity

By: Justin Gregg
Narrated by: Justin Gregg
Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

This funny, "extraordinary and thought-provoking" (The Wall Street Journal) book asks whether we are in fact the superior species. As it turns out, the truth is stranger—and far more interesting—than we have been led to believe.

At first glance, human history is full of remarkable feats of intelligence. We invented writing. Produced incredible... 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

Galileo's Error

Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

By: Philip Goff
Narrated by: Maxwell Caulfield
Length: 8 hours 3 minutes

From a leading philosopher of the mind comes this lucid, provocative argument that offers a radically new picture of human consciousness--panpsychism

Understanding how brains produce consciousness is one of the great scientific challenges of our age. Some philosophers argue that consciousness is something "extra," beyond the physical workings of... Read more

This Is an Uprising

How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century

By: Mark Engler & Paul Engler
Narrated by: Graham Halstead
Length: 11 hours 27 minutes

Strategic nonviolent action has reasserted itself as a potent force in shaping public debate and forcing political change. Whether it is an explosive surge of protest calling for racial justice in the United States or a demand for democratic reform in Hong Kong or Mexico, when mass movements erupt onto our television screens, the media portrays... Read more

The Transcendent Brain

Spirituality in the Age of Science

By: Alan Lightman
Narrated by: Christopher Grove
Length: 4 hours 54 minutes

From the best-selling author of Einstein’s Dreams comes a rich, fascinating answer to the question, Can the scientifically inclined still hold space for spirituality?

Gazing at the stars, falling in love, or listening to music, we sometimes feel a transcendent connection with a cosmic unity and things larger than ourselves. But these experiences... Read more

The Life of the Mind

By: Hannah Arendt
Narrated by: Laural Merlington
Length: 20 hours 45 minutes

Considered by many to be Hannah Arendt's greatest work, published as she neared the end of her life, The Life of the Mind investigates thought itself, as it exists in contemplative life. In a shift from her previous writings, most of which focus on the world outside the mind, this work was planned as three volumes that would explore the... Read more

Moral AI

And How We Get There

By: Jana Schaich Borg, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong & Vincent Conitzer
Narrated by: Rory Alexander
Length: 7 hours 42 minutes

Brought to you by Penguin.

A reassuring and thought-provoking guide to all the big questions about AI and ethicsShould robots ever be considered free? Will computers transcend human intelligence? And what can we do to make sure AI is safe?

The artificial intelligence revolution has begun. Today, there are self-driving cars on our streets,... Read more

The Fundamentals of Ethics

By: Russ Shafer-Landau
Narrated by: Jason Leikam
Length: 15 hours 49 minutes

In The Fundamentals of Ethics, Fifth Edition, author Russ Shafer-Landau employs a uniquely engaging writing style to introduce students to the essential ideas of moral philosophy. Offering more comprehensive coverage of the good life, normative ethics, and metaethics than any other text of its kind, this book also addresses issues that are often... Read more

Wild Justice

The Moral Lives of Animals

By: Marc Bekoff & Jessica Pierce
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Length: 6 hours 1 minute

Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a... Read more

Out of One, Many

Ancient Greek Ways of Thought and Culture

By: Jennifer T. Roberts
Narrated by: Petrea Burchard
Length: TBA

Covering the whole of the ancient Greek experience from its beginnings late in the third millennium BCE to the Roman conquest in 30 BCE, Out of One, Many is an accessible and lively introduction to the Greeks and their ways of living and thinking. In this fresh and witty exploration of the thought, culture, society, and history of the Greeks,... Read more

Reasons and Persons

By: Derek Parfit
Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
Length: 29 hours 18 minutes

Challenging, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity, Parfit claims that we have a false view about our own nature. It is often rational to act against our own best interests, he argues, and most of us have moral views that are self-defeating. We often act wrongly, although... 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

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

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

“Listening to this on audio has been a special experience simply due to the fact that Jane Goodall’s voice as she delivers her philosophies on hope in regards to the environment is both a balm to a troubled mind and spark of inspiration towards action. There is someone in your life that needs this book and it would make a great gift for them. 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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

Nasty, Brutish, and Short

Adventures in Philosophy with My Kids

By: Scott Hershovitz
Narrated by: Scott Hershovitz
Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

An NPR Best Book of 2022 * One of Christian Science Monitor's 10 best books of May

“This amazing new book . . . takes us on a journey through classic and contemporary philosophy powered by questions like ‘What do we have the right to do? When is it okay to do this or that?’ They explore punishment and authority and sex and gender and race and the... 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

You Belong

A Call for Connection

By: Sebene Selassie
Narrated by: Sebene Selassie
Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

""A POWERFUL WORK OF SPIRITUALITY AND ANTI-RACISM""—Publishers Weekly""IF YOU READ ONE BOOK IN 2020, MAKE IT THIS ONE.""—Tricycle From much-admired meditation expert Sebene Selassie, You Belong is a call to action, exploring our tangled relationship with belonging, connection, and each otherYou are not separate. You never were. You never will... 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

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

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

A History of Western Philosophy

By: Bertrand Russell
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
Length: 38 hours 2 minutes

Hailed as “lucid and magisterial” by The Observer, this book is universally acclaimed as the outstanding one-volume work on the subject of Western philosophy.

Considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of all time, the History of Western Philosophy is a dazzlingly unique exploration of the ideologies of significant... 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

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

By: Marcus Aurelius
Narrated by: Robin Homer
Length: 5 hours 10 minutes

Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman empire from AD 161-180. He wrote the 12 books of the Meditations as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. It is possible that large portions of the work were written at Sirmium, where he spent much time planning military campaigns from 170 to 180. Some of it was written while he was positioned at... 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

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