Politics & Economy bestsellers

The Demon of Unrest

A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: Will Patton & Erik Larson
Length: 17 hours 17 minutes

“A chilling story of our country falling apart, this is a fascinating dive into the lead-up to the beginning of the Civil War: the time between Lincoln’s election and the fall of Fort Sumter. This compelling, essential and eminently readable book is based on letters, journals and political records from the time. Read more

The Radium Girls

The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

By: Kate Moore
Narrated by: Angela Brazil
Length: 15 hours 52 minutes

1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous—the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.

As the... Read more

A Promised Land

By: Barack Obama
Narrated by: Barack Obama
Length: 29 hours 9 minutes

“No one really needs my blurb to help sell this book, but I wanted to give it anyway, especially for the audiobook, narrated by Barack Obama himself. If you want to know his incredible knowledge and wisdom that guided him through major decisions, and also hear him drop a few F-bombs, you need to listen to this fantastically written book. Read more

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

By: Rashid Khalidi
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi & Rashid Khalidi
Length: 10 hours 30 minutes

This program includes an introduction read by the author.

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.

In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home... Read more

How to Be an Antiracist

By: Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Ibram X. Kendi
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

“Among the multi-faceted array of antiracist literature newly published in the last two years, Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Antiracist stands alone as a definitive source of history and socio-political critique, while offering a new paradigm of thought aimed at paving the way for correcting centuries of social injustice. Hearing this visionary... Read more

Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“A succinct discussion of the causes, effects, and potential changes required to eradicate poverty in the United States. Read more

An Unfinished Love Story

A Personal History of the 1960s

By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Narrated by: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Length: 17 hours 37 minutes

Narrated by Doris Kearns Goodwin with the star of Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston! The audio edition also includes archival recordings of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy.

#1 New York Times Bestseller
The perfect gift for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day!

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris... Read more

Opinions

A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business

By: Roxane Gay
Narrated by: Roxane Gay
Length: 9 hours 58 minutes

From beloved and bestselling author Roxane Gay, “a strikingly fresh cultural critic” (Washington Post) comes an exhilarating collection of her essays on culture, politics, and everything in between. Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling... Read more

Surrender

40 Songs, One Story

By: Bono
Narrated by: Bono
Length: 20 hours 24 minutes

“In Surrender, Bono gives you personal insight into his life, the creation of U2, and the inspiration for some of U2’s most iconic songs. But even more so, he goes into detail about his advocacy and how they came to be. And he shares some amazing stories about the famous people that he has had the opportunity to meet and work with. With every... Read more

Nuclear War

A Scenario

By: Annie Jacobsen
Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
Length: 11 hours 18 minutes

The INSTANT New York Times bestseller

Instant Los Angeles Times bestseller

“In Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail…Terrifying.”—Wall Street Journal

There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours:... Read more

Care Work

Dreaming Disability Justice

By: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Narrated by: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Length: 8 hours 7 minutes

“A primer on disability justice, memoir, personal activism history, and love letter to disabled BIPOC femmes all at once. Read more

Hood Feminism

Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot

By: Mikki Kendall
Narrated by: Mikki Kendall
Length: 6 hours 57 minutes

“Powerful. Important. Compulsively readable. Kendall’s narrative style is top notch - riveting and un-put-down-able. Not only is this a must read, it's a must pay attention. It's a must revisit and keep learning kind of book. Kendall dives deep and doesn't pull punches, but she doesn't seek to shame either. This is necessary reading for anyone... Read more

The Splendid and the Vile

A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: John Lee & Erik Larson
Length: 17 hours 48 minutes

“Erik Larson has done it again! With years of impeccable research into diaries, archives, dossiers, biographies, and official British documents, he has presented an intimate and detailed account of Winston Churchill in his first years as prime minister as he dealt with the London Blitz and his own personal and family issues. This is Churchill as... Read more

Age of Revolutions

Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present

By: Fareed Zakaria
Narrated by: Fareed Zakaria
Length: 13 hours 2 minutes

The internationally bestselling author explores the revolutions—past and present—that define the chaotic, polarized, and unstable age in which we live.

Populist rage, ideological fracture, economic and technological shocks, geopolitical dangers, and an international system studded with catastrophic risk—the early decades of the 21st century may... Read more

Democracy or Else

How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps

By: Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett & Tommy Vietor
Length: TBA

From your friends at Pod Save America comes a useful and illustrated guide to saving American democracy just in time for the 2024 election and 2025 insurrection If you’re looking to navigate the chaotic, dunce-infested waters of American politics, Democracy or Else is here to help you tackle what might be the greatest question of our time: How... Read more

The Moment

Thoughts on the Race Reckoning That Wasn’t and How We All Can Move Forward Now

By: Bakari Sellers
Narrated by: Bakari Sellers
Length: 4 hours 33 minutes

The New York Times bestselling author of My Vanishing Country examines the modern political landscape and policies that are impacting Black families and communities and offers solutions for a better tomorrow. In late May in 2020, while discussing the murder of George Floyd on CNN, Bakari Sellers spoke from the heart sharing devastating insight... Read more

Minority Rule

The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People - and the Fight to Resist It

By: Ari Berman
Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann
Length: 11 hours 7 minutes

The mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, represented an extreme form of the central danger facing American democracy today: a blatant disregard for the will of the majority. Through voter suppression, election subversion, gerrymandering, dark money, the takeover of the courts, and the whitewashing of history, reactionary white... Read more

Freedom is a Constant Struggle

Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

By: Angela Y. Davis
Narrated by: Angela Y. Davis & Coleen Marlo
Length: 5 hours 47 minutes

“A must read on the interconnection of all liberation struggles that has only become more relevant since its publication in 2016. Angela Davis is one of the most steadfast voices of our time, and her background as a public speaker makes for excellent narration. Read more

The Wives

A Memoir

By: Simone Gorrindo
Narrated by: Simone Gorrindo
Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

“With courage and raw truth, Simone Gorrindo conveys the stress, anxiety, and pain of military marriage. She illustrates the importance of the friendships that are formed among those left behind and the camaraderie of those in the Unit. Read more

Nomadland

Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

By: Jessica Bruder
Narrated by: Karen White
Length: 9 hours 57 minutes

From the beet fields of North Dakota to the wilderness campgrounds of California to an Amazon warehouse in Texas, people who once might have kicked back to enjoy their sunset years are hard at work. Underwater on mortgages or finding that Social Security comes up short, they're hitting the road in astonishing numbers, forming a new community of... Read more

The Sum of Us

What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

By: Heather McGhee
Narrated by: Heather McGhee
Length: 11 hours 8 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.

WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • ONE... Read more

Cobalt Red

How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

By: Siddharth Kara
Narrated by: Peter Ganim
Length: 11 hours 20 minutes

“We cannot close our eyes to what is happening in our world even in 2023. Exposés like this force us to see and understand how our choices can affect people on the other side of the earth from us. Changes need to be made starting at the major corporations and then trickle down to the individual. Once we know what is happening we cannot un-know it. Read more

Jesus and John Wayne

How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

By: Kristin Kobes du Mez
Narrated by: Suzie Althens
Length: 12 hours 3 minutes

“Believe it or not Christianity and American politics were separated at one point. However in the last century Evangelical Christianity has become synonymous with conservative politics. This book walks you through the time frame of how that happened and how we are feeling that divide today. We also see how figures like John Wayne became symbols... Read more

So You Want to Talk about Race

By: Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 7 hours 41 minutes

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in AmericaA current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today’s racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divideIn So You Want to Talk about Race,... Read more

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

By: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Narrated by: Laural Merlington
Length: 10 hours 18 minutes

Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the U.S. settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history.

Roxanne... Read more

Central Asia

A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present

By: Adeeb Khalid
Narrated by: Aaqil Ahmed
Length: 17 hours 28 minutes

This engaging audiobook narrated by Aaqil Ahmed explores how Central Asia has been shaped by modern world events

Central Asia is often seen as a remote and inaccessible land on the peripheries of modern history. Encompassing Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and the Xinjiang province of China, it in fact stands at the... Read more

The Power Broker: Volume 2 of 3

Robert Moses and the Fall of New York: Volume 2

By: Robert A. Caro
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
Length: 23 hours 1 minute

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A modern American classic, this huge and galvanizing biography of Robert Moses reveals not only the saga of one man’s incredible accumulation of power but the story of his shaping (and mis-shaping of twentieth-century New York.  One of the Modern Library’s hundred greatest books of the twentieth century.

Robert Caro's... Read more

Democracy Awakening

Notes on the State of America

By: Heather Cox Richardson
Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

A New York Times Bestseller

A vital and urgent call to action about the precarious state of American democracy, charting its historical challenges and current threats, from one of our era’s most important and insightful historians.

“Magisterial.” –The Washington Post

“An excellent primer for anyone who needs the important facts of the last 150... Read more

Be a Revolution

How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too

By: Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by: Ijeoma Oluo
Length: 14 hours 35 minutes

NATIONAL BESTSELLERFrom the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of So You Want to Talk About Race and Mediocre, an eye-opening and galvanizing look at the current state of anti-racist activism across America.In the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want To Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo offered a vital guide for how to talk about important... Read more

Palo Alto

A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

By: Malcolm Harris
Narrated by: Patrick Harrison
Length: 28 hours 19 minutes

“From The Gold Rush to Google, Harris spins a tale of greed, racism, union-busting and violence that built California and Silicon Valley. The book offers an alternate view of California and world history that many of us missed in school. Read more

Secondhand

Travels in the New Global Garage Sale

By: Adam Minter
Narrated by: Daniel Henning
Length: 10 hours 2 minutes

When you drop a box of unwanted items off at the local thrift store, where do they go? Probably across the country—or even halfway across the world—to people and places eager to reuse what you don’t want. In Secondhand, Adam Minter delves into the vast, multibillion-dollar industry that resells used stuff around the world. He follows the trail... Read more

Slow Down

The Degrowth Manifesto

By: Kohei Saito
Narrated by: Troy Glasgow & Kohei Saito
Length: 10 hours 5 minutes

"Why, in our affluent society, do so many people live in poverty, without access to health care, working multiple jobs, and are nevertheless unable to make ends meet, with no future prospects, while the planet is burning? In his international bestseller, Kohei Saito argues that while unfettered capitalism is often blamed for inequality and... Read more

Who's Afraid of Gender?

By: Judith Butler
Narrated by: Judith Butler
Length: 11 hours 47 minutes

This program is read by the author.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Time, Elle, Kirkus, Literary Hub, The Millions, Electric Literature, and them.

"A profoundly urgent intervention.” —Naomi Klein

"A timely must-read for anyone actively invested in re-imagining collective futurity.” —Claudia Rankine

From a global icon, a bold, essential... Read more

The Righteous Mind

Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

By: Jonathan Haidt
Narrated by: Jonathan Haidt
Length: 11 hours

Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding. His starting point is moral... Read more

Black Boys Like Me

On Race, Identity, and Belonging

By: Matthew R. Morris
Narrated by: Matthew R. Morris
Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

*INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER*

“Black Boys Like Me ignited parts of me I honestly didn't believe any book could ever know. . . . Seldom do incredibly titled books earn their titles. Matthew R. Morris earns this classic title with a classic book about our insides.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy


Startlingly honest, bracing personal essays from a... Read more

New Cold Wars

China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West

By: David E. Sanger
Narrated by: Robertson Dean & David E. Sanger
Length: 18 hours 5 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The fast-paced inside story of America’s plunge into a volatile rivalry with the other two great nuclear powers—Xi Jinping’s China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author of The Perfect Weapon
 
“[A] cogent, revealing account of how a generation of American... Read more

Why Nations Fail

The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

By: Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson
Narrated by: Dan Woren
Length: 17 hours 53 minutes

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?

Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are?

Simply, no. None of these... Read more

Debt - Updated and Expanded

The First 5,000 Years

By: David Graeber
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
Length: 17 hours 48 minutes

Now in audio, the updated and expanded edition : David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years,... Read more

Say More

Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World

By: Jen Psaki
Narrated by: Jen Psaki
Length: 5 hours 55 minutes

Former White House Press Secretary and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki shares the surprising lessons she’s learned on her path to success and offers unique yet universal advice about how to be a more effective communicator in any situation.

Not many White House Press Secretaries capture the nation’s interest the way Jen Psaki did. Refreshingly... Read more

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World

By: Tim Marshall
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Length: 8 hours 49 minutes

In this New York Times bestseller, updated for 2016, an award-winning journalist uses ten maps of crucial regions to explain the geo-political strategies of the world powers—“fans of geography, history, and politics (and maps) will be enthralled” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

Maps have a mysterious hold over us. Whether ancient, crumbling... Read more

How to Do Nothing

Resisting the Attention Economy

By: Jenny Odell
Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
Length: 8 hours 10 minutes

A galvanizing critique of the forces vying for our attention—and our personal information—that redefines what we think of as productivity, reconnects us with the environment, and reveals all that we've been too distracted to see about ourselves and our world

Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is... Read more

The Souls of Black Folk

Original Classic Edition

By: W.E.B. Du Bois
Narrated by: Raymond Hearn
Length: 7 hours 36 minutes

Raymond Hearn, the narrator of this edition, did an incredible rendition similar to what he did for The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas

"EITHER AMERICA WILL DESTROY IGNORANCE OR IGNORANCE WILL DESTROY THE UNITED STATES." -W.E.B. Du Bois

This classic groundbreaking work of American literature first published in 1903 is a cornerstone of... Read more

Motorhome Prophecies

A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness

By: Carrie Sheffield
Narrated by: Carrie Sheffield
Length: 9 hours 55 minutes

In the vein of Educated and Hillbilly Elegy comes a young woman’s memoir chronicling her harrowing journey from despair to salvation that showcases the depths and resilience of the human spirit and empowers readers on their own paths toward healing, forgiveness, and redemption.
 
Carrie Sheffield grew up fifth of eight children with a violent,... Read more

The End of Policing

By: Alex S. Vitale
Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
Length: 8 hours 17 minutes

Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists, and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in... Read more

How to Hide an Empire

A History of the Greater United States

By: Daniel Immerwahr
Narrated by: Luis Moreno
Length: 17 hours 25 minutes

“A hilarious sparkler of historical quirks burns down to a dangerous fuse of tampering, territory, and transnational economics in this history of the USA not as the nation you just pictured, but as the complete global network of Americans, many without the rights the Lower 48 believe in, most segregated into cells of power that occasionally... Read more

The River of Doubt

Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

By: Candice Millard
Narrated by: Paul Michael
Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

“Did you know that Theodore Roosevelt ran for a third term, this time with the Progressive Party, a new, independent third party? That when he lost, he decided to join an expedition of The River of Doubt, a tributary of the Amazon River? He did, along with the Brazilian explorer Candido Rondon and Roosevelt’s son, Kermit. Of the nineteen men who... Read more

King: A Life

By: Jonathan Eig
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 20 hours 45 minutes

Winner of the 2024 Audie Award for Best Nonfiction Narrator!

This program is narrated by Dion Graham, narrator of over 300 audiobooks and an AudioFile Golden Voice. Dion has won multiple Earphones and Audie Awards.

"Dion Graham superbly narrates this riveting audiobook, emulating the majestic cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, speeches. He... Read more

Chaos

Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

By: Tom O'Neill
Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
Length: 16 hours 15 minutes

A journalist's twenty-year fascination with the Manson murders leads to shocking new revelations about the FBI's involvement in this riveting reassessment of an infamous case in American history.
Over two grim nights in Los Angeles, the young followers of Charles Manson murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months... Read more

Evicted

Poverty and Profit in the American City

By: Matthew Desmond
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • One of the most acclaimed books of our time, this modern classic “has set a new standard for reporting on poverty” (Barbara Ehrenreich, The New York Times Book Review).

In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius”... Read more

Prequel

An American Fight Against Fascism

By: Rachel Maddow
Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
Length: 13 hours 9 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis.
 
“A ripping read—well rendered, fast-paced and delivered with the same... Read more