Philosophy bestsellers

Sapiens

A Brief History of Humankind

By: Yuval Noah Harari
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
Length: 15 hours 17 minutes

“I think this book should be a required read if you consider yourself a member of the human race. This was an interesting and dynamic text on the evolution of early humans to modern man. Sapiens helps recreate a narrative of our existence in relation to other early human subspecies, as well as helps elaborate on how we came to be today. I learned... 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

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

Four Thousand Weeks

Time Management for Mortals

By: Oliver Burkeman
Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

“This little philosophical gem is my top non-fiction recommendation for this holiday season. What a gift, to give up on getting everything done, and focus on the things that really matter. The audiobook is a joy to listen to; the words seemed to mean even more as I listened, inspired. Read more

How Fascism Works

The Politics of Us and Them

By: Jason Stanley
Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
Length: 5 hours 44 minutes

“With unsettling insight and disturbing clarity, How Fascism Works is an essential guidebook to our current national dilemma of democracy vs. authoritarianism.”—Jelani Cobb, New Yorker staff writer

“No single book is as relevant to the present moment.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A Yale... 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

“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

Conscious

A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind

By: Annaka Harris
Narrated by: Annaka Harris
Length: 2 hours 22 minutes

2020 Audie Finalist As concise and enlightening as Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, this mind-expanding dive into the mystery of consciousness is an illuminating meditation on the self, free will, and felt experience.What is consciousness? How does it arise? And why does it exist? We take our experience of... Read more

Believe

Why Everyone Should Be Religious

By: Ross Douthat
Narrated by: Ross Douthat
Length: 7 hours 41 minutes

An Instant New York Times Bestseller"Truly a Mere Christianity for the 21st century"--World magazineRead by the author.Do you ever wish you had more faith? Here is a blueprint for thinking your way from doubt to belief.As a columnist for the New York Times who writes often about spiritual topics for a skeptical audience, Ross Douthat understands... 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

On Freedom

By: Timothy Snyder
Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
Length: 10 hours 48 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “visionary” (The Guardian) exploration of freedom—what it is, how it’s been misunderstood, and why it’s our only chance for survival—by the acclaimed Yale historian and author of On Tyranny

“[Snyder’s] deep political and philosophical examination of how to . . . create and sustain freedom provides a hopeful view for... 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

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

Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance®

By: Robert M. Pirsig & Peter Flannery
Narrated by: James Purefoy & Full Cast
Length: 1 hour 40 minutes

An odyssey into life’s challenging questions during an unforgettable summer motorcycle trip

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance became an instant bestseller upon its publication in 1974. A powerful examination of how we live, as well as a... 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

Letters from a Stoic

Penguin Classics

By: Seneca
Narrated by: Julian Glover
Length: 7 hours 38 minutes

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by Julian Glover, Olivier Award winning actor, also known for his roles in Game of Thrones and Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Robin Campbell.


A philosophy that saw self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in... Read more

The Holographic Universe

The Revolutionary Theory of Reality

By: Michael Talbot
Narrated by: Nick Mondelli
Length: 13 hours

Nearly everyone is familiar with holograms—three-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Two of the world's most eminent thinkers believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite literally a kind of image or construct created, at least in part, by the human mind. University of London physicist David Bohm,... Read more

What's Left

Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis

By: Malcolm Harris
Narrated by: Patrick Harrison
Length: 10 hours 17 minutes

A vital guide for collective political action against the climate apocalypse, from bestselling progressive intellectual Malcolm Harris—“a brilliant thinker and writer capable of making the intricacies of economic conditions supremely readable” (Vulture).

Climate change is the unifying crisis of our time. But the scale of the problem can be... 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 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

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 for... Read more

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

The Spiritual Classic & International Bestseller, Revised and Updated Edition

By: Sogyal Rinpoche
Narrated by: Lorraine Velez
Length: 20 hours 43 minutes

A newly revised and updated edition of the internationally best-selling spiritual classic, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by Sogyal Rinpoche, is the ultimate introduction to Tibetan Buddhist wisdom. An enlightening, inspiring, and comforting manual for life and death that the New York Times calls, “The Tibetan equivalent of... 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

Discipline Is Destiny

The Power of Self-Control

The Stoic Virtues Series

By: Ryan Holiday
Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
Length: 7 hours 23 minutes

The instant New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestseller!

In his New York Times bestselling book Courage is Calling, author Ryan Holiday made the Stoic case for a bold and brave life. In this much-anticipated second book of his Stoic Virtue series, Holiday celebrates the awesome power of self-discipline and those who have seized... Read more

The Art of Communicating

By: Thich Nhat Hanh
Narrated by: Dan Woren
Length: 3 hours 18 minutes

Zen master Thick Nhat Hanh, bestselling author of Peace is Every Step and one of the most respected and celebrated religious leaders in the world, delivers a powerful path to happiness through mastering life's most important skill.How do we say what we mean in a way that the other person can really hear?How can we listen with compassion and... Read more

The Tao of Pooh

By: Benjamin Hoff
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Length: 2 hours 46 minutes

Winnie-the-Pooh has a certain Way about him, a way of doing things that has made him the world's most beloved bear. In The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff shows that Pooh's Way is amazingly consistent with the principles of living envisioned by the Chinese founders of Taoism. The author's explanation of Taoism through Pooh, and Pooh through Taoism,... Read more

The Road to Character

By: David Brooks
Narrated by: Arthur Morey & David Brooks
Length: 12 hours 16 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • David Brooks challenges us to rebalance the scales between the focus on external success—“résumé virtues”—and our core principles.
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST
 
With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column... Read more

The Invention of Good and Evil

A World History of Morality

By: Hanno Sauer
Narrated by: Callum Coates
Length: 12 hours 44 minutes

What makes us moral beings? How do we decide what is good and what is evil? And has it always been that way? Hanno Sauer's sweeping new history of humanity, covering five million years of our universal moral values, comes at a crucial moment of crisis for those values, and helps to explain how they arose—and why we need them.



Modern societies are... Read more

The Road to Wisdom

On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust

By: Francis S. Collins
Narrated by: Francis S. Collins
Length: 9 hours 3 minutes

From “national treasure” Francis Collins (Philip Yancey), the New York Times bestselling author of The Language of God and former director of the National Institutes of Health, comes a deeply thoughtful guidebook to get us beyond societal divisions and back to the sources of wisdom—"the sort that can save us before it is too late” (Jane... 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

The Open Society and Its Enemies

New One-Volume Edition

By: Karl Popper
Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
Length: 23 hours 17 minutes

One of the most important books of the twentieth century, Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies is an uncompromising defense of liberal democracy and a powerful attack on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. Popper was born in 1902 to a Viennese family of Jewish origin. He taught in Austria until 1937, when he emigrated to New... Read more

When No Thing Works

A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse

By: Norma Wong
Narrated by: Norma Wong & Na'alehu Anthony
Length: 3 hours 2 minutes

Spiritual and community lessons for embracing collective care, co-creating sustainable worlds, and responsibly meeting uncertain futures—a Zen and Indigenous take on building better, more balanced ways of being

For readers of Hospicing Modernity, When Things Fall Apart, and Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet

Talking story, weaving poetry, and... Read more

Courting the Wild Twin

By: Martin Shaw
Narrated by: Martin Shaw
Length: 3 hours 37 minutes

Master mythologist Martin Shaw uses timeless story-wisdom to examine our broken relationship with the world There is an old legend that says we each have a wild, curious twin that was thrown out the window the night we were born, taking much of our vitality with them. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on... Read more

Moral Tribes

Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them

By: Joshua Greene
Narrated by: Mel Foster
Length: 14 hours 53 minutes

“Moral Tribes is a masterpiece—a landmark work brimming with originality and insight that also happens to be wickedly fun to read. The only disappointing thing about this book is that it ends.” —Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology, Harvard University; author of the international bestseller Stumbling on HappinessOur brains were designed for... Read more

Capital

Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy

By: Karl Marx
Narrated by: Derek Le Page
Length: 43 hours 3 minutes

It can be said of very few books that the world was changed as a result of its publication - but this is certainly the case of Capital: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx (1818-1883). Volume 1 appeared (in German) in 1867, and the two subsequent volumes appeared at later dates after the author's death - completed from extensive notes... Read more

Philosophy as a Way of Life

Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault

By: Pierre Hadot
Narrated by: Mike Fraser
Length: 13 hours 56 minutes

This book presents a history of spiritual exercises from Socrates to early Christianity, an account of their decline in modern philosophy, and a discussion of the different conceptions of philosophy that have accompanied the trajectory and fate of the theory and practice of spiritual exercises. Hadot's book demonstrates the extent to which... Read more

Reasons Not to Worry

How to Be Stoic in Chaotic Times

By: Brigid Delaney
Narrated by: Blazey Best
Length: 8 hours 25 minutes

In this heartfelt and soul-searching work, brimming with warmth, humor, and insight, the beloved Guardian columnist spends a year exploring how to pursue a rich and meaningful life, turning to the wisdom of the Stoics for insights into the deepest questions of existence. Like many people today, Brigid Delaney was searching for answers to... Read more

This Is It

and Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience

By: Alan Watts
Narrated by: Sean Runnette
Length: 3 hours 25 minutes

This inspiring audiobook contains six revolutionary essays exploring the relationship between spiritual experience and ordinary life—and the need for them to coexist within each of us.

With essays on “cosmic consciousness” (including Alan Watts’ account of his own ventures into this inward realm); the paradoxes of self-consciousness; LSD and... Read more

The Ascent of Humanity

Civilization and the Human Sense of Self

By: Charles Eisenstein
Narrated by: Steve Wojtas
Length: 27 hours 26 minutes

The author of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self
 
Our disconnection from one another and the natural world has mislaid the foundations of science, religion, money, technology, economics,... Read more

Heaven in Disorder

By: Slavoj Zizek
Narrated by: Will Tulin
Length: 7 hours 9 minutes

As we emerge (though perhaps only temporarily) from the pandemic, other crises move center stage: outrageous inequality, climate disaster, desperate refugees, mounting tensions of a new cold war. The abiding motif of our time is relentless chaos.



Acknowledging the possibilities for new beginnings at such moments, Mao Zedong famously proclaimed,... Read more

The Art of the Interesting

What We Miss in Our Pursuit of the Good Life and How to Cultivate It

By: Lorraine Besser
Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

Philosopher and popular Middlebury professor Dr. Lorraine Besser reveals the missing third piece in our search for the Good Life—what she calls The Interesting—and teaches us how to cultivate it in our lives.

Do you know anyone who's truly living The Good Life? Traditionally, philosophers and psychologists have thought of the Good Life in terms... Read more

The Life of Milarepa

By: Tsangnyön Heruka
Narrated by: Lee Osorio
Length: 9 hours 19 minutes

One of the most beloved stories of the Tibetan people and a great literary example of the contemplative life

The Life of Milarepa, a biography and a dramatic tale from a culture now in crisis, can be read on several levels. A personal and moving introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, it is also a detailed guide to the search for liberation. It... Read more

Kant

A Very Short Introduction

By: Roger Scruton
Length: 5 hours 17 minutes

Kant is arguably the most influential modern philosopher, but also one of the most difficult. Roger Scruton tackles his exceptionally complex subject with a strong hand, exploring the background to Kant's work and showing why the Critique of Pure Reason has proved so enduring. Read more

Discourses on Livy

By: Niccolò Machiavelli
Narrated by: narrator
Length: 13 hours 46 minutes

Discourses on Livy is the founding document of modern republicanism, and Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov have provided the definitive English translation of this classic work. Faithful to the original Italian text, properly attentive to Machiavelli's idiom and subtlety of thought, it is eminently readable. With a substantial introduction,... Read more

Liberal Fascism

The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

By: Jonah Goldberg
Narrated by: Johnny Heller
Length: 15 hours 53 minutes

"Fascists," "Brownshirts," "jackbooted stormtroopers"—such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?



Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on... Read more

What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

By: Thomas Nagel
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
Length: 1 hour 5 minutes

"Consciousness is what makes the mind-body problem really intractable." So begins Thomas Nagel's classic 1974 essay "What is it Like to be a Bat?" Nagel's essay initiated the now widespread attention to consciousness as a central problem for philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience; it also influenced the recognition of the consciousness of... Read more

The Moral Epistles

124 Letters to Lucilius

By: Seneca the Younger
Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
Length: 23 hours 17 minutes

Towards the end of his life, Seneca the Younger (c4 BCE-65 CE) began a correspondence with a friend in Sicily, later collected under the title The Moral Epistles.

In these 124 letters, Seneca expresses, in a wise, steady and calm manner, the philosophy by which he lived - derived essentially from the Stoics. The letters deal with a variety of... Read more

Deeper Mindfulness

The New Way to Rediscover Calm in a Chaotic World

By: Mark Williams & Danny Penman
Narrated by: Mark Williams
Length: 21 hours 6 minutes

From the authors of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World, this anticipated follow-up allows both new and seasoned practitioners of mindfulness and meditation to deepen their practice and alleviate anxiety, stress, depression, and improve overall quality of life.

Based on Mark Williams's research into the therapeutic... Read more

Chanting Breath by Breath

with Thich Nhat Hanh and the Monks and Nuns of Plum Village

By: Thich Nhat Hanh
Narrated by: The Monks and Nuns at Plum Village
Length: 1 hour 9 minutes

In Plum Village, the practice of chanting in English is a flower, slowly blossoming. The chants and music in this program are some of the first petals to open on this beautiful flower. Chanted by the resident community of Plum Village in 2002, these recordings include most of the chants contained in Chanting from the Heart, with live tracks from... Read more