Social Science bestsellers

The Serviceberry

By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Length: 1 hour 56 minutes

“Fans of Braiding Sweetgrass, rejoice! Robin Wall Kimmerer has blessed us with a compulsively shareable contemplation of nature’s exquisite gift economy and how it can inspire us to imagine and act toward a saner, more sustainable, equitable, and joyful biophilic economy. As I was reading, I kept feeling that a new classic had arrived in the nick... Read more

The Message

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Length: 5 hours 20 minutes

“I love listening to nonfiction narrated by the author! In these essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates demonstrates a concept we should all practice; that is, the ability to unlearn what we've always believed to be true when presented with new facts. He accomplishes this through the lens of storytelling and its power to change people. The most profound... Read more

The Age of Magical Overthinking

Notes on Modern Irrationality

By: Amanda Montell
Narrated by: Amanda Montell
Length: 6 hours 5 minutes

“Exploring our current culture of overthinking and the language surrounding it, these essays are fascinating and enlightening. Peppered with anecdotes and self-evaluation, this is the book Montell was meant to write. Read more

The Anthropocene Reviewed

Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

By: John Green
Narrated by: John Green
Length: 10 hours 42 minutes

“A lovely lovely listen read by the author. This is the perfect book to take on a long walk or drive that will make you look at the world in a fresh way. Drawing on personal anecdotes, history, literature and science, Green embraces both small and big ideas and makes you grateful for things you might have once overlooked. 5/5 stars for this... Read more

All About Love

New Visions

By: bell hooks
Narrated by: January LaVoy
Length: 6 hours 9 minutes

“There’s nothing I can say about bell hooks that hasn’t already been said. This book is excellent and did cause me to think about love in a different way. It’s beautifully-written and philosophically brilliant. Read more

Doppelganger

A Trip into the Mirror World

By: Naomi Klein
Narrated by: Naomi Klein
Length: 14 hours 47 minutes

“Born out of the author’s constantly being confused with the feminist-turned-conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf, Doppelganger examines the concept of doubles and mirroring in art and in life, with special focus on disinformation and the MAGA movement. Klein illustrates how ideas throughout history have been co-opted by opposing factions to create... Read more

Revenge of the Tipping Point

Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering

By: Malcolm Gladwell
Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
Length: 8 hours 25 minutes

“Fun return to the Tipping Point. The audio version is great and includes some interesting interviews. 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

Christmas and Other Horrors

An Anthology of Solstice Horror

By: Ellen Datlow
Narrated by: Carrie Coello & Andrew J. Andersen
Length: 13 hours 9 minutes

“Just how well do you truly know the myths and legends surrounding this time of year? I’m not talking about the Jolly Old Elf. We’ve heard plenty enough of those stories. No, what I’m talking about are the old stories of the Winter Solstice – tales that retain a foothold upon the darkest corners of the human psyche to this day. Tales that... Read more

There's Always This Year

On Basketball and Ascension

By: Hanif Abdurraqib
Narrated by: Hanif Abdurraqib
Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

“You need not be a basketball aficionado to have your heart profoundly captured by this incredible work of nonfiction. Part cultural commentary and part memoir, Abdurraqib's writing is poetic and distinct, making you feel like you are watching a cherished friend perform spoken word. Structured like the four quarters of a basketball game,... Read more

Cultish

The Language of Fanaticism

By: Amanda Montell
Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
Length: 8 hours 21 minutes

“The linguistics of cults and 'culty' groups. Such a fascinating listen; the weaponization of language is an intriguing and timely discussion. Read more

As You Wish

Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

By: Cary Elwes & Joe Layden
Narrated by: Cary Elwes, Carol Kane, Norman Lear, Rob Reiner, Chris Sarandon, Andy Scheinman, Wallace Shawn & Robin Wright
Length: 7 hours 1 minute

“An affectionate and engaging love letter to the movie-adaptation of The Princess Bride, and everyone who worked on the project. If you are a huge fan of the fairytale cult classic, this memoir is a must-read that will leave you feeling nostalgic, and ready to watch the film again with new eyes. With guest commentary from the cast and crew, this... Read more

Caste (Oprah's Book Club)

The Origins of Our Discontents

By: Isabel Wilkerson
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 15 hours 10 minutes

“This is an important and beautifully written book examining the links and common elements between the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany. Highly recommended. Read more

What If We Get It Right?

Visions of Climate Futures

By: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Narrated by: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Ayisha Siddiqa, Jacqueline Woodson & Steve Connell
Length: 21 hours 54 minutes

“An excellent book about various aspects of climate change: scientific, social, political. Author Ayana Elizabeth Johnson recorded all of her interviews, so each one is in the interviewee’s own voice. I learned a lot about the work different activists are doing around climate! Johnson also shares actionable advice to help the reader learn what... Read more

Talking to Strangers

What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know

By: Malcolm Gladwell
Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

“Talking To Strangers is perfect on audio. It reads (listens) like a podcast including audio clips from interviews, etc. Read more

Nexus

A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

By: Yuval Noah Harari
Narrated by: Vidish Athavale
Length: 17 hours 27 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

“Striking original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly.”—The Economist

“This deeply important book comes at a critical... Read more

Come As You Are: Revised and Updated

The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life

By: Emily Nagoski
Narrated by: Emily Nagoski
Length: 11 hours 29 minutes

A revised and updated edition of Emily Nagoski’s game-changing New York Times bestseller Come As You Are, featuring new information and research on mindfulness, desire, and pleasure that will radically transform your sex life.

For much of the 20th and 21st centuries, women’s sexuality was an uncharted territory in science, studied far less... Read more

You Didn't Hear This From Me

(Mostly) True Notes on Gossip

By: Kelsey McKinney
Narrated by: Kelsey McKinney
Length: TBA

“Gossip is the only cultural tradition I care about, and Kelsey McKinney has written its Bible” – Samantha Irby, #1 NYT bestselling author

From the host of the Normal Gossip podcast, a delightfully insightful exploration of our obsession with gossip that weaves together journalism, cultural criticism, and memoir.

As the pandemic forced us to... Read more

The Warmth of Other Suns

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

By: Isabel Wilkerson
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 22 hours 40 minutes

“I'm sorry I hadn't gotten to this sooner. Wilkerson pulls together so much of what I already knew about the US but not necessarily why... a great audiobook, too. Read more

Burnout

The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

By: Emily Nagoski, PhD & Amelia Nagoski, DMA
Narrated by: Emily Nagoski, PhD & Amelia Nagoski, DMA
Length: 7 hours 1 minute

“Working in an industry I’m super passionate about makes it REALLY hard to set healthy boundaries. When I’m not promoting books, I’m reading them. When I’m not on a Zoom call with an author, I’m stalking their #bookstagram profiles online. Books all day every day! The Nagoski siblings are two of my favorite nonfiction authors. They know how to... Read more

Stay True

A Memoir (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

By: Hua Hsu
Narrated by: Hua Hsu
Length: 5 hours 28 minutes

“Stay True by Hua Hsu is a memoir set largely in/at Berkeley in the 1990s. A quietly profound look at the momentousness of the decisions you make as an emerging adult - about friendship, romance, art, music, activism, and family. Read more

By the Fire We Carry

The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land

By: Rebecca Nagle
Narrated by: Rebecca Nagle
Length: 8 hours 14 minutes

“Rebecca Nagle gives a clear and compelling narration of her look into how a small-town murder in the Muscogee Nation led to a significant 2020 Supreme Court case—and the largest restoration of Native tribal land in American history. . . . An illuminating listen.” — AudioFile""Impeccably researched. . . . A fascinating book and an important one.”... Read more

On Tyranny

Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

By: Timothy Snyder
Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

“This pocket guide to preserving our freedoms and resisting authoritarianism, penned by Yale historian of fascism Timothy Snyder, takes lessons from the fall of democracies across Europe in the 20th Century, each posing a warning to us now in the 21st Century. A brief but mind blowing, eye-opening read that left me feeling sobered and empowered... Read more

The Dawn of Everything

A New History of Humanity

By: David Graeber & David Wengrow
Narrated by: Mark Williams
Length: 24 hours 19 minutes

“This book packs the foundations of modern political philosophy with dynamite and lights the fuse! Through recent advances in archaeology and anthropology, Davids Graeber and Wengrow show us a dizzying range of sophisticated models of human social organization among indigenous peoples, around the world, over tens of thousands of years,... Read more

Between Two Kingdoms

A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

By: Suleika Jaouad
Narrated by: Suleika Jaouad
Length: 13 hours 2 minutes

“ A stirring memoir about a young woman moving between the realms of the sick and the well, and the nonlinear nature of healing. Jaouad writes, 'If we are brave enough to tell our own story, we realize we're not alone, again and again.' And WOW does she accomplish that for her readers. Read more

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning

By: Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Jason Reynolds
Length: 4 hours 11 minutes

“The history of Black Americans from two people who get it. But this isn't just a history book: it's a recount of why America is the way that it is today, why we have people who think they way they do, and why we have a racist in the White House. Jason Reynolds melodic voice comes through in audio and on the pages. You are guaranteed to learn... Read more

The Disordered Cosmos

A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred

By: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Length: 10 hours 55 minutes

“If this was the science I learned growing up, I would have been way more invested. This is an intersectional look at physics, detailing the dazzling wonder and the stifling social conditions of physics. Read more

Cue the Sun!

The Invention of Reality TV

By: Emily Nussbaum
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
Length: 15 hours 11 minutes

“Are you low-key fascinated by reality tv? This is the book for you! It follows unscripted television from its game-show-type origins all the way up to today. It's a big part of our culture so I think it's great someone is studying it with such detail. Read more

Know My Name

A Memoir

By: Chanel Miller
Narrated by: Chanel Miller
Length: 15 hours 24 minutes

“Wow! Everybody should read this book. A stunning memoir about a devastating subject. It was eye opening, gut wrenching, powerful and brave. Chanel Miller writes with such honesty and vulnerability–I immediately felt that I knew her and she had me walking in her shoes throughout the entire book. I’m still reeling from the roller coaster of... Read more

White Fragility

Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

By: Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Narrated by: Amy Landon
Length: 6 hours 20 minutes

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white... Read more

The 1619 Project

A New Origin Story

By: Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman & Jake Silverstein
Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones & Full Cast
Length: 18 hours 56 minutes

“This new landmark work of U.S. history, criticism, and art is forged of 18 essays that consider the relevance of slavery to contemporary America through the prism of such subjects as capitalism, music, and healthcare and poems and fiction that focus on key moments in the oppression, resistance, and liberation of Black people in America. Riveting... Read more

Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century

Unabridged Selections

By: Alice Wong
Narrated by: Alejandra Ospina & Alice Wong
Length: 8 hours 1 minute

“Containing dozens of personal stories, this is an absolute must-read for anyone looking to learn about the breadth, diversity, and history of disabled experience(s) from disabled folks themselves. Read more

Unmasking Autism

Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

By: Devon Price, PhD
Narrated by: Devon Price, PhD
Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

A deep dive into the spectrum of Autistic experience and the phenomenon of masked Autism, giving individuals the tools to safely uncover their true selves while broadening society’s narrow understanding of neurodiversity

“A remarkable work that will stand at the forefront of the neurodiversity movement.”—Barry M. Prizant, PhD, CCC-SLP, author of... Read more

Eve

How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

By: Cat Bohannon
Narrated by: Cat Bohannon
Length: 15 hours 54 minutes

An ambitious, eye-opening, myth-busting, and groundbreaking history of the evolution of the female body, by a brilliant new researcher and writer

Why do women live longer than men? Why do women have menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly... Read more

How To Tell When We Will Die

On Pain, Disability, and Doom

By: Johanna Hedva
Narrated by: Johanna Hedva
Length: 15 hours 2 minutes

The long-awaited essay collection from one of the most influential voices in disability activism that detonates a bomb in our collective understanding of care and illness, showing us that sickness is a fact of life.   In the wake of the 2014 Ferguson riots, and sick with a chronic condition that rendered them housebound, Johanna Hedva turned to... Read more

Emergent Strategy

Emergent Strategy: Book #0

By: adrienne maree brown
Narrated by: adrienne maree brown
Length: 8 hours 24 minutes

“A new way to move forward in societal and personal transformation, inspired by the science-fiction of Octavia Butler, in Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown invites us to shape the future we want to see through accepting and influencing the natural state of flux of the world around us and inside us. This book feels like an ongoing... Read more

Hood Feminism

Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot

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

“Hood Feminism touches on many subjects that mainstream feminists may not think of as feminist issues. Issues like food and housing insecurity, parenting, and disability rights, among others. Mikki Kendall calls out mainstream feminism as existing only for the advancement of white women, to the detriment of women of color. Some of my biggest... 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

Wordslut

A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

By: Amanda Montell
Narrated by: Amanda Montell
Length: 6 hours 56 minutes

“As funny as it is informative, this book will have you laughing out loud while you contemplate the revolutionary power of words.” —Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met CassidyA brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us.The word bitch conjures many images for... Read more

Ace

What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex

By: Angela Chen
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

“This book is an eye-opening collection of personal testimonies, research, and history about asexuality, and to a lesser extent, aromanticism. Whether you are new to learning about asexuality or are asexual yourself, by the end of the book you will have a richer and multifaceted understanding of ace identity and experience. Read more

How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith
Narrated by: Clint Smith
Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

“From plantation to Angola Prison. From Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, VA to the African Burial Ground in New York City. From Île de Gorée to Whitney Plantation. From the Emancipation Proclamation to Juneteenth. Clint Smith takes us on an unforgettable journey through the history of slavery in the United States, revealing many truths we’ve... Read more

Stolen Focus

Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again

By: Johann Hari
Narrated by: Johann Hari
Length: 10 hours 21 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening—and how to get our attention back.

“The book the world needs in order to win the war on distraction.”—Adam Grant, author of Think Again

“Read this book to... Read more

A Little Devil in America

Notes in Praise of Black Performance

By: Hanif Abdurraqib
Narrated by: JD Jackson
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

“Hanif Abdurraqib's exploration of Black performance in America is a cultural keystone that is chillingly relevant. Whether discussing the fact that a knowing look or advice on a route from a cashier is a form of a living Green Book that still exists because there are places Black people are not safe, to the origin of the card game spades or the... Read more

All in Her Head

The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today

By: Elizabeth Comen
Narrated by: Anna Caputo
Length: 13 hours 25 minutes

USA Today BestsellerA surprising, groundbreaking, and fiercely entertaining medical history that is both a collective narrative of women’s bodies and a call to action for a new conversation around women’s health.For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored,... Read more

Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

By: John Green
Narrated by: John Green
Length: TBA

John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with hu­manity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is... Read more

Between the World and Me

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Length: 3 hours 35 minutes

“In this short and powerful book, Coates writes to his 15-year old son about his experience of being a black man in America. Cannot recommend enough! Read more

ADHD for Smart Ass Women

How to Fall in Love with Your Neurodivergent Brain

By: Tracy Otsuka
Narrated by: Tracy Otsuka
Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

An unprecedented guide for any woman with ADHD looking to celebrate her unique brilliance and to embark on a journey of self-discovery.ADHD is one of the most common neurological disor­ders in the United States—yet a staggering 75 percent of girls and women remain undiagnosed. Due to the gen­der gap in medical research, which does not account... 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

The Monster and the Mirror

Mental Illness, Magic, and the Stories We Tell

By: K.J. Aiello
Narrated by: K.J. Aiello
Length: 9 hours 58 minutes

Revelatory memoir and cultural criticism that connects popular fantasy and our perceptions of mental illness to offer an empathetic path to compassionate care Growing up, K.J. Aiello was fascinated by magical stories of dragons, wizards, and fantasy, where monsters were not what they seemed and anything was possible. These books and films... Read more

"You Just Need to Lose Weight"

And 19 Other Myths About Fat People

Myths Made in America

By: Aubrey Gordon
Narrated by: Aubrey Gordon
Length: 7 hours 10 minutes

“Aubrey Gordon is one of the leading voices in the fat activist movement and I consider myself lucky to read her words (and listen to her podcast with Michael Hobbs called Maintenance Phase). If you want to be a better person and deprogram yourself from the weight-obsessed culture American life is steeped in, read both her books and listen to the... Read more