Science & Technology audiobooks

Select Essays

By: Michel de Montaigne

Narrated by: Clive Chafer

Length: 5 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Michel de Montaigne, one of the foremost writers of the French Renaissance and the originator of the genre of the essay, wrote on subjects ranging from friendship to imagination, from language to conscience. This collection includes twenty-two of Montaigne's essays, including "Of Prognostications," "Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes," "Of... Read more

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

By: Friedrich Nietzsche

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 11 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the most famous and influential work of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The work is a philosophical novel in which the character of Zarathustra, a religious prophet–like figure, delivers a series of lessons and sermons in a Biblical style that articulate the central... Read more

The Stem Cell Hope

By: Alice Park

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 10 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A landmark book by the senior science writer at Time magazine introduces us to a medical breakthrough that can save our lives.

Few people know much about stem cell research beyond the ethical questions raised by using embryos. But in the last decade, stem cell research has made huge advances toward eliminating some of our most intractable... Read more

Serve God, Save the Planet

By: J. Matthew Sleeth, M.D.

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 6 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

Not long ago, J. Matthew Sleeth had a fantastic life and a great job as chief of the medical staff at a large hospital. He was living the American dream—until he saw an increasing number of his patients suffering from cancer, asthma, and other chronic diseases. He began to suspect that the Earth and its inhabitants were in deep trouble. Turning... Read more

Genocide In Darfur: Why We Should Care

By: Rebecca Tinsley

Narrated by: Justine Willis Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

It's never a waste of time reminding the world what's happening in places where genocide is occurring. Each of us is commissioned to speak out and shine a light on these dark atrocities that take place daily around the world. Rebecca Tinsley has been instrumental in getting the word out about the atrocity in Darfur. Read more

Mississippi River Floodwater

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

A 15-mile stretch of the swollen Mississippi River, closed Tuesday due to pressure on levees, has been reopened to barges moving one at a time. Tom Bearden reports on the short- and long-term environmental effects the floodwater could have on Lake Pontchartrain, oyster beds and more. Read more

The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt

By: Jon-Jon Goulian

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 9 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

The vibrant, funny, and heartwarming story of an outcast who becomes an odd man in
 
If you have ever felt like a misfit in school or been paralyzed by your family’s imposing expectations, if you have ever obsessed about your appearance or panicked about choosing a career path, if you have ever wondered if every single thing to which your body is... Read more

Spark

By: Julie Burstein & Kurt Andersen

Narrated by: Julie Burstein

Length: 7 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

How did Richard Ford's cat influence his work as a novelist? HOW is Chuck Close's portraiture driven by his inability to remember faces? What pivotal moment helped Rosanne Cash understand the healing power of the stage?Creativity is an elusive subject. We enjoy its fruits—movies, novels, paintings, songs—but rarely are we privy to what happens... Read more

Sacred Knowledge From The Indigenous Wisdom Of Hawaii

By: Hank Wesselman, Ph.D.

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Wesselman shares the spiritual knowledge he gathered from working with the late Hale Makua, a revered Hawaiian Kahuna wisdom keeper. Included are insights such as: the 3 directives of a spiritual warrior, the 7 life roles and how they are expressed in both positive and negative forms, the difference between a shaman and a medicine person, and... Read more

The Filter Bubble

By: Eli Pariser

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web... Read more

Dog Sense

By: John Bradshaw

Narrated by: Michael Page

Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Dogs have been mankind's faithful companions for tens of thousands of years, yet today they are regularly treated as either pack-following wolves or furry humans. The truth is, dogs are neither—and our misunderstanding has put them in serious crisis.



What dogs really need is a spokesperson, someone who will assert their specific needs. Renowned... Read more

Alone Together

By: Sherry Turkle

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 14 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Consider Facebook—it's human contact, only easier to engage with and easier to avoid. Developing technology promises closeness. Sometimes it delivers, but much of our modern life leaves us less connected with people and more connected to simulations of them.



In Alone Together, MIT technology and society professor Sherry Turkle explores the power... Read more

The Nature Principle

By: Richard Louv

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

Length: 10 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

The Nature Principle presents a compelling case that a conscious reconnection to nature can make us whole again and that the future will belong to nature-smart individuals, families, businesses, and communities. Supported by evidence from emerging empirical and theoretical research and eye-opening anecdotes, Louv shows that when we tap into the... Read more

Ask Me Why I Hurt

By: Randy Christensen, M.D. & Rene Denfeld

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

The unforgettable inspiring memoir of one extraordinary doctor who is saving lives in a most unconventional way, Ask Me Why I Hurt is the touching and revealing first-person account of the remarkable work of Dr. Randy Christensen. Trained as a pediatrician, he works not in a typical hospital setting but, rather, in a 38-foot Winnebago that has... Read more

Cycles of Time

By: Roger Penrose

Narrated by: Bruce Mann

Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

From the best-selling author of The Emperor’s New Mind and The Road to Reality, a groundbreaking book that provides new views on three of cosmology’s most profound questions: What, if anything, came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? What is its ultimate future?

Current understanding of our universe dictates that... Read more

Real Boys - Abridged

By: William Pollack

Narrated by: William Pollack

Length: 2 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: Yes

"While it may seem as if we live in a man's world," reports Pollack, "we do not live in a boy's world." Many boys today are struggling either silently, with low self-esteem and feelings of loneliness and isolation, or publicly, by acting out feelings of emotional and social disconnection through anger and acts of violence against themselves or... Read more

Annoying

By: Joe Palca & Flora Lichtman

Narrated by: Flora Lichtman & Joe Palca

Length: 6 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

It happens everywhere: offices, schools, even your own backyard. And, seemingly, anything can trigger it: cell phones, sirens, bad music, constant distractions, your boss, or even your spouse. We all know certain things get under our skin. Can science explain why?

NPR’s Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman take you on a scientific quest through... Read more

Waiting for Aphrodite

By: Sue Hubbell

Narrated by: Barbara Caruso

Length: 7 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

After 25 years on a farm in the Ozarks, award-winning writer and naturalist Sue Hubbell moved to a small town on the coast of Maine. There, in the pools, tides, and thickets, she found a vast array of creatures that aroused her considerable curiosity. Join Hubbell on a unique tour of the world of invertebrates. From humpbacked camel crickets to... Read more

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals

By: Immanuel Kant

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 3 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

Immanuel Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, first published in 1785, lays out Kant's essential philosophy and defines the concepts and arguments that would shape his later work. Central to Kant's doctrine is the categorical imperative, which he defines as a mandate that human actions should always conform to a universal,... Read more

Cyrus McCormick, Inventor of the Reaper

By: Christopher Crennen

Narrated by: Christopher Crennen

Length: 34 minutes

Abridged: No

McCormick (1809-1884) demonstrated a workable reaper in 1831 and spent the rest of his life improving the reaper, and expanding the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company with sales across the United States and around the world. McCormick's reapers had profound effects on the alleviation of U.S. and world hunger.aspenleafmedia.com Read more

Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life

By: Douglas T. Kenrick, PhD

Narrated by: Fred Stella

Length: 7 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Why do we do what we do? Especially those seemingly inexplicable behaviors—from the disreputable to the downright despicable?

Between what can be learned from evolutionary psychology (thinking that has developed in our species over the millenniums to ensure its propagation) and cognitive science (how our minds literally think) a picture emerges.... Read more

De l'amitié

By: Michel de Montaigne

Narrated by: Michaël Lonsdale

Length: 34 minutes

Abridged: No

De l'amitié est tiré des Essais de Montaigne, publiés en 1595, à titre posthume. C'est par l'introspection la plus honnête que l'auteur cherche à comprendre l'humanité, par le raisonnement mais aussi par la compréhension intime de ses propres émotions. L'amitié est une rencontre. Quand Montaigne raconte avec bonheur sa relation avec Estienne de... Read more

Neurosis and Human Growth

By: Karen Horney

Narrated by: Heather Henderson

Length: 15 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

One of the most original psychoanalysts after Freud, Karen Horney pioneered such now-familiar concepts as alienation, self-realization, and the idealized image, and she brought to psychoanalysis a new understanding of the importance of culture and environment.Karen Horney was born in Hamburg in 1885 and studied at the University of Berlin,... Read more

The Bond

By: Lynne McTaggart

Narrated by: Karen White

Length: 10 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling author of The Intention Experiment and The Field comes a groundbreaking new work—a book that uses the interconnectedness of mind and matter to demonstrate that the key to life is in the relationship between things.



We are always connected with others, hardwired at our most elemental level—from the quantum level to the... Read more