Social Science audiobooks

Who Owns the Future?

By: Jaron Lanier

Narrated by: Pete Simonelli

Length: 12 hours

Abridged: No

The “brilliant” and “daringly original” (The New York Times) critique of digital networks from the “David Foster Wallace of tech” (London Evening Standard)—asserting that to fix our economy, we must fix our information economy.

Jaron Lanier is the father of virtual reality and one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers. Who Owns the Future? is... Read more

The Kid

By: Dan Savage

Narrated by: Dan Savage

Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Dan Savage's nationally syndicated sex advice column, "Savage Love," enrages and excites more than four million people each week. In The Kid, Savage tells a no-holds-barred, high-energy story of an ordinary American couple who wants to have a baby. Except that in this case the couple happens to be Dan and his boyfriend. That fact, in the face of... Read more

Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble

By: Nora Ephron

Narrated by: Kathe Mazur

Length: 12 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Two classic collections of Nora Ephron’s uproarious essays—tackling everything from feminism to the media, from politics to beauty products, with her inimitable charm and distinctive wit—now available in one audiobook. 
 
This edition brings together some of Ephron’s most famous writing on a generation of women (and men) who helped shape the way... Read more

I Wear the Black Hat

By: Chuck Klosterman

Narrated by: Chuck Klosterman

Length: 7 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

One-of-a-kind cultural critic and New York Times bestselling author Chuck Klosterman “offers up great facts, interesting cultural insights, and thought-provoking moral calculations in this look at our love affair with the anti-hero” (New York magazine).

Chuck Klosterman, “The Ethicist” for The New York Times Magazine, has walked into the... Read more

Lost Girls

By: Robert Kolker

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 11 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times Bestseller • Now a Netflix FilmThe bestselling account of the lives of five young women whose fates converged in the perplexing case of the Long Island Serial Killer.“Rich, tragic...monumental...true-crime reporting at its best.”—Washington Post
One late spring evening in 2010, Shannan Gilbert—after running through the oceanfront... Read more

Exploring the Psychology of Wealth, ‘Pernicious’ Effects of Economic Inequality

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

It's been said that money is the root of all evil. Does money make people more likely to lie, cheat and steal? Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on new research from the University of California, Berkeley about how wealth and inequality affects us psychologically. Read more

Prosperity, Compassion and Happiness

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Usually, as a country's GDP goes up, that nation's well-being tends to rise as well. But for the last 35 years, as GDP has grown in the United States, Americans' average happiness hasn't increased. Economics correspondent Paul Solman talks to researchers about how they study the connection between money and happiness. Read more

Clash!

By: Hazel Rose Markus & Alana Conner

Narrated by: Authors

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

As the world gets smaller, hotter, and flatter, people from different cultures are colliding like never before:
East Asian students now dominate Western schools and workplaces, yet crash into the so-called "bamboo ceiling" before reaching the top.Women are getting stuck as they rocket up the corporate ladder, while men are falling off the ladder... Read more

Clash!

By: Alana Conner & Hazel Rose Markus

Narrated by: Alana Conner & Hazel Rose Markus

Length: 10 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

As the world gets smaller, hotter, and flatter, people from different cultures are colliding like never before: 1) East Asian students now dominate Western schools and workplaces, yet crash into the so-called "bamboo ceiling" before reaching the top. 2) Women are getting stuck as they rocket up the corporate ladder, while men are falling off... Read more

Second Suns

By: David Oliver Relin

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 15 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

From the co-author of Three Cups of Tea comes the inspiring story of two very different doctors—one from the United States, the other from Nepal—united in a common mission: to rid the world of preventable blindness.
 
In this transporting book, David Oliver Relin shines a light on the work of Geoffrey Tabin and Sanduk Ruit, gifted... Read more

What Do Women Want?

By: Daniel Bergner

Narrated by: Charles Pasternak

Length: 6 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

When it comes to sex, common wisdom holds that men roam while women crave closeness and commitment. But in this provocative, headline-making book, Daniel Bergner turns everything we thought we knew about women's arousal and desire inside out. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with renowned behavioral scientists, sexologists,... Read more

Eating on the Wild Side

By: Jo Robinson

Narrated by: Erin Bennett

Length: 11 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

The next stage in the food revolution: a radical way to select fruits and vegetables and reclaim the flavor and nutrients we've lost.

Ever since farmers first planted seeds 10,000 years ago, humans have been destroying the nutritional value of their fruits and vegetables. Unwittingly, we've been selecting plants that are high in starch and sugar... Read more

On the Road Bike

By: Ned Boulting

Narrated by: Ned Boulting

Length: 8 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Ned Boulting has noticed something. It's to do with bikes. They're everywhere. And so are their riders. Some of these riders seem to be sporting sideburns and a few of them are winning things. Big things. Now Ned wants to know how on earth it came to this. And what, exactly is 'this'.

In On the Road Bike, Ned Boulting asks how Britain became so... Read more

Sheepwrecked

By: Jackie Ellis

Narrated by: Patricia Gallimore

Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

This journey through the changing seasons at Rowfoot Farm - tupping time in the autumn, winters as wet, bleak and cold here in Cumbria as elsewhere, lambing and the glories of spring, a bucolic, bee-filled Eden Valley summer with its many shows and fairs - will reveal much that you need to know about the countryside, its quirky customs and ways,... Read more

American Savage

By: Dan Savage

Narrated by: Dan Savage

Length: 7 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Celebrated sex advice columnist and founder of the Emmy-winning It Gets Better campaign, Dan Savage delivers “powerful messages for both the head and heart” (Entertainment Weekly)
 
From the moment he began writing his syndicated sex-advice column, Savage Love, Dan Savage has never been shy about expressing his opinion on controversial... Read more

Don't Know Much About Geography

By: Kenneth C. Davis

Narrated by: Kenneth C. Davis, Joe Ochman, Mark Bramhall, Pa...

Length: 12 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

From bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes a treasure trove of answers to questions about our world.

Was there an Atlantis?
What's the smallest country in the world?
What's the difference between a jungle and a rain forest?

Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don't Know Much About® History, Don't Know Much About® the Civil War and Don't Know Much About®... Read more

The Revolution Was Televised

By: Alan Sepinwall

Narrated by: Joe Ochman

Length: 11 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

A mob boss in therapy. An experimental, violent prison unit. The death of an American city, as seen through a complex police investigation. A lawless frontier town trying to talk its way into the United States. A corrupt cop who rules his precinct like a warlord. The survivors of a plane crash trying to make sense of their disturbing new island... Read more

Into the Abyss

By: Carol Shaben

Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan

Length: 10 hours

Abridged: No

Read the "gripping and emotionally affecting" book where four men survived the plane crash. The pilot. A politician. A cop... and the criminal he was shackled to (Washington Post).

On an icy night in October 1984, a commuter plane carrying nine passengers crashed in the remote wilderness of northern Alberta, killing six people. Four survived: the... Read more

Intellectuals and Race

By: Thomas Sowell

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 5 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Intellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense—one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light.Intellectuals have played a major role in racial issues throughout the centuries. Though their... Read more

Scatter, Adapt, and Remember

By: Annalee Newitz

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr

Length: 10 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?

As a species, Homo... Read more

Torn

By: Justin Lee

Narrated by: Justin Lee

Length: 9 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

AN UPDATED EDITION OF THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK

An evangelical Christian examines the impact of sexuality, the LGBTQ+ movement, and the future of the church in this thoughtful, deeply researched guide to navigating and mending the social and political division in our families and churches.
  As a teenager and young man, Justin Lee... Read more

Keep It Pithy

By: Bill O'Reilly

Narrated by: Bill O'Reilly & Dan Woren

Length: 2 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling author of Killing Lincoln and host of Fox News' top show The O'Reilly Factor, the best of Bill O’Reilly’s provocative writing—reflecting his ideas, wisdom, and core values

Bill O’Reilly is one of the most recognized and talked-about journalists of our time. With an unparalleled track record as an author and with the #1-rated... Read more

The Great Shark Hunt

By: Hunter S. Thompson

Narrated by: Scott Sowers

Length: 29 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

The first volume in Hunter S. Thompson’s bestselling Gonzo Papers offers brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in his signature style.

Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling “Gonzo Papers” is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s largest and, arguably, most important work, covering... Read more

AfterLife

By: Hank Hanegraaff

Narrated by: Jon Gauger

Length: 6 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Are near-death experiences reliable?New York Times best-sellers on near-death experiences depict:
• A 3-year-old who meets Jesus and his rainbow-colored horse
• A neurosurgeon encountering Om and the Orb on the wing of a butterfly
• A real estate broker descending to earth’s center to discover hell is 300 degrees and zero humidityDo such exotic... Read more