Social Science audiobooks

In the Body of the World

By: Eve Ensler

Narrated by: Eve Ensler

Length: 4 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling author of The Vagina Monologues and one of Newsweek's 150 Women Who Changed the World, a visionary memoir of separation and connection—to the body, the self, and the world

Playwright, author, and activist Eve Ensler has devoted her life to the female body—how to talk about it, how to protect and value it. Yet she spent much... Read more

Mythology

By: Edith Hamilton

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 14 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Dive into the timeless tales of gods and heroes in this bestselling A-to-Z encyclopedia detailing classic myths and legends—perfect for curious readers and academics alike. Edith Hamilton's mythology succeeds like no other book in bringing to life for the modern reader the Greek, Roman and Norse myths that are the keystone of Western culture-the... Read more

Surfaces and Essences

By: Douglas Hofstadter & Emmanuel Sander

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 33 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Analogy is the core of all thinking. This is the simple but unorthodox premise that Pulitzer Prize–winning author Douglas Hofstadter and French psychologist Emmanuel Sander defend in their new work. Hofstadter has been grappling with the mysteries of human thought for over thirty years. Now, with his trademark wit and special talent for making... Read more

The Anatomy of Violence

By: Adrian Raine

Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley

Length: 16 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

With a 4-page full-color insert, and black-and-white illustrations throughout

Why do some innocent kids grow up to become cold-blooded serial killers? Is bad biology partly to blame? For more than three decades Adrian Raine has been researching the biological roots of violence and establishing neurocriminology, a new field that applies... Read more

Life at the Marmont

By: Raymond Sarlot

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 10 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Back in print after two decades, the story of Hollywood’s most exclusive hotel and its star-studded guest list Raymond Sarlot bought the Chateau Marmont in 1975, but what was originally a business purchase became a love affair as he delved into the hotel’s incredible history. From its perch overlooking the Sunset Strip, the glamorous Marmont... Read more

Diary of a Submissive

By: Sophie Morgan

Narrated by: Tatiana Sokolov

Length: 8 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

In Diary of a Submissive, Sophie Morgan candidly explains what exactly an independent, twenty-first century woman gets out of relinquishing her power and personal freedom in a submissive relationship with a dominant man for their mutual sexual pleasure.

In the wake of Fifty Shades of Grey, here is a memoir that offers the real story of what it... Read more

Dirty Wars

By: Jeremy Scahill

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 24 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

In this groundbreaking book of new reportage, sure to stir a global debate, journalist Jeremy Scahill—author of the acclaimed international bestseller Blackwater—takes us into the heart of the War on Terror's most dangerous battlefields as he chases down the most important foreign policy story of our time.From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen,... Read more

Top of the Morning

By: Brian Stelter

Narrated by: Brian Stelter

Length: 9 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

CNN correspondent Brian Stelter reveals the dark side of morning television with exclusive material about current and past morning stars, from Matt Lauer to Katie Couric.

When America wakes up with personable and charming hosts like Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos, it's hard to imagine their show bookers having to guard a guest's hotel... Read more

The End of Big

By: Nicco Mele

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 9 hours

Abridged: No

Radical connectivity—our ability to connect instantly, constantly, and globally—is altering the exercise of power with dramatic speed and reshaping our biggest institutions. Governments, corporations, centers of knowledge, and expertise are eroding before the power of the individual. In some cases this is a positive development, but as Mele... Read more

Cooked

By: Michael Pollan

Narrated by: Michael Pollan

Length: 13 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules, and How to Change Your Mind, explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen in Cooked. 

Cooked is now a Netflix docuseries based on the book that focuses on the four kinds of "transformations" that occur in cooking. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker... Read more

Unaccountable

By: Marty Makary, M.D.

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 7 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Dr. Marty Makary is codeveloper of the life-saving checklist outlined in Atul Gawande's bestselling The Checklist Manifesto. As a busy surgeon who has worked in many of the best hospitals in the nation, he can testify to the amazing power of modern medicine to cure. But he's also been a witness to a medical culture that routinely leaves surgical... Read more

My Beloved Brontosaurus

By: Brian Switek

Narrated by: Brian Switek

Length: 6 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

A Hudson Booksellers Staff Pick for the Best Books of 2013

One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Spring Science Books

A Bookshop Santa Cruz Staff Pick

Dinosaurs, with their awe-inspiring size, terrifying claws and teeth, and otherworldly abilities, occupy a sacred place in our childhoods. They loom over museum halls, thunder through movies, and are a... Read more

The Invisible Girls

By: Sarah Thebarge

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 6 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

A girl scarred by her past. A refugee mother uncertain of her future. Five little girls who brought them together. After nearly dying of breast cancer in her twenties, Sarah Thebarge fled her successful career, her Ivy League education, and a failed relationship on the East Coast and started over in Portland, Oregon. She was hoping to quietly... Read more

Letter from Birmingham Jail

By: Martin Luther King Jr.

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 51 minutes

Abridged: No

April 16th. The year is 1963. Birmingham, Alabama has had a spring of non-violent protests known as the Birmingham Campaign, seeking to draw attention to the segregation against blacks by the city government and downtown retailers. The organizers longed to create a non-violent tension so severe that the powers that be would be forced to address... Read more

Great Time Coming

By: David Falkner

Narrated by: Richard Davidson

Length: 15 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

David Falkner, noted author of five previous books about baseball, deftly portrays the rise to stardom of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play on a major-league team in baseball's modern era. As Falkner traces the development of Robinson's natural skill and tireless dedication, he focuses on the strengths that earned Robinson a... Read more

Decision-Making Lessons for Teens in Trouble

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports on efforts to keep young people from returning to New York's Rikers Island once they've served their time. A privately financed pubic program utilizes evidence-based behavioral therapy to imbue teens with a sense of greater control over their lives and decisions. Read more

Media Control

By: Noam Chomsky

Narrated by: Noam Chomsky

Length: 1 hour 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Noam Chomsky’s backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy—one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled. According to Chomsky, "propaganda is to democracy as the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state," and the mass media is the... Read more

Superstorm Sandy

By: William Westhoven

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

Length: 3 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

WRITTEN AS A FUND-RAISING VEHICLE, THE AUTHOR PLEDGES TO DONATE ALL PAID ROYALTIES FROM THIS BOOK TO THE NONPROFIT HURRICANE SANDY NEW JERSEY RELIEF FUND. Written and published within a month of the worst storm to ever hit the New Jersey-New York area, "Superstorm Sandy: A Diary in the Dark" is a first-person account of one New Jersey's... Read more

Texas Murders

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Law enforcement officials in Kaufman County, Texas, are investigating whether a white supremacist prison gang can be linked to the recent murders of assistant district attorney Mark Hasse and district attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia. Judy Woodruff interviews Tanya Eiserer of The Dallas Morning News. Read more

Top Dog

By: Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman

Narrated by: Po Bronson

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

New York Times Bestseller Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman's work changes the national dialogue. Beyond their bestselling books, you know them from commentary and features in the New York Times, CNN, NPR, Time, Newsweek, Wired, New York, and more. E-mail, Facebook, and Twitter accounts are filled with demands to read their reporting... Read more

Keeping Hope Alive

By: Dr. Hawa Abdi

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 9 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

The moving memoir of one brave woman who, along with her daughters, has kept 90,000 of her fellow citizens safe, healthy, and educated for over 20 years in Somalia.

Dr. Hawa Abdi, "the Mother Teresa of Somalia" and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is the founder of a massive camp for internally displaced people located a few miles from war-torn... Read more

Down the Up Escalator

By: Barbara Garson

Narrated by: Jeanine Kane

Length: 8 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

One of our most incisive and committed journalists—author of the classic All the Livelong Day—shows us the real human cost of our economic follies.The Great Recession has thrown huge economic chal┬¡lenges at almost all Americans save the superaffluent few, and we are only now beginning to reckon up the human toll it is taking. Down the Up... Read more

The General

By: Ahmed Errachidi & Gillian Slovo

Narrated by: Amerjit Deu & Gillian Slovo

Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

On 11 September 2001, in a café in London, Ahmed Errachidi watched as the twin towers collapsed. He was appalled by the loss of innocent life. But he couldn’t possibly have predicted how much of his own life he too would lose because of that day.

In a series of terrible events, Ahmed was sold by the Pakistanis to the Americans in the diplomatic... Read more

Drunk Tank Pink

By: Adam Alter

Narrated by: Tristan Morris

Length: 7 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

An illuminating look at the way the thoughts we have and the decisions we make are influenced by forces that aren't always in our control

Why are people named Kim, Kelly, and Ken more likely to donate to Hurricane Katrina victims than to Hurricane Rita victims? Are you really more likely to solve puzzles if you watch a light bulb illuminate? How... Read more