Social Science audiobooks

Genesis

By: Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt & Craig Mundie

Narrated by: Byron Wagner

Length: 6 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes more dynamic and ubiquitous, it is dramatically empowering people in all walks of life while also giving rise to urgent questions about the future of humanity—a historic challenge whose contours and consequences are revealed by three eminent thinkers in Genesis.

As it absorbs data, gains agency, and... Read more

Dopesick

By: Beth Macy

Narrated by: Beth Macy

Length: 10 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

A Hulu limited series inspired by the New York Times bestselling book by Beth Macy.

Journalist Beth Macy's definitive account of America's opioid epidemic "masterfully interlaces stories of communities in crisis with dark histories of corporate greed and regulatory indifference" (New York Times) -- from the boardroom to the courtroom and into the... Read more

Of Boys and Men

By: Richard V. Reeves

Narrated by: Richard V. Reeves

Length: 6 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

A positive vision for masculinity in a postfeminist worldBoys and men are struggling. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even worsened. Our attitudes, our... Read more

Liliana's Invincible Summer (Pulitzer Prize winner)

By: Cristina Rivera Garza

Narrated by: Victoria Villarreal

Length: 8 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • “A searing account of grief and the quest to bring her sister’s murderer to justice years after the fact” (The Boston Globe), from “one of Mexico’s greatest living writers” (Jonathan Lethem).
 
“Part memoir, part true-crime story, Garza’s chronicle is both... Read more

Christmas and Other Horrors

By: Ellen Datlow

Narrated by: Carrie Coello & Andrew J. Andersen

Length: 13 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Hugo Award–winning editor, and horror legend, Ellen Datlow presents a terrifying and chilling horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring chillers by Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, and many more.



The winter solstice is celebrated as a time of... Read more

Catch and Kill

By: Ronan Farrow

Narrated by: Ronan Farrow

Length: 10 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Now an HBO documentary series streaming on HBO Max. 

One of the Best Books of the Year  Time * NPR * Washington Post * Bloomberg News * Chicago Tribune * Chicago Public Library * Fortune * Los Angeles Times * E! News * The Telegraph * Apple * Library Journal  In this newly updated edition of the "meticulous and devastating" (Associated Press)... Read more

Uncultured

By: Daniella Mestyanek Young

Narrated by: Daniella Mestyanek Young

Length: 13 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

"It’s a dark story that forced me to think more expansively about what constitutes a cult." —The New York Times' Ernesto Londoño

"Although this is Mestyanek Young’s first time narrating, listeners will appreciate hearing this deeply personal story told by the author herself. Share with fans of Tara Westover’s Educated and Deborah Feldman’s... Read more

The Sum of Us

By: Heather McGhee

Narrated by: Heather McGhee

Length: 11 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • One of today’s most insightful and influential thinkers offers a powerful exploration of inequality and the lesson that generations of Americans have failed to learn: Racism has a cost for everyone—not just for people of color.

WINNER OF THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • ONE... Read more

Homo Deus

By: Yuval Noah Harari

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 14 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein... Read more

The Future Is Disabled

By: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Narrated by: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Length: 9 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

In The Future Is Disabled, Leah Laksmi Piepzna-Samarasinha asks some provocative questions: What if, in the near future, the majority of people will be disabled—and what if that's not a bad thing? And what if disability justice and disabled wisdom are crucial to creating a future in which it's possible to survive fascism, climate change, and... Read more

Stay True

By: Hua Hsu

Narrated by: Hua Hsu

Length: 5 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art, by the New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu

“This book is exquisite and excruciating and I will be thinking about it for years and years to come.”—Rachel Kushner, New York Times bestselling... Read more

Braving the Wilderness: Reese's Book Club

By: Brené Brown

Narrated by: Brené Brown

Length: 4 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • A timely and important book that challenges everything we think we know about cultivating true belonging in our communities, organizations, and culture, from the #1 bestselling author of Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, and The Gifts of Imperfection

Don’t miss the five-part Max docuseries... Read more

The Other Wes Moore

By: Wes Moore

Narrated by: Wes Moore

Length: 6 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the governor of Maryland, the “compassionate” (People), “startling” (Baltimore Sun), “moving” (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison.

The... Read more

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey

By: Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar

Narrated by: Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar

Length: 5 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

Writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers Amber Ruffin writes with her sister Lacey Lamar with humor and heart to share absurd anecdotes about everyday experiences of racism.

Now a writer and performer on Late Night with Seth Meyers and host of The Amber Ruffin Show, Amber Ruffin lives in New York, where she is no one's First Black... Read more

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality

By: Sherronda J. Brown

Narrated by: Yu-Li Alice Shen

Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

For readers of Ace and Belly of the Beast: A Black queer feminist exploration of asexuality--and an incisive interrogation of the sex-obsessed culture that invisibilizes and ignores asexual and A-spec identity.

Everything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong.

The notion that everyone wants sex--and that we all have to have it--is... Read more

You're Not Listening

By: Kate Murphy

Narrated by: Kate Murphy

Length: 6 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

"Narrating her own work, Murphy is certainly worthy of the listener's attention. She offers a sincere, passionate voice that is capable of delivering some hard truths about the current state of things while also showing the way toward a truly connected society." — AudioFile Magazine

**This program is read by the author**

When was the last time you... Read more

He/She/They

By: Schuyler Bailar

Narrated by: Schuyler Bailar

Length: 11 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

From a trans rights activist and athlete, an urgent guide that changes the conversation about gender identity.

Anti-transgender legislation is being introduced in state governments around the United States in record-breaking numbers. Trans people are under attack in sports, healthcare, school curriculum, bathrooms, bars, and nearly every walk of... Read more

The State of Affairs

By: Esther Perel

Narrated by: Esther Perel

Length: 11 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

""A fresh look at infidelity, broadening the focus from the havoc it wreaks within a committed relationship to consider also why people do it, what it means to them, and why breaking up is the expected response to duplicity — but not necessarily the wisest one.” — LA Review of BooksFrom iconic couples’ therapist and bestselling author of Mating... Read more

What's Next

By: Melissa Fitzgerald & Mary McCormack

Narrated by: Melissa Fitzgerald & Mary McCormack

Length: 16 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

A behind-the-scenes look into the creation and legacy of The West Wing as told by cast members Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, with compelling insights from cast and crew exploring what made the show what it was and how its impassioned commitment to service has made the series and relationships behind it endure.

Step back inside the... Read more

Circle of Hope

By: Eliza Griswold

Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens

Length: 11 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

A Pulitzer Prize winner’s intimate portrait of a church, its radical mission, and its riveting crisis.

"Jennifer Pickens adopts an even-keeled reportorial cadence and timbre well suited to Griswold's immersion journalism, which recounts the rise and fall of Circle of Hope."—AudioFile

“The revolution I wanted to be part of was in the church.”... Read more

Decolonizing Trauma Work

By: Renee Linklater

Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau

Length: 7 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

In Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies, indigenous author Renee Linklater explores healing and wellness in the Indigenous communities on Turtle Island. Drawing on a decolonizing approach, which puts the “soul wound” of colonialism at the center, Linklater engages ten Indigenous health care practitioners in a dialogue... Read more

The Mushroom at the End of the World

By: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world—and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions,... Read more

If Women Rose Rooted

By: Sharon Blackie

Narrated by: Sharon Blackie

Length: 13 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

In this life-changing book that blends myth, memoir, and modern-day mentors, renowned psychologist Dr. Sharon Blackie journeys from the wasteland of modern society to a place of nourishment and connection.



"Mind-blowing. An anthem for all we could be . . . I sincerely hope every woman who can read has the time and space to read it." —Manda Scott,... Read more

Love and Rage

By: Lama Rod Owens

Narrated by: Lama Rod Owens

Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
 
In the face of systemic racism and state-sanctioned violence, how can we metabolize our anger into a force for liberation?

White supremacy in the United States has long necessitated that Black rage be suppressed, repressed, or denied, often as a means of survival, a literal matter of life and death. In Love and... Read more