Pandemic Political Education Book Club

How to Survive a Plague

The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS

By: David France
Narrated by: Rory O'Malley
Length: 24 hours 27 minutes

A New York Times 2016 Notable Book

The definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic—from the creator of, and inspired by, the seminal documentary How to Survive a Plague.

A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific... Read more

Let the Record Show

A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993

By: Sarah Schulman
Narrated by: Rosalyn Coleman Williams & Sarah Schulman
Length: 27 hours 26 minutes

This program includes an introduction read by the author.

One of O, the Oprah Magazine's 32 LGBTQ Books That Will Change the Literary Landscape in 2021, one of Vogue's 9 LGBTQ+ Books We're Looking Forward to This Spring, one of and Cosmopolitan's LGBTQ+ Books to Add to Your Reading List in 2021, one of The Observer's Spring Books You Don't Want... Read more

It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful

How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic

By: Jack Lowery
Narrated by: Vikas Adam
Length: 14 hours 9 minutes

The story of art collective Gran Fury—which fought back during the AIDS crisis through direct action and community-made propaganda—offers lessons in love and grief.

In the late 1980s, the AIDS pandemic was annihilating queer people, intravenous drug users, and communities of color in America, and disinformation about the disease ran rampant. Out... Read more

The Future Is Disabled

Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs

By: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Narrated by: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Length: 9 hours 20 minutes

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

The Viral Underclass

The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide

By: Steven W. Thrasher
Narrated by: Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl & Steven W. Thrasher
Length: 9 hours 26 minutes

This program is read by the author with a foreword written and read by Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl.

"An irresistibly readable and humane exploration of the barbarities of class...readers are gifted that most precious of things in these muddled times: a clear lens through which to see the world."
—Naomi Klein, New York Times bestselling author of This... Read more

Disability Visibility (Adapted for Young Adults)

First-Person Stories for Today

By: Alice Wong
Narrated by: Sarah Ann Masse, Anthony Michael Lopez & Alice Wong
Length: 2 hours 44 minutes

Disabled young people will be proud to see themselves reflected in this hopeful, compelling, and insightful essay collection, adapted for young adults from the critically acclaimed adult book, Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century that "sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities,... Read more

Virology

Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between

By: Joseph Osmundson
Narrated by: Joseph Osmundson
Length: 13 hours 7 minutes

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Literary Hub

A leading microbiologist tackles the scientific and sociopolitical impact of viruses in twelve striking essays.
Invisible in the food we eat, the people we kiss, and inside our own bodies, viruses flourish—with the power to shape not only our health, but our social, political, and economic... Read more

My Government Means to Kill Me

A Novel

By: Rasheed Newson
Narrated by: Jelani Alladin
Length: 8 hours 47 minutes

“Wonderful and lively coming of age novel set in 1980s NYC. I loved how vibrant all of the characters and the city were. It also explored some deeper, lesser explored angles of the AIDS pandemic. Read more