Politics & Economy bestsellers

The Message

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Length: 5 hours 20 minutes

“An unflinching and deeply personal musing on what nonfiction writing (particularly long-form journalism) can accomplish. What frames do we take with us as we travel in search of truth? How is the past reframed in the service of myth-making? How can it be understood in a fuller way? This book is worth reading for the Israel/Palestine chapter... Read more

A People's History of the United States

By: Howard Zinn
Narrated by: Jeff Zinn
Length: 34 hours 9 minutes

“What this classic, alternative, and, yes, overtly leftist history of the United States most impressed upon me is that the history of American protest is just as vital and as old a tradition as the stars and stripes. The American people have always protested, gone on strike, marched - for suffrage, abolition, labor rights, civil rights,... Read more

That Librarian

The Fight Against Book Banning in America

By: Amanda Jones
Narrated by: Amanda Jones
Length: 9 hours 56 minutes

“This incredible memoir is a raw and honest account of Amanda Jones’s struggle as a librarian standing up for freedom of speech in her community. After voicing her concerns about book censorship at a local public hearing, she is harshly vilified and targeted, which was painful to read at some points but very necessary. I deeply admire Jones for... Read more

The Small and the Mighty

Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement

By: Sharon McMahon
Narrated by: Sharon McMahon
Length: 10 hours 13 minutes

“A thoroughly informative and enjoyable look at 12 Americans who made a difference. Sharon McMahon narrates the book herself, and it’s all the better for her own inflections and emotions. Cannot recommend enough! Read more

Kid Olympians: Summer

True Tales of Childhood from Champions and Game Changers

Kid Legends: Book #9

By: Robin Stevenson
Narrated by: Pete Cross
Length: 3 hours 15 minutes

Athletes throughout history have dreamed of competing in the Olympics—and some were kids themselves when those dreams and plans began! In Kid Olympians: Summer, discover the childhood stories of legends such as -Usain Bolt, who used to skip practices to go to the arcade and play video games. -Serena Williams, who sometimes hit her tennis ball... Read more

A Promised Land

By: Barack Obama
Narrated by: Barack Obama
Length: 29 hours 9 minutes

“No one really needs my blurb to help sell this book, but I wanted to give it anyway, especially for the audiobook, narrated by Barack Obama himself. If you want to know his incredible knowledge and wisdom that guided him through major decisions, and also hear him drop a few F-bombs, you need to listen to this fantastically written book. Read more

How to Be an Antiracist

By: Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Ibram X. Kendi
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

“Among the multi-faceted array of antiracist literature newly published in the last two years, Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Antiracist stands alone as a definitive source of history and socio-political critique, while offering a new paradigm of thought aimed at paving the way for correcting centuries of social injustice. Hearing this visionary... Read more

Wild Faith

How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America

By: Talia Lavin
Narrated by: Talia Lavin
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

The acclaimed author of Culture Warlords investigates the rise of the Christian Right over the last half-century that lays out the grim vision evangelicals are enforcing on our democracy.

All across America, a storm is gathering: from book bans in school libraries to anti-trans laws in state legislatures; firebombings of abortion clinics and... Read more

An Unfinished Love Story

A Personal History of the 1960s

By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Narrated by: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Length: 17 hours 37 minutes

“Great history/biography. The actual speeches are a great addition to a thoroughly enjoyable revisit to the 60’s political scene from insiders. Read more

On Tyranny

Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

By: Timothy Snyder
Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

“This pocket guide to preserving our freedoms and resisting authoritarianism, penned by Yale historian of fascism Timothy Snyder, takes lessons from the fall of democracies across Europe in the 20th Century, each posing a warning to us now in the 21st Century. A brief but mind blowing, eye-opening read that left me feeling sobered and empowered... Read more

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

By: Rashid Khalidi
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi & Rashid Khalidi
Length: 10 hours 30 minutes

This program includes an introduction read by the author.

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.

In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home... Read more

Hood Feminism

Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot

By: Mikki Kendall
Narrated by: Mikki Kendall
Length: 6 hours 57 minutes

“Hood Feminism touches on many subjects that mainstream feminists may not think of as feminist issues. Issues like food and housing insecurity, parenting, and disability rights, among others. Mikki Kendall calls out mainstream feminism as existing only for the advancement of white women, to the detriment of women of color. Some of my biggest... Read more

Kid Activists

True Tales of Childhood from Champions of Change

Kid Legends: Book #6

By: Robin Stevenson
Narrated by: Pete Cross
Length: 2 hours 44 minutes

Every activist started out as a kid—and in some cases, they were kids when their activism began! But even the world’s greatest champions of civil liberties had relatable interests and problems—often in the middle of extraordinary circumstances. Martin Luther King, Jr., loved fashion and argued with his dad about whether or not dancing was a sin.... Read more

Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“A succinct discussion of the causes, effects, and potential changes required to eradicate poverty in the United States. Read more

The Demon of Unrest

A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: Will Patton & Erik Larson
Length: 17 hours 17 minutes

“A chilling story of our country falling apart, this is a fascinating dive into the lead-up to the beginning of the Civil War: the time between Lincoln’s election and the fall of Fort Sumter. This compelling, essential and eminently readable book is based on letters, journals and political records from the time. Read more

Just Mercy

A Story of Justice and Redemption

By: Bryan Stevenson
Narrated by: Bryan Stevenson
Length: 11 hours 10 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX • A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.

“[Bryan Stevenson’s] dedication to fighting for justice... Read more

On Tyranny: Expanded Audio Edition

Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine

By: Timothy Snyder
Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

The #1 New York Times bestseller, now in an expanded audiobook edition that includes detailed historical context for the democracy-threatening Ukrainian conflict and a call to action for modern times.

This edition includes the bestselling original essay collection On Tyranny, read by the author.

In this exclusive audiobook edition, which... Read more

Reagan

His Life and Legend

By: Max Boot
Narrated by: Graham Winton
Length: 32 hours 6 minutes

In this “monumental and impressive” biography, Max Boot, the distinguished political columnist, illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan, revealing the man behind the mythology. Drawing on interviews with over one hundred of the fortieth president’s aides, friends, and family members, as well as thousands of newly available documents, Boot... Read more

The Splendid and the Vile

A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: John Lee & Erik Larson
Length: 17 hours 48 minutes

“Thoroughly researched non-fiction that reads like a novel. Covers Winston Churchill and his family and close associates through the horrible Luftwaffe bombings of London and nearby cities during 1940-41. Shows Churchill leading his country against seemingly impossible odds through the sheer force of personality. Excellent book even for those who... Read more

Thomas Jefferson

By: Maira Kalman
Narrated by: Susie Berneis
Length: 13 minutes

Thomas Jefferson is perhaps best known for writing the Declaration of Independence - but there's so much more to discover. This energetic man was interested in everything. He played violin, spoke seven languages and was a scientist, naturalist, botanist, mathematician and architect. He designed his magnificent home, Monticello, which is full of... Read more

Patriot

A Memoir

By: Alexei Navalny
Narrated by: Matthew Goode
Length: 16 hours 46 minutes

“A powerhouse of a memoir. Learn about Navalny's metamorphosis from ordinary Soviet citizen to activist who took on the corruption and treachery of Putin's regime, and as a result, was almost fatally poisoned. Navalny's is a tale of caution of what happens to a country when we allow autocrats and oligarchs to have complete rule which ultimately... Read more

Jesus and John Wayne

How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

By: Kristin Kobes du Mez
Narrated by: Suzie Althens
Length: 12 hours 3 minutes

“This 75-year-spanning study by a Christian historian traces American evangelicals’ takeover of the Republican Party and shows how their highest values - militarism and masculinity, patriarchy and patriotism - turned a modest Jesus Christ into a macho John Wayne, and made voting for Donald Trump not a necessary evil, but a natural conclusion. As... Read more

Mutual Aid

Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)

By: Dean Spade
Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
Length: 4 hours 41 minutes

Around the globe, people are faced with a spiraling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or... Read more

The Sum of Us

What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

By: Heather McGhee
Narrated by: Heather McGhee
Length: 11 hours 8 minutes

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

Light in Gaza

Writings Born of Fire

By: Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing & Mike Merryman-Lotze
Narrated by: Amin El Gamal & Hanne Rickert
Length: 8 hours 45 minutes

“This is such a powerful book. It will make you cry and it will make you angry, but I implore you to read it anyway. It took me a few months to finish because it is a painful read, but I know I am more informed as well as heartbroken. Read more

Consumed

The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism

By: Aja Barber
Narrated by: Aja Barber
Length: 8 hours 17 minutes

“Consumed is an accessible, exceedingly readable introduction to the problem of consumerism and the fashion industry's contribution to the climate crisis, racial injustice, and poverty in the global south. If you have done any reading on intersectional environmentalism, many of the issues discussed here won't be new to you, but we could all stand... Read more

Emergent Strategy

Emergent Strategy: Book #0

By: adrienne maree brown
Narrated by: adrienne maree brown
Length: 8 hours 24 minutes

“A new way to move forward in societal and personal transformation, inspired by the science-fiction of Octavia Butler, in Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown invites us to shape the future we want to see through accepting and influencing the natural state of flux of the world around us and inside us. This book feels like an ongoing... Read more

Loud

Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve

By: Drew Afualo
Narrated by: Drew Afualo
Length: 6 hours 33 minutes

This program is read by the author.

The empowering, inspiring, patriarchy-smashing first book by podcast star Drew Afualo.

Drew Afualo is best known as the internet’s “Crusader for Women” and is at the head of a new generation of entertainment’s rising stars. Loud is part manual, part manifesto, and part memoir. It makes it clear that behind her... Read more

Autocracy, Inc.

The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

By: Anne Applebaum
Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
Length: 4 hours 48 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An Economist Best Book of 2024 • A Financial Times Best Book of 2024 • From the Pulitzer-prize winning author, an alarming account of how autocracies work together to undermine the democratic world, and how we should organize to defeat them

"A masterful guide to the new age of authoritarianism... clear-sighted and... Read more

Abraham Lincoln

By: Teri Kanefield
Narrated by: Pete Cross
Length: 4 hours 7 minutes

Born in a cabin deep in the backwoods of Kentucky and growing up in a family considered the poorest of the poor, Abraham Lincoln rose to become the sixteenth president of the United States. As president, he guided the United States through the Civil War, helped end slavery in America, and strengthened the federal government. This third... Read more

Invisible Rulers

The People Who Turn Lies into Reality

By: Renee DiResta
Narrated by: Anna Caputo
Length: 15 hours

A brilliant, original analysis of the radical shift in the dynamics of power and influence, revealing how the machinery that powered the Big Lie works to create bespoke realities revolutionizing politics, culture, and society.

Renée DiResta’s powerful, original investigation into the way power and influence have been profoundly transformed... Read more

On Freedom

By: Timothy Snyder
Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
Length: 10 hours 48 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A brilliant exploration of freedom—what it is, how it’s been misunderstood, and why it’s our only chance for survival—by the acclaimed Yale historian and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller On Tyranny

“A rigorous and visionary argument . . . Buy or borrow this book, read it, take it to heart.”—The... Read more

Black Disability Politics

By: Sami Schalk
Narrated by: Imani Barbarin
Length: 8 hours

In Black Disability Politics Sami Schalk explores how issues of disability have been and continue to be central to Black activism from the 1970s to the present. Schalk shows how Black people have long engaged with disability as a political issue deeply tied to race and racism. She points out that this work has not been recognized as part of the... Read more

The Only Plane in the Sky

An Oral History of September 11, 2001

By: Garrett M. Graff
Narrated by: A Full 45-Person Cast
Length: 15 hours 54 minutes

“This is a book you really need to hear instead of read. I was an adult with 2 children on 9/11 and I learned so much listening to this. This is more than just people recounting what happened to them on that dark day, it is a reenactment from key people told in chronological order. You get the where and learn exactly what they experienced. There... Read more

Code Name Blue Wren

The True Story of America's Most Dangerous Female Spy—and the Sister She Betrayed

By: Jim Popkin
Narrated by: Jim Popkin
Length: 10 hours 24 minutes

The incredible true story of Ana Montes, the most damaging female spy in US history, drawing upon never-before-seen material and to be published upon her release from prison, for readers of Agent Sonya and A Woman of No Importance.

Just days after the 9-11 attacks, a senior Pentagon analyst eased her red Toyota Echo into traffic and headed to... Read more

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

By: Nathan Thrall
Narrated by: Peter Ganim
Length: 6 hours 44 minutes

WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NONFICTION

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Economist, Time, The New Republic, and the Financial Times.

Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, enmities, and histories over the course of one revealing,... Read more

The Truths We Hold

An American Journey

By: Kamala Harris
Narrated by: Kamala Harris
Length: 9 hours 25 minutes

“Loving listening to this! Read more

Disaster Nationalism

The Downfall of Liberal Civilization

By: Richard Seymour
Narrated by: John Keating
Length: 10 hours 25 minutes

The rise of the new far right has left the world grappling with a profound misunderstanding. While the spotlight often shines on the actions of charismatic leaders, the true peril lies elsewhere. Defeating these people will not stem the tide driving them forward. They are merely the embodiment of profound forces that are rarely understood.... Read more

Nuclear War

A Scenario

By: Annie Jacobsen
Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
Length: 11 hours 18 minutes

“A staff FAVORITE. Seriously, Ryann and Mickie can't stop recommending this one. Holy s***! This book was excellent, and this book was terrifying. And I could not recommend it enough. It's a question on all of our minds; what would happen if the US was hit by a nuclear weapon? Well, this book answers that question - in horrifying detail. Annie... Read more

Freedom

Memoirs 1954 – 2021

By: Angela Merkel
Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
Length: 27 hours 3 minutes

The long-awaited memoir by one of the most important political leaders of our time

For 16 years, Angela Merkel bore the governmental responsibility for Germany, leading the country through numerous crises and shaping German and international politics and society with her actions and attitude. But Angela Merkel was not born a Chancellor. In her... Read more

Susan B. Anthony

The Making of America series: Book #4

By: Teri Kanefield
Narrated by: Joyce Bean
Length: 3 hours 53 minutes

Author Teri Kanefield examines the life of America’s famous suffragette, Susan B. Anthony. Anthony was born into a world in which men ruled women: A man could beat his wife, take her earnings, have her committed into an asylum based on his word, and take her children away from her. While the young nation was ablaze with the radical notion that... Read more

They Knew

How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent

By: Sarah Kendzior
Narrated by: Sarah Kendzior
Length: 9 hours 49 minutes

This program is read by the author.

FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE

“Every sentence delivered. The pathos of truth-seeking left me thinking of Herman Melville."
—Timothy Snyder, #1 New York Times bestselling author of On Tyranny

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author Sarah Kendzior delves into the difference between conspiracy and... Read more

Solidarity

The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea

By: Leah Hunt-Hendrix & Astra Taylor
Narrated by: Veronica Giguere
Length: 14 hours 12 minutes

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From renowned organizers and activists Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor, comes the first in-depth examination of Solidarity—not just as a rallying cry, but as potent political movement with potential to effect lasting change.

“A window into what is possible when we reject the politics of division, trade... Read more

Who's Afraid of Gender?

By: Judith Butler
Narrated by: Judith Butler
Length: 11 hours 47 minutes

This program is read by the author.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Time, Elle, Kirkus, Literary Hub, The Millions, Electric Literature, and them.

"A profoundly urgent intervention.” —Naomi Klein

"A timely must-read for anyone actively invested in re-imagining collective futurity.” —Claudia Rankine

From a global icon, a bold, essential... Read more

So You Want to Talk about Race

By: Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 7 hours 41 minutes

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in AmericaA current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today’s racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divideIn So You Want to Talk about Race,... Read more

How to Win an Information War

The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler

By: Peter Pomerantsev
Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
Length: 8 hours 23 minutes

From one of our leading experts on disinformation, this inventive biography of the rogue WWII propagandist Thomas Sefton Delmer confronts hard questions about the nature of information war: what if you can't fight lies with truth? Can a propaganda war ever be won?

In the summer of 1941, Hitler ruled Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea.... Read more

How We Show Up

Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community

By: Mia Birdsong
Narrated by: Mia Birdsong
Length: 6 hours 45 minutes

An Invitation to Community and Models for Connection

After almost every presentation activist and writer Mia Birdsong gives to executives, think tanks, and policy makers, one of those leaders quietly confesses how much they long for the profound community she describes. They have family, friends, and colleagues, yet they still feel like they're... Read more

Democracy Awakening

Notes on the State of America

By: Heather Cox Richardson
Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

A New York Times Bestseller

A vital and urgent call to action about the precarious state of American democracy, charting its historical challenges and current threats, from one of our era’s most important and insightful historians, with a new afterword by the author.

“Magisterial.” –The Washington Post

“An excellent primer for anyone who needs the... Read more

When the Clock Broke

Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

By: John Ganz
Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
Length: 15 hours 17 minutes

"John Ganz is the most important young political writer of his generation—just the one our dark moment needs." —Rick Perlstein

"Lively and kaleidoscopic." —Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker

"John Ganz belongs to a species of public intellectual that is almost extinct . . . When the Clock Broke is the first of what I hope will be a shelf of books that... Read more

Freedom is a Constant Struggle

Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

By: Angela Y. Davis
Narrated by: Angela Y. Davis & Coleen Marlo
Length: 5 hours 47 minutes

“A must read on the interconnection of all liberation struggles that has only become more relevant since its publication in 2016. Angela Davis is one of the most steadfast voices of our time, and her background as a public speaker makes for excellent narration. Read more