Science & Technology audiobooks

Elixir

By: Brian M. Fagan

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 13 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Elixir spans five thousand years, from the beginnings of civilization to the parched American Sun Belt of today. It is a story of human endeavor: our present-day interaction with this most essential resource has deep roots in the remote past, and every human culture has been shaped by its relationship to water.



For the earliest hunter-gatherers,... Read more

Physics for Future Presidents

By: Richard A. Muller

Narrated by: Pete Larkin

Length: 10 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

We live in complicated, dangerous times. They are also hyper-technical times. As citizens who will elect future presidents of the most powerful and influential world, we need to know—truly understand, not just rely on television's talking heads—if Iran's nascent nuclear capability is a genuine threat to the West, if biochemical weapons are... Read more

Buddha and the Quantum

By: Samuel Avery

Narrated by: Samuel Avery

Length: 3 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Buddha and the Quantum is about the connection between meditation and physics. Many books show parallels between consciousness and physics; a few of these attempt to explain consciousness in terms of the physics of everyday experience. This is the only book on the market that explains physics and the everyday world in terms of consciousness... Read more

Incognito

By: David Eagleman

Narrated by: David Eagleman

Length: 8 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

If the conscious mind—the part you consider to be you—is just the tip of the iceberg, what is the rest doing?
 
In this sparkling and provocative new book, the renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman navigates the depths of the subconscious brain to illuminate surprising mysteries: Why can your foot move halfway to the brake pedal before you... Read more

The Youngest Science

By: Lewis Thomas

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 8 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

In this partially autobiographical work, best-selling author Lewis Thomas offers insights on subjects as wide-ranging as gender differences, how it feels to be a patient, human vs. computer intelligence, the future of cancer research, and the longevity of the planet-interspersing all with charming anecdotes about his family, his colleagues and... Read more

Finding Happiness, Purpose, and Joy

By: Dan Millman

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

What are the four purposes of life and what are the twelve required core courses in life’s school? These questions are highlighted in this edition of New Dimensions with Dan Millman, author of The Four Purposes of Life: Finding Meaning and Direction in a Changing World. Read more

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

By: Friedrich Nietzsche

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 11 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the most famous and influential work of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The work is a philosophical novel in which the character of Zarathustra, a religious prophet–like figure, delivers a series of lessons and sermons in a Biblical style that articulate the central... Read more

Select Essays

By: Michel de Montaigne

Narrated by: Clive Chafer

Length: 5 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Michel de Montaigne, one of the foremost writers of the French Renaissance and the originator of the genre of the essay, wrote on subjects ranging from friendship to imagination, from language to conscience. This collection includes twenty-two of Montaigne's essays, including "Of Prognostications," "Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes," "Of... Read more

Wicked Bugs

By: Amy Stewart

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 5 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

In this darkly comical look at the sinister side of our relationship with the natural world, Stewart has tracked down over one hundred of our worst entomological foes—creatures that infest, infect, and generally wreak havoc on human affairs. From the world's most painful hornet, to the flies that transmit deadly diseases, to millipedes that stop... Read more

The Stem Cell Hope

By: Alice Park

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 10 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A landmark book by the senior science writer at Time magazine introduces us to a medical breakthrough that can save our lives.

Few people know much about stem cell research beyond the ethical questions raised by using embryos. But in the last decade, stem cell research has made huge advances toward eliminating some of our most intractable... Read more

Serve God, Save the Planet

By: J. Matthew Sleeth, M.D.

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 6 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

Not long ago, J. Matthew Sleeth had a fantastic life and a great job as chief of the medical staff at a large hospital. He was living the American dream—until he saw an increasing number of his patients suffering from cancer, asthma, and other chronic diseases. He began to suspect that the Earth and its inhabitants were in deep trouble. Turning... Read more

Genocide In Darfur: Why We Should Care

By: Rebecca Tinsley

Narrated by: Justine Willis Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

It's never a waste of time reminding the world what's happening in places where genocide is occurring. Each of us is commissioned to speak out and shine a light on these dark atrocities that take place daily around the world. Rebecca Tinsley has been instrumental in getting the word out about the atrocity in Darfur. Read more

Mississippi River Floodwater

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

A 15-mile stretch of the swollen Mississippi River, closed Tuesday due to pressure on levees, has been reopened to barges moving one at a time. Tom Bearden reports on the short- and long-term environmental effects the floodwater could have on Lake Pontchartrain, oyster beds and more. Read more

The Man in the Gray Flannel Skirt

By: Jon-Jon Goulian

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 9 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

The vibrant, funny, and heartwarming story of an outcast who becomes an odd man in
 
If you have ever felt like a misfit in school or been paralyzed by your family’s imposing expectations, if you have ever obsessed about your appearance or panicked about choosing a career path, if you have ever wondered if every single thing to which your body is... Read more

Spark

By: Julie Burstein & Kurt Andersen

Narrated by: Julie Burstein

Length: 7 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

How did Richard Ford's cat influence his work as a novelist? HOW is Chuck Close's portraiture driven by his inability to remember faces? What pivotal moment helped Rosanne Cash understand the healing power of the stage?Creativity is an elusive subject. We enjoy its fruits—movies, novels, paintings, songs—but rarely are we privy to what happens... Read more

Sacred Knowledge From The Indigenous Wisdom Of Hawaii

By: Hank Wesselman, Ph.D.

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Wesselman shares the spiritual knowledge he gathered from working with the late Hale Makua, a revered Hawaiian Kahuna wisdom keeper. Included are insights such as: the 3 directives of a spiritual warrior, the 7 life roles and how they are expressed in both positive and negative forms, the difference between a shaman and a medicine person, and... Read more

The Filter Bubble

By: Eli Pariser

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web... Read more

Dog Sense

By: John Bradshaw

Narrated by: Michael Page

Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Dogs have been mankind's faithful companions for tens of thousands of years, yet today they are regularly treated as either pack-following wolves or furry humans. The truth is, dogs are neither—and our misunderstanding has put them in serious crisis.



What dogs really need is a spokesperson, someone who will assert their specific needs. Renowned... Read more

The Nature Principle

By: Richard Louv

Narrated by: Rick Adamson

Length: 10 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

The Nature Principle presents a compelling case that a conscious reconnection to nature can make us whole again and that the future will belong to nature-smart individuals, families, businesses, and communities. Supported by evidence from emerging empirical and theoretical research and eye-opening anecdotes, Louv shows that when we tap into the... Read more

Alone Together

By: Sherry Turkle

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 14 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Consider Facebook—it's human contact, only easier to engage with and easier to avoid. Developing technology promises closeness. Sometimes it delivers, but much of our modern life leaves us less connected with people and more connected to simulations of them.



In Alone Together, MIT technology and society professor Sherry Turkle explores the power... Read more

Ask Me Why I Hurt

By: Randy Christensen, M.D. & Rene Denfeld

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

The unforgettable inspiring memoir of one extraordinary doctor who is saving lives in a most unconventional way, Ask Me Why I Hurt is the touching and revealing first-person account of the remarkable work of Dr. Randy Christensen. Trained as a pediatrician, he works not in a typical hospital setting but, rather, in a 38-foot Winnebago that has... Read more

Cycles of Time

By: Roger Penrose

Narrated by: Bruce Mann

Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

From the best-selling author of The Emperor’s New Mind and The Road to Reality, a groundbreaking book that provides new views on three of cosmology’s most profound questions: What, if anything, came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? What is its ultimate future?

Current understanding of our universe dictates that... Read more

Real Boys - Abridged

By: William Pollack

Narrated by: William Pollack

Length: 2 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: Yes

"While it may seem as if we live in a man's world," reports Pollack, "we do not live in a boy's world." Many boys today are struggling either silently, with low self-esteem and feelings of loneliness and isolation, or publicly, by acting out feelings of emotional and social disconnection through anger and acts of violence against themselves or... Read more

Annoying

By: Joe Palca & Flora Lichtman

Narrated by: Flora Lichtman & Joe Palca

Length: 6 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

It happens everywhere: offices, schools, even your own backyard. And, seemingly, anything can trigger it: cell phones, sirens, bad music, constant distractions, your boss, or even your spouse. We all know certain things get under our skin. Can science explain why?

NPR’s Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman take you on a scientific quest through... Read more