Social Science audiobooks

Interstate 69

By: Matt Dellinger

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 12 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

New Yorker contributor and decade-long staffer Matt Dellinger uses the controversy surrounding Interstate 69 as a lens through which to examine middle America's current political, social, and economic landscape, including hot-button issues like NAFTA and the country's troubled infrastructure. If completed, I-69 will stretch from Canada to Mexico... Read more

Broke, USA

By: Gary Rivlin

Narrated by: Scott Sowers

Length: 12 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of the New York Times Notable Book of the Year Drive By comes a unique and riveting exploration of one of America’s largest and fastest-growing industries—the business of poverty. Broke, USA is a Fast Food Nation for the “poverty industry” that will also appeal to readers of Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) and David Shipler... Read more

The Vision of the Anointed

By: Thomas Sowell

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 9 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

In this devastating critique of the mindset behind the failed social policies of the past few decades, Thomas Sowell sees what has happened not as a series of isolated mistakes but as a logical consequence of a vision whose defects have led to disasters in education, crime, family disintegration, and more. This is an empirical study in which... Read more

Wind

By: Jan DeBlieu

Narrated by: Mary Woods

Length: 10 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Siroccos, Santa Anas, chinooks, monsoons … the wind has as many names as moods. Few other forces have so universally shaped the lands and waters of the earth and the patterns of exploration, settlement, and civilization. Few other phenomena have exerted such a profound influence on the history and psyche of humankind. In Wind, Jan DeBlieu brings... Read more

The Grandeur That Was Rome

By: Jennifer Tobin

Narrated by: Jennifer Tobin

Length: 7 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Common perceptions of Ancient Rome are plentiful, whether they take the form of crazy emperors hosting lavish feasts, scenes of chariot races and gladiatorial combat, or processions of conquering armies. But that is only half the story. In this enlightening lecture series, Professor Jennifer Tobin presents a sweeping portrait of Rome, including... Read more

The People's Dynasty

By: Robert Shepherd

Narrated by: Robert Shepherd

Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

The state-directed opening of the Chinese economy in 1979 led to a number of radical transformations within Chinese society, but Western understanding of these changes is often limited by erroneous assumptions. Offering a clear picture of the vast economic and social forces of modern-day China, Professor Robert J. Shepherd addresses U.S.... Read more

Coping With "Irritable Male Syndrome"

By: Jed Diamond Ph.D.

Narrated by: Justine Willis Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

There exists much information about menopause in women, but very little in menopause (or andropause) for men. Jed Diamond, Ph.D. is a specialist in "Irritable Male Syndrome (IMS)" and how it affects both men and their partners. Read more

When They Severed Earth from Sky

By: Elizabeth Wayland Barber & Paul T. Barber

Narrated by: Beth Richmond

Length: 9 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Why were Prometheus and Loki envisioned as chained to rocks? What was the Golden Calf? Why are mirrors believed to carry bad luck? How could anyone think that mortals like Perseus, Beowulf, and St. George actually fought dragons, since dragons don't exist? Strange though they sound, however, these "myths" did not begin as fiction.This absorbing... Read more

Fighting Poverty in Kenya

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Spencer Michels reports on the story of how a California man sees the chance to increase access to clean water in Kenya through the use of foot-pumps. Read more

A Country for All

By: Jorge Ramos

Narrated by: Ozzie Rodriguez

Length: 3 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

For decades, fixing the United States’ broken immigration system has been one of the most urgent challenges facing our country, and time and time again, politicians have passed the buck. With anti-immigrant sentiment rising around the country, and presidential elections on the horizon, it’s no surprise immigration reform is on every candidate’s... Read more

This Bitter Earth

By: Bernice L. McFadden

Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor

Length: 8 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

This powerful sequel to Bernice L. McFadden’s bestselling debut Sugar follows a young African-American woman back to her Arkansas hometown, where she must confront difficult truths about her parentage and a curse in her family’s past.

When Sugar Lacey returns to Short Junction to find the aunts who raised her, she hopes they will be able to tell... Read more

Wrong

By: David H. Freedman

Narrated by: George K. Wilson

Length: 10 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Our investmeents are devastated, obesity is epidemic, blue-chip companies circle the drain, and popular medications turn out to be ineffective and even dangerous. What happened? Didn't we listen to the scientists, economists, and other experts who promised us that if we followed their advice all would be well?



Actually, those experts are a big... Read more

Medieval People

By: Eileen Power

Narrated by: Roe Kendall

Length: 7 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

In this classic of social history, the author describes the lives of five lesser-known men and women of the Middle Ages, as well as one famous one. She draws on account books, records, letters, diaries, and wills to make the life of those times as concrete and comprehensible as our own. There are full-length portraits of Bodo, a Frankish peasant... Read more

A Wild and Crazy Time

By: Don Lattin

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

As the 1950s came to a close, a new era of social, spiritual, sexual, political and psychological revolution was beginning. Here in this provocative dialogue, you will meet some of the wild characters who made the 1960s the most memorable decade of the 20th century. Lattin says, "[The] big question at the time was: are these experiences people... Read more

The Price of Stones

By: Twesigye Jackson Kaguri & Susan Urbanek Linville

Narrated by: Richard Allen

Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

An incredibly inspiring and thrilling book, this is the story of Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, who grew up in rural southwestern Uganda, the son of an irascible small-time farmer and his loving wife. In spite of the family's poverty, Jackson succeeds and graduates from the national university with a calling to work in human rights that leads him to... Read more

Pandora's Seed

By: Spencer Wells

Narrated by: Spencer Wells

Length: 6 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.



What do terrorism, pandemic disease, and global warming have in common? To find the answer we need... Read more

Click

By: Ori Brafman & Rom Brafman

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Length: 4 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

You know the feeling. You meet someone new—at a party or at work—and you just hit it off. There is an instant sense of camaraderie.
 
In a word, you “click.”
 
From the bestselling authors of Sway,Click is a fascinating psychological investigation of the forces behind what makes us click with certain people, or become fully immersed in whatever... Read more

Extra Lives

By: Tom Bissell

Narrated by: Tom Bissell

Length: 5 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Tom Bissell is a prizewinning writer who published three widely acclaimed books before the age of thirty-four. He is also an obsessive gamer who has spent untold hours in front of his various video game consoles, playing titles such as Far Cry 2, Left 4 Dead, BioShock, and Oblivion for, literally, days. If you are reading this flap copy, the... Read more

The Upside of Irrationality

By: Dan Ariely

Narrated by: Simon Jones

Length: 8 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times Bestseller“Ariely is a genius at understanding human behavior: no economist does a better job of uncovering and explaining the hidden reasons for the weird ways we act.” — James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds Behavioral economist and New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely offers a... Read more

The Rational Optimist

By: Matt Ridley

Narrated by: L.J. Ganser

Length: 13 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

“A delightful and fascinating book filled with insight and wit, which will make you think twice and cheer up.” — Steven PinkerIn a bold and provocative interpretation of economic history, Matt Ridley, the New York Times-bestselling author of Genome and The Red Queen, makes the case for an economics of hope, arguing that the benefits of commerce,... Read more

Magical, Combustible Words

By: Phil Cousineau

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

You'll love Cousineau's stories of the long journeys his favorite words have taken to find their way into our lives, and the provocative nuances hidden in the origins of others. You'll even find clues to how you can stop procrastinating, and finally finish that novel you've been working on, if only you can find the words. Read more

Nomad

By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Narrated by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Internationally bestselling author Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells the stirring story of her search for a new life in America, recounting dramatic stories of her family and the challenges they faced adapting to Western society as Muslim immigrants.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali captured the world’s attention with Infidel, her compelling coming-of-age memoir, which spent... Read more

The Invisible Gorilla

By: Christopher Chabris & Daniel Simons

Narrated by: Dan Woren

Length: 9 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Our minds don’t work the way we think they do. Two renowned psychologists explain how and why our intuitions lead us astray, “[spinning] the plain world [we] know into a wonderment of surprising new insights” (Time).
 
“A must-read for anyone who wants to better understand how the mind works.”—Associated Press 
 
In The... Read more

Wes Moore: The Other Wes moore

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Judy Woodruff talks to Baltimore native Wes Moore about his new book, The Other Wes Moore which explores the stories of two inner-city young men who share the same name, but lead very different lives. Read more