Showing results by publisher "audible originals" in Politics & Social Sciences

From the co-creators of Slow Burn, Fiasco is a narrative podcast that transports listeners into the day-to-day reality of America’s most pivotal historical events.

Will Johnnie Veal—convicted of the murder of two police officers in 1970—be granted parole after 50 years in prison? How can he convince the parole board he’s reformed when he insists he’s innocent? What is prison time even supposed to accomplish? These are the questions that propel The Parole Room forward as it builds toward Johnnie’s 20th parole hearing—after 19 rejections.

When two Stanford graduate students set out to create a new kind of cigarette that wouldn’t kill them, they didn’t foresee all the obstacles that lay ahead — or the powerful forces their invention would unleash. Nearly 10 years after the launch of the JUUL, Backfired: The Vaping Wars asks: Could e-cigarettes have been the solution to one of the world’s most pressing public health problems—or was this technology doomed to introduce a whole new generation to nicotine, and end up perpetuating an intractable addiction?

This Is Not a Game is the extraordinary untold story of the internet’s first conspiracy theory, the legend of Ong’s Hat. Marc Fennell will dive deep into a previously unexplored world of tech hippies, eccentric web subcultures and simmering paranoia, uncovering how this tongue-in-cheek artistic experiment backfired on its creator and went on to influence much of what’s wrong with the internet today.

In January 2019, culture writer Anne Helen Petersen set the internet on fire with her viral BuzzFeed essay diagnosing “millennial burnout” - a chronic state of stress and exhaustion that’s become a “base temperature” for young people today. Now, she continues this generation-defining conversation in a brand-new format, interviewing millennials around the country about their own deeply personal experiences with burnout, and the culture that creates it.

A century ago very few people dreamed of space travel. Today it is the most daring and technologically sophisticated quest ever undertaken, being driven not just by government agencies such as NASA and ESA, but also by visionaries such as Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin). To mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, this major drama-documentary series charts the definitive story of the past, present and future of humankind’s exploration of space. The Space Race is narrated by Kate Mulgrew and features a full cast.

In 10 riveting episodes that feel like a fast-paced thriller, acclaimed World War II historian Edward G. Lengel’s Generals and Geniuses: A History of the Manhattan Project brings the origin of the atomic bomb - and the scientific minds behind it - to vivid life. Did the Manhattan Project, and the remarkable weapon it produced, save millions of lives at the expense of the tens of thousands who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? And was there any way to prevent this technology from unleashing the horrors that still hang over us today?

Doctors are more than doctors. They’re detectives who solve mysteries about the human body. Diagnosing patients is about looking for clues, whether a persistent tickle in the back of the throat or confusion and memory loss. Just like detectives, good doctors sift through information until they arrive at the medical solution that fits best. Think you have what it takes to keep up with medical detective work? Find out with this second installment of Dr. Roy Benaroch’s thrilling look at medical mysteries from across history.

The stuff of conspiracy theories makes for great, entertaining stories in movies, books, and television. And there is no shortage of subjects: from who really killed JFK to the truth behind 9/11. And then, there are subjects from alien invasions to the Moon landing was simulated - theories that are truly out of this world, which according to some, is flat. Many of these crazy concepts have jumped off the pages or screens to become so pervasive in our culture that thousands - even millions - subscribe to them as reality.

Overwhelmed by conflicting narratives and sensationalism in the news? Wondering where you can get an objective analysis and direct-from-the-source reporting?

Look no further than In the Room with Peter Bergen. In a weekly nonpartisan news podcast, longtime national security journalist and bestselling author Peter Bergen goes beyond the headlines, to explore the world’s most important and captivating stories.

Winner of the 2018 ARIA Award for Best Sports Show

The decline and fall of Rudy Giuliani, from “America’s Mayor” to public spectacle, has all the makings of a modern Shakespearean tragedy. Those who know Giuliani, whose tough leadership and even tougher politics helped revitalize New York City in the 1990s and lead the country through 9/11, have stood by and watched with incredulity as he put himself at the heart of impeachment charges against the President.

In 1992, the deadliest year in Chicago’s history, seven-year-old Dantrell Davis was shot and killed in front of his elementary school inside the public housing complex Cabrini-Green. What happened to Dantrell led to a truce among Chicago’s gangs, but it also ignited a national panic about poverty and violence in America’s cities. Dantrell’s name would soon be used to demolish all of Chicago’s high-rise public housing, displacing tens of thousands of low-income families.

Danny Wallace faces the absurdities, trivialities and challenges of being a man every day. It's not for everyone. Half the world don't have to.

Michael Pollan, known for his best-selling nonfiction audio, including The Omnivores Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, conceived and wrote Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World as an Audible Original. In this controversial and exciting listen, Pollan explores caffeine’s power as the most-used drug in the world - and the only one we give to children (in soda pop) as a treat.

Energy medicine. Acupuncture. Superfoods. Healing magnets. What does the scientific evidence really say about these and other eclectic treatments for personal wellness that fall under the popular term “alternative medicine”? How can we know if a treatment is safe and effective? How can you become your own best skeptical consumer of health news in the media? Join neurologist and science educator Dr. Steven Novella for a fascinating exploration of these and other important questions about the truths - and myths - behind alternative medicine.

The 1980s was a decade of change for many countries, but for Great Britain, it could be considered radical. The economic transformation of Britain during that period bears the indelible mark of Margaret Thatcher and her policies. In this Audible Original, Professor Amy Edwards takes you through the life and leadership of Margaret Thatcher. See how she went from being a shopkeeper’s daughter who lived above her parent’s corner shop to holding Britain’s top job and earning a reputation as one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century.

In the 10 lectures of Wolves and Werewolves in History and Popular Culture, author and teacher Shannon Scott will take you around the world to explore the many ways humans have created and shared stories of wolves, shape-shifting, and lycanthropy.

From the birth of hip-hop in the 1970s to today, women have been just as integral to the growth and development of the rap game as their male counterparts. Nonetheless, they’re consistently shortchanged as artists, creators, renegades, and cultural visionaries in prevailing histories of the genre. The Motherlode changes that.

In weeks after the September 11 attacks, 18-year-old Mansoor Adayfi was kidnapped by Afghan militia and sold to US forces for bounty money. After months of interrogations, he was sent to the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as one of its first prisoners. Like the nearly 800 other men imprisoned at Guantanamo, Adayfi didn’t know why he was imprisoned or for how long. He had never seen a skyscraper and couldn’t imagine what the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center looked like, much less how they were destroyed.