Audiobooks by William Powers

Ripple: An Intimate Exchange of Urgency and Hope Between An Ecologist and His Daughter

"Ripple: An Intimate Exchange of Urgency and Hope Between An Ecologist and His Daughter is a narrative of letters written by an ecologist dad to his daughter upon her coming-of-age. Drawing upon his personal history, family anecdotes, and shared memories, Powers envisions a path for humanity's reintegration with nature, and a chance to save the life force that runs through all of us. A story of separation has long gripped the human race: that people are separate—with more advanced habitats, technologies, and values—from our natural surroundings and fellow creatures. We have been told this story for generations. But as Powers watches his daughter approach adulthood, with all of society's expectations, he knows that the story we pass down has to change. In Ripple, he tells a different tale, one of community and family, inner wisdom, and shared existence within a living planet."

William Powers (Author), Bianca Bryan, Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Dispatches from the Sweet Life: One Family, Five Acres, and a Community's Quest to Reinvent the World

"Many fantasize about dramatically changing their lives — living in accordance with their ideals rather than the exigencies of job, bills, and possessions. William Powers actually does it. In his book Twelve by Twelve, Powers lived in an off-grid tiny house in rural North Carolina. In New Slow City, he and his wife, Melissa, inhabited a Manhattan micro-apartment in search of slow in the fastest city in the world. Here, the couple, with baby in tow, search for balance, community, and happiness in a small town in Bolivia. They build an adobe house, plant a prolific orchard and organic garden, and weave their life into a community of permaculturists, bio-builders, artists, and creative businesspeople. Can this Transition Town succeed in the face of encroaching North American capitalism, and can Powers and the other settlers find the balance they’re seeking? Dispatches from the Sweet Life is compelling, sobering, thought-provoking, and, no matter the outcome, inspiring."

William Powers (Author), Timothy Andrés Pabon (Narrator)

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Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream

"Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton’s permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees’ wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis. Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton’s offer to stay at the cabin for a season while she traveled. There, he befriended her eclectic neighbors — organic farmers, biofuel brewers, eco-developers — and discovered a sustainable but imperiled way of life. Here, Powers not only explores this small patch of community but draws on his international experiences with other pockets of resistance. This engrossing tale of Powers’s struggle for a meaningful life with a smaller footprint proposes a paradigm shift to an elusive “Soft World” with clues to personal happiness and global healing."

William Powers (Author), Andrew Eiden (Narrator)

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New Slow City: Living Simply in the World's Fastest City

"Burned-out after years of doing development work around the world, William Powers spent a season in a 12-foot-by-12-foot cabin off the grid in North Carolina, as recounted in his award-winning memoir Twelve by Twelve. Could he live a similarly minimalist life in the heart of New York City? To find out, Powers and his wife jettisoned 80 percent of their stuff, left their 2,000-square-foot Queens townhouse, and moved into a 350-square-foot 'micro-apartment' in Greenwich Village. Downshifting to a two-day workweek, Powers explores the viability of Slow Food and Slow Money, technology fasts and urban sanctuaries. Discovering a colorful cast of New Yorkers attempting to resist the culture of Total Work, Powers offers an inspiring exploration for anyone trying to make urban life more people- and planet-friendly."

William Powers (Author), Adam Verner (Narrator)

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