Audiobooks narrated by Chris Abernathy

The Bourbon Drinker’s Companion: A Guide to American Distilleries, with Travel Advice, Folklore, and

This insider's guide to American distilleries offers colorful lore, regional history, and tasting notes for bourbon, whiskey, and rye. The Bourbon Drinker's Companion is a narrative journey into the heart of American craft distilleries, taking listeners from the well-known Jim Beam Booker Noe plant to craft whiskey brewers on the West Coast to the emerging new traditional distillers of the South, in search of America's best whiskey. Bestselling author Colin Spoelman is back to celebrate all things whiskey as he explores the effect branding, taste, region, and distilling processes have on America's beloved and most notorious drink. Head down to Louisville to visit Angel's Envy Distillery, go east to Jeptha Creed Distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky, and then be sure to hit one of America's oldest distilleries, Buffalo Trace, in nearby Frankfurt, as you follow the road of spirits. Complete with sidebars highlighting key whiskies, bourbons, and ryes from each distillery, as well as tasting notes, pricing information, distilling methods, and more, The Bourbon Drinker's Companion is the perfect plus one to bring along.

Colin Spoelman (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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River of Lakes: A Journey on Florida's St. Johns River

First explored by naturalist William Bartram in the 1760s, the St. Johns River stretches 310 miles along Florida's east coast, making it the longest river in the state. The first 'highway' through the once wild interior of Florida, the St. Johns may appear ordinary, but within its banks are some of the most fascinating natural phenomena and historic mysteries in the state. The river, no longer the commercial resource it once was, is now largely ignored by Florida's residents and visitors alike. In the first contemporary book about this American Heritage River, Bill Belleville describes his journey down the length of the St. Johns, kayaking, boating, hiking its riverbanks, diving its springs, and exploring its underwater caves. He rediscovers the natural Florida and establishes his connection with a place once loved for its untamed beauty. Belleville involves scientists, environmentalists, fishermen, cave divers, and folk historians in his journey, soliciting their companionship and their expertise. River of Lakes weaves together the biological, cultural, anthropological, archaeological, and ecological aspects of the St. Johns, capturing the essence of its remarkable history and intrinsic value as a natural wonder.

Bill Belleville (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s, Our Decade of Hope, Possibility, and Innocence Lost

'There are many different ways to remember the sixties,' Frye Gaillard writes, 'and this is mine. As future generations debate the meaning of the decade, I hope to offer a sense of how it felt to have lived it. A Hard Rain is one writer's reconstruction and remembrance of a transcendent era-one that, for better or worse, lives with us still.' With A Hard Rain, Gaillard gives us a deeply personal history, bringing his keen storyteller's eye to this pivotal time in American life. He explores the competing story arcs of tragedy and hope through the political and social movements of the times: civil rights, black power, women's liberation, the war in Vietnam, and the protests movements against it. Gaillard also examines the cultural manifestations of change in the era-music, literature, art, religion, and science-and so we meet not only the Brothers Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, but also Gloria Steinem, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Harper Lee, Mister Rogers, Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Andy Warhol, Billy Graham, Thomas Merton, George Wallace, Richard Nixon, Angela Davis, Barry Goldwater, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Berrigan Brothers. As Gaillard remembers these influential people, he weaves together a compelling story about an iconic American decade of change, conflict, and progress.

Frye Gaillard (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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Draining New Orleans: The 300-Year Quest to Dewater the Crescent City

In Draining New Orleans, renowned geographer Richard Campanella recounts the epic challenges and ingenious efforts to dewater the Crescent City. With forays into geography, public health, engineering, architecture, politics, sociology, race relations, and disaster response, he chronicles the herculean attempts to 'reclaim' the city's swamps and marshes and install subsurface drainage for massive urban expansion. The study begins with a vivid description of a festive event on Mardi Gras weekend 1915, which attracted an entourage of elite New Orleanians to the edge of Bayou Barataria to witness the christening of giant water pumps. What transpired in the years and decades that followed can only be understood by examining the large swath of history dating back two centuries earlier and extending through the colonial, antebellum, postbellum, and Progressive eras to modern times. The consequences of dewatering New Orleans proved both triumphant and tragic. The city's engineering prowess transformed it into a world leader in drainage technology, yet the municipality also fell victim to its own success. Campanella emphasizes the role of determined and sometimes unsavory individuals who spearheaded projects to separate water from dirt, creating lucrative opportunities in the process not only for the community but also for themselves.

Richard Campanella (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America

The awe-inspiring story of explorer David Thompson, whose expeditions helped shape western North America In this true story of adventure, author Jack Nisbet recreates the life and times of David Thompson-fur trader, explorer, surveyor, and mapmaker. From 1784 to 1812, Thompson explored western North America, and his field journals provide the earliest written accounts of the natural history and indigenous cultures of the what is now British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Thompson was the first person to chart the entire route of the Columbia river, and his wilderness expeditions have become the stuff of legend. Jack Nisbet tracks the explorer across the continent, interweaving his own observations with Thompson's historical writings. The result is a fascinating story of two men discovering the Northwest territory almost two hundred years apart.

Jack Nisbet (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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The Poacher's Nightmare: Stories of an Undercover Game Warden

Racoons are not the only bandits wearing masks in the wilderness. Growing up, author Kennie Prince spent most of his time in the woods and creeks near his home in Rankin County, Mississippi. A highly skilled outdoorsman, Prince began his career with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Conservation in 1983 and dedicated his life to protecting Mississippi's fish and wildlife resources in dangerous undercover work. The Poacher's Nightmare: Stories of an Undercover Game Warden contains dozens of hair-raising accounts of covert wildlife operations, often spanning years, requiring ingenious planning, complicated secrecy, and deft coordination. Prince infiltrated bloody-minded, wary criminal groups, winning their trust. When his traps were fully set, he involved other state and federal law enforcement officials to bring an abrupt halt to abominable thefts of vast fish and wildlife resources from the public trust. Smart, creative, knowledgeable, tenacious, disciplined, passionate, and a natural-born actor, Prince bore a unique skill set that made him an ideal fit for this perilous undertaking. This memoir details how Prince gained the confidence of tightly knit circles of loyal, leery poachers and put an end to their destructive evil.

Kennie Prince (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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Afternoons with Harper Lee

Imagine sitting with an esteemed writer on his or her front porch somewhere in the world and swapping life stories. Dr. Wayne Flynt got the opportunity to do just this with Nelle Harper Lee. In a friendship that blossomed over a dozen years starting when Lee relocated back to Alabama after having had a stroke, Flynt and his wife Dartie became regular visitors at the assisted living facility that was Lee's new home. And there the conversation began, with an invitation to 'Come in, sit down, and stay a while.' The stories exchanged ranged widely over the topics of Alabama history, Alabama folklore, family genealogy, and American literature, of course. Wayne and his wife were often joined by Alice Lee, the oldest Lee sister, a living encyclopedia on the subject of family genealogy, and middle sister Louise Lee Conner. The hours spent visiting, in intimate closeness, are still cherished by Wayne Flynt. They yielded revelations large and small, which have been shaped into Afternoons with Harper Lee. Part memoir, part biography, this book offers a unique window into the life and mind and preoccupations of one of America's best-loved writers. Flynt and Harper Lee and her sisters learned a great deal from each other, and though this is not a history book, their shared interest in Alabama and its history made this extraordinary work possible.

Wayne Flynt (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade Our Economy and the Planet

The rural roads that led to our planet-changing global economy ran through the American South. That region's impact on the interconnected histories of business and ecological change is narrated here by acclaimed scholar Bart Elmore, who uses the histories of five southern firms-Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Walmart, FedEx, and Bank of America-to investigate the environmental impact of our have-it-now, fly-by-night, buy-on-credit economy. Elmore explores the historical, economic, and ecological conditions that gave rise to these five trailblazing corporations. He then considers what each has become: an essential presence in the daily workings of the global economy and an unmistakable contributor to the reshaping of the world's ecosystems. Even as businesses invest in sustainability initiatives and respond to new calls for corporate responsibility, Elmore shows the limits of their efforts to 'green' their operations and offers insights on how governments and activists can push corporations to do better. Our lives are built around businesses that connect far-flung rural places to urban centers and global destinations. This 'country capitalism' that proved successful in the US South has made it possible to satisfy our demands at the click of a button, but each click comes with hidden environmental costs.

Bart Elmore (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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Play All Night!: Duane Allman and the Journey to Fillmore East

The 1971 Allman Brothers Band album At Fillmore East was a musical manifesto years in the making. Bob Beatty dives deep into the motivations of band founder Duane Allman to tell the story of what made this album one of the most important live rock albums in history. Beatty chronicles how Allman rejected the traditional route of music business success and built a band that was at its best jamming live on stage, feeding off the crowd's energy, and pushing each other to new heights of virtuosic improvisation. Every challenge, from recruiting a group of relatively unknown but established musicians, touring the American South as an interracial band, and the failure of their first two studio albums, sharpened Allman's determination to pursue the band's unique sound. He made a bold choice-to record their next album live at Bill Graham's famous concert hall in New York's Lower East Side, a gamble that launched a new strand of American music to the top of the charts. Four days after the album went gold, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. He was twenty-four. This book explores how At Fillmore East cemented Allman's legacy as a strong-willed, self-taught visionary, giving fans of Southern rock and all listeners interested in the role of rock music in American popular culture a new appreciation for this pathbreaking album.

Bob Beatty (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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Heritage and Hoop Skirts: How Natchez Created the Old South

For over eighty years, tourists have flocked to Natchez, Mississippi, seeking the 'Old South,' but what they encounter is invention: a pageant and rewrite of history first concocted during the Great Depression. Beginning with the first Natchez Spring Pilgrimage of Antebellum Homes in 1932, such women as Katherine Grafton Miller and Edith Wyatt Moore challenged the notion that smokestack industries were key to Natchez's prosperity. These women developed a narrative of graceful living and aristocratic gentlepeople centered on grand but decaying mansions. In crafting this pageantry, they created a tourism magnet based on the antebellum architecture of Natchez. Through their determination and political guile, they enlisted New Deal programs to promote their version of the city. Their work did save numerous historic buildings and employed both white and African American workers during the Depression. Still, the transformation of Natchez into a tourist draw came at a racial cost and further marginalized African American Natchezians. Paul Hardin Kapp explores how meaning is assigned to place and how meaning evolves over time. In showing how and why the Natchez buildings of the 'Old South' were first preserved, commercialized, and transformed into a brand, this volume makes a much-needed contribution to debates over the meaning attached to cultural patrimony.

Paul Hardin Kapp (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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Reinventing the Supply Chain: A 21st-Century Covenant with America

When the COVID-19 pandemic led to a global economic 'shutdown' in March 2020, our supply chains began to fail, and out-of-stocks and delivery delays became the new norm. Contrary to public perception, the pandemic strain did not break the current system of supply chains; it merely exposed weaknesses and fault lines that were decades in the making, and which were already acutely felt in deindustrialized cities and depopulated rural towns throughout the United States. Reinventing the Supply Chain explores the historical role of supply chains in the global economy, outlines where the system went wrong and what needs to be done to fix it, and demonstrates how a retooled supply chain can lead to the revitalization of American communities. Jack Buffington proposes a transformation of the global supply chain system into a community-based value chain, led by the communities themselves and driven by digital platforms for raising capital and blockchain technology. Buffington proposes new solutions to problems that have been decades in the making. With clear analysis and profound insight, Buffington provides a clear roadmap to a more durable and efficient system.

Jack Buffington (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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The Southern Way of Life: Meanings of Culture and Civilization in the American South

How does one begin to understand the idea of a distinctive southern way of life-a concept as enduring as it is disputed? In this examination of the American South in national and global contexts, celebrated historian Charles Reagan Wilson assesses how diverse communities of southerners have sought to define the region's identity. Surveying three centuries of southern regional consciousness across many genres, disciplines, and cultural strains, Wilson considers and challenges prior presentations of the region, advancing a vision of southern culture that has always been plural, dynamic, and complicated by race and class. Structured in three parts, The Southern Way of Life takes listeners on a journey from the colonial era to the present, from when complex ideas of 'southern civilization' rooted in slaveholding and agrarianism dominated to the twenty-first-century rise of a modern, multicultural 'southern living.' As Wilson shows, there is no singular or essential South but rather a rich tapestry woven with contestations, contingencies, and change.

Charles Reagan Wilson (Author), Chris Abernathy (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Chris Abernathy