Audiobooks narrated by Joe Ochman

A Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life

A radically thought-provoking account of a major shift in how we understand our Earth, not simply as an inanimate planet on which life evolved, but rather as a planet that came to life. The notion of a living world is one of humanity's oldest beliefs. Though once scorned by many scientists, the concept of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. Life not only adapts to its surroundings-it also shapes them in dramatic and enduring ways. Over billions of years, life transformed a lump of orbiting rock into our cosmic oasis, breathing oxygen into the atmosphere, concocting the modern oceans, and turning rock into fertile soil. Life is intertwined with Earth's capacity to regulate its climate and maintain balance. Through compelling narrative, evocative descriptions, and lucid explanations, Jabr shows us how Earth became the world we've known, how it is rapidly becoming a very different world, and how we will determine what kind of Earth our descendants inherit for millennia to come.

Ferris Jabr (Author), Joe Ochman, TBD (Narrator)

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The Stickler's Guide to Science in the Age of Misinformation: The Real Science Behind Hacky Headline

The perfect remedy for our culture of fake news, bad science, and propaganda. We have more scientific information at our fingertips today than ever before. And more disinformation too. Online, on television, and in print, science is often communicated through shorthand analogies and phrases that obscure or omit important facts. “Superfoods,” “right- and left-brained” people, and “global warming” may be snappy and ear-catching but are they backed by scientific facts? Lifelong educator R. Philip Bouchard is a stickler for this kind of thing, and he is well-prepared to set the record straight. The Stickler’s Guide to Science in the Age of Misinformation unpacks the many misuses of terms we see used every day, revealing how these popular “scientific” concepts fall short of real science. Find out why trees do not “store” carbon dioxide; a day is not actually 24 hours; DNA cannot provide a “blueprint” for a human being; and an absence of gravity is not the reason that astronauts float in space.

R. Philip Bouchard (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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Life's Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive

This book is not just about life, but about discovery itself. It is about error and hubris, but also about wonder and the reach of science. And it is bookended with the ultimate question: How do we define the thing that defines us? - Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Gene We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the living world – from protocells to brains, from zygotes to pandemic viruses – the harder they find it is to locate the edges of life, where it begins and ends. What exactly does it mean to be alive? Is a virus alive? Is a foetus? Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the apple sitting on your kitchen counter alive, or is only the apple tree it came from deserving of the word? If we can’t answer that question here on earth, how will we know when and if we discover alien life on other worlds? The question hangs over some of society’s most charged conflicts – whether a fertilized egg is a living person, for example, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead. Life’s Edge is an utterly fascinating investigation by one of the most celebrated science writers of our time. Zimmer journeys through the strange experiments that have attempted to recreate life. Literally hundreds of definitions of what that should look like now exist, but none has yet emerged as an obvious winner. Lists of what living things have in common do not add up to a theory of life. It’s never clear why some items on the list are essential and others not. Coronaviruses have altered the course of history, and yet many scientists maintain they are not alive. Chemists are creating droplets that can swarm, sense their environment, and multiply. Have they made life in the lab? Whether he is handling pythons in Alabama or searching for hibernating bats in the Adirondacks, Zimmer revels in astounding examples of life at its most bizarre. He tries his own hand at evolving life in a test tube with unnerving results. Charting the obsession with Dr Frankenstein’s monster and how Coleridge came to believe the whole universe was alive, Zimmer leads us all the way into the labs and minds of researchers working on engineering life from the ground up.

Carl Zimmer (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: 'On Robustn

The Black Swan is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don't understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes. A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible." For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. In this revelatory book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don't know, and this second edition features a new philosophical and empirical essay, "On Robustness and Fragility," which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan will change the way you look at the world. Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. The Black Swan is a landmark book-itself a black swan. Includes a bonus pdf of tables and figures. Praise for Nassim Nicholas Taleb "The most prophetic voice of all."-GQ Praise for The Black Swan "[A book] that altered modern thinking."-The Times (London) "A masterpiece."-Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired, author of The Long Tail "Idiosyncratically brilliant."-Niall Ferguson, Los Angeles Times "The Black Swan changed my view of how the world works."-Daniel Kahneman, Nobel laureate "[Taleb writes] in a style that owes as much to Stephen Colbert as it does to Michel de Montaigne. . . . We eagerly romp with him through the follies of confirmation bias [and] narrative fallacy."-The Wall Street Journal "Hugely enjoyable-compelling . . . easy to dip into."-Financial Times "Engaging . . . The Black Swan has appealing cheek and admirable ambition."-The New York Times Book Review

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

Fooled by Randomness is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don't understand. The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes. Now in a striking new hardcover edition, Fooled by Randomness is the word-of-mouth sensation that will change the way you think about business and the world. Nassim Nicholas Taleb-veteran trader, renowned risk expert, polymathic scholar, erudite raconteur, and New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan-has written a modern classic that turns on its head what we believe about luck and skill. This book is about luck-or more precisely, about how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill-the world of trading-Fooled by Randomness provides captivating insight into one of the least understood factors in all our lives. Writing in an entertaining narrative style, the author tackles major intellectual issues related to the underestimation of the influence of happenstance on our lives. The book is populated with an array of characters, some of whom have grasped, in their own way, the significance of chance: the baseball legend Yogi Berra; the philosopher of knowledge Karl Popper; the ancient world's wisest man, Solon; the modern financier George Soros; and the Greek voyager Odysseus. We also meet the fictional Nero, who seems to understand the role of randomness in his professional life but falls victim to his own superstitious foolishness. However, the most recognizable character of all remains unnamed-the lucky fool who happens to be in the right place at the right time-he embodies the "survival of the least fit." Such individuals attract devoted followers who believe in their guru's insights and methods. But no one can replicate what is obtained by chance. Are we capable of distinguishing the fortunate charlatan from the genuine visionary? Must we always try to uncover nonexistent messages in random events? It may be impossible to guard ourselves against the vagaries of the goddess Fortuna, but after reading Fooled by Randomness we can be a little better prepared. Includes bonus pdf of tables and figures. PRAISE FOR FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS: Named by Fortune One of the Smartest Books of All Time A Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year "[Fooled by Randomness] is to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther's ninety-five theses were to the Catholic Church." -Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink "The book that rolled down Wall Street like a hand grenade." -Maggie Mahar, author of Bull! A History of the Boom, 1982-1999 "Fascinating . . . Taleb will grab you." -Peter L. Bernstein, author of Capital Ideas Evolving "Recalls the best of scientist/essayists like Richard Dawkins . . . and Stephen Jay Gould." -Michael Schrage, author of Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate "We need a book like this. . . . Fun to read, refreshingly independent-minded." -Robert J. Shiller, author of Irrational Exuberance "Powerful . . . loaded with crackling little insights [and] extreme brilliance." -National Review

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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Wishes Won't Bring Riches

In this lost classic, the pioneering motivational coach teaches how to make the crucial leap from faith to action in bringing your dreams to life. Believe in yourself...Have faith. We often hear these expressions. But faith is not enough. We need Applied Faith. In three hard-hitting chapters, motivational master Napoleon Hill teaches you how to transform belief to action, and faith into real-life plans. Application. Enthusiasm. Action. These are the three keys required to do more than just 'believe in yourself'--but to actually BE the person you want to be. Wishes Won't Bring Riches provides you with the missing link necessary to go from visualizing your dreams to living them.

Napoleon Hill (Author), Christopher Grove, Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity

Shortlisted for the 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities . . . But, Zimmer argues, heredity isn't just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies. We say we inherit genes from our ancestors - using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates - but we inherit other things that matter as much or more to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life more comfortable. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it. Weaving together historical and current scientific research, his own experience with his two daughters, and the kind of original reporting expected of one of the world's best science journalists, Zimmer ultimately unpacks urgent bioethical quandaries arising from new biomedical technologies, but also long-standing presumptions about who we really are and what we can pass on to future generations.

Carl Zimmer (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity

Award-winning, celebrated New York Times columnist and science writer Carl Zimmer presents a history of our understanding of heredity in this sweeping, resonating overview of a force that shaped human society--a force set to shape our future even more radically. She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities... But, Zimmer writes, "Each of us carries an amalgam of fragments of DNA, stitched together from some of our many ancestors. Each piece has its own ancestry, traveling a different path back through human history. A particular fragment may sometimes be cause for worry, but most of our DNA influences who we are--our appearance, our height, our penchants--in inconceivably subtle ways." Heredity isn't just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies. We say we inherit genes from our ancestors--using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates--but we inherit other things that matter as much or more to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life more comfortable. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it. Weaving historical and current scientific research, his own experience with his two daughters, and the kind of original reporting expected of one of the world's best science journalists, Zimmer ultimately unpacks urgent bioethical quandaries arising from new biomedical technologies, but also long-standing presumptions about who we really are and what we can pass on to future generations.

Carl Zimmer (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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Chasing Phil: The Adventures of Two Undercover FBI Agents with the World's Most Charming Con Man

'Christ! You guys look like a couple of Feds.' 1977, the Thunderbird Motel. J. J. Wedick and Jack Brennan, two fresh-faced FBI agents, were about to go undercover. Their target: the charismatic, globe-trotting con man Phil Kitzer, who was responsible for swindling (and spending) millions of dollars and who some called the world's greatest. One problem: Wedick and Brennan weren't trained for the job, and didn't fully know what they were getting themselves into. They plunged forward anyhow, making it up as they went along. As the young agents became entangled in Kitzer's outrageous schemes, they also grew to respect him - even to care for him. And Kitzer began to think of Wedick and Brennan as best friends, schooling them in everything from opening phony banks to picking up women. Chasing Phil by David Howard is the story of an incredible round-the-world manhunt, a charismatic con man and a friendship that changed crime forever.

David Howard (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold new work that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one's own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life. As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights: For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations. Ethical rules aren't universal. You're part of a group larger than you, but it's still smaller than humanity in general. Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities imposing their tastes and ethics on others. You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. "Educated philistines" have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets. Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines. True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you're willing to risk for it. The phrase "skin in the game" is one we have often heard but rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it's also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, "The symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that's necessary for fairness and justice, and the ultimate BS-buster," and "Never trust anyone who doesn't have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them."

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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Chasing Phil: The Adventures of Two Undercover Agents with the World's Most Charming Con Man

A thrilling true crime caper, bursting with colorful characters and awash in '70s glamour, that spotlights the FBI's first white-collar undercover sting 1977, the Thunderbird Motel. J.J. Wedick and Jack Brennan-two fresh-faced, maverick FBI agents-were about to embark on one of their agency's first wire-wearing undercover missions. Their target? Charismatic, globetrotting con man Phil Kitzer, whom some called the world's greatest swindler. From the Thunderbird, the three men took off to Cleveland, to Miami, to Hawaii, to Frankfurt, to the Bahamas-meeting other members of Kitzer's crime syndicate and powerful politicians and businessmen he fooled at each stop. But as the young agents, playing the role of proteges and co-conspirators, became further entangled in Phil's outrageous schemes over their months on the road, they also grew to respect him-even care for him. Meanwhile, Phil began to think of Jack and J.J. as best friends, sharing hotel rooms and inside jokes with them and even competing with J.J. in picking up women. Phil Kitzer was at the center of dozens of scams in which he swindled millions of dollars, but the FBI was mired in a post-Watergate malaise and slow to pivot toward a new type of financial crime that is now all too familiar. Plunging into the field with no undercover training, the agents battled a creaky bureaucracy on their adventures with Phil, hoping the FBI would recognize the importance of their mission. Even as they grew closer to Phil, they recognized that their endgame-the swindler's arrest-was drawing near... Anchored by larger-than-life characters, framed by exotic locales and an irresistible era, Chasing Phil is high drama and propulsive reading, delivered by an effortless storyteller.

David Howard (Author), Joe Ochman (Narrator)

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Magic Time

Reality is not what it was. Desperate science run amok has collided with dark sorcery, and together they have ripped open a gaping wound into ... something. Now, in an instant, everything is different. The horrific is mundane, the impossible rational. Nothing works and everyone pays. Welcome to ... Magic Time. For rising young lawyer Cal Griffin, it's just another day in the Big City, full of stress, screw-ups, deadlines, and anxiety. That is until New York is rocked by a series of bizarre tremors-and the lights go off ... for good. Trapped in a giant metropolis and cut off from the rest of the world, Cal tries desperately to make sense of the surreal chaos that engulfs his crippled city. Worst of all, the people around him are ... changing. Once-ordinary humans are becoming embodiments of their darkest desires, manifestations of their deepest fears. Packs of pale, crouched figures stalk the subways, glowing child-faces peer out of the shadows ... and monsters prowl Times Square. And Cal Griffin is not the only one who will be forced into a strange new role in this brave new world of nightmare and wonder. An elevator mechanic turned huntress, a refugee doctor from Chernobyl, and a visionary street wizard all share a staggering responsibility with the young attorney to make sense of the senseless-and to follow an awesome destiny. For they are to be soldiers in a titanic battle between darkness and light. And its raging hellfires will effect the most astonishing transformation of all-turning a young man of pure heart into that rarest of creatures: a hero.

Elaine Zicree, Marc Scott Zicree, Marc Zicree (Author), A Full Cast, Anthony Cohen, Armin Shimerman, Cali Ross, Christina Moses, Crystal Ann Taylor, David Polcyn, Full Cast, Full Cast, Gunner Weber Prada, Ian Federgreen, Joe Ochman, Marta Schulz, Nathaniel Freeman, Neil Kaplan, R. Martin Klein, Richard Tanner, Richard Tatum, Robert Amico, Sara Jo Elice (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Joe Ochman