Audiobooks narrated by Michael David Axtell

Fifteen years after Bernie Madoff's arrest, renowned investigative journalist Richard Behar delivers the definitive account of history's largest—and longest-running—financial fraud. Some $65 billion evaporated during Bernie Madoff's epic confidence game. Two people were driven to suicide in the wake of the Ponzi Scheme's exposure. Others went to prison. But there has never been a satisfying accounting for how Bernie got away with so much, for so long. Until now. Richard Behar's relationship with Madoff began in 2011 with a simple email request from the inmate. By the time he died in 2021, he had sent Behar more than 300 emails and dozens of hand-written letters, participated in some fifty (recorded) phone conversations, and sat for three in-person jailhouse interviews—a level of access provided to no other reporter. Behar also established unique relationships with dozens of regulators, prosecutors, investors, Wall Street experts, ex-employees of Madoff's, and FBI agents. The result is the final word on the criminal behind history's most enduring fraud—and on those who believed him, covered for him, or locked him up. Behar reveals not only that the fraud traces back decades earlier than Madoff claimed in his confession, but also the complicity of investors (who unfairly blame the SEC), Wall Street insiders, family members, and some of the largest banks in the US and Europe. Shocking, infuriating, riveting (and at times absurdly funny), Madoff shows us how Bernie ensnared thousands of investors. As Behar's dogged reporting over the last fifteen years makes clear, however, there aren't many innocents left standing by the end of this tale. Just about everyone involved is guilty, at a minimum, of humanity's most consistent weakness: greed.

Richard Behar (Author), Michael David Axtell, TBD (Narrator)

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How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain

Part Michael Lewis, part The Way Things Work: From the New York Times’s Global Economics Correspondent, an extraordinary journey revealing the worldwide supply chain—exposing both the fascinating pathways of manufacturing and transportation that bring products to your doorstep, and the ruthless business logic that has left local communities at the mercy of a complex and fragile network for their basic necessities. How does the wealthiest country on earth run out of protective gear in the middle of a public health catastrophe? How do its parents find themselves unable to locate crucially needed infant formula? How do its largest companies spend billions of dollars making cars that no one can drive for a lack of chips? The last few years have radically highlighted the intricacy and fragility of the global supply chain. Enormous ships were stuck at sea, warehouses overflowed, and delivery trucks stalled. The result was a scarcity of everything from breakfast cereal to medical devices, from frivolous goods to lifesaving necessities. And while the scale of the pandemic shock was unprecedented, it underscored the troubling reality that the system was fundamentally at risk of descending into chaos all along. And it still is. Sabotaged by financial interests, loss of transparency in markets, and worsening working conditions for the people tasked with keeping the gears turning, our global supply chain has become perpetually on the brink of collapse. In How the World Ran Out of Everything, award-winning journalist Peter S. Goodman reveals the fascinating innerworkings of our supply chain and the factors that have led to its constant, dangerous vulnerability. His reporting takes readers deep into the elaborate system, showcasing the triumphs and struggles of the human players who operate it—from factories in Asia and an almond grower in Northern California, to a group of striking railroad workers in Texas, to a truck driver who Goodman accompanies across hundreds of miles of the Great Plains. Through their stories, Goodman weaves a powerful argument for reforming a supply chain to become truly reliable and resilient, demanding a radical redrawing of the bargain between labor and shareholders, and deeper attention paid to how we get the things we need. From one of the most respected economic journalists working today, How the World Ran Out of Everything is a fiercely smart, deeply informative look at how our supply chain operates, and why its reform is crucial—not only to avoid dysfunction in our day to day lives, but to protect the fate of our global fortunes.

Peter S. Goodman (Author), Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History

“A fascinating peek behind the making of a megahit, and a delightful bit of nostalgia for those of us who remember life before streaming TV.” —Town & Country Welcome to the O.C., b*tch: it’s the definitive oral history of beloved TV show The O.C., from the show’s creators, featuring interviews with the cast and crew, providing a behind-the-scenes look into how the show was made, the ups and downs over its four seasons, and its legacy today. On August 5th, 2003, Ryan Atwood found himself a long way from his home in Chino—he was in The O.C., an exclusive suburb full of beautiful girls, wealthy bullies, corrupt real-estate tycoons, and a new family helmed by his public defender, Sandy Cohen. Ryan soon warms up to his nerdy, indie band-loving new best friend Seth, and quickly falls for Marissa, the stunning girl next door who has secrets of her own. Completing the group is Summer, Seth’s dream girl and Marissa’s loyal—and fearless—best friend. Together, the friends fall in and out of love, support each other amidst family strife, and capture the hearts of audiences across the country. Just in time for the show’s twentieth anniversary, The O.C.’s creator Josh Schwartz and executive producer Stephanie Savage are ready to dive into how the show was made, the ups and downs over its four seasons, and its legacy today. With Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic and bestselling author Alan Sepinwall conducting interviews with the key cast members, writers, and producers who were there when it all happened, Welcome to the O.C. will offer the definitive inside look at the beloved show—a nostalgic delight for audiences who watched when it aired, and a rich companion to viewers currently discovering the show while it streams on HBO Max and Hulu. The O.C. paved the way for a new generation of iconic teen soaps, launched the careers of young stars, and even gave us the gift of Chrismukkah. Now, it’s time to go back where we started from and experience it all over again. Includes exclusive interviews with: Ben McKenzie * Mischa Barton * Adam Brody * Rachel Bilson * Peter Gallagher * Kelly Rowan * Melinda Clarke * Tate Donovan * Chris Carmack * Autumn Reeser * Willa Holland * Samaire Armstrong * Alan Dale * Colin Hanks * Amanda Righetti * Navi Rawat * Shannon Lucio * Michael Cassidy * McG * Imogen Heap * Alex Greenwald * Ben Gibbard * Paul Scheer * Doug Liman * and many more!

Alan Sepinwall, Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage (Author), Alan Sepinwall, Alyssa Bresnahan, Amy Landon, Andrew Eiden, Eva Kaminsky, Ewan Chung, Fred Sanders, Hillary Huber, Josh Bloomberg, Josh Schwartz, Kaleo Griffith, Karissa Vacker, Michael David Axtell, Robert Fass, Soneela Nankani, Stephanie Savage, Therese Plummer (Narrator)

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Dark Moon, Shallow Sea

The first in a new epic fantasy series from David R. Slayton—author of White Trash Warlock—Dark Moon, Shallow Sea is a powerful story of divine betrayal, ghosts, and self-discovery, perfect for fans of the Dark Souls series or Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. When Phoebe, goddess of the moon, is killed by the knights of the sun god, Hyperion, all who follow her are branded heretics. With Phoebe gone, the souls of the dead are no longer ferried to the underworld, and instead linger on as shades who feast on the blood of the living. Raef is a child of the night. He lives in the shadows, on scraps, eking out a meager existence as a thief. But when an ornate box is sequestered in the Temple of Hyperion, the chance of a big score proves too great to resist. What he finds within propels him on an odyssey across the sea and back again, altering the course of his life forever. Seth is a knight of the sun. But unlike the others of his order, the fire of Hyperion only brings him pain. He believes he deserves this penance, exacted for his unknown origins. Tasked with recovering the contents of the box, Seth must also venture beyond the horizon if he’s to learn the truth about himself. In a dying world divided by the greed of those in power, Raef and Seth find their destinies intertwined—and learn they might have more in common than they ever imagined.

David R. Slayton (Author), Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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And There We Were and Here We Are: A Novel

“I wasn’t even going to tell this story, but Violet had to go and write a whole book about all of us before getting herself killed.” Ten years ago, Jerry came to New York City to break into show business. Today, his career is stalled, his ex-fiancé is a TV star, and he survives by bartending in Manhattan’s high-end cocktail lounges. Stunned by loss and regret, he is sleepwalking through a hung-over life when he discovers Violet’s book about when they were young, hopeful servers at a Times Square restaurant. Mustering the courage to open it, he relives the days of call-backs and late nights, angry chefs and crazy customers. As he searches the words of his self-destructive soul-mate, can he reconcile his past and find the hope he lost along the way? With unflinching honesty, this book lays bare the reality of breaking into show business, while living paycheck to paycheck in the most expensive city in America. If you’ve ever wondered what happens to people who go to NYC to make it in show business and don’t, you will love this entertaining story of redemption.

Scott Brooks (Author), Michael David Axtell, Tavia Gilbert (Narrator)

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Deadbeat Druid

The living cannot be allowed to infect the dead. Adam Binder has lost what matters most to him. Having finally learned the true identity of the warlock preying on his family, what was supposed to be a final confrontation with the fiend instead became a trap that sent Adam’s beloved Vicente into the realm of the dead, where none living are meant to be. Bound by debt, oath, and love, Adam blazes his own trail into the underworld to get Vicente back, and to end the threat of the warlock once and for all. But the road to hell is paved with far more than good intentions. Demons are hungry, and ghosts are relentless, and what awaits Adam in the underworld is nothing he is prepared to face. If that weren’t enough, Adam has one more thing he must do if he and Vicente are to return to the world of the living: find the lost heart of Death herself.

David R. Slayton (Author), Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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Saving Freud: A Life in Vienna and an Escape to Freedom in London

A dramatic true story about Sigmund Freud's last-minute escape to London following the German annexation of Austria and the group of friends who made it possible. In March 1938, German soldiers crossed the border into Austria and Hitler absorbed the country into the Third Reich. Anticipating these events, many Jews had fled Austria, but the most famous Austrian Jew remained in Vienna, where he had lived since early childhood. Sigmund Freud was 81 years old, ill with cancer, and still unconvinced that his life was in danger. But several prominent people close to Freud thought otherwise, and they began a coordinated effort to persuade Freud to leave his beloved Vienna and emigrate to England. The group included a Welsh physician, Napoleon's great-grandniece, an American ambassador, Freud's devoted youngest daughter Anna, and his personal doctor. Saving Freud is the story of how this remarkable collection of people finally succeeded in coaxing Freud, a man who seemingly knew the human mind better than anyone else, to emerge from his deep state of denial about the looming catastrophe, allowing them to extricate him and his family from Austria so that they could settle in London. There Freud would live out the remaining 16 months of his life in freedom. This book is both an incisive new biography of Freud and a group biography of the extraordinary friends who saved Freud's life.

Andrew Nagorski (Author), Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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The Truth About Crypto: A Practical, Easy-to-Understand Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain, NFTs, and Othe

A straightforward, practical guide to the newest frontier in investment strategy—crypto—from #1 New York Times bestselling author and personal finance expert Ric Edelman. Blockchain and bitcoin are here to stay—and as the Bank of England stated, this new technology could "transform the global financial system." No wonder PWC says blockchain technology will add $2 trillion to the world's $80 trillion economy by 2030. Indeed, blockchain technology and the digital assets it makes possible are revolutionary, the most profound innovation for commerce since the invention of the internet. And yet, the average investor—and the investment advisors who manage two-thirds of all their money—aren't aware of all this, or of the incredible investment opportunities now available. Fortunately, Ric Edelman, one of the most influential experts in the financial field, shows investors how they can engage and thrive in today's new investment marketplace. Featuring the prophetic insights you'd expect from one of most acclaimed financial advisors, The Truth About Crypto is fun to read and easy to understand—and most importantly gives readers the sound, practical advice we all need to succeed with this new asset class. Best of all, Edelman shows how blockchain works, the difference between digital currency and digital assets, and a comprehensive look at every aspect of the field. This book is a must-read guide if you want to achieve investment success today.

Ric Edelman (Author), Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties

‘Lucid and damning … an absorbing – and infuriating – tale of complicity, coverup and denial’ PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, author of EMPIRE OF PAIN A groundbreaking investigation of how the Nazis helped German tycoons make billions from the horrors of the Third Reich and World War II – and how the world allowed them to get away with it. In 1946, Günther Quandt – patriarch of Germany’s most iconic industrial empire, a dynasty that today controls BMW – was arrested for suspected Nazi collaboration. Quandt claimed that he had been forced to join the party by his arch-rival, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and the courts acquitted him. But Quandt lied. And his heirs, and those of other Nazi billionaires, have only grown wealthier in the generations since, while their reckoning with this dark past remains incomplete at best. Many of them continue to control swaths of the world economy, owning iconic brands whose products blanket the globe. The brutal legacy of the dynasties that dominated Daimler-Benz, cofounded Allianz and still control Porsche, Volkswagen and BMW has remained hidden in plain sight – until now. In this landmark work, investigative journalist David de Jong reveals the true story of how Germany’s wealthiest business dynasties amassed untold money and power by abetting the atrocities of the Third Reich. Using a wealth of untapped sources, de Jong shows how these tycoons seized Jewish businesses, procured slave labourers and ramped up weapons production to equip Hitler’s army as Europe burnt around them. Most shocking of all, de Jong exposes how the wider world’s political expediency enabled these billionaires to get away with their crimes, covering up a bloodstain that defiles the German and global economy to this day.

David De Jong (Author), Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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The End of Getting Lost: A Novel

A young woman and her husband travel around Europe to celebrate their first year of marriage—a year that the woman has no memory of—in this searing novel of intimacy and deceit. The year is 1996—a time before cell phones, status updates, and location tags—when you could still travel to a remote corner of the world and disappear. This is where we meet Gina and Duncan, a young couple madly in love, traveling around Europe on a romantic adventure. It's a time both thrilling and dizzying for Gina, whose memories are hazy following a head injury—and the growing sense that the man at her side is keeping secrets from her. Just what is Duncan hiding and how far will he go to keep their pasts at bay? As the pair hop borders across Europe, their former lives threatening to catch up with them while the truth grows more elusive, we witness how love can lead us astray, and what it means to lose oneself in love The End of Getting Lost is a tightrope act of deception and an elegant exploration of love and marriage—as well as our cherished illusions of both. With notes of Patricia Highsmith, Caroline Kepnes, and Lauren Groff, Robin Kirman has spun a delicious tale of deceit, redemption, and the fight to keep love alive—no matter the costs.

Robin Kirman (Author), Alex Allwine, Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World

From the New York Times’s Global Economics Correspondent, a masterwork of explanatory journalism that exposes how billionaires’ systematic plunder of the world—brazenly accelerated during the pandemic—has transformed 21st-century life and dangerously destabilized democracy. 'Davos Man will be read a hundred years from now as a warning. ... Deliciously rich with searing detail, the clarity is reminiscent of Tom Wolfe.' —EVAN OSNOS The history of the last half century in America, Europe, and other major economies is in large part the story of wealth flowing upward. The most affluent people emerged from capitalism's triumph in the Cold War to loot the peace, depriving governments of the resources needed to serve their people, and leaving them tragically unprepared for the worst pandemic in a century. Drawing on decades of experience covering the global economy, award-winning journalist Peter S. Goodman profiles five representative 'Davos Men'–members of the billionaire class–chronicling how their shocking exploitation of the global pandemic has hastened a fifty-year trend of wealth centralization. Alongside this reporting, Goodman delivers textured portraits of those caught in Davos Man’s wake, including a former steelworker in the American Midwest, a Bangladeshi migrant in Qatar, a Seattle doctor on the front lines of the fight against COVID, blue-collar workers in the tenements of Buenos Aires, an African immigrant in Sweden, a textile manufacturer in Italy, an Amazon warehouse employee in New York City, and more. Goodman’s rollicking and revelatory exposé of the global billionaire class reveals their hidden impact on nearly every aspect of modern society: widening wealth inequality, the rise of anti-democratic nationalism, the shrinking opportunity to earn a livable wage, the vulnerabilities of our health-care systems, access to affordable housing, unequal taxation, and even the quality of the shirt on your back. Meticulously reported yet compulsively readable, Davos Man is an essential read for anyone concerned about economic justice, the capacity of societies to grapple with their greatest challenges, and the sanctity of representative government.

Peter S. Goodman (Author), Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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Trailer Park Trickster

They are my harvest, and I will reap them all. Returning to Guthrie, Oklahoma, for the funeral of his mysterious and beloved aunt Sue, Adam Binder once again finds himself in the path of deadly magic when a dark druid begins to prey on members of Adam's family. It all seems linked to the death of Adam's father many years ago-a man who may have somehow survived as a warlock. Watched by the police, separated from the man who may be the love of his life, compelled to seek the truth about his connection to the druid, Adam learns more about his family and its troubled history than he ever bargained for, and finally comes face-to-face with the warlock he has vowed to stop. Meanwhile, beyond the Veil of the mortal world, Argent the Queen of Swords and Vic the Reaper undertake a dangerous journey to a secret meeting of the Council of Races . . . where the sea elves are calling for the destruction of humanity.

David R. Slayton (Author), Michael David Axtell (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Michael David Axtell