Audiobooks narrated by Rich Miller

Engineering Leadership: The Hard Parts: Navigating Chaos to Build Teams That Deliver

"Whether they're building a startup or scaling an established org, engineering leaders know the real job is keeping chaos under control. In a world of shifting priorities, scarce resources, and rapid change, leadership means embracing the unknown, managing moving targets, and creating clarity where there's none. Sometimes, you're building the plane as you're flying it—writing the roadmap as you go, designing processes in real time. Engineering Leadership: The Hard Parts cuts through the noise, offering a guide for tackling these gritty, real-world challenges. Current and future leaders, this is your toolkit. It's packed with principles, techniques, and mental models for thriving in uncertainty. - Navigate the full scope: Step into engineering leadership's complex, multifaceted role - Build high-impact teams: Master advanced techniques to grow and lead your technical talent - Align and execute: Connect strategy to business outcomes, scale effectively, and balance innovation with precision - Lead with resilience: Adapt quickly and drive continuous improvement - Accelerate your career: Develop your leadership edge and unlock new growth Stay ahead. Lead with purpose."

James Turnbull, Juan Pablo Buriticá (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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Large Language Models: The Hard Parts: Open Source AI Solutions for Common Pitfalls

"Large language models (LLMs) have transformed natural language processing, but deploying them in applications introduces numerous technical challenges. Large Language Models: The Hard Parts offers a clear, practical examination of the limitations developers and AI engineers face when building LLM-based applications. With a focus on implementation pitfalls (not just capabilities), this book provides actionable strategies supported by reproducible Python code and open source tools. Listeners will learn how to navigate key obstacles in application evaluation, input management, testing, and safety. Designed for builders and technical product leads, this guide emphasizes practical solutions to real-world problems and promotes a grounded understanding of LLM constraints and trade-offs. Discover how to design testing and evaluation strategies for nondeterministic systems; manage context, RAG, and long-context retrieval; address output inconsistency and structural unreliability; implement safety and content moderation frameworks; explore alignment challenges and mitigation techniques; and leverage open source models locally."

Jonathan K. Regenstein, Jr., Thársis T. P. Souza (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction

"The Soviet Union at its height occupied one sixth of the world's land mass, encompassed fifteen republics, and stretched across eleven different time zones. More than twice the size of the United States, it was the great threat of the Cold War until it suddenly collapsed in 1991. Now, almost twenty years after the dissolution of this vast empire, what are we to make of its existence? Was it a heroic experiment, an unmitigated disaster, or a viable if flawed response to the modern world? Taking a fresh approach to the study of the Soviet Union, this Very Short Introduction blends political history with an investigation into Soviet society and culture from 1917 to 1991. Stephen Lovell examines aspects of patriotism, political violence, poverty, and ideology, and provides answers to some of the big questions about the Soviet experience. Throughout, the book takes a refreshing thematic approach to the history of the Soviet Union and it provides an up-to-date consideration of the Soviet Union's impact and what we have learnt since its end."

Stephen Lovell (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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The Steppe and Its Empires: The Russian Empire and Its Eurasian Counterparts

"A broad comparative study that highlights the importance of the Eurasian steppe and its impact on the arc of Russian history Throughout its existence, Russia has been a hybrid empire shaped by both Europe and Asia. Focusing on the formation of the Russian state between the sixteenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries, renowned historian Michael Khodarkovsky examines Russia's structural similarities with its neighbors in Asia―the Ottoman, Persian, Mughal, and Chinese empires. While most historians have noted the transformations that brought Russia closer to modern European societies, the Russian empire's shared characteristics with its non-European counterparts remain poorly understood. Khodarkovsky reveals the critical role of the Eurasian steppe in the formation of the empires, whose military-social institutions and political culture were distinctly different from those of the West. Ultimately, he argues that Russia is best understood as a hybrid Eurasian empire whose steppe origins and fluid frontiers propelled its relentless expansion, producing a vastly diverse society with a blurred sense of national identity."

Michael Khodarkovsky (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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Lie in the Bay

"Experience the dark side of the white picket fence in Holly Danvers' latest Little White Lies thriller. Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Lucy Foley. A neighborly smile hides a multitude of sins . . . The residents of Bayshore Lane excel at three things: throwing unforgettable waterfront parties, spreading the juiciest gossip, and taking their darkest secrets straight to the grave. Take Jenna, Gabrielle, and Dublin. Each harbor something they’d rather die than confess—a forbidden desire, a dangerous scheme, a hidden agenda. In their postcard–perfect neighborhood, these are truths that can never see the light. But when whispering over cocktails turns sinister, long-buried secrets begin clawing their way to the surface. Jenna’s perfect life starts to fracture, Dublin’s world is reduced to ashes, and Gabrielle risks losing everything she loves. Someone on Bayshore Lane knows more than they’re saying. And one of them is determined to make this carefully curated circle pay for the sins they thought were long forgotten."

Holly Danvers (Author), Christine Williams, Rich Miller (Narrator)

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August 1914: A Novel

"In his monumental narrative of the outbreak of the First World War and the ill-fated Russian offensive into East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn has written what Nina Krushcheva, in The Nation, calls 'a dramatically new interpretation of Russian history.' The assassination of tsarist prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, a crucial event in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1917, is reconstructed from the alienating viewpoints of historical witnesses. The sole voice of reason among the advisers to Tsar Nikolai II, Stolypin died at the hands of the anarchist Mordko Bogrov, and with him perished Russia's last hope for reform. Translated by H.T. Willetts. August 1914 is the first volume of Solzhenitsyn's epic, The Red Wheel; the second is November 1916. Each of the subsequent volumes will concentrate on another critical moment or 'knot,' in the history of the Revolution. Translated by H.T. Willetts."

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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Seize the City, Undo the State: The Inception of Russia's War on Ukraine

"How do separatist conflicts arise and spread? When does separatism become a cover for a foreign aggression? How do local communities respond when state institutions collapse, and militants take over? The armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine, which started eight years before Russia's full-scale invasion, contains unique evidence to address each of these questions. In Seize the City, Undo the State, Serhiy Kudelia offers an authoritative study of the conflict at its initial stage—2013-14—based on a meticulous comparison of mobilization dynamics in over dozen towns of Donbas as well as in two major cities outside of it: Kharkiv and Odesa. Kudelia explains how a small group of Russian agents and local militants succeeded in eliminating state control over the largest and most densely urbanized region of Ukraine but failed to do it elsewhere. His findings also show that when enough members of local communities organized to resist militant takeovers, the separatist challenges there quickly dissipated. A fine-grained and highly original on-the-ground analysis of the origins of the wider Russian-Ukrainian war that broke out in 2022, this book offers broader insights into the conditions under which external intervention may trigger the rise of an armed insurgency in a society torn apart by political and ideological disagreements."

Serhiy Kudelia (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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NATO After Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: Threat Perceptions and Their Consequences

"A revealing look at differing threat perceptions in six key NATO countries When Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, analysts and policymakers highlighted the unifying shock that NATO members experienced. However even before the return of US president Donald Trump, beneath this seeming cohesion lay deep-seated differences in how member states perceive and prioritize security threats. NATO after Russia's Invasion of Ukraine analyzes the six most influential members of the alliance: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, and Italy. Through extensive interviews with current and former policymakers and a detailed examination of public statements and policies, Jason W. Davidson delivers a unique assessment of how divergent threat perceptions influence the NATO allies' major defense decisions, such as defense spending, and whether the alliance addresses each ally's most important threat and its view of NATO's most important challenges. With the rise in tumultuous geopolitical challenges posed by Russia, China, terrorism, mass refugee flows, and nationalism, this book provides the crucial context needed to navigate NATO's evolving role in international security."

Jason W. Davidson (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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Volga Blues: A Journey into the Heart of Russia

"Winner of the Estense Prize A risky undercover reporting trip along Russia’s great mother-river, the Volga, reveals the tortuous history and frightening current fantasies of a nation. Since the invasion of Ukraine and ban on foreign reporters, Russia seems to have sunk into an even deeper shadow than in the darkest times of the Soviet Union. Only by presenting himself as an historian was Italian journalist Marzio G. Mian able to penetrate the Russian heartland, leading to his groundbreaking cover story for Harpers’ Magazine, “Behind the New Iron Curtain.” In Volga Blues, Russian history and literature inform every step of Mian’s revealing and perilous journey along Russia’s most culturally significant river, the fulcrum of its history, “the mother.” Along with Alessandro Cosmelli, his photographer; Vlad, their translator and fixer; and Katya, Vlad‘s girlfriend, Mian manages to gather firsthand accounts from ordinary Russians. They discuss not only the impact of the war, Western sanctions, and their country’s isolation, but how Russian culture has changed as a result. Stalin is back in favor, Lenin has been downgraded as a “Europeanized intellectual.” Newly sophisticated local and seasonal cuisine is all the rage. People cite centuries-old grievances to explain their fear of Western invasion, as they claim a willingness to accept nuclear apocalypse to save Russian pride. Talking with contemporary Russian intellectuals, entrepreneurs, priests, widows, mercenaries, and pacifists, Mian discovers how little the West knows about Russia and Russians. Deeply distrustful of democracy, yearning for the ideological and spiritual purity of the Orthodox Church, betrayed by and fearful of the West, and reassured by the brutal, fragile, ancient dream of an imperial civilization, they make clear that the Cold War has not yet ended. In visceral prose, Mian takes us across the floodplains where the Russian Orthodox faith first took root, where the Soviet empire asserted itself, and where the neo-imperial project of Vladimir Putin’s post-Soviet autocracy is currently being consolidated. The result is a harrowing, haunting vision of today’s great clash of civilizations—between Russia and the West—including a United States that at times seems uncannily similar. 'Volga Blues blends history, myth, and comedy with the paranoia of a nation in which Stalin seems to be rising from the dead, minus the communism but with brutality intact. Marzio Mian is Alexis de Tocqueville in what has once again become a land of the czars, a Joan Didion for the new authoritarianism's absurdity and sorrow.'—Jeff Sharlet, New York Times bestselling author of The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War"

Marzio G. Mian (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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The Finnish Front Line: Kekkonen, Kennedy, and Khrushchev’s Cold War Showdown

"The Finnish Front Line is a historical biography of Urho Kekkonen, the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland. Gordon F. Sander focuses on Kekkonen's pivotal first term as president, which was bracketed by two crises that together formed the template for both Finland's relationship with the Soviet Union from 1956 through the fall of the USSR, and Kekkonen's own 'special' relationship with Moscow: the Night Frost crisis of 1957, which derived from the Kremlin's desire to exert greater influence on Finnish politics, and the Note Crisis of 1961, which coincided with the great Berlin crisis of 1961, and occurred when Moscow suddenly invoked the clause in the 1948 Finnish-Soviet treaty that entitled the Kremlin to call for mutual discussions between the Finnish and Soviet militaries and was perceived as a threat to Finnish independence. Thinking this might presage a Soviet invasion of Finland, a distressed Kekkonen was able to resolve the crisis by flying to Siberia to meet with his erstwhile friend Nikita Khrushchev—who may well have precipitated the crisis in order to insure Kekkonen's reelection. This book centers on an overlooked chapter of the Cold War as well as a revealing chapter of the presidency of John Kennedy and his secret offer to help Kekkonen, which he later rejected, ultimately to avoid making Finland into the next front of the Cold War."

Gordon F. Sander (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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Lenin: Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution

"Vladimir Lenin lies in a tomb in Moscow's Red Square. History has not been kind to this Russian leader, his teachings reviled by modern mainstream politics. But in today's capitalist society, riven by class inequality and imperialist wars, perhaps it is worth returning to this communist icon's demand for 'Peace, Land and Bread', and his radical understanding of democracy. Lenin was wrestling with the question of 'what is to be done?' when facing the catastrophes of his own time. Against the odds, the Bolshevik party succeeded in rejecting both the corrupt and decaying Romanov dynasty, as well as the capitalist economic system which had started to take root in Russia. To understand how this happened, and what we can learn from him today, Paul Le Blanc takes us through Lenin's dynamic revolutionary thought, how he worked as part of a larger collective, and how he centered the labor movement in Russia and beyond, uncovering a powerful form of democracy that could transform our activism today."

Paul Le Blanc (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

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Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah's War Against America

"From the New York Times bestselling coauthors of Under Fire comes the story of the kidnapping and murder of CIA Station Chief William Buckley and the bloody beginning of the CIA’s endless war against Islamic radicalism. On April 18, 1983, a van rigged with two thousand pounds of heavy explosives broke through the security perimeter of the American embassy in Lebanon and exploded, killing sixty-three people and decimating intelligence operations in the Middle East. One man in the CIA possessed the courage and skills to rebuild the networks destroyed in the blast: William Buckley. Assigned as the new Beirut Station Chief, Buckley found the CIA station in tatters and an intelligence playing field unlike any other in the world; the Cold War veteran would now be learning Beirut rules. A field operative at heart, he delved into Beirut’s darkest corners, developing new sources and handling assets. On October 23, a US Marine Corps barrack was destroyed by a young terrorist named Imad Mughniyeh. Even as President Reagan vowed revenge, Mughniyeh eyed a new target: Buckley. Beirut Rules is the account of Buckley’s abduction, torture, and murder at the hands of Hezbollah terrorists. Drawing on never-before-seen US government documents, as well as interviews with Buckley’s co-workers, friends, and family, Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz reveal how the search for Buckley in the wake of his kidnapping ignited a war against terror that continues to shape the Middle East today. "

Fred Burton, Samuel M. Katz (Author), Rich Miller (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Rich Miller

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