Audiobooks narrated by Rick Adamson

How to Talk with Anyone about Anything: The Practice of Safe Conversations

Relationships everywhere are in crisis due to our inability to talk about 'difference' without polarizing. Since objection to difference is the core human problem, we need a skill that helps us connect beyond difference. That's just what New York Times bestselling authors Dr. Harville Hendrix and Dr. Helen LaKelly Hunt offer in their new book: How To Talk With Anyone About Anything. They call it the Safe Conversations Dialogue process, which everyone can learn and teach, that moves all relationships from danger to safety, making connecting possible. For centuries, most of us humans have talked to others in monologues, believing that the world is the way we see it, that what we say about it is the 'truth' and we have assumed that everyone sees it 'our' way. If they do not, we experience tension and conflict on many levels. On the other hand, few of us have ever listened to others while they are talking and tried to see the world from their point of view while retaining our own perspective. Instead of listening to understand and collaborate about our differences, we tend to replace their perspective with our own. This results in polarization, not only in our personal lives and work environments, but also in the political and religious arenas we inhabit. This has led to anxiety, frustration, anger, violence, and war. Clearly, the world needs a new way to talk that transcends difference and leads to collaboration, co-creation, and cooperation. Getting the Love You Want, teach that the practice of Safe Conversations Dialogue impacts the 'physics of the Space Between.' Here is what they mean: - All of us live in and are a part of an energy field in which everything everywhere is connecting with everything everywhere. This energy field occupies the Space-Between us. - When there is safety in the energy field that occupies the Space-Between us, we can connect. - When there is anxiety in the Space Between, we defend ourselves. We cannot connect but tend to polarize. - Anyone, if they decide to, can restore safety in the Space Between by using a structure conversation skill called the Safe Conversations Dialogue. In How to Talk with Anyone about Anything, Harville and Helen share the wisdom of the Safe Conversations process and the four structured and teachable skills that create safety and connection: - Dialogue: Dialogue is two or more people taking turns talking and listening. Monologue is one person talking and expecting everyone else to listen. When two or more people shift from Monologue to Dialogue, they can transform any relationship from conflict to safety, connection and collaboration. - Zero Negativity: Negativity disrupts safety and is non-negotiable for safe and thriving relationships. When Dialogue is practiced with Zero Negativity, criticism about what one does not have is replaced with a positive request for what one wants. This transforms conflict into safety and connecting. - Empathy: Empathy is the capacity to experience or imagine how another person has gone through life. When Dialogue is practiced with empathy, one can more easily accept the different perspective of another person and maintain one's own perspective without polarizing. - Affirmation: Affirmation is valuing another person because they exist rather than for what they have done for you. When Dialogue includes affirmation, the other person experiences themselves as human rather than as an 'object' that is valued because of what they do. How to Talk with Anyone about Anything offers the keys to unlocking your ability to connect with others in a new and profoundly different way. And, as more of us hone that ability, together, we can bring about a fundamental shift in society away from our current focus on the 'self' and polarization about difference towards safety and true connection that includes total personal freedom, universal equality, radical inclusion, and celebration of diversity-a society in which we all collaborate with each other without surrendering our differences, co-create with each other about new solutions and cooperate with other to put them into practice. Then we will all live in the world of our dreams.

Harville Hendrix, Phd, Helen LaKelly Hunt (Author), Rick Adamson, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Roadblocked: Joe Biden's Rocky Transition to the Presidency

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris began their transition to the White House in the most unusual of circumstances: a global pandemic, a sitting president violently refusing to accept the results of the election, and a historic racial reckoning all posed profound questions about how they would staff large parts of the government and articulate policy remedies to pressing problems in just eleven weeks. Heath Brown's Roadblocked is a revelatory look at the seventy days between the election and the inauguration with a focus on the ways the Biden-Harris transition team sought help and advice to overcome these obstacles. More than that, Roadblocked is also a gripping history of US presidential transitions over the past half-century that compares the transition teams of the last four administrations. Biden-Harris transition leaders had a massive team with a stated aim to promote coordination, encourage teamwork, and avoid siloing staff. In the end, however, these aims were foiled by the conditions of the pandemic and steep hierarchies, which both reduced collaboration and information sharing. In the end, despite substantial changes in the Democratic coalition, newly influential groups armed with novel tactics, and great shifts in their political agenda, the Biden-Harris transition did not lead to transformation. Roadblocked explains why.

Heath Brown (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

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Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution

The complicated life and legacy of John Trumbull, whose paintings portrayed both the struggle and the principles that distinguished America's founding moment John Trumbull (1756-1843) experienced the American Revolution firsthand-he served as aid to George Washington and Horatio Gates, was shot at, and was jailed as a spy. He made it his mission to record the war, giving visual form to what most citizens of the new United States thought: that they had brought into the world a great and unprecedented political experiment. His purpose, he wrote, was 'to preserve and diffuse the memory of the noblest series of actions which have ever presented themselves in the history of man.' Although Trumbull's contemporaries viewed him as a painter, Trumbull thought of himself as a historian. Richard Brookhiser tells Trumbull's story of acclaim and recognition, a story complicated by provincialism, war, a messy personal life, and, ultimately, changing fashion. He shows how the artist's fifty-year project embodied the meaning of American exceptionalism and played a key role in defining the values of the new country. Trumbull depicted the story of self-rule in the modern world-a story as important and as contested today as it was 250 years ago.

Richard Brookhiser (Author), Rick Adamson, TBD (Narrator)

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Behind the Startup: How Venture Capital Shapes Work, Innovation, and Inequality

In recent years, dreams about our technological future have soured as digital platforms have undermined privacy, eroded labor rights, and weakened democratic discourse. In light of the negative consequences of innovation, some blame harmful algorithms or greedy CEOs. Behind the Startup focuses instead on the role of capital and the influence of financiers. Drawing on nineteen months of participant-observation research inside a successful Silicon Valley startup, this book examines how the company was organized to meet the needs of the venture capital investors who funded it. Investors push startups to scale as quickly as possible to inflate the value of their asset. Benjamin Shestakofsky shows how these demands create organizational problems that managers solve by combining high-tech systems with low-wage human labor. With its focus on the financialization of innovation, Behind the Startup explains how the gains generated by these companies are funneled into the pockets of a small cadre of elite investors and entrepreneurs. To promote innovation that benefits the many rather than the few, Shestakofsky compellingly argues that we must focus less on fixing the technology and more on changing the financial infrastructure that supports it.

Benjamin Shestakofsky (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

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A World of Enemies: America's Wars at Home and Abroad from Kennedy to Biden

Over the past half-century, Americans have watched their country extend its military power to what seemed the very ends of the earth. America's might is felt on nearly every continent-and even on its own streets. Decades ago, the Wars on Drugs and Terror broke down the walls separating law enforcement from military operations. A World of Enemies tells the story of how an America plagued by fears of waning power and influence embraced foreign and domestic forever wars. Osamah Khalil argues that the militarization of US domestic and foreign affairs was the product of America's failure in Vietnam. Unsettled by their inability to prevail in Southeast Asia, US leaders increasingly came to see a host of problems as immune to political solutions. Rather, crime, drugs, and terrorism were enemies spawned in 'badlands'-whether the Middle East or stateside inner cities. Characterized as sites of endemic violence, badlands lay beyond the pale of civilization, their ostensibly racially and culturally alien inhabitants best handled by force. Its failures-in Iraq, Afghanistan, US cities, and increasingly rural and borderland America-have only served to reinforce fears of weakness. It is time, Khalil argues, for a new approach. Instead of managing never-ending conflicts, we need to reinvest in the tools of traditional politics and diplomacy.

Osamah F. Khalil (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Individualization of War: Rights, Liability, and Accountability in Contemporary Armed Conflict

The rights and responsibilities of the individual are at the center of today's armed conflicts in a way that they have never been before. This process of 'individualization,' which challenges the primacy of the sovereign state, is driven by normative developments related to human rights that have elevated human-centric conceptions of security and created a new class of international crimes, as well as by technological and strategic developments that can both empower individuals as military actors and enable either the targeting or protection of particular individuals. The Individualization of War examines the status of individuals in contemporary armed conflict in three main capacities: as subject to violence but deserving of protection; as liable to harm because of their responsibility for attacks on others; and as agents who can be held accountable for the perpetration of crimes. This book presents a novel conceptualization of the phenomenon of individualization, including how it is both practiced and contested. It then convenes a set of leading thinkers from the fields of moral philosophy, international law, and international relations to further our understanding of not only how individualization is manifest in armed conflict-in theory and in practice-but also how it generates tensions and challenges for today's scholars and practitioners.

Dapo Akande, David Rodin, Jennifer Welsh (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

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How to be Healthy: An Ancient Guide to Wellness

The second-century Greek physician Galen-the most famous doctor in antiquity after Hippocrates-is a central figure in Western medicine. A talented doctor, surgeon, writer, philosopher, teacher, pharmacologist, and inventor, Galen attended the court of Marcus Aurelius, living through outbreaks of plague that devastated the Roman Empire. He also served as a physician for professional gladiators. In writings that provided the foundation of Western medicine up to the nineteenth century, Galen created a unified account of health and disease. In How to Be Healthy, practicing physician and classical historian Katherine Van Schaik presents a collection of Galen's enduring insights about how we can take care of our bodies and minds, prevent disease, and reach a healthy old age. Although we now know that many of Galen's ideas about physiology are wrong, How to Be Healthy shows that much of his advice remains sound. In these selections from his writings, presented in fresh translations, Galen discusses the art of medicine, exercise and diet, the mind-body connection, the difficulty of applying general medical principles to individuals, and much more. Featuring an introduction and brief commentaries that connect ancient medical practices to modern ones, How to Be Healthy offers an entertaining and enlightening new perspective on the age-old pursuit of wellness.

Galen (Author), Cindy Kay, Rick Adamson (Narrator)

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The Decisive Decade: American Grand Strategy for Triumph Over China

In The Decisive Decade, Dr. Jonathan D. T. Ward offers a comprehensive framework for how the US can, and must, defeat China on the world stage economically, diplomatically, militarily, and ideologically. International security and American supremacy are at stake-and now is the time for the US to take action. China's global power and influence grows every day. Working from a deep sense of national identity, the Chinese Communist Party is leading its country toward what it deems 'the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation,' and executing a long-term Grand Strategy to topple over its chief adversary, the US. As China becomes increasingly repressive domestically and aggressive overseas, it threatens to upend America's global dominance at every turn. Ward provides novel and practical strategies that our government, as well as our businesses and our citizens, can utilize to undermine our adversary. Exhaustive campaigns in the economic, diplomatic, military, and ideological arenas, he argues, must be taken to achieve victory. With expert analysis of the history of US-China relations, as well as insight into how the Russia-Ukrainian war can inform our strategic thinking, The Decisive Decade presents a unique toolkit for our triumph over China. We can succeed, but it won't be easy; it will take all of our nation's ingenuity, confidence, and willpower to win.

Jonathan D.T. Ward (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Living Well in a Down Economy For Dummies, 2nd Edition

As the economic pendulum swings, it's time to start living smart Living Well in a Down Economy For Dummies offers ideas for keeping more money in your pocket during a topsy-turvy economy. With more than 100 tips, it shows you how to tighten your belt without feeling a big pinch in your day-to-day life. Discover innovative and effective ways to cut expenses and boost your income in today's economy. It isn't about making sacrifices. It's about setting priorities. Gain the skills you need to take control of your spending, make smarter choices, and stop the financial drain that can accompany a downturn in the economy. You'll find practical advice on how to live and thrive when prices creep up or your income falls. Get tips for spending less in all areas of life-utilities, groceries, pet care, entertainment, and beyond. And figure out how to slip in some self-care without breaking the bank. You can do this, thanks to this no-judgment For Dummies guide. Reduce your expenses by cooking at home, doing your own car maintenance, cutting your own hair, and more; discover creative ways to increase your income, interview for better-paying jobs, and continue to save for college or retirement; save money on home maintenance, insurance, and other reoccurring costs; and minimize your tax bill, improve your credit, and avoid foreclosure.

The Experts At Dummies (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

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Self-Publishing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Self-Publishing For Dummies takes you through the entire process of publishing your own books, starting with the writing and editing process and moving through cover design, printing options, distribution channels, and marketing to a target audience. With the advice in this book, you can tackle self-publishing, no matter what genre you write in. You'll learn how to retain full control over your work and keep the profits from the sales of your book. In this updated edition, you'll discover the latest technologies in self-publishing, trends in the world of ebooks, and new marketing techniques you can use online and in the real world. Becoming a published author is easier than ever, thanks to this Dummies guide. - Understand every step in the self-publishing process - Discover how to write and sell your books in ebook and printed formats - Hire an editor, obtain an ISBN, and generate publicity for your book - Fine-tune your writing to improve your chances of success - Get your work out there-no agent or publisher needed Self-Publishing For Dummies is the perfect choice for anyone with an interest in DIY publishing.

Jason R. Rich (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know

This authoritative primer lays out everything you need to know to understand today's global food landscape. The third edition of Food Politics has been updated to reflect the latest developments and research on today's global food landscape, including the realities of food markets, farm production methods, food manufacturing, and dietary health challenges. New material covers the rise of China in world food markets and global food politics, the unabated and increasing risks to farming from climate change, the impact COVID-19 had on incomes and hunger, the equally shocking impact from the war in Ukraine on food prices and trade, and surprising scientific and technical breakthroughs such as the genome editing of crops (CRISPR) and the marketing of cell-cultured (animal-free) meats. Each chapter has been updated with new data on population growth, hunger and food security, trade conflicts, humanitarian aid, carbon farming, regenerative agriculture, holistic grazing, animal welfare, genetically engineered food, and more. Discussing the politics and policies that continue to shape our contemporary food system, Robert Paarlberg challenges myths and critiques more than a few of today's fashionable beliefs about farming and food. A must-listen for those ready to have their thinking about food politics informed, but also challenged.

Robert Paarlberg (Author), Rick Adamson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Unlimited Atonement: Amyraldism and Reformed Theology

Limited atonement is not the only Reformed model of atonement 'Hypothetical universalism,' or 'unlimited atonement,' states that Christ's death is sufficient for the guilt of all people yet is only effectively applied to those with faith. This tradition, typified by the French Reformer Moïse Amyraut, has continued among Anglicans and Baptists for over four centuries, yet has been underexplored in Reformed systematic theology. Unlimited Atonement fills a gap in resources on atonement theology that begin with the unlimited love of God. Editors Michael F. Bird and Scott Harrower draw on the specialties of each of the ten contributors, addressing themes such as: the biblical and historical sources of the soteriological position known as Amyraldism; distinctive features of Anglican atonement theology; hypothetical universalism, election, and the Baptist theological tradition; other prominent advocates of unlimited atonement; the issues of systematic theology at stake; and atonement theology in preaching. Unlimited Atonement is the most comprehensive analysis of Amyraldism to date, providing a resource for theology and Bible students and teachers in an esoteric stream of Reformed theology. Bird and Harrower provide a starting point for anyone who wants to understand the sources and merits of Amyraldism.

Michael F. Bird, Scott Harrower (Author), Rick Adamson, Susan Hanfield (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Rick Adamson