Audiobooks narrated by Stephen Graybill

The Glass Box: The Shocking True Story of How CrossFit Broke the Rules, Made Millions, and Changed Fitness Forever

"An eye-opening and wildly entertaining book about the multimillion-dollar fitness phenomenon CrossFit and its mercurial founder, Greg Glassman-from an investigative journalist and regular contributor to the New York Times. How did an upstart workout regimen, begun out of commercial gyms in Santa Cruz in the '90s, become one of the most popular and polarizing fitness platforms in the world? And who, exactly, is the person responsible for its success? The Glass Box is a page-turning and upsetting look at CrossFit-one of the most popular fitness programs in the world-and at its divisive founder, Greg Glassman. Written by veteran journalist Calum Marsh, it is both a thorough history of a company's rise and an eagle-eyed examination of what happens when a visionary idea marches headlong toward global expansion. CrossFit is a phenomenon, and its studios and methods are now ubiquitous. But the company's culture of unapologetic machismo, and the sometimes reckless behavior of Glassman and his cronies, repeatedly put the brand, and its founder, in the hot seat-until one careless mistake too many brought the empire crashing down."

Calum Marsh (Author), Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

Life, Law & Liberty

"Justice Anthony Kennedy was at the ideological center of a closely divided U.S. Supreme Court for thirty years. Often writing landmark opinions in pivotal cases, he affirmed and redefined liberty for our nation—protecting political speech, upholding a woman's right to choose, abolishing the death penalty for minors, and legalizing gay marriage. How did a devout Catholic, conservative in both temperament and politics, and a 1988 Reagan appointee to the Court, end up delivering some of the most consequential decisions of our time? To understand Anthony Kennedy is to know that, for him, judging is independent of personal politics, preferences, and religious beliefs. His conviction that legal decisions must be driven by neutral principles led him to rulings that were both celebrated and criticized across political lines. He was sometimes called a "swing vote," but the term misunderstands his approach. In Justice Kennedy's own words, "The cases swing, I don't." In Life, Law & Liberty, Kennedy tells his story—filled with personal heartbreak and incredible accomplishment—and reflects on the nuanced role of a judge. A product of the American West, he became a deeply principled guardian of the justice, fairness, and liberty our Constitution guarantees. The last justice to be unanimously confirmed to the Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy shows us that thoughtful, respectful discourse is necessary in these otherwise fractious times. Tracing a journey that includes a half century of service to our nation, Kennedy's memoir reminds us what it means to live with optimism and decency, and inspires us to cherish our democracy."

Anthony Kennedy (Author), Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Explorers Club Presents: Letters from the Edge: Stories of Curiosity, Bravery, and Discovery

"An exhilarating collection of letters and stories from the world-renowned Explorers Club, featuring firsthand accounts of crossing boundaries and making history over the past century For centuries, explorers from all over the globe have traveled the far reaches of what the world has to offer, helping us expand the map, learn about other cultures, and move the needle of human knowledge. But an explorer's work isn't finished when they reach a new destination or make a discovery; they need to somehow tell the tale. Letters from the Edge compiles letters, email exchanges, field journals, and more from explorers who have joined the esteemed and longstanding organization The Explorers Club. As they undertook their journeys, sometimes with their lives at risk, they penned their dispatches from afar, sharing their thoughts on enduring lava-spewing volcanos in Australia; suffering starvation and isolation in the harsh tundra of the Arctic; rescuing trapped kids in hazardous caves in Thailand; plunging into the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean to excavate the history of the Titanic; communicating with the other side of the galaxy; and so much more-all to quench the insatiable curiosity of humanity. And still, humanity strives to discover more. Using source materials and interviews with the explorers, Letters from the Edge helps us understand the edge of our knowledge, culture, and universe, and inspires us to navigate the edges in our lives."

Jeff Wilser, The Explorers Club (Author), Emily Woo Zeller, Isuri Wijesundara, Sacha Chambers, Stephen Graybill, Trumane Alston (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Invisible Spy: Churchill's Rockefeller Center Spy Ring and America’s First Secret Agent of World War II

"The untold WWII story of a former NFL player turned White House insider who worked with Churchill's undercover agents in New York City to conduct the biggest foreign spy operation ever within the US, and inspired Ian Fleming's James Bond, for fans of Ben Macintyre and Erik Larson. As a tough but smart Italian American kid, Ernest Cuneo played Ivy League football at Columbia University and was in the old Brooklyn Dodgers NFL franchise before becoming a city hall lawyer and "Brain Trust'' aide to President Roosevelt. He was on the payroll of national radio columnist Walter Winchell and mingled with the famous and powerful. But his status as a spy remained a secret, hiding in plain sight. During this time, Cuneo began a close friendship with British spy Ian Fleming and helped inspire Fleming's James Bond novels. He also began a love affair with one of Churchill's agents at Rockefeller Center-Margaret Watson, a beautiful Canadian woman with a photographic memory ideal for spycraft. In one nighttime attack, Watson was nearly smothered to death by a Nazi assassin inside her women's dormitory near Rockefeller Center. Cuneo's transformation from a gridiron athlete into a high-stakes intelligence go-between and political influencer is one of the great untold stories of American espionage. He has remained "invisible" in the public eye-until now, with this unveiled look into his life. From the bestselling author and producer of two hit TV series, Mafia Spies and Masters of Sex, Thomas Maier delves into the little-known tales behind the Rockefeller Center spy operation and the origins of American intelligence. The Invisible Spy weaves Cuneo's remarkable personal story with vivid insights about many top twentieth-century figures, including Churchill, FDR and later JFK. Full of action and fascinating characters, this untold history reveals how Cuneo, as America's first WWII spy, helped the British launch a covert campaign against Nazi conspirators hidden in America, an espionage war unbeknownst to many."

Thomas Maier (Author), Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR

"An "engrossing and entertaining…major work of media history" (The New York Times Book Review) that reveals the unlikely story of one of America's most celebrated but least understood media empires. Founded in 1970, NPR is America's most powerful broadcast news network. Despite being overshadowed by the larger and more glamorous PBS, public radio has long been home to shows such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life that captivate millions of listeners in homes, cars, and workplaces across the nation. NPR and its hosts are a cultural powerhouse and a trusted voice, and they have created a mode of journalism and storytelling that helps Americans understand the world in which we live. In On Air, a book fourteen years in the making, journalist Steve Oney tells the dramatic history of this institution, tracing the comings and goings of legendary on-air talents (Bob Edwards, Susan Stamberg, Ira Glass, Cokie Roberts, and many others) and the rise and fall and occasional rise again of brilliant and sometimes venal executives. It depicts how NPR created a medium for extraordinary journalism—in which reporters and producers use microphones as paintbrushes and the voices of people around the world as the soundtrack of stories both global and local. Featuring details on the controversial firing of Juan Williams, the sloppy dismissal of Bob Edwards, and a $235 million bequest by Joan B. Kroc, widow of the founder of McDonald's, On Air also chronicles NPR's daring shift into the digital world and its early embrace of podcasting formats, establishing the network as a formidable media empire. Fascinating, revelatory, and irresistibly dishy, this is a riveting account of NPR's chaotic ascent, cultural triumph, and imperiled future."

Steve Oney (Author), Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sea Legs

"Set sail for adventure! Dive in to this hilarious audiobook about friendship, growing up, and life at sea. Janey's family is about to set sail for the adventure of a lifetime! The only problem? Janey must leave her school, her life, her best friend, the entire country behind for new adventures - coral reefs, colorful markets, and new cultures. Life at sea is exhilarating, but there's a major downside: when you're raising anchor every few days with sights on a new harbor, it's almost impossible to make new friends. Finally, Janey meets the cool and aloof Astrid - a fellow boat kid who's equally starved for friendship. But Astrid can be a challenging friend to navigate, and beyond that, hurricane season has only just begun . . . . At turns laugh-out-loud hilarious and heartbreakingly poignant, this stunning middle grade audiobook charts both the turbulence and joys of growing up."

Jules Bakes (Author), Ashley J. Hobbs, Carol Monda, Jesse Vilinsky, Lincoln Hoppe, Rachel Jacobs, Ron Butler, Selina Scott-Bennin, Stephen Graybill, Xe Sands (Narrator)

Audiobook

Equality: What It Means and Why It Matters

"In this compelling dialogue, two of the world’s most influential thinkers reflect on the value of equality and debate what citizens and governments should do to narrow the gaps that separate us. Ranging across economics, philosophy, history, and current affairs, Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel consider how far we have come in achieving greater equality. At the same time, they confront head-on the extreme divides that remain in wealth, income, power, and status nationally and globally. What can be done at a time of deep political instability and environmental crisis? Piketty and Sandel agree on much: more inclusive investment in health and education, higher progressive taxation, curbing the political power of the rich and the overreach of markets. But how far and how fast can we push? Should we prioritize material or social change? What are the prospects for any change at all with nationalist forces resurgent? How should the left relate to values like patriotism and local solidarity where they collide with the challenges of mass migration and global climate change? To see Piketty and Sandel grapple with these and other problems is to glimpse new possibilities for change and justice but also the stubborn truth that progress towards greater equality never comes quickly or without deep social conflict and political struggle."

Michael J. Sandel, Thomas Piketty (Author), Derek Dysart, Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024

"Award-winning environmentalist, author, and journalist Bill McKibben selects twenty science and nature essays that represent the best examples of the form published in the previous year. “This was the most anomalous year (so far) in human history,” guest editor Bill McKibben writes, “the year in which the relationship between people and planet showed its most dramatic signs yet of unraveling.” The selections in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024 reveal a trying year for our planet—from the Lahaina wildfire tragedy to the lush Amazon jungle slowly turning to savanna—while also celebrating the earth’s beautiful and mysterious ways—from the largest beaver dam on earth to the heroic innovation to prevent birds from crashing into Chicago’s expanse of glass buildings. These essays offer solace in trying times, showing a way for a better future. They are, as McKibben says, “a reminder that this world is still a lovely and deep place, well worth the fighting for.” The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024 includes IAN FRAZIER • AMANDA GEFTER • DOUGLAS FOX • SARAH KAPLAN • BEN GOLDFARB • RAYMOND ZHONG • ALEX CUADROS • AND OTHERS"

Bill Mckibben, Jaime Green (Author), Eileen Stevens, Gina Daniels, Lee Osorio, Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Shortest History of Economics

"The Shortest History of Economics unearths the hidden economic forces behind war, innovation and social transformation, tracing how capitalism and the market system emerged. From the emergence of agriculture to the war in Ukraine, Andrew Leigh weaves a fascinating narrative punctuated by expert insights into major moments in human history - why the invention of the plough led to gender inequality, how certain diseases determined the patterns of colonialism, and even how New York's robber barons inspired the board game Monopoly. Always accessible, expertly written and highly illuminating, The Shortest History of Economics is a perfect introduction to the subject."

Andrew Leigh (Author), Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

Written in Water: The Ephemeral Life of the Classic in Art

"A deeply personal yet broadly relevant exploration of the ephemeral life of the classic in art, from the eighteenth century to our own day Is there such a thing as a timeless classic? More than a decade ago, Rochelle Gurstein set out to explore and establish a solid foundation for the classic in the history of taste. To her surprise, that history instead revealed repeated episodes of soaring and falling reputations, rediscoveries of long-forgotten artists, and radical shifts in the canon, all of which went so completely against common knowledge that it was hard to believe it was true. Where does the idea of the timeless classic come from? And how has it become so fiercely contested? By recovering disputes about works of art from the eighteenth century to the close of the twentieth, Gurstein takes us into unfamiliar aesthetic and moral terrain, providing a richly imagined historical alternative to accounts offered by both cultural theorists advancing attacks on the politics of taste and those who continue to cling to the ideal of universal values embodied in the classic. As Gurstein brings to life the competing responses of generations of artists, art lovers, and critics to specific works of art, she makes us see the same object vividly and directly through their eyes and feel, in all its enlarging intensity, what they felt."

Rochelle Gurstein (Author), Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hypochondria: What's Behind the Hidden Costs of Healthcare in America

"A brutally honest but humorous account of the journey through the labyrinth of health care, including an eye-opening exploration of the skyrocketing costs—both personal and systemic—inflicted by hypochondria and the cost to the nation’s health-care system, and how consumers eventually pay for this precipitous rise in costs Hal Rosenbluth, the maverick executive behind Take Care Health Systems, former president of Walgreens Health and Wellness and now chairman and CEO of New Ocean Health Solutions, offers an unfiltered exposé of his 227 medical claims in just two years—exposing the underbelly that illness anxiety may be costing the average sufferer and the health system as a whole. Hypochondria: What’s Behind the Hidden Costs Healthcare Costs in America is a bold exploration and a call to action to address the broader impact that each stakeholder—health plans, providers, health systems and big pharma—have on the nation’s overstressed health-care system. The book also offers a well-rounded guide to the traditional and not so typical solutions that can help people manage illness anxiety. While the book is serious in nature, Rosenbluth and Marnie Hall spin you through an amusement ride of anecdotes. From the evolution of Rosenbluth’s global management firm to his onset of Type 2 diabetes, a tale woven with sleeping meds, nocturnal PB&J sandwiches, and anti-anxiety drugs; to founding a company with the youngest Johnson & Johnson president, and his most recent entry to digital health care, Hypchondria is an unfiltered, no-holds-barred saga that enlightens and entertains and opens a new dialogue about how the United States can get better at managing health and arresting costs of care. Hypochondria is not just a memoir but a call for greater discussion among patients, families, providers, employers, and health-care executives. It’s a beacon for change by unraveling the commercialization of health care, dissecting big pharma’s role in America’s pill-popping culture, and proposing alternative, disruptive solutions."

Hal Rosenbluth, Marnie Hall (Author), Erin Bennett, Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface

"The behind-the-scenes story of the iconic film, featuring new interviews with the cast and crew. An unflinching confrontation of humanity's dark side, Brian De Palma's crime drama film Scarface gave rise to a cultural revolution upon its release in 1983. Its impact was unprecedented, making globe-spanning waves as a defining portrait of the gritty Miami street life. From Al Pacino's masterful characterization of Tony Montana to the iconic "Say hello to my little friend," Scarface maintains its reputation as an unwavering game changer in cult classic cinema. With brand-new interviews and untold stories of the film's production, longtime film critic Glenn Kenny takes us on an unparalleled journey through the making of American depictions of crime. The World Is Yours highlights the influential characters and themes within Scarface, reflecting on how its storied legacy played such a major role in American culture."

Glenn Kenny (Author), Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Stephen Graybill

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