Audiobooks narrated by Tom Perkins

You Can't Always Say What You Want: The Paradox of Free Speech

The freedom to think what you want and to say what you think has always generated a pushback of regulation and censorship. This raises the thorny question: to what extent does free speech actually endanger speech protection? This book examines today's calls for speech legislation and places it into historical perspective, using fascinating examples from the past 200 years, to explain the historical context of laws regulating speech. Over time, the freedom to speak has grown, the ways in which we communicate have evolved due to technology, and our ideas about speech protection have been challenged as a result. Now more than ever, we are living in a free speech paradox: powerful speakers weaponize their rights in order to silence those less-powerful speakers who oppose them. By understanding how this situation has developed, we can stand up to these threats to the freedom of speech.

Dennis Baron (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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Worst. President. Ever.: James Buchanan, the POTUS Rating Game, and the Legacy of the Least of the L

Worst. President. Ever. flips the great presidential biography on its head, offering an enlightening-and highly entertaining-account of poor James Buchanan's presidency to prove once and for all that, well, few leaders could have done worse. But author Robert Strauss does much more, leading listeners out of Buchanan's terrible term in office-meddling in the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, exacerbating the Panic of 1857, helping foment the John Brown uprisings and "Bloody Kansas," virtually inviting a half-dozen states to secede from the Union as a lame duck, and on and on-to explore with insight and humor his own obsession with presidents, and ultimately the entire notion of ranking our presidents. He guides us through the POTUS rating game of historians and others who have made their own Mount Rushmores-or Marianas Trenches-of presidential achievement, showing why Buchanan easily loses to any of the others, but also offering insights into presidential history buffs like himself, the forgotten "lesser" presidential sites, sex and the presidency, the presidency itself, and how and why it can often take the best measures out of even the most dedicated men.

Robert Strauss (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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Will College Pay Off?: A Guide to the Most Important Financial Decision You'll Ever Make

The decision of whether to go to college, or where, is hampered by poor information and inadequate understanding of the financial risk involved. Adding to the confusion, the same degree can cost dramatically different amounts for different people. A barrage of advertising offers us new degrees designed to lead to specific jobs, but we see no information on whether graduates ever get those jobs. In Will College Pay Off?, Peter Cappelli, an acclaimed expert in employment trends, the workforce, and education, provides hard evidence that counters conventional wisdom and helps us make cost-effective choices. Among the issues Cappelli analyzes are: What the real link is between a college degree and a job that enables you to pay off the cost of college Why the most expensive colleges may actually be the cheapest in the long run How parents and students can find out what different colleges actually deliver to students and whether it is something that employers really want Insightful and informative, Will College Pay Off? helps students and parents make smart financial decisions and provides the foundation for students to succeed in the real world.

Peter Cappelli (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI

Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran and ex-Army CID colonel Robert Ressler learned from them how to identify the unknown monsters who walk among us-and put them behind bars. Now the man who coined the phrase "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs shows how he has tracked down some of the nation's most brutal murderers. Just as it happened in The Silence of the Lambs, Ressler uses the evidence at a crime scene to put together a psychological profile of the killers. From the victims they choose, to the way they kill, to the often grotesque souvenirs they take with them, Ressler unlocks the identities of these vicious killers for the police to capture. Join Ressler as he takes you on the hunt for America's most dangerous psychopaths. It is a terrifying journey you will not forget.

Robert K. Ressler, Tom Shachtman (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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Where the Money Grows and Anatomy of the Bubble

How money circulates in the markets and the kinds of characters and roles they play has long been a topic of conversation by market watchers, be they investors or journalists. Garet Garrett, a leading financial writer at the beginning of the 20th century, captured the nature of these 'beasts' in an eloquent and witty manner. His observations were so salient as to hold just as true today as they were in 1911.

Garet Garrett (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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When Giants Ruled the Sky: The Brief Reign and Tragic Demise of the American Rigid Airship

Nearly everything people know about airships is wrong. Few realize that prior to the Hindenburg disaster airships transported passengers without a single casualty for more than twenty years, a record unmatched by any other form of transportation. When Giants Ruled the Sky tells the true but little-known story of the USS Macon (ZRS-5), the world's largest, most expensive, and most technologically advanced airship of her day, and the four men responsible for conceiving, designing, building, and flying her. In doing so it reveals how the American airship came within a hair's breadth of replacing planes, trains, and ocean liners as the dominant form of long-distance transportation, and exactly what went wrong, a tale of physical courage, engineering acumen, ugly politicking and two egregious disasters.

Jeffrey Geoghegan, John J. Geoghegan (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers across America

Innovation expert Ted Dintersmith took an unprecedented trip across America, visiting all fifty states in a single school year. He originally set out to raise awareness about the urgent need to reimagine education to prepare students for a world marked by innovation-but America's teachers one-upped him. All across the country, he met teachers in ordinary settings doing extraordinary things, creating innovative classrooms where children learn deeply and joyously as they gain purpose, agency, and real knowledge. Together, these new ways of teaching and learning offer a vision of what school could be-and a model for transforming schools throughout the United States and beyond. Better yet, teachers and parents don't have to wait for the revolution to come from above. They can readily implement small changes that can make a big difference. America's clock is ticking. Our archaic model of education trains our kids for a world that no longer exists, and accelerating advances in technology are eliminating millions of jobs. But the trailblazing of many American educators gives us reasons for hope. Capturing bold ideas from teachers and classrooms across America, What School Could Be provides a realistic and profoundly optimistic roadmap for creating cultures of innovation and real learning in all our schools.

Ted Dintersmith (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie

Casablanca was first released in 1942, just two weeks after the city of Casablanca itself surrendered to American troops led by General Patton. Featuring a pitch-perfect screenplay, a classic soundtrack, and unforgettable performances by Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and a deep supporting cast, Casablanca was hailed in the New York Times as "a picture that makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap." We'll Always Have Casablanca is celebrated film historian Noah Isenberg's rich account of this most beloved movie's origins. Through extensive research and interviews with filmmakers, film critics, family members of the cast and crew, and diehard fans, Isenberg reveals the myths and realities behind Casablanca's production, exploring the transformation of the unproduced stage play into the classic screenplay, the controversial casting decisions, the battles with Production Code censors, and the effect of the war's progress on the movie's reception. Finally, Isenberg turns to Casablanca's long afterlife and the reasons it remains so revered. From the Marx Brothers' 1946 spoof hit, A Night in Casablanca, to loving parodies in New Yorker cartoons, Saturday Night Live skits, and Simpsons episodes, Isenberg delves into the ways the movie has lodged itself in the American psyche.

Noah Isenberg (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems

During his years as a public official, Mitchell Weiss was told that government can't do new things or solve tough challenges-it's too big and slow and bureaucratic. Sadly, this is what so many of us have come to believe. But in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, he and his city hall colleagues raced to support survivors in new, innovative ways. This kind of entrepreneurial spirit and savvy in government is growing, transforming the public sector's response to big problems at all levels. In this inspiring and instructive book, Weiss argues that we must shift from a mindset of 'Probability Government'-overly focused on performance management and on mimicking 'best' practices-to 'Possibility Government.' This means a leap to public leadership and management that embraces more imagination and riskier projects. Weiss shares the basic tenets of this new way of governing in the book's three sections: Government that can imagine, Government that can try new things, and Government that can scale. At a crucial moment in the evolution of government's role in our society, We the Possibility provides both inspiration and a positive model to help shape progress for generations to come.

Mitchell Weiss (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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Warriors and Warships: Conflict on the Great Lakes and the Legacy of Point Frederick

The untold story of Point Frederick, where early nineteenth-century Canadians built warships that stopped invasion, brought peace, and the world's longest undefended border. Opposite Kingston, Point Frederick became the 1789 dockyard home of the navy on Lake Ontario. Armed vessels were built to transport settlers and the military. War in 1812 prompted the need for larger warships. Shipwrights were critical to winning the war. French Canadians from Quebec shipyards worked with the British to build warships with massive firepower. In 1814, two invading armies advanced on outnumbered British and Canadians holding Niagara. Meanwhile, powerful Royal Navy warships sailed toward the action, unchallenged. When advised he was without naval support, the American commander halted his advance and withdrew from Canada. With peace, the need for warships vanished. But threats of rebellion and insurgence demanded gunboats, and continued naval presence until 1853, when the dockyard finally closed. Glimpses of dockyard legacy are found today in Kingston waters, and on the grounds of the Royal Military College of Canada.

Robert D. Banks (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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Warren Buffett's Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World's Greatest

Using the letters Warren Buffett wrote to his partners between 1956 and 1970, a veteran financial advisor presents the renowned guru's "ground rules" for investing-guidelines that remain startlingly relevant today. In the fourteen years between his time in New York with value-investing guru Benjamin Graham and his start as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett managed Buffett Partnership Limited, his first professional investing partnership. Over the course of that time-a period in which he experienced an unprecedented record of success-Buffett wrote semiannual letters to his small but growing group of partners, sharing his thoughts, approaches, and reflections. Compiled for the first time and with Buffett's permission, the letters spotlight his contrarian diversification strategy, his almost religious celebration of compounding interest, his preference for conservative rather than conventional decision making, and his goal and tactics for bettering market results by at least 10% annually. Demonstrating Buffett's intellectual rigor, they provide a framework to the craft of investing that had not existed before: Buffett built upon the quantitative contributions made by his famous teacher, Benjamin Graham, demonstrating how they could be applied and improved. Jeremy Miller reveals how these letters offer us a rare look into Buffett's mind and offer accessible lessons in control and discipline-effective in bull and bear markets alike, and in all types of investing climates-that are the bedrock of his success. Warren Buffett's Ground Rules paints a portrait of the sage as a young investor during a time when he developed the long-term value-oriented strategy that helped him build the foundation of his wealth-rules for success every investor needs today. ***Please contact member services for additional documents***

Jeremy C. Miller (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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War in the South Pacific: Out in the Boondocks, U.S. Marines Tell Their Stories

"I was in one of the last landing barges to hit the beach of Gavutu Island. We were halfway in when the Japanese machine guns got their range. Bullets slapped the water and whined as they ricocheted off the barge. Some of us ducked; some of us fell to the floor; and all of us prayed." Here, in heart-stopping human detail, are twenty-one personal accounts told by the men themselves. They are the stories of men who lived in hell and lived to tell of it. There is the story of Sgt. Albert Schmid who was awarded the Navy Cross for his single-handed destruction of a flanking attack while on Guadalcanal. The account of Private Nicolli who was literally blown into the air like a matchstick and then, with a piece of shrapnel in his chest, managed to help a wounded comrade to the rear. "The luckiest man in the Solomons," Sgt. Koziar, tells of how he had his tonsils removed with the assistance of a Japanese sniper's bullet. These are just three of the twenty-one fascinating stories that were told to Gerold Frank and James Horan just months after these marines had returned from active duty to recover from the conflict in the Pacific. The valor of these marines is astounding, as twenty-one-year-old Corporal Conroy states in the book, "I don't suppose I shall ever be able to sum up all the bravery, the guts, the genuine, honest courage displayed by the boys out in Guadalcanal. They were afraid, and yet they took it. They had what it takes . . ." The battles of Gavutu-Tanambogo, Tulagi, Tenaru, Matanikau and Guadalcanal are all covered through these accounts which take the listener right to the epicenter of the Pacific conflict.

Gerold Frank, James D. Horan (Author), Tom Perkins (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Tom Perkins