Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Audiobooks | Non-Fiction

The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family's Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life

"The Yurok Tribe and an Indigenous family share a moving multigenerational story of their fight to undam the Klamath river-the largest river restoration project in history-and save the planet. The Water Remembers is the story of Indigenous resistance and an American family's fight to preserve its legacy. For more than half a century, between 1905 and 1962, the Federal government constructed one of the largest reclamation projects in the country at the headwaters of the Klamath River, comprised of four dams. They did not include salmon ladders and this denied fish access to hundreds of miles of historical habitat. This oversight and other decisions not to release water for the endangered species of fish and Tribal water rights led to increased water temperatures and toxic algae pollution, which killed hundreds of thousands of salmon. This ecocide destroyed the fishing, hunting, and gathering lifestyle of the Yurok Tribe-the largest in Northern California-preventing them from making a dignified living. A blend of memoir and history, The Water Remembers speaks passionately to environmental justice and conservation, as well as responsible stewardship. Engrossing, Amy Bowers Cordalis recounts her twenty-year fight against the United States government, chronicling how she evolved from a naïve Westernized 22-year-old to an advocate for her people. As General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe, she ensured the removal of the dams in December 2024. This is a story that should be in American history books. Cordalis shares her family's generational fight for Indigenous respect that resulted in federal recognition of their cultural and ceremonial water rights. Her great uncle sued the State of California for the Yurok people to retain fishing rights and jurisdiction to regulate its own fishery. A case that made it all the way to the Supreme Court and involved the federal government putting a moratorium on all Yurok fishing, and physical enforcement from federal marshals. The Water Remembers involves genocide, assimilation, and oppression, but victory, in protecting one's home, environment, and way of life. "

Amy Bowers Cordalis (Author), Amy Bowers Cordalis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Life, Law & Liberty

"Throughout his thirty-year tenure on the US Supreme Court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy authored landmark opinions on some of the most contested issues in American society, including abortion, gay rights, and free speech. At the ideological center of a divided Court, Kennedy sided with justice, fairness, and the liberty our Constitution guarantees. Often defying expectations, Anthony Kennedy's pursuit of equal justice helped him define the law of the land for a generation. His pivotal vote in closely watched 5-4 decisions led Time magazine to call him "The Decider." The fifteenth-longest-serving Supreme Court Justice in US history, Kennedy crafted headline-making opinions that legalized gay marriage, protected political speech, abolished the death penalty for minors, and, in a nuanced ruling, upheld a woman's right to choose—decisions that were both celebrated and criticized across political lines. How did this devout Catholic, Reagan appointee to the Court, and conservative in both temperament and politics end up authoring some of the most consequential liberal decisions of our time? To understand Anthony Kennedy is to realize that, for him, judging is independent of politics, preferences, and religious beliefs. It is about a fundamental conviction that neutral principles must drive the decision and an unyielding commitment to the rule of law. Sometimes called a "swing vote," the term misunderstands Kennedy's approach. In his own words, "The cases swing, I don't." Life, Law, and Liberty serves as a reflection on the role of a judge and the life story—filled with personal heartbreak and incredible accomplishment—of a precocious boy from Sacramento, California, who became the man Chief Justice John Roberts describes as "a special combination of legal acumen, collegiality, and kindness." The last Justice to be confirmed to the Court unanimously (97–0) by the Senate, Anthony Kennedy serves as a role model for our fractious times, an example of civility, decency, and ethics, and a deeply principled guardian of liberty."

Anthony Kennedy (Author), tbd (Narrator)

Audiobook

Devils' Advocates: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on t

"“Deeply reported and compellingly told, Kenneth Vogel’s Devils’ Advocates shines a light into the underground world of foreign cash, Washington lobbyists, and the selling of American policy to outsiders. This book hits at the perfect moment, giving invaluable insight into why foreign interests are so powerful in Washington.” —#1 New York Times bestselling authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes New York Times investigative reporter Kenneth P. Vogel takes us inside Washington’s murky foreign lobbying industry, providing an unsparing look at the politically connected and morally flexible Americans who get rich working on behalf of brutal dictators, corrupt oligarchs, and pitiless arms dealers. The foreign influence business, comprised of shadowy operators who quietly shape U.S. foreign policy while producing massive paydays for themselves, has existed for decades, often unnoticed by Americans. In recent years, it began generating more controversy and scrutiny, thanks to the larger-than-life characters who gained access to power starting in Donald Trump’s first presidential term. Among them is Robert Stryk, who dresses more like a cowboy than a traditional lobbyist. He had failed at several businesses before bluffing his way into relationships in Washington and around the world, quickly amassing wealth, influence, and a reputation for taking deals no one else would dare to touch. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, once “America’s Mayor,” found his fading star rising again under Trump. Giuliani leveraged his position as Trump’s personal lawyer into deals with foreign interests who saw him as a direct line to the president. Hunter Biden, too, the son of the future president, was no stranger to the business, having capitalized on his father’s connections since the elder Biden’s days as a senator and vice president. As the new wave of foreign influence peddlers spent millions on fast cars, pricey cigars, and flashy watches, their stories weaved together in ways that subverted American foreign policy interests. Some became headline-grabbing scandals. Others are being revealed here for the first time. Using exclusive sources, thousands of documents, and on-the-ground reporting, Vogel takes readers from an oligarch’s wooded compound outside Kyiv and a South American presidential palace to the halls of power in Washington, DC, and inside the CIA. Devils’ Advocates shines a harsh light on the people, places, and deals behind this seedy—and often absurd—industry, and provides a never-before-seen look at this billion-dollar business that is often at odds with American values like human rights and democracy."

Kenneth P. Vogel (Author), Joe Knezevich (Narrator)

Audiobook

Every Screen on the Planet: The Secret Story of TikTok

"'A must-read account from a heroic reporter who has taken on the world's most dangerous tech company' - Chris Miller, award-winning author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology 'Revealing. A story about power, control and the hidden battles shaping what we see online' - Parmy Olson, bestselling author of Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World It's on your phone. It's on your children's phones. It's on more than a billion screens across the planet, serving up joy, creativity and connection. But behind the slick feed of the world's most addictive app lies ruthless ambition and a global war for control. Every Screen on the Planet is the dramatic, untold story of TikTok. Charting its rise from obscurity into the world's most valuable startup, Emily Baker-White relates how its visionary founder, ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming, reshaped the global internet from a place where you searched for information to one where information comes to you. Billions of users were soon hooked by the most effective recommendation algorithm in the world. But there was a cost to such success. Soon, TikTok was embroiled in accusations of surveillance, censorship and user manipulation, attracting controversy from India and Europe to the US. After Baker-White - a Harvard-trained lawyer and investigative reporter - revealed that Chinese engineers could access Americans' private information, a team of ByteDance employees even used the app to track her location. Based on unprecedented access to internal documents, leaked recordings and accounts from whistle-blowers inside the company, Every Screen on the Planet reveals how TikTok became trapped between two superpowers, desperate to survive. It is the story of how your attention became the world's most valuable - and dangerous - commodity."

Emily Baker-White (Author), Rachel Botchan (Narrator)

Audiobook

The China Matrix: The Epic Story of How Donald Trump Shattered a Deadly Pact

"The U.S. ruling class sold out America to China. Can Donald Trump destroy the alliance before it's too late? For half a century, America's establishment has forged an alliance with the Chinese Communist Party-one that enriched elites, hollowed out the middle class, and imperiled U.S. national security. They sold out American workers for cheap labor, Wall Street profits, and political power. But then came Donald Trump. In The China Matrix, New York Times bestselling author and investigative journalist Lee Smith reveals the shocking truth about how U.S. political and corporate elites conspired with Beijing to reshape the global order-at America's expense. From Henry Kissinger's secret dealings with Mao to the tech oligarchs cozying up to Xi Jinping, Smith exposes the web of corruption and betrayal that spans decades. He reveals how globalism, Silicon Valley, and the media worked together to whitewash China's crimes while dismantling American industry and national security. But this is also a story of resistance. Smith chronicles how Trump's presidency shattered the illusion of a benign China, forcing the establishment to confront the consequences of their own greed. From trade wars to TikTok, fentanyl to finance, The China Matrix details the battle between America First and the entrenched pro-China elite-and what's at stake in the next chapter of this global showdown. With stunning new revelations about Elon Musk's growing influence, Joe Biden's China entanglements, and the role of U.S. universities in Beijing's espionage network, The China Matrix is a gripping exposé of the most dangerous alliance in modern history-and the fight to break free before time runs out."

Lee Smith (Author), Chris Abell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Putin's Revenge: Why Russia Invaded Ukraine

"In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a bloody escalation of a conflict that had begun eight years earlier. What drove Vladimir Putin to launch Europe's largest land war since World War II? Lucian Kim—an on-the-ground reporter in the region for decades—offers a gripping, definitive account of Russia's path to war, from Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2014 Maidan uprising right up to the full-scale invasion. He examines the Kremlin's motives, tracing Putin's transformation from a seemingly pragmatic leader into an embittered tyrant who saw it as his historical mission to reconquer Ukraine. He debunks the Kremlin narrative that the West instigated the conflict, and he instead identifies the root causes of the war in the legacy of Russian imperialism and Putin's dictatorial rule. At the same time, Kim is critical of the West's empty promises to Ukraine, which made the country vulnerable to a revanchist Russia. Putin's Revenge features insight from Kim's first-hand reporting on key moments, such as Russia's occupation of Crimea and the beginning of the Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine. This book tells the story of the lead-up to the invasion with revelatory detail and fresh analysis, shedding new light on a conflict that has roiled the post–Cold War order."

Lucian Kim (Author), David Lee Huynh (Narrator)

Audiobook

Outgrowing Modernity: Navigating Complexity, Complicity, and Collapse with Accountability and Compas

"The inevitable is coming fast. We know it in our bones-and it's past time to face it. The highly anticipated follow-up to Hospicing Modernity: how we activate responsibility, nurture care, and grow up in the face of collapse-includes reflections, exercises, and prompts Climate collapse, social crisis, the decline of modernity: colonialism, capitalism, and our full-faced denial have ushered in an urgent new era. Hospicing Modernity asked us to grow up, step up, and show up for our communities and the living Earth. Outgrowing Modernity helps us make sense of where we're going-and deepen what's possible-in a time of endings. Vanessa Machado De Oliveira helps us face the logics and workings of modernity, bringing us to clear-eyed terms with its expiration. She explores the impacts of colonialism as neurocolonization: an oppressive function of modernity that rewires how we think, act, imagine, and adapt. These impacts are wide-ranging and run deep: they cut us off from our natural ways of building community and seeking pleasure. They choke our ability to cope with trauma and embrace complexity. And they trap us in a state of artificial comfort and denial that keeps us from collectively growing up-even when our existence demands it. This book invites you to interrupt 5 lies that neurocolonization instills in us-beliefs (and behaviors) that have condition us to think we're owed the following, regardless of others or the planet: - Moral and epistemic self-righteous authority - Unrestricted, unaccountable autonomy - Arbitrating truth, law, and common sense - Affirming one's virtues, innocence, and purity - Exploitative appropriation and accumulation of various forms of capital In moving away from these ingrained worldviews, we can choose instead to develop 4 capacities necessary to our-and Earth's-survival: sobriety, maturity, discernment, and responsibility. Machado De Oliveira moves beyond critique into a praxis of strategic disinvestment: one that invites us to recognize what no longer serves us and reinvest in nurturing structures and lifeways that restore our knowledge in the value of life for life's sake."

Vanessa Machado de Oliveira (Author), A'rese Emokpae (Narrator)

Audiobook

Revolting Indolence: The Politics of Slacking, Lounging, and Daydreaming in Queer and Trans Latinx C

"How indolent practices in Latinx LGBTQ culture challenge capitalist imperatives to be productive. Revolting Indolence makes a case for laziness as an aesthetic-political strategy for countering the oppressive logics of cisheteronormative racial capitalism. Focusing on ways in which queer and trans Latinx people demonstrate the unwillingness of their participation in 'productivist' ethics and allied respectability politics, Marcos Gonsalez argues that slacking off, lounging, daydreaming, and partying are liberatory practices. Gonsalez explores how queer and trans Latinx artists refute discourses in which work is a moral good. In Paris Is Burning, RuPaul's Drag Race, documentary photography of queer and trans Latinx life in Los Angeles, and other sources, Gonsalez identifies two lazy styles: first, flagrant refusals of work that critique capitalist reason; and second, the invention of alternative aesthetic worlds beyond racial capitalism and violence targeting queer and trans people, whose rejection of the cisgender nuclear family paradigm is rightly seen as threatening the stability of a functioning capitalist system. Reclaiming laziness as a resource for radical imagining, Revolting Indolence asks us to do that which we want most and which capitalist exploitation can least tolerate: to slow down."

Marcos Gonsalez (Author), Adi Cabral (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Well-Tempered Society: How Modern Science, Ancient Wisdom and Human Nature Guide us to Create So

Jonathan Rose (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile

"From the hosts of The War on Cars podcast, a searing indictment of how cars ruin everything-and what we can do to fight back When the very first cars rolled off production lines, they were a technological marvel, predicted to make life easier and better for all Americans; yet a hundred years later, that dream is running on empty. Instead of unbounded freedom, the never-ending proliferation of automobiles has delivered a host of costs, among them the demolition of our neighborhoods, towns, and cities to make way for car infrastructure; an epidemic of violent death; countless hours lost in traffic; isolation from our fellow human beings; and the ongoing destruction of the natural world. Globally, SUVs alone now emit more carbon than the nations of Germany, South Korea, or Japan. That's why we need Life After Cars. Through historical records, revealing interviews, and unflinching statistics, Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, hosts of the podcast The War on Cars, and former host Aaron Naparstek unpack the scale of damage that cars cause, the forces that have created our current crisis and are invested in perpetuating it, and the way that the fight for better transportation is deeply linked to the fight for a more equitable and just society. Cars as we know them today are unsustainable-but there is hope. Life After Cars will arm readers with the tools they need to implement real, transformative change, from simply raising awareness to taking a stand at public forums. It's past time to radically rethink-and shrink-society's collective relationship with the automobile. Together, let's create a better Life After Cars."

Aaron Naparstek, Doug Gordon, Sarah Goodyear (Author), Doug Gordon, Sarah Goodyear (Narrator)

Audiobook

To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower

"From #1 New York Times bestselling author and Fox News Channel’s Chief Political Anchor, a captivating biography of Teddy Roosevelt, whose bold leadership thrust America onto the world stage and changed the course of U.S. history. There has never been a president like Theodore Roosevelt. An iconoclast shaped by fervent ideals, his early life seems ripped from the pages of an adventure novel: abandoning his place in the New York aristocracy, he was drawn to the thrill of the West, becoming an honorary cowboy who won the respect of the rough men of the plains, adopting their code of authenticity and courage. As a New York State legislator, he fought corruption and patronage. As New York City police commissioner, he walked the beat at night to hold his men accountable; and as New York governor, he butted heads with the old guard to bring fresh air to a state mired in political corruption. He was also a passionate naturalist, conservationist, and hunter who collected hundreds of specimens of birds and animals throughout his life. He was a soldier and commander who led a regiment of “Rough Riders” to victory in the Spanish-American War, a show of leadership and bravery that put him on the national map. As president, he brought energy, laughter, and bold ideas to the White House, pursuing a vigorous agenda that established America as a leader on the world stage —from advancing the Panama Canal, brokering peace with Russia, and taking on business elites. Bret Baier’s exquisite book reveals the storied life of a leader whose passion, daring, and prowess left an indelible mark on the fabric of our country and reimagined the possibilities of the presidency. "

Bret Baier (Author), Bret Baier (Narrator)

Audiobook

Anchoring Black America: History, Culture, and the Cool that Shaped Us

"Spanning his three-decade career, Detroit native and Emmy award-winning journalist Ed Gordon shares conversations from legendary moments in Black history. In 2020, Gordon's book Conversations in Black brought together interviews and insights from change-makers leading the discourse on the state of Black America, prompting Marc Lamont Hill to call him "one of the most important journalists in American history." As the current host of the groundbreaking BET show "America in Black", Gordon provides informed and dynamic coverage of the news and events that matter most to the African American community. In Anchoring Black America, Gordon searches through the highlights of the Black experience from his storied journalistic journey to craft an entertaining and insightful narrative about Black America's future. A master storyteller, he uncovers never-before-seen archives and offers readers his unique perspective on the biggest news stories of yesterday-from the historic 2008 presidential election, to Nelson Mandela's funeral, to the murder of George Floyd-and insights into today's global icons, such as Barack Obama, Oprah, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Whitney Houston, and Tupac Shakur, and a behind-the-scenes look at his infamous "interview of the century" with O.J. Simpson, why his live interview and dust-up with Donald Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman became a viral sensation, a toe-to-toe moment with rap mogul Suge Knight, and why telling "Black" stories is vital to social change. Funny and poignant, this book is a page-turner and an entertaining, informative, and motivational read from one of America's most beloved voices. "

Ed Gordon (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Audiobooks in Non-Fiction