Politics Audiobooks | LoveReading

Longshot: The Inside Story of the Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine

This is the incredible story of the scientists who created a coronavirus vaccine in record time. In Longshot, investigative journalist David Heath takes readers inside the small group of scientists whose groundbreaking work was once largely dismissed but whose feat will now eclipse the importance of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine in medical history. With never-before-reported details, Heath reveals how these scientists overcame countless obstacles to give the world an unprecedented head start when we needed a COVID-19 vaccine. The story really begins in the 1990s, with a series of discoveries that were timed perfectly to prepare us for the worst pandemic since 1918. Readers will meet Katalin Karikó, who made it possible to use messenger RNA in vaccines but struggled for years just to hang on to her job. There's also Derrick Rossi, who leveraged Karikó's work to found Moderna but was eventually expelled from his company. And then there's Barney Graham at the National Institutes of Health, who had a career-long obsession with solving the riddle of why two toddlers died in a vaccine trial in 1966, a tragedy that ultimately led to a critical breakthrough in vaccine science. With both foresight and luck, Graham and these other crucial scientists set the course for a coronavirus vaccine years before COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China. The author draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with key players to tell the definitive story about how the race to create the vaccine sparked a revolution in medical science.

David Heath (Author), David Heath, Eric Jason Martin (Narrator)

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Money in One Lesson: How it Works and Why

You Spend It. You Save It. You Never Have Enough of It. But how does it actually work? Understanding cash, currencies and the financial system is vital for making sense of what is going on in our world, especially now. Since the 2008 financial crisis, money has rarely been out of the headlines. Central banks have launched extraordinary policies, like quantitative easing or negative interest rates. New means of payment, like Bitcoin and Apple Pay, are changing how we interact with money and how governments and corporations keep track of our spending. Radical politicians in the US and UK are urging us to transform our financial system and make it the servant of social justice. And yet, if you stopped for a moment and asked yourself whether you really understand how it works, would you honestly be able to say 'yes'? In Money in One Lesson, Gavin Jackson, a lead writer for the Financial Times, specialising in economics, business and public policy, answers the most important questions to clarify for the reader what money is and how it shapes our societies. With brilliant storytelling, Jackson provides a basic understanding of the most important element of our everyday lives. Drawing on stories like the 1970s Irish Banking Strike to show what money actually is, and the Great Inflation of West Africa's cowrie shell money to explain how it keeps its value, Money in One Lesson demystifies the world of finance and explains how societies, both past and present, are forever entwined with monetary matters.

Gavin Jackson (Author), James Macnaughton (Narrator)

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The Capitalist and the Activist: Corporate Social Activism and the New Business of Change

This is the first in-depth examination of the important ongoing fusion of activism, capitalism, and social change masterfully told through a compelling narrative filled with vivid stories and striking studies. Today, corporations and their executives are at the front lines of some of the most important and contentious social and political issues of our time, such as voting rights, gun violence, racial justice, immigration reform, climate change, and gender equality. Why is this sea change in business and activism happening? How should executives and activists engage one another to create meaningful progress? What are potential pitfalls and risks for each side? What can they learn from each other? What first principles should guide leaders moving forward? The Capitalist and the Activist offers an engaging and thoughtful look at the new reality of corporate social activism-its driving forces, promises and perils, and implications for our businesses and personal lives. Weaving deep research and fascinating stories that span business, entertainment, history, science, and politics, Tom Lin provides an insightful road map for how society arrived here and a practical compass for moving forward. Drawing together examples from the civil rights movement, campaign finance litigation, gun regulation, Black Lives Matter, the Confederate flag controversy, the Trump presidency, and other historical events, Lin brilliantly reveals and charts the course for a changing society of capitalists and activists seeking both profit and progress. The Capitalist and the Activist is a must-read for anyone trying to understand the emerging future of activism, business, and politics.

Tom C. W. Lin (Author), Sean Pratt (Narrator)

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Confesiones de un bot ruso

LOS SECRETOS QUE PARTIDOS POLÍTICOS, MULTINACIONALES Y ORGANIZACIONES MUNDIALES NO QUIEREN QUE CONOZCAMOS CONTADOS DESDE DENTRO. ME HE PASADO BASTANTE AÑOS INSULTÁNDOTE EN REDES SOCIALES PORQUE ALGUIEN ME PAGABA. AHORA QUE YA NO ESTOY EN NÓMINA, QUIERO CONTARTE CÓMO LO HACÍA. Bot Ruso pasó los últimos años de su trayectoria profesional al servicio de una agencia dedicada al astroturfing, con un equipo de trols a su cargo y operando en distintas misiones cuyo objetivo era manipular la conversación en la red. Ahora que ya no trabaja allí, se ha decidido a contar detalles sobre cómo se preparan y funcionan hoy las célebres campañas de bots y trols para empresas, partidos políticos o clubes deportivos. Con un enfoque divertido, irónico y muy didáctico, este libro nos abre los ojos y nos da las herramientas para reconocer este tipo de prácticas, evitar caer en la red de bulos y desenmascarar el modus operandi de los que mueven este negocio oscuro y poco ético.

Bot Ruso (Author), óscar Vegas Naval (Narrator)

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China's Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy

China's Civilian Army charts China's transformation from an isolated and impoverished communist state to a global superpower from the perspective of those on the front line: China's diplomats. They give a rare perspective on the greatest geopolitical drama of the last half century. Little is known or understood about the inner workings of the Chinese government as the country bursts onto the world stage, as the world's second largest economy and an emerging military superpower. China's Diplomats embody its battle between insecurity and self-confidence, internally and externally. To this day, Chinese diplomats work in pairs so that one can always watch the other for signs of ideological impurity. They're often dubbed China's 'wolf warriors' for their combative approach to asserting Chinese interests. Drawing for the first time on the memoirs of more than a hundred retired diplomats as well as author Peter Martin's first-hand reporting as a journalist in Beijing, this groundbreaking book blends history with current events to tease out enduring lessons about the kind of power China is set to become. It is required for anyone who wants to understand China's quest for global power, as seen from the inside.

Peter Martin (Author), Derek Perkins (Narrator)

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Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India’s Freedom

An extraordinary history of resistance and the fight for Indian independence from Ramachandra Guha. Rebels Against the Raj tells the little-known story of seven people who chose to struggle for a country other than their own: foreigners to India who across the late 19th to late 20th century arrived to join the freedom movement fighting for independence. Of the seven, four were British, two American, and one Irish. Four men, three women. Before and after being jailed or deported they did remarkable and pioneering work in a variety of fields: journalism, social reform, education, organic agriculture, environmentalism. This book tells their stories, each renegade motivated by idealism and genuine sacrifice; each connected to Gandhi, though some as acolytes where others found endless infuriation in his views; each understanding they would likely face prison sentences for their resistance, and likely live and die in India; each one leaving a profound impact on the region in which they worked, their legacies continuing through the institutions they founded and the generations and individuals they inspired. Through the entwined lives, wonderfully told by one of the world’s finest historians, we reach deep insights into relations between India and the West, and India’s story as a country searching for its identity and liberty beyond British colonial rule.

Ramachandra Guha (Author), Sam Dastor (Narrator)

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Barred by Congress: How a Mormon, a Socialist, and an African American Elected by the People Were Ex

In Barred by Congress: How a Mormon, a Socialist, and an African American Elected by the People Were Excluded from Office, Robert M. Lichtman provides a definitive history of congressional exclusion and expulsion cases. Lichtman offers a timely investigation of the vital constitutional issues, debated since the nation's founding, concerning permissible and impermissible grounds for excluding a member-elect or expelling a member from Congress. Barred by Congress begins with an exhaustive review of the numerous congressional exclusion and expulsion cases in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before focusing on the stories of the last three members-elect to be excluded from Congress: a Mormon, a Socialist, and an African American-each an outsider in American politics-excluded notwithstanding election by the voters. Lichtman illuminates each of these three remarkable individuals with a detailed biographical sketch. Brigham H. Roberts was a Utah Mormon whose exclusion from the House of Representatives in 1900 was fueled by a nationwide anti-Mormon campaign. Victor L. Berger, a Socialist Party leader was excluded in 1919 and 1920. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil rights advocate who represented the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the House of Representatives from 1945 until his exclusion in 1967.

Robert M. Lichtman (Author), Joe Barrett (Narrator)

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Heart of Atlanta: Five Black Pastors and the Supreme Court Victory for Integration

The Heart of Atlanta Supreme Court decision stands among the court's most significant civil rights rulings. In Atlanta, Georgia, two arch segregationists vowed to flout the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the sweeping slate of civil rights reforms just signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Pickrick restaurant was run by Lester Maddox, soon to be governor of Georgia. The other, the Heart of Atlanta motel, was operated by lawyer Moreton Rolleston Jr. After the law was signed, a group of ministry students showed up for a plate of skillet-fried chicken at Maddox's diner. At the Heart of Atlanta, the ministers reserved rooms and walked to the front desk. Lester Maddox greeted them with a pistol, axe handles, and a mob of White supporters. Moreton Rolleston refused to accept the Black patrons. These confrontations became the centerpiece of the nation's first two legal challenges to the Civil Rights Act. In gripping detail built from exclusive interviews and original documents, Heart of Atlanta reveals the saga of the case's rise to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously rejected the segregationists. Heart of Atlanta restores the legal cases and their heroes to their proper place in history.

Ronnie Greene (Author), Kevin R. Free (Narrator)

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America's Original Sin: White Supremacy, John Wilkes Booth, and the Lincoln Assassination

On April 14, 1865, after nearly a year of conspiring, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln as the president watched a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. Lincoln died the next morning. Twelve days later, Booth himself was fatally shot by a Union soldier after an extensive manhunt. The basic outline of this story is well known even to schoolchildren; what has been obscured is Booth's motivation for the act, which remains widely misunderstood nearly 160 years after the shot from his pocket pistol echoed through the crowded theater. In this riveting new book, John Rhodehamel argues that Booth's primary motivation for his heinous crime was a growing commitment to white supremacy. In alternating chapters, America's Original Sin shows how, as Lincoln's commitment to emancipation grew, so too did Booth's rage and hatred for Lincoln, whom he referred to as "King Abraham Africanus the First." Examining Booth's early life in Maryland, Rhodehamel traces the evolution of his racial hatred from his youthful embrace of white supremacy to his final act of murder. Along the way, Rhodehamel considers and discards other potential motivations for Booth's act, such as mental illness or persistent drunkenness, which are all, he writes, either insufficient to explain Booth's actions or were excuses made after the fact by those who sympathized with him. Focusing on how white supremacy brought about the Civil War and, later, betrayed the conflict's emancipationist legacy, Rhodehamel's masterful narrative makes this old story seem new again. The first book to explicitly name white supremacy as the motivation for Lincoln's assassination, America's Original Sin is an important and eloquent look at one of the most notorious episodes in American history.

John Rhodehamel (Author), Donald Corren (Narrator)

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The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order

In The Long Game, Rush Doshi draws from a rich base of Chinese primary sources, including decades worth of party documents, leaked materials, memoirs by party leaders, and a careful analysis of China's conduct to provide a history of China's grand strategy since the end of the Cold War. Taking listeners behind the Party's closed doors, he uncovers Beijing's long, methodical game to displace America from its hegemonic position in both the East Asia regional and global orders through three sequential 'strategies of displacement.' Beginning in the 1980s, China focused for two decades on 'hiding capabilities and biding time.' After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, it became more assertive regionally, following a policy of 'actively accomplishing something.' Finally, in the aftermath populist elections of 2016, China shifted to an even more aggressive strategy for undermining US hegemony, adopting the phrase 'great changes unseen in century.' After charting how China's long game has evolved, Doshi offers a comprehensive yet asymmetric plan for an effective US response. Ironically, his proposed approach takes a page from Beijing's own strategic playbook to undermine China's ambitions and strengthen American order without competing dollar-for-dollar, ship-for-ship, or loan-for-loan.

Rush Doshi (Author), Kyle Tait (Narrator)

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Tearing Down the Lost Cause: The Removal of New Orleans's Confederate Statues

On the eve of the Civil War, New Orleans was far more cosmopolitan than Southern, with its sizable population of immigrants, Northern-born businessmen, and white and Black Creoles. However, by 1880 New Orleans rivaled Richmond as a bastion of the Lost Cause. After Appomattox, a significant number of Confederate veterans moved into the city giving elites the backing to form a Confederate civic culture. While it's fair to say that the three Confederate monuments and the white supremacist Liberty Monument all came out of this dangerous nostalgia, the authors argue that each monument embodies its own story and mirrors the city and the times. The Lee monument expressed the bereavement of veterans and a desire to reconcile with the North, though strictly on their own terms. The Davis monument articulated the will of the Ladies Confederate Memorial Association to solidify the Lost Cause and Southern patriotism. The Beauregard Monument honored a local hero, but symbolized the waning of French New Orleans and rising Americanization. The Liberty Monument represented white supremacy and the cruel hypocrisy of celebrating a past that never existed. Gill and Hunter contextualize these statues rather than polarize, interviewing people who are on both sides, including citizens, academics, public intellectuals, and former mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Howard Hunter, James Gill (Author), Logan Stearns (Narrator)

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Gulag: Historia de los campos de concentración soviéticos

***Premio de Periodismo de El Mundo y Premio Francisco Cerecedo de Periodismo 2021*** Una extensa y detallada historia del origen y el desarrollo de los Gulags soviéticos y su herencia hasta la actualidad. El Gulag aparece en la conciencia de occidente en 1977 con la publicación de la obra de Aleksandr Solzhenitsin Archipiélago Gulag. A partir de nuevos estudios, memorias publicadas tras la caída de la URSS y algunos archivos hasta ahora secretos, Anne Applebaum realiza una reconstrucción histórica del origen y la evolución de los campos de concentración soviéticos que devuelve este infausto e inolvidable episodio al centro de la tormentosa historia del convulso siglo XX. Con detalle y precisión asistimos a la vida cotidiana en el campo: las automutilaciones para evitar los trabajos forzados, las bodas entre prisioneros, la vida de las mujeres y los niños, las rebeliones y los intentos de fuga. El libro, documentado y riguroso, sostiene que el Gulag nació no solo por la necesidad de aislar a los elementos que el Partido Comunista consideraba enemigos, sino para conseguir, al mismo tiempo, una masa de trabajadores-esclavos que trabajara a cambio de comida en inmensos proyectos como el canal del mar Blanco o las minas de Kolimá. Tras la descripción del horror organizado por el régimen soviético, el libro narra cómo Gorbachov, cuya familia se vio directamente afectada por esta política represiva, decidió terminar con este régimen carcelario liberando a la ciudadanía de uno de los más perversos y crueles sistemas represivos que el mundo ha conocido. Reseña: «El Gulag de Anne Applebaum es un libro importante. Sus muchos años de minuciosa investigación han provisto a la autora de un inmenso caudal de fascinantes detalles para recrear una terrible e inolvidable historia.» Anthony Beevor, autor de Stalingrado

Anne Applebaum (Author), Estela Fernández (Narrator)

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