Public Policy Audiobooks | Politics

American Mercenary: The Riveting, High-Risk World of an Elite SEAL Team Operator Turned Hired Gun

What does an elite Navy SEAL Team operator trained to kill the United States' most dangerous enemies do when he realizes his skills aren't being properly utilized? He leaves the Navy. In AmericanMercenary, Daniel Corbett takes readers on a wild ride through the unadulterated, morally ambiguous, and riveting world of being a hired gun. From Abu Dhabi to Washington, D.C., Cairo to San Diego, Belgrade to places that must remain secret, this is a world where money rules, and where adventure, danger, and absurdity often follow. A star high school athlete, Corbett passed on a Division 1 football career and opted for the US Navy. He began his career at SEAL Team 5 and eventually checked into SEAL Team 6. The Navy spent millions teaching him and his fellow Team members how to sneak, subvert, recruit, disappear, survive, resist, and exert. And of course, how to shoot, a discipline at which Corbett excelled. What the Navy did not do was prepare these men for post-military lives beyond the usual suite of veterans' benefits and unimaginative job-training programs. So what does Corbett do? He goes private. There are still plenty of bad men in the world, and the only sin worse than wasting talent in dead-end pursuits is not using it at all. He starts small, but quickly moves up. The work is simultaneously familiar and foreign. The command structure is shady. The clients are dubious. The equipment is sub-par. But what the fuck: the pay is good. Then things change in 2017 when Corbett is arrested on a job in Belgrade, Serbia. When the authorities discover he's a Navy SEAL, they imagine the worst: he's in Belgrade to assassinate the Serbian president. They throw Corbett in jail, where he spends the next 18 months making international headlines and fighting for his freedom in a kangaroo court. Ultimately, American Mercenary highlights the struggle of many veterans: how to reconcile military service with civilian life. For Corbett, becoming a mercenary isn't just the best option, it feels like the only option. It's a lot better than drowning in a bottle or holding a pistol under your chin and pulling the trigger, but is it enough?

Daniel Corbett (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World

A stunning investigation and indictment of the elements in United States' foreign lobbying industry and the threat they pose to democracy. For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they've not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they've secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, journalist Casey Michel contends some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself. These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. These lobbyists include figures like Ivy Lee, the inventor of the public relations industry - a man who whitewashed Mussolini, opened doors to the Soviets, and advised the Nazis on how to sway American audiences. They include people like Paul Manafort, who invented lobbying as we know it - and who then took his talents to autocrats from Ukraine to the Philippines, and then back to the White House. And they now include an increasing number of Americans elsewhere: in law firms and consultancies, among PR specialists and former lawmakers, and even within think tanks and universities. Many of these lobbyists have transformed into proxies for dictators and strongmen wherever they can be found. And for years, they've escaped scrutiny. In Foreign Agents, Casey Michel shines a light on these foreign lobbyists, and all the damage and devastation they have caused in Washington and elsewhere. From Moscow to Beijing, from far-right nationalists to far-left communists, from anti-American autocrats to pro-Western authoritarians, these foreign lobbyists have helped any illiberal, anti-democratic government they can find. And after decades of success in installing dictator after dictator, and in tilting American policy in the process, some of these lobbyists have now begun trying to end America's democratic experiment, once and for all.

Casey Michel (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Asking Too Much of the Law

Anon9780063238473 (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Practicing Liberation Workbook: Radical Tools for Grassroots Activists, Community Leaders, Teachers,

The accompanying workbook to Practicing Liberation: essential skills, exercises, and journal prompts for social-change workers to protect boundaries, prevent burnout, and nourish organizational cultures of resilience and care What do you imagine a better world to look, feel, and sound like? Practicing Liberation Workbook shows that nourishing our movements and communities depends on nourishing ourselves-and that centering rest, prioritizing joy, and celebrating creativity and radical imagination is necessary for long-term change. To be sustainable and realize the transformation we're working toward, we need to care for our body, mind, and spirit, even (and especially) when the needs of our communities are urgent. In this accompanying workbook to Practicing Liberation, editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson respond to the real needs of activists and changemakers-like healing from stress and burnout, processing grief and rage, and addressing overwhelm and disconnection. Examples of practices include: - Guided journal prompts for self-care critical reflections: Reflect on the ideas and practices you've inherited around survival and self-care. What did you learn about survival in your family of origin? What did you learn about self-care? - Embrace and release, an embodied exercise to support you in times of overwhelm - Shared reflections for building community: What experiences or circumstances have shaped you in your life? What gifts has this given you? What can't you see about the world as a result? What support would give you more tools or uplift your gifts in this work? - Meditations for self-forgiveness, equanimity, and connection with nature - Holding space and being present for others through embodied listening Readers are invited to try out the practices alone, with friends, in ceremony, at work, and in nature-to pick those that resonate most and use this toolkit in service of the care and transformation we each need to show up, sustain our work, and thrive for ourselves and our communities.

Tessa Hicks Peterson (Author), Hala Khouri, Tba, Tessa Hicks Peterson (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Better Tomorrow: Life Lessons in Hope and Strength

Mina Smallman (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Lost in Austin

A long-time Austinite and journalist’s exploration of the profound movements that have shaped Austin, Texas—charting the shifts within its vibrant music scene, the impact of rapid urbanization, and the challenges of gentrification—ultimately questioning what this city’s transformation signals for American urban identity. Austin isn’t what it used to be. This is a common sentiment amongst locals, offered with the same confused—and often disappointed—tone familiar to residents of Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco, where rapid growth and expansion have led to an urban identity crisis. Like those cities, Austin is known for its unique qualities: a thriving live music scene and housing affordability that historically made it a compelling home for creatives and self-described weirdos to roost. But now, as Big Tech infiltrates and climate change looms, Austin has become less familiar—and far less affordable. An exploration of the beloved city’s evolution, Lost in Austin also serves as a critical exploration of the transformation that has befallen one of America’s most beloved cities—and serves as a warning for what the homogenization of cities means for American urban identity. With a journalist’s perspective and the heart of an Austinite, Alex Hannaford delves into the consequences of the city’s rapid growth in chapters that chronicle the major movements permanently altering the city: a vanishing music scene, soaring property values, and the encroachment of major industry. Through keen reportage and extensive interviews, Lost in Austin unveils the toll of unchecked growth and the city’s shift from its rebellious spirit to commercialization. Through those stories—vibrant, colorful, and clearly full of love for this city—Hannaford raises a crucial question: How do American cities, once celebrated for their unique values, became casualties of their own rapid growth and success? And can they ever return to what they once were?

Alex Hannaford (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World

With keen and original insight, Vox journalist Zack Beauchamp traces how a reactionary antidemocratic ethos born and bred in America has come to infect democracies around the world There is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of American politics that has endured since our nation's birth. The defining ideals of democracy and liberty for everyone have always existed uneasily alongside realities of slavery, widespread disenfranchisement, and other grave impediments to true democracy. How has this paradox survived for so long in the face of America's foundational claim of liberty and justice for all? In The Reactionary Spirit, Zack Beauchamp explains that this tension is in fact an example of a phenomenon intrinsic to the project of democracy, what he calls the reactionary spirit: as strides towards true democracy are made, there is always a faction that reacts by seeking to undermine them and thereby resist change. The adoption of democratic rhetoric cleverly belies authoritarian ends-a development that is increasingly prevalent today, both at home and abroad. Brilliantly combining political history and reportage, Beauchamp reveals how the United States was the birthplace of this strange and harrowing authoritarian style, and why we're now seeing its evolution in diverse nations including Hungary, Israel, and India. These countries in turn provide blueprints for the reactionary spirit domestically, as with Florida governor Ron DeSantis taking pages from Hungarian president Viktor Orbán's anti-LGBT legislative playbook. The Reactionary Spirit paints a vivid, alarming picture that illuminates not only what's happening to democracy globally, but also what we must do to protect it-while we still can.

Zack Beauchamp (Author), Justin Price, TBD (Narrator)

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Practicing Liberation: Transformative Strategies for Collective Healing & Systems Change: Reflection

How do we do effective, sustainable social change…without burning out, internalizing systemic toxicity, or replicating urgency culture? A trauma-informed anthology with contributions from 13 activists and community organizers-for readers of adrienne maree brown, Staci K. Haines, and Ejeris Dixon When your work is inextricable from your identity, your community, and your own liberation, you need a unique praxis of care to sustain it-and for mission-driven activists, organizers, and changemakers working under oppressive systems, making space to center vital needs like rest, self-care, and healthy boundaries isn't as simple as clocking out. Practicing Liberation reorients collective justice work toward a model that transforms the effects of injustice, harm, and oppressive systems into resilience, joy, and community care. Through frameworks like trauma-informed methodology, transformative movement organizing, engaged Buddhism, and healing justice, editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson show readers how to: - Embody healing, wellness, and beloved community - Guard against replicating systems of harm - Disrupt racist, classist, anti-queer, and anti-trans behavior and systems - Celebrate creativity and radical imagination in movement work - Center healing from intergenerational trauma, white supremacy culture, and extractive capitalism - Honor that self-care is a necessity-not a luxury-that strengthens our collectives Featuring essays from editors Hala Khouri and Tessa Hicks Peterson and contributors like Kazu Haga, Taj James, Nkem Ndefo, Jacoby Ballard, Sará King, Kerri Kelly, and more, Practicing Liberation can be used on its own or alongside The Practicing Liberation Workbook to help readers orient toward embodied leadership, interconnected collectives, and a bold vision for transformation-the vital tools we need for collective wellbeing, healing, and long-term social change.

Tessa Hicks Peterson (Author), Tba (Narrator)

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The Air They Breathe: A Pediatrician on the Frontlines of Climate Change

A timely, revelatory first look into the impact climate change has on children—the greatest moral crisis humanity faces today—by a pediatrician in the fastest warming city in America. Wildfires, hurricanes, and heat waves make headlines. But what is happening in Debra Hendrickson's clinic tells another story of this strange and unsettling time. Hendrickson is a pediatrician in Reno, Nevada—the fastest warming city in the United States, where ash falls like snow during summer wildfires. In The Air They Breathe, Dr. Hendrickson recounts patients she's seen who were harmed by worsening smoke, smog, and pollen; two boys in Arizona, stricken by record-setting heat while hiking; children who fled for their lives from Hurricane Harvey and the Tubbs Fire; and a little girl whose life was forever altered by the Zika virus outbreak in 2016. The climate crisis is a health crisis, and it is a health crisis, first and foremost, for children. Children's bodies are interwoven with and shaped by their surroundings. As the planet warms and their environment changes, children's health is at risk. The youngest are especially vulnerable because their brain, lungs, and other organs are forming and growing every day, and because their physiology is so different from that of adults. Childhood has always been a risky period of life; throughout history, babies and children have met peril, from polio to famine, from cyclones to war. Yet they have never quite had to face, in quite this way, the potential loss of the future itself. The Air They Breathe is not just about the health impacts of global warming, but something more: a soul-stirring reminder of our moral responsibility to our children, and their profound connections to this unique and irreplaceable world.

Debra Hendrickson (Author), Megan Tusing, TBD (Narrator)

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Reimagining the Revolution: Four Stories of Abolition, Autonomy, and Forging New Paths in the Modern

These are the architects of the modern civil rights movement: 4 profiles of revolutionary groups making change beyond protest A radically different approach to sustaining social justice movements-4 strategies for abolition and liberation from the new architects of the modern civil rights movement Many of us think, I don't support the police. But what should take their place? Or: Prisons don't keep us safe. But what new systems could? A lot of books about racial justice ask us how we got here, but Reimagining the Revolution is different: award-winning journalist and activist Paula Lehman-Ewing presents an inside-access look at the activists redefining where we go from here. Readers will hear from: - Ivan Kilgore, an incarcerated activist who founded the 501c3 nonprofit United Black Family Scholarship Foundation from behind prison walls - Critical Resistance, one of the oldest grassroots organizations in the nation working to dismantle the prison-industrial complex - The co-founders of Greenwood, a Black-owned financial technology institution designed specifically for Black and Latino people and businesses: Michael Render, aka Killer Mike, Amb. Andrew Young and Ryan Glover - Incarcerated activist Heshima Denham on his grassroots efforts to build a society for Black and Brown people independent of the state - The Movement for Black Lives, the Alliance for Safety and Justice, BYP 100, and 8toAbolition - Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists using art to heal from trauma, connect with other incarcerated people, and amplify abolitionist change Lehman-Ewing frames each profile within two fundamental truths: The current system-built and sustained by oppression, extraction, and inequity by design-cannot be reformed. And, knowing this, we need abolition; we need creative solutions designed by the people most impacted by the systems they fight to change. Reimagining the Revolution is a call to action for each of us: if we can access the tools we have, we can dream bigger, think outside the box, and follow the paths laid out by change-making activists toward nothing short of revolution.

Paula Lehman-Ewing (Author), Jaime Lincoln Smith, Paula Lehman-Ewing (Narrator)

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The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers

The go-to book on immigration: fact-based, comprehensive, and nonpartisan. Immigration is one of the most controversial topics in the United States and everywhere else. Pundits, politicians, and the public usually depict immigrants as either villains or victims. The villain narrative is that immigrants pose a threat—to our economy because they steal our jobs; our way of life because they change our culture; and to our safety and laws because of their criminality. The victim argument tells us that immigrants are needy outsiders—the poor, huddled masses whom we must help at our own cost if necessary. But the data clearly debunks both narratives. From jobs, investment, and innovation to cultural vitality and national security, more immigration has an overwhelmingly positive impact on everything that makes a society successful. In The Truth About Immigration, Wharton professor Zeke Hernandez draws from nearly 20 years of research to answer all the big questions about immigration. He combines moving personal stories with rigorous research to offer an accessible, apolitical, and evidence-based look at how newcomers affect our local communities and our nation. You'll learn about the overlooked impact of immigrants on investment and job creation; realize how much we take for granted the novel technologies, products, and businesses newcomers create; get the facts straight about perennial concerns like jobs, crime, and undocumented immigrants; and gain new perspectives on misunderstood issues such as the border, taxes, and assimilation. Most books making a case for immigration tell you that immigration is good for immigrants. This book is all about how newcomers benefit you, your community, and your country. Skeptics fear that newcomers compete economically with locals because of their similarities and fail to socially assimilate because of their differences. You'll see that it's exactly the opposite: newcomers bring enduring economic benefits because of their differences and contribute positively to society because of their similarities. Destined to become the go-to book on one of the most important issues of our time, this book turns fear into hope by proving a simple truth: immigrants are essential for economically prosperous and socially vibrant nations.

Zeke Hernandez (Author), André Santana, TBD, Zeke Hernandez (Narrator)

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Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps

From your friends at Pod Save America comes a useful and illustrated guide to saving American democracy just in time for the 2024 election and 2025 insurrection If you’re looking to navigate the chaotic, dunce-infested waters of American politics, Democracy or Else is here to help you tackle what might be the greatest question of our time: How do you get involved in the political process and make a real difference without giving in to the sense of impending dread that hangs over our society like a nameless stench? Each chapter will take readers step-by-step through the perilous journey of - Getting informed when you don’t know which influencer to trust (all of them!) - Donating and volunteering where you can have the biggest impact - Organizing, protesting, and even running for office yourself - Staying engaged in politics without losing hope or your mind or all of your friends Democracy or Else is a resource for everyone—from political junkies following every turn of the news cycle to young people getting ready to vote for the first time. And it's filled with practical advice from some of the smartest experts and least annoying politicians around. The stakes and average global temperatures have never been higher—but there have also never been so many opportunities to join the fight. It’s an age of contradictions!

Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Public Policy Audiobooks in Politics