Harper Audio Presents

This week Ana Maria Allessi sits down with O’Reilly Media founder and author of WTF?, Tim O’Reilly. They discuss how technology platforms can show us how to deal with economic inequality, what Uber and Lyft teach us about cognitive augmentation in jobs, Tim’s experience with policy makers, and so much more.

In today’s economy, we have far too much dismay along with our amazement, and technology bears some of the blame. In this combination of memoir, business strategy guide, and call to action, Tim O'Reilly, Silicon Valley’s leading intellectual and the founder of O’Reilly Media, explores the upside and the potential downsides of today's WTF? technologies.

This week we sit down with the legendary author of Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin to discuss his memoir Logical Family

Reflecting on the profound impact those closest to him have had on his life, Maupin shares his candid search for his "logical family," the people he could call his own. "Sooner or later, we have to venture beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us," he writes. "We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives." From his loving relationship with his palm-reading Grannie who insisted Maupin was the reincarnation of her artistic bachelor cousin, Curtis, to an awkward conversation about girls with President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office, Maupin tells of the extraordinary individuals and situations that shaped him into one of the most influential writers of the last century.

Maupin sits down for an interview with Ana Maria Allessi to discuss where he wants to be buried when he dies, writing letters to a girl who fell down a well, his awkward oval office interaction with Richard Nixon, and so much more.

This week’s episode features author, journalist, television commentator, and longtime Washington Insider, Sally Quinn.

In FINDING MAGIC, Sally Quinn speaks frankly about her varied, provocative spiritual experiences—from her Southern family of Presbyterians and psychics, to voodoo lessons from her Baptist nanny, her trials as a hospitalized military kid in Japan as the Korean War begins, to her adventures as a Post reporter and columnist and her experience as one of the first female news anchors on national television; her battles with the Nixon administration, Watergate, and other scandals that have rocked the nation; her courtship and long marriage to one of the most authoritative figures in the media; her role as the capital’s most influential hostess; and her growing fascination with religious issues.

Quinn sits down for an interview with Ana Maria Allessi to discuss the decision to include the word “magic” in the title of the book, her marriage to Ben Bradlee, how to recognize synchronicity, and much more!

Katy Tur is a broadcast journalist and the NBC News correspondent who was tasked with following Donald Trump's presidential campaign. In her new book, UNBELIEVABLE, Tur recounts her experience on the campaign trail.

From day 1 to day 500, Tur documented Trump’s inconsistencies, fact-checked his falsities, and called him out on his lies. In return, Trump repeatedly singled Tur out. He tried to charm her, intimidate her, and shame her. At one point, he got a crowd so riled up against Tur, Secret Service agents had to walk her to her car.

Tur sits down for an interview with Ana Maria Allessi to discuss the difficulty of reading Trump’s tweets for the audiobook, why political reporters don’t vote, her decision not to use a ghostwriter, and much more.

Rounding out our Summer of Excerpts is Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, and read by Derek Perkins

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

You can buy the audiobook of Sapiens now at audible http://adbl.co/2gCHmwp

Another installment of our Summer of Excerpts, this week we feature the audiobook of SHATTER ME by Tahereh Mafi and performed by Kate Simses.

The gripping first installment in New York Times bestselling author Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series.

One touch is all it takes. One touch, and Juliette Ferrars can leave a fully grown man gasping for air. One touch, and she can kill.

No one knows why Juliette has such incredible power. It feels like a curse, a burden that one person alone could never bear. But The Reestablishment sees it as a gift, sees her as an opportunity. An opportunity for a deadly weapon.

You can listen to the audiobook of SHATTER ME in its entirety at Audible, where it is currently on sale.

Continuing our Summer of Excerpts, this week’s episode features the audiobook NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US by Stephanie Powell Watts, and performed by Janina Edwards.

It’s THE GREAT GATSBY brilliantly recast in the contemporary South: a powerful first novel about an extended African-American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream.

You can listen to the audiobook of NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE US in its entirety over at Audible, where it is currently on sale.

Continuing our Summer of Excerpts, this week's episode features the audiobook of Hunger by Roxane Gay.

From the New York Times best-selling author of Bad Feminist, a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

You can listen to the entire audiobook of Hunger by purchasing it at Audible, where it is currently on sale.

This week on the pod, we listen to an exciting clip from the audiobook of DUNKIRK by Joshua Levine, and performed by Jonathan Keeble

The Battle of Dunkirk, in May/June 1940, is remembered as a stunning defeat, yet a major victory as well. The Nazis had beaten back the Allies and pushed them across France to the northern port of Dunkirk. In the ultimate race against time, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers were daringly evacuated across the Channel. This moment of German aggression was used by Winston Churchill as a call to Franklin Roosevelt to enter the war. Now, historian Joshua Levine explores the real lives of those soldiers, bombed and strafed on the beaches for days on end, without food or ammunition; the civilians whose boats were overloaded; the airmen who risked their lives to buy their companions on the ground precious time; and those who did not escape.

Box office stats say you probably already saw the major motion picture from Christopher Nolan, so now get the whole story! Buy the audiobook of DUNKIRK on audible, where it is currently on sale

On this week's episode, we listen to a clip from the audiobook of THE ALICE NETWORK by Kate Quinn, and performed by Saskia Maarleveld

In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.

You can buy the audiobook of THE ALICE NETWORK on Auidble, where it is currently on sale!