Listen to Top Full Audiobooks in Non-Fiction, Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/624940 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering

Author: Martha Hodes

Narrator: Laurel Lefkow

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 54 minutes

Release date: June 6, 2023

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

In this moving and thought-provoking memoir, a historian offers a personal look at the fallibilities of memory and the lingering impact of trauma as she goes back fifty years to tell the story of being a passenger on an airliner hijacked in 1970. On September 6, 1970, twelve-year-old Martha Hodes and her thirteen-year-old sister were flying unaccompanied back to New York City from Israel when their plane was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and forced to land in the Jordan desert. Too young to understand the sheer gravity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Martha coped by suppressing her fear and anxiety. Nearly a half-century later, her memories of those six days and nights as a hostage are hazy and scattered. Was it the passage of so much time, or that her family couldn’t endure the full story, or had trauma made her repress such an intense life-and-death experience? A professional historian, Martha wanted to find out. Drawing on deep archival research, childhood memories, and conversations with relatives, friends, and fellow hostages, Martha Hodes sets out to re-create what happened to her, and what it was like for those at home desperately hoping for her return. Thrown together inside a stifling jetliner, the hostages forged friendships, provoked conflicts, and dreamed up distractions. Learning about the lives and causes of their captors—some of them kind, some frightening—the sisters pondered a deadly divide that continues today.  A thrilling tale of fear, denial, and empathy, My Hijacking sheds light on the hostage crisis that shocked the world, as the author comes to a deeper understanding of both what happened in the Jordan desert in 1970 and her own fractured family and childhood sorrows.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617428 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Big Break: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind

Author: Ben Terris

Narrator: Tim Andrés Pabon

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 32 minutes

Release date: June 6, 2023

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

In this fascinating investigation into the real life inner workings of a post-Trump American government, uncover the odd and eccentric personalities grappling for their own bit of power in D.C. The Big Break investigates how Washington works, and how different kinds of people try to make it work for them. Ben Terris presents an inside history of this crucial moment in Washington, reporting from exclusive parties, poker nights, fundraisers, secluded farms outside town and the halls of Congress; among the oddballs and opportunists and true believers. This book is about the people who see this moment as an opportunity to bet big—on their country or maybe just on themselves. It will take a close look at Washington’s bold-faced names as they try to get their bearings on the post-Trump (and possibly pre-Trump) landscape. And it will introduce readers to the behind-the-scenes players — MAGA pilgrims and Resistance flamekeepers and shapeshifting veterans — who believe they know what Washington, and America, must do if they’re going to survive, or even thrive. Trump’s arrival in Washington represented a big break in how the city operated. He surrounded himself with outsiders; power structures reorganized around those who knew him or his family and those who could flatter and influence his base. He changed the way the game was played, only it wasn’t actually a game at all. When pro-Trump elements both inside and outside of government plotted to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, the Capitol became a combat zone, then a military fortress.  It was, to put it lightly, a destabilizing time. But how much did the Trump years really change Washington? Has Joe Biden’s presidency heralded a return to normal, as many had hoped? What did ‘normal’ mean before Trump, and what do people think it means now?  The Big Break will follow a cast of D.C. characters in search of answers to these questions. They are a diverse crew—a pollster with a gambling habit, an oil heiress with a big heart, a cowboy lobbyist, a Republican kingmaker who decided to love Trump and his right-hand man who decided he couldn’t any longer. They all share at least one thing in common: They had seen their country go through a Big Break, and they’d come to get theirs.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617677 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America

Author: Monica Potts

Narrator: Monica Potts

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 40 minutes

Release date: May 30, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 4

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 3

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

Talented and ambitious, Monica Potts and her best friend, Darci, were both determined to make something of themselves. How did their lives turn out so different? “The Forgotten Girls is much more than a memoir; it’s the unflinching story of rural women trying to live in the most rugged, ultra-religious, and left-behind places in America.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick Growing up gifted and working-class poor in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. The girls bonded over a shared love of reading and learning, even as they navigated the challenges of their tumultuous family lives and declining town—broken marriages, alcohol abuse, and shuttered stores and factories. They pored over the giant map in their middle-school classroom, tracing their fingers over the world that awaited them, vowing to escape. In the end, Monica left Clinton for college and fulfilled her dreams, but Darci, along with many in their circle of friends, did not. Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Potts discovered what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas: Their life expectancy had dropped steeply—the sharpest such fall in a century. This decline has been attributed to “deaths of despair”—suicide, alcoholism, and drug overdoses—but Potts knew their causes were too complex to identify in a sociological study. She had grown up with these women, and when she saw Darci again, she found that her childhood friend—addicted to drugs, often homeless, a single mother—was now on track to becoming a statistic. In this gripping narrative, Potts deftly pinpoints the choices that sent her and Darci on such different paths and then widens the lens to explain why those choices are so limited. The Forgotten Girls is a profound, compassionate look at a population in trouble, and a uniquely personal account of the way larger forces, such as inheritance, education, religion, and politics, shape individual lives.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622460 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Why Politics Fails

Author: Ben Ansell

Narrator: Ben Ansell

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 33 minutes

Release date: May 23, 2023

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

A leading political expert explains why systems fail to deliver things we all want—democracy, equality, solidarity, security and prosperity—and what can be done to create a just, equitable, and environmentally sane society. The dawn of the twenty-first century had the promise of a golden age. The economy was stable and growing, social peace seemed possible, and technology appeared benign. The past years have awakened us from this complacency. - We have long known what needs to be done to save the world from climate disaster. Why do we continue on the path of self-destruction? - The immense wealth of the United States should make poverty a historical curiosity. Why is income inequality growing and the scourge of poverty increasing? - The vast majority of people around the world want to live in a society with democratic values. Why is democracy receding? Why is it so hard to get - and keep - the world we want? Ben Ansell, one of the world’s leading experts on the dilemmas facing modern democracies, vividly illustrates how our collective goals - democracy, equality, solidarity, security, and prosperity - are undermined by political traps and why today’s political landscape is so tumultuous. We want equality, but we are loathe to give away our own wealth. We want solidarity but we are much better at receiving it than offering it. We want security but not if it constrains our freedom. And we want to end the climate crisis but we also want a prosperous economy. In every case, we want a collective goal, but are undermined by our individual actions. Our aims are altruistic, our actions governed by self-interest. Ansell then comes full circle and through brilliant storytelling and pathbreaking research vividly  illustrates how we maneuver through the traps of the messy, complicated world of politics that block common sense solutions to the just, equitable, prosperous, and environmentally sane society we all want.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/620063 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: A Dying Colonialism

Author: Frantz Fanon

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 11 minutes

Release date: May 23, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

Frantz Fanon’s seminal work on anticolonialism and the fifth year of the Algerian Revolution Psychiatrist, humanist, revolutionary, Frantz Fanon was one of the great political analysts of our time, the author of such seminal works of modern revolutionary theory as The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks. He has had a profound impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world. A Dying Colonialism is Fanon’s incisive and illuminating account of how, during the Algerian Revolution, the people of Algeria changed centuries-old cultural patterns and embraced certain ancient cultural practices long derided by their colonialist oppressors as “primitive,” in order to destroy those oppressors. Fanon uses the fifth year of the Algerian Revolution as a point of departure for an explication of the inevitable dynamics of colonial oppression. This is a strong, lucid, and militant audiobook; to listen to it is to understand why Fanon says that for the colonized, “having a gun is the only chance you still have of giving a meaning to your death.”

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/623551 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic

Author: Stephen Vladeck

Narrator: Jonathan Todd Ross

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 17 minutes

Release date: May 16, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.67 of Total 6

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 3

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

An acclaimed legal scholar exposes the Supreme Court’s increasing use of unsigned, unexplained orders to change the law—all behind closed doors  The Supreme Court has always had the authority to issue emergency rulings in exceptional circumstances. But since 2017, the Court has dramatically expanded its use of the behind-the-scenes “shadow docket,” regularly making decisions that affect millions of Americans without public hearings and without explanation, through cryptic late-night rulings that leave lawyers—and citizens—scrambling.  The Court’s conservative majority has used the shadow docket to green-light restrictive voting laws and bans on abortion, and to curtail immigration and COVID vaccine mandates. But Americans of all political stripes should be worried about what the shadow docket portends for the rule of law, argues Supreme Court expert Stephen Vladeck. In this rigorous yet accessible book, he issues an urgent call to bring the Court back into the light.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/624931 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: But What Can I Do?: Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It

Author: Alastair Campbell

Narrator: Alastair Campbell

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 29 minutes

Release date: May 11, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

Brought to you by Penguin. 'Your country needs you. Your world needs you. Your time is now.' Our politics is a mess. We have leaders who can't or shouldn't be allowed to lead. We endure governments that lie, and seek to undermine our democratic values. And we are confronted with policies that serve the interests of the privileged few. It's no surprise that so many of us feel frustrated, let down and drawn to ask, 'But what can I do?' That question is the inspiration behind this book. It's a question regularly posed to Alastair Campbell, not least in reaction to The Rest is Politics, the chart-topping podcast he presents with former Tory Cabinet minister Rory Stewart. His answer, typically, is forthright and impassioned. We cannot afford to stand on the sidelines. If we think things need to change, then we need to change them, and that means getting involved. But What Can I Do? provides each of us with the motivation and the tools to make a difference. It explains how we can develop our skills of advocacy and persuasion. It draws on Alastair's long experience to offer practical tips on putting together and leading a campaign team. It provides priceless advice on developing confidence and coping with criticism and setbacks. And it sets out the practical steps by which we can become political players ourselves. Part call to arms, part practical handbook, But What Can I Do? will prove required reading for anyone who wants to make a difference. ©2023 Alastair Campbell (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622454 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Words Like Loaded Pistols: The Power of Rhetoric from the Iron Age to the Information Age

Author: Sam Leith

Narrator: Alan Medcroft

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 36 minutes

Release date: May 9, 2023

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

“An entertaining history of great oratory” (New Yorker) and a primer to rhetoric’s key techniques   Rhetoric gives our words the power to inspire. But it’s not just for politicians: it’s all around us, whether you’re buttering up a key client or persuading your children to eat their vegetables. You have been using rhetoric yourself, all your life. After all, you know what a rhetorical question is, don’t you?   In Words Like Loaded Pistols, Sam Leith traces the art of argument from ancient Greece through the present day. He introduces verbal villains from Hitler to Donald Trump—and the three musketeers: ethos, pathos, and logos. He explains how rhetoric works in speeches from Cicero to Zelensky and pays tribute to the rhetorical brilliance of AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” Before you know it, you’ll be confident in chiasmus and proud of your panegyrics—because rhetoric is useful, relevant, and crucial to understanding the world around us.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622450 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Age of Danger: Keeping America Safe in an Era of New Superpowers, New Weapons, and New Threats

Author: Andrew Hoehn, Thom Shanker

Narrator: Eric Jason Martin

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 3 minutes

Release date: May 9, 2023

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

An urgent look at how America's national security machine went astray and how it fails to keep us safe—and what we can do to fix it. Again and again, American taxpayers are asked to open their wallets and pay for a national security machine that costs $1 trillion operate. Yet time and time again, the US government gets it wrong on critical issues. So what can be done? Enter bestselling author Thom Shanker and defense expert Andrew Hoehn. With decades of national security expertise between them and access to virtually every expert, they look at what’s going wrong in national security and how to make it go right.   Age of Danger looks at the major challenges facing America—from superpowers like Russia and China to emerging threats like pandemics, cybersecurity, climate change, and drones—and reimagines the national security apparatus into something that can truly keep Americans safe. Weaving together expert analysis with exclusive interviews from a new generation of national security leaders, Shanker and Hoehn argue that the United States must create an industrial-grade, life-saving machine out of a system that, for too long, was focused only on deterring adversaries and carrying out global military operations. It is a timely and crucial call to action—a call that if heeded, could save Americans lives, money, and our very future on the global stage.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/617689 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Secret Gate: A True Story of Courage and Sacrifice During the Collapse of Afghanistan

Author: Mitchell Zuckoff

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 43 minutes

Release date: April 25, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Publisher's Summary:

The incredible true story of a breathtaking rescue in the frenzied final hours of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan—and how a brave Afghan mother and a compassionate American officer engineered a daring escape—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 13 Hours “Reads like a thriller . . . The Secret Gate is a fast-paced escape narrative, but it is also a morally complex interrogation.”—The Washington Post (Best Books of the Year) When the U.S. began its withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Afghan Army instantly collapsed, Homeira Qaderi was marked for death at the hands of the Taliban. A celebrated author, academic, and champion for women's liberation, Homeira had achieved celebrity in her home country by winning custody of her son in a contentious divorce, a rarity in Afghanistan's patriarchal society. As evacuation planes departed above, Homeira was caught in the turmoil at the Kabul Airport, trying and failing to secure escape for her and her eight-year-old son, Siawash, along with her parents and the rest of their family.  Meanwhile, a young American diplomat named Sam Aronson was enjoying a brief vacation between assignments when chaos descended upon Afghanistan. Sam immediately volunteered to join the skeleton team of remaining officials at Kabul Airport, frantically racing to help rescue the more than 100,000 stranded Americans and their Afghan helpers. When Sam learned that the CIA had established a secret entrance into the airport two miles away from the desperate crowds crushing toward the gates, he started bringing families directly through, personally rescuing as many as fifty-two people in a single day.  On the last day of the evacuation, Sam was contacted by Homeira's literary agent, who persuaded him to help her escape. He needed to risk his life to get them through the gate in the final hours before it closed forever. He borrowed night-vision goggles and enlisted a Dari-speaking colleague and two heavily armed security contract “shooters.” He contacted Homeira with a burner phone, and they used a flashlight code signal borrowed from boyhood summer camp. For her part, Homeira broke Sam’s rules and withstood his profanities. Together they braved gunfire by Afghan Army soldiers anxious about the restive crowds outside the airport. Ultimately, to enter the airport, Homeira and Siawash would have to leave behind their family and everything they had ever known.  The Secret Gate tells the thrilling, emotional tale of a young man's courage and a mother and son’s skin-of-the-teeth escape from a homeland that is no longer their own.