Sounds About Right: Audiobooks to Help Us Understand the World

Daniel Z. Lieberman, M.D. is a clinical professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a recipient of the Caron Foundation Research Award, and he has published over 50 scientific reports on behavioral science. He has provided insight on psychiatric issues for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Commerce, and the Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy, and has discussed mental health in interviews on CNN, C-SPAN, and PBS.

He is also coauthor of the international bestseller The Molecule of More, which has been translated into 20 languages.

His latest book is Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Hidden Potential of the Unconscious Mind.

Some of the topics we discussed includes: 

• Why has the unconscious historically been perceived as a supernatural force and why is magic and the supernatural still so compelling to us?
• How can we recognise the influences of the unconscious and make it an ally in helping us become who we're meant to be? and how can we become more transcendent?
• The benefits of seeing spirits everywhere
• The meaning behind the symbol of the snake with its tail in its mouth (Ouroboros)
• How everything in the material world is imperfect and in the process of becoming something else.
• What is the theory and benefits behind embracing fairytales and fiction?

 
 The Book and Audiobook:  Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Hidden Potential of the Unconscious Mind. is out now.

You can also  find out more about Daniel on his website https://www.danielzlieberman.com
 



As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

As well as being an author, Susan Linn is a psychologist, award-winning ventriloquist and a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of media and commercial marketing on children.

Her latest book is Who’s Raising the Kids?: Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children.

Some of the topics we discussed includes: 

• The oversized and unregulated role Big Tech plays in children's lives. 
• The deregulation of children's television.
• How these companies fulfil their objective of having children buy their toys by intentionally undermining  parents as gatekeepers
• What are the dangers of the 'collectable toys' business model?
• Being skeptical of the intent of corporations.
•  What is branded learning?
• What have governments done to try and regulate this?

 
 The Book and Audiobook:  Who’s Raising the Kids?: Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children is out now.

You can also  find out more about Susan on her website https://www.consumingkids.com
 


As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

Dr Blair Bigham  an award-winning journalist, scientist and physician who trained in emergency and critical care medicine at McMaster and Stanford Universities. He was a Global Journalism Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Associate Scientist at St Michael’s Hospital.  His work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, newscasts, podcasts and medical journals. He is co-host of the CMAJ Podcast and deputy editor at healthydebate.ca.

I sat with Dr Bigham and discussed with him his first book, Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine Is Complicating the Way We Die.  In the book, he shares his first-hand experiences of how medicine has complicated the way we die and offers a road map for dying in the modern era.
 
Some of the topics we discussed includes: 

• How too much medicine has caused this new grey zone area
• Did Dr Bigham's outlook on what it means to be alive change once he transitioned from being a paramedic to a ICU Physician?
• What contributed to us as a society being less comfortable to talk about death?
• How does technology prevent death from coming too soon but also prevent its timely arrival?
• What can  doctors and physicians do to have more of a relationship with a patients family 
• During the process of writing and researching for the book, was there anything said to Dr Bigham which made him reflect deeply?

 
 The Book and Audiobook:  Death Interrupted: How Modern Medicine Is Complicating the Way We Die  is out now.
 
 You can also Follow Blair on Twitter @BlairBigham
 
 
As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

Dean A. Haycock, is a science and medical writer who earned a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Brown University and a fellowship at The Rockefeller University. He is the author of several books including:

• Tyrannical Minds, Psychological Profiling, Narcissism and Dictatorship,
• Characters on the Couch, Exploring Psychology Through Literature and Film,
• The Everything Health Guide to Adult Bipolar Disorder and The Everything Health Guide to Schizophrenia.

His book we discussed in this episode is titled Murderous Minds: Exploring the Criminal Psychopathic Brain: Neurological Imaging and the Manifestation of Evil.

Some of the topics we discussed include the wide range of tools used to measure psychopathy and the problem defining it. What is the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCLR) test and why have some academics been critical of it? Could you develop psychopathic traits? Or could your child be psychopathic? The limitations of judging psychopathy through brain activity via FMRI scanning. Can a highly psychopathic person control themselves not to commit a crime/ take advantage of people, or are they acting in response to the brain differences that we believe have been identified?

The Book and Audiobook:  Murderous Minds: Exploring the Criminal Psychopathic Brain: Neurological Imaging and the Manifestation of Evil  is out now.


As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

In this episode, I sat down with Dr Rhona Morrison, she is retired doctor (consultant forensic psychiatrist) from Scotland, who spent more than 30 years working in the NHS with mentally disordered offenders.

She is also the author of the book titled I Don't Talk to Dead Bodies: The Curious Encounters of a Forensic Psychiatrist.  The book delves into the minds of real people, whose actions may shock and stun you, but who's stories have the power to challenge your assumptions and the stigma that surrounds mental illness. 

 Some of the discussion points in the episode includes:

• How much her upbringing contributed towards her career path
• Why was it important to open up about grief in the book
• The stigma around mental illness  and it not being something that happens to 'other people' it happens to everyone from all walks of life
• The improvised techniques used to gain a patients trust
• What is a vital component in forensic care? and is being right for the job down to the type of person you are or something that can be learned as one becomes more accustomed to it?

The Book and Audiobook:  I Don't Talk to Dead Bodies: The Curious Encounters of a Forensic Psychiatrist.  is out now.

You can also  find out about Dr Morrison's other projects via her website: https://www.rhonamorrison.com


As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

In this episode, I sat down with Aaron L Friedberg, he is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Over the past two decades he has written numerous books and articles warning of the dangers of an intensifying economic, military, and ideological rivalry between China and the West, including :

• A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia, 
• Beyond Air-Sea Battle: The Debate Over U.S. Military Strategy in Asia, 
• Partial Disengagement: A New U.S. Strategy for Economic Competition with China. 

His latest book is titled Getting China Wrong and some of topics in the episode we discussed includes:

• When did China get the confidence to grow as a competitor to the USA rather than a partner?
• Why did the USA's policy of engagement with China fail to meet its objectives?
• What actions did Xi Jinping and his predecessor in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) do to meet its consistent strategic objectives: to preserve its own rule while enhancing the power of the Chinese nation? 
• What actions have America and its global partners have taken to neutralise this?  and  is is it as much as it should be?
• Can the the West get China right or has it been too wrong for too long?

The Book and Audiobook:  Getting China Wrong  is out now.

You can also Follow Aaron on Twitter @AaronFriedberg


As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

In this episode, I sat down with Psyche A. Williams-Forson,  she is Associate Professor and Chair of American Studies at the University of Maryland and author of the book Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America.

Some of topics in the episode we discussed includes:

• How this book is about:  'worrying about yourself' and its purpose is also to give the reader/listener a window into thinking.
• Why do African Americans food culture and eating habits elicit so much commentary from others and where does this stem from?
• Linking the subject matter of the book with the occurrences of the Black Americans experience i.e. the killings of unarmed black men at the hands of the police and incident of a young man having the police called on him while waiting for his friend in a coffee shop
• How easy it is to blur the truth by starting a story with 'secondly'  
• How much has Sacralization  been used to justify the treatment of African Americans?
• Why must we always consider context when it comes to debating whether fast food such as McDonalds is right or wrong?

The Book and Audiobook:  Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America  is out now.

As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

In this episode, I sat down with Jon Danielsson  the author of the book The Illusion of Control: Why Financial Crises Happen, and What We Can (and Can’t) Do About It.

Jon Danielsson is Reader in Finance at LSE and Co-Director of the Systemic Risk Centre. His research interests cover systemic risk, financial risk, econometrics, economic theory and financial crisis. He has written two other books, Financial Risk Forecasting and Global Financial Systems: Stability and Risk and published a number of articles in leading academic journals

Some of topics in the episode we discussed includes:

• How  we have the best intentions with short term ideas in regulating financial systems  however the desired outcome isn't always the case.
• How the banks have abused their power because of the publics lack of understanding of how finance works and how this has been at the root of many financial scandals
• Why it's important for us to have political leaders at moment of financial crises and systemic risks
• The cost of living crisis
• What lessons from the past could we learn from to ensure the same mistakes aren't made again?...and what can we do?

The Book and Audiobook:  The Illusion of Control: Why Financial Crises Happen, and What We Can (and Can’t) Do About It is out now.



As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

In this episode, I sat down with Astrid and Chinny, they are the authors of the book It's a Continent: Unravelling Africa's History One Country at a Time 

Some of topics in the episode we discussed includes:

• What influenced their decisions regarding the topics they wanted to write about for each country
• Whether their views on countries such as the UK, France and Belgium has changed since starting their podcast as well as writing the book
• The impact the Berlin Conference in 1884 had on the African Continent with its disregard of existing ethnic groups.
• Since the independence of most of the countries in the continent following World War II, can any of them truly say they are independent?

The Book and Audiobook:  It's a Continent: Unravelling Africa's History One Country at a Time is out now.

For more details such as a link their website, to buy the book and to listen to their podcast:  https://linktr.ee/itsacontinent 
Its a Continent Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsacontinentpod

As of now, my podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what book/audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on Instagram or email so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]

In this episode, I sat down with Jefferson Morley,  author of the book Scorpions' Dance The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate

Some of the things we discussed includes: 

• The process of putting the book together and the 50th anniversary of the Watergate Scandal.
• The relationship between President Richard Nixon and head of the CIA, Richard Helms.
• The CIA's handling of JFKs alleged assassin and  the agency's secrets around the information it had on Lee Harvey Oswald 
• How Richard Helms was willing to allow the expansion of Operation CHAOS (the domestic espionage project targeting the American people)  following the request of President Nixon.
• The CIAs attempt to create an American version of James Bond in hope of improving the agency's public image.

The Book and Audiobook: Scorpions' Dance The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate  is out now.

As of now, this podcast is biweekly and prior to an episode I’ll let you know what audiobook I’ll be listening to before the next show so we can delve into it together!

Please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you’re in the loop whenever a new episode comes out… and also connect with me on twitter and Instagram so we so we can keep the conversation going and share with each other fascinating content. 

www.instagram.com/SoundsAboutPod

I am now on goodreads!

www.goodreads.com/SoundsAboutPod 

Are you an author that will like to be  on the next episode of the podcast?

Listeners: Did I cover a book you read or listened to? Did I discuss the things which also stuck out to you? Or did I miss it out?..... get in touch, and let me know what your experience was or to give me audiobook recommendations: [email protected]