the Best Audio Stories in Biography & Memoir, History & Culture

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/783850 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Radio Free Afghanistan: A Twenty-Year Odyssey for an Independent Voice in Kabul Author: Jenna Krajeski, Saad Mohseni Narrator: Ramiz Monsef Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 26 minutes Release date: September 24, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: 'Saad Mohseni is one of the most remarkable figures in modern Afghanistan – brave, entrepreneurial, with a knack for imagining the impossible – he transformed the Afghan media landscape and brought serious news, and exceptional entertainment to millions in the most testing circumstances imaginable' Rory Stewart The deeply moving and surprising story of the attempt to build a truly independent media company in contemporary Afghanistan. Saad Mohseni, chairman and CEO of Moby Group, Afghanistan's largest media company, charts a twenty-year effort to bring a free press to his country after years of Taliban rule, and how that effort persists even after the Taliban's return to power in 2021. In the heady early days of the American occupation, Mohseni returns to Kabul which he had last seen as a child before the Soviet invasion. Casting about for ways to be involved in the dawn of a new Afghanistan, Mohseni makes what seems like a quixotic decision to leave the comforts of a career in international banking to start a Kabul radio station with his three siblings. This unlikely venture quickly blossoms into a burgeoning television empire, bringing Mohseni and his family and employees into sometimes uncomfortable contact with everyone who has a stake in the country – from the government of Hamid Karzai to White House officials. Moreover, their radio and television networks soon become a necessary beacon for millions of Afghans, who rely on them not just for independent news but for joyful pleasures like soap operas and Afghan Star, a beloved national singing competition in a country whose previous rulers had banned (and would again ban) music. Mohseni's position at Moby affords him unique insights into this extraordinary yet troubled country, the youngest in the world outside of Sub-Saharan Africa, and his powerful account captures the spirit and resilience of the Afghan people – notably the hundreds of men and women still working in Moby's Kabul office today, who, once again under Taliban rule, create programs, report the news, and educate the public. Radio Free Afghanistan is a stunning, vibrant portrait of a nation in turmoil, poised between despair and hope.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/805190 to listen full audiobooks. Title: First the Patient: The Life & Times of David G. Nathan, MD Author: Barrett Rollins Narrator: Barrett Rollins Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 58 minutes Release date: September 24, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: A fast-paced account of a giant of twentieth century medicine, First the Patient details how David Nathan saved patients with his medical skill and rescued institutions with his visionary leadership. The miraculous triumphs of modern medicine—antibiotics, insulin, cancer cures, longer and better lives—are the fruits of its firm grounding in science. But too often, the healing touch, the empathy of a physician for the patient, and the art of medicine, can be neglected in pursuit of breakthroughs. David Nathan never accepted that bargain. A brilliant hematologist thoroughly steeped in scientific rigor with a research track record to prove it, Nathan was above all a humanist, a caring physician who never failed to put the patient first even when that patient was his research subject. This same humanism, along with the profound psychological insights it affords, propelled Nathan to the top ranks of academic leadership. He served first at Boston Children's Hospital, then at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where, as president, he rescued a hospital on the brink of extinction after its doctors administered a fatal chemotherapy overdose. First the Patient is the story of a physician who left an indelible imprint on medicine through his relentless focus on the patient.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/803886 to listen full audiobooks. Title: First in Line: How COVID-19 Placed Me on the Frontlines of a Health Care Crisis Author: Sandra Lindsay Rn Narrator: Diana Blue Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 1 minute Release date: September 17, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Sandra Lindsay immigrated to the United States from Jamaica in 1986 with ambitions of becoming a nurse and living the American Dream. In December 2020, she became the first person to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and was subsequently honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In First in Line Lindsay lays out her triumphs and setbacks as a single mother and working student who overcomes barriers. Her beginnings as a four-dollar-an-hour grocery store worker fortified her with the resilience to persevere over decades to become an executive at a globally recognized nationally known healthcare system. Lindsay recounts working through the darkest months of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020. The suffering and losses she witnessed ignited Lindsay's passion for seeing an end to inequities in healthcare. First in Line tackles a variety of issues: bias and inequity in healthcare; chronic disease in marginalized communities; maternal, infant, and Black and Brown women's health; and mental health. While Lindsay continues to beat the drum for vaccination as COVID-19 continues to impact our lives, she advocates for improved, equitable healthcare for all people who live on the margins.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/795882 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Squanto: A Native Odyssey Author: Andrew Lipman Narrator: David Colacci Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 59 minutes Release date: September 17, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Taken to Europe as a slave, he found his way home and changed the course of American history American schoolchildren have long learned about Squanto, the welcoming Native who made the First Thanksgiving possible, but his story goes deeper than the holiday legend. Born in the Wampanoag-speaking town of Patuxet in the late 1500s, Squanto was kidnapped in 1614 by an English captain, who took him to Spain. From there, Englishmen brought him to London and Newfoundland before sending him home in 1619, when Squanto discovered that most of Patuxet had died in an epidemic. A year later, the Mayflower colonists arrived at his home and renamed it Plymouth. Prize-winning historian Andrew Lipman explores the mysteries that still surround Squanto: How did he escape bondage and return home? Why did he help the English after an Englishman enslaved him? Why did he threaten Plymouth's fragile peace with its neighbors? Was it true that he converted to Christianity on his deathbed? Drawing from a wide range of evidence and newly uncovered sources, Lipman reconstructs Squanto's upbringing, his transatlantic odyssey, his career as an interpreter, his surprising downfall, and his enigmatic death. The result is a fresh look at an epic life that ended right when many Americans think their story begins.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/790631 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Ali: A Life Author: Jonathan Eig Narrator: Kevin R. Free Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 22 hours 51 minutes Release date: September 17, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | Winner of the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing | Winner of The Times Sports Biography of the Year | The definitive biography of an American icon, from a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author with unique access to Ali's inner circle. ''Finally Muhammad Ali has a biography as big, complex, and memorable as the man himself.'' —T.J. Stiles, author of Custer's Trials and The First Tycoon  Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay in racially segregated Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a sign painter and a housekeeper. He went on to become a heavyweight boxer with a dazzling mix of power and speed, a warrior for racial pride, a comedian, a preacher, a poet, a draft resister, an actor, and a lover. Millions hated him when he changed his religion, changed his name, and refused to fight in the Vietnam War. He fought his way back, winning hearts, but at great cost. Jonathan Eig, hailed by Ken Burns as one of America's master storytellers, sheds important new light on Ali's politics, religion, personal life, and neurological condition through unprecedented access to all the key people in Ali's life, more than 500 interviews and thousands of pages of previously unreleased FBI and Justice Department files and audiotaped interviews from the 1960s. Ali: A Life is a story about America, about race, about a brutal sport, and about a courageous man who shook up the world. "As Muhammad Ali's life was an epic of a life so Ali: A Life is an epic of a biography . . . for pages in succession its narrative reads like a novel––a suspenseful novel with a cast of vivid characters." –– Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times Book Review

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/818528 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Nadeems Journey Author: Sherine Anniruth Narrator: Kitty Jay Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 2 hours 18 minutes Release date: September 17, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 48 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 48 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Nadeems journey is a story told by a mother about her son, it's not just about a mothers love,it also shows his compassion towards her,his siblings,family and friends.It shows us how he never let his illness define who he was even when the doctors were curt and less kind with their delivery of information.This book tells us the story about a fight to survive,a story about a mother's love for a child and a story about how a community comes together to support each other.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/818535 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Whispers of Betrayal: Love Letters That Changed Everything Author: Adela Edgecombe Narrator: Mary Ann Nichols Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 16 minutes Release date: September 13, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: On a journey of discovery into her parents history of love and fame in war torn Italy, Adela Edgecombe discovered a secret deception within love letters and from family who had been tight-lipped about the scandals for decades. Bestselling author Jincy Willett describes the story as follows: 'Since every human personality is at root mysterious, all families present us with an abundance of mysteries, the chief of which is often how marriages ever happened in the first place. In her family memoir, Adela Edgecombe tackles that mystery head-on, uncovering a web of circumstances peculiar to place and time. The place is the Province of Salerno, Italy; the time,1944, the depths of World War II. A young American GI meets an impoverished Italian family, grows to care for them, and, as he leaves for the front, promises a nine-year-old child that one day he will return and help them. And does the man, against all odds, keep that promise? Judging from the fairy-tale wedding that took place in Passiano in 1951 and was featured in Life Magazine, it would seem so. 'Edgecombe explores that fairy tale moment, how it came to pass, and what followed after. She digs fearlessly into the mystery of an unhappy marriage that began with such photogenic joy and hope. Read Whispers of Betrayal for a well-researched, surprising, and moving tale which reminds us that the casualties of war are many and varied.'

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/807095 to listen full audiobooks. Title: A Silent Tsunami: Swimming Against the Tide of my Mother's Dementia Author: Anthea Rowan Narrator: Nano Nagle Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 28 minutes Release date: September 12, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Anthea Rowan writes about her mother's struggles of living with Depression and Dementia, while interpreting our understandings of this life-changing illness. Grounded in observations, A Silent Tsunami aims to prepare others for what to expect when this tide changes by recounting the lessons learned from experiences and challenges. Focusing on our relationship with our mothers and their influences on us, as well as the questions we ask ourselves about how mental illnesses and Dementia impact our lives, A Silent Tsunami is a powerful examination of family, life, love and loss.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/795956 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Stolen Family: Captive in Saudi Arabia Author: Johanne Durocher Narrator: Teri Schnaubelt Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 8 minutes Release date: September 10, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Canadian Nathalie Morin's four children cannot leave Saudi Arabia without exit visas signed by Nathalie's abusive husband. Her mother chronicles her decades-long struggle to bring her daughter and four grandchildren home to safety in Montreal.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/817822 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Sangamon Story: Selected Readings from Francis Grierson's, The Valley of Shadows Author: Francis Grierson Narrator: Kirk Laughead Format: Abridged Audiobook Length: 2 hours 37 minutes Release date: September 6, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Francis Grierson's, The Valley of Shadows, is truly a lost American classic. Written at the dawn of the twentieth century, the author has remarkably captured his adventures and observations as a child growing up on the prairies of Illinois in the years leading up the Civil War, in a region that was neither North nor South; neither for slavery nor against it; and how their small family farm became an unscheduled stop on the Underground Railroad. Written in an authentic vernacular of the time, and populated by larger than life characters, Grierson has woven a tale of excitement and mystery, set in a second Garden of Eden of wildlife and nature. The prose and dialogue is like Shakespeare of the prairie. It reads like a cross between Tom Sawyer and Uncle Tom's Cabin, and stands out among all of the other books written about that era. What people are saying: "It has a quality not to be found in any other writing about the Civil War;' 'Its prose is alive, strong, subtle, of warm color, almost overpowering;' 'No one can read it, without finding new enlightenment about our past."