Social Science audiobooks

The Radium Girls

By: Kate Moore

Narrated by: Angela Brazil

Length: 15 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous—the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.

As the... Read more

We Keep the Dead Close

By: Becky Cooper

Narrated by: Becky Cooper

Length: 15 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

A Recommended Book from: New York Times * Publisher's Weekly * Kirkus * BookRiot * Booklist * Boston Globe * Goodreads * Town & Country * Refinery29 * CrimeReads * Glamour

Dive into a "tour de force of investigative reporting" (Ron Chernow): a "searching, atmospheric and ultimately entrancing" (Patrick Radden Keefe) true crime narrative of an... Read more

The Mushroom at the End of the World

By: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

Narrated by: Susan Ericksen

Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world—and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions,... Read more

Still Life with Bones

By: Alexa Hagerty

Narrated by: Rose Akroyd

Length: 8 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • An anthropologist working with forensic teams and victims’ families to investigate crimes against humanity in Latin America explores what science can tell us about the lives of the dead in this haunting account of grief, the power of ritual, and a quest for justice.

“Absorbing . . . multifaceted and... Read more

NonViolent Communication

By: Jeremy Huttenberg

Narrated by: Lucas Modrall

Length: 5 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

If you have perceived the importance of the way we relate to each other and you want to help yourself to grow-up in these aspects, then Non-Violent Communication could be for you.In the idea of avoiding conflict, creating solid relationships that allow achieving a better connection with people, you MUST Learn Non-Violent Communication (NVC): a... Read more

Briefly Perfectly Human

By: Alua Arthur

Narrated by: Alua Arthur

Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America’s most visible death doula.""A truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world.... There is no one I'd... Read more

M Archive

By: Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Narrated by: Angel Pean

Length: 4 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Following the innovative collection Spill, Alexis Pauline Gumbs's M Archive—the second book in a planned experimental triptych—is a series of poetic artifacts that speculatively documents the persistence of Black life following a worldwide cataclysm. Engaging with the work of the foundational Black feminist theorist M. Jacqui Alexander, and... Read more

Accordion Eulogies

By: Noé Álvarez

Narrated by: Asa Siegel

Length: 5 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Searching, propulsive, and deeply spiritual, Accordion Eulogies is an odyssey to repair a severed family lineage, told through the surprising history of a musical instrument

Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noé Álvarez never knew his grandfather. Stories swirled around this mythologized, larger-than-life figure: That he had abandoned his... Read more

Storm’s Edge

By: Peter Marshall

Narrated by: Kenny Blyth

Length: 22 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

'A surprising page-turner, full of humour and startling details' THE TIMES 'If I read a better history this year, I will be lucky' TOM HOLLAND 'An astonishing tour de force’ SPECTATOR From Peter Marshall, winner of the... Read more

Do Nothing

By: Celeste Headlee

Narrated by: Celeste Headlee

Length: 7 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

“A welcome antidote to our toxic hustle culture of burnout.”—Arianna Huffington
“This book is so important and could truly save lives.”—Elizabeth Gilbert
“A clarion call to work smarter [and] accomplish more by doing less.”—Adam Grant
 
We work feverishly to make ourselves happy. So why are we so miserable?
 
Despite our constant search for new ways... Read more

Facing the Mountain

By: Daniel James Brown

Narrated by: Louis Ozawa

Length: 17 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
One of NPR's "Books We Love" of 2021
Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography 

Winner of the Christopher Award 
 
“Masterly. An epic story of four Japanese-American families and their sons who volunteered for military service and displayed uncommon heroism… Propulsive and gripping, in part because... Read more

Disability Intimacy

By: Alice Wong

Narrated by: Full Cast

Length: 11 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

The much-anticipated follow up to the groundbreaking anthology Disability Visibility: another revolutionary collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience, and intimacy in all its myriad forms.

What is intimacy? More than sex, more than romantic love, the pieces in this stunning and illuminating... Read more

The Rediscovery of America

By: Ned Blackhawk

Narrated by: Jason Grasl

Length: 17 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

The most enduring feature of US history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, with a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American... Read more

You're Not Listening

By: Kate Murphy

Narrated by: Kate Murphy

Length: 6 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

"Narrating her own work, Murphy is certainly worthy of the listener's attention. She offers a sincere, passionate voice that is capable of delivering some hard truths about the current state of things while also showing the way toward a truly connected society." — AudioFile Magazine

**This program is read by the author**

When was the last time you... Read more

Stay True

By: Hua Hsu

Narrated by: Hua Hsu

Length: 5 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A gripping memoir on friendship, grief, the search for self, and the solace that can be found through art, by the New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu

“This book is exquisite and excruciating and I will be thinking about it for years and years to come.” —Rachel Kushner, New York Times bestselling... Read more

Trick Mirror

By: Jia Tolentino

Narrated by: Jia Tolentino

Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “From The New Yorker’s beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television.”—Esquire
 
Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “A whip-smart, challenging book.”—Zadie Smith • “Jia... Read more

Four Hundred Souls

By: Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain

Narrated by: Various

Length: 14 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present—edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.

The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion... Read more

The Once and Future Sex

By: Eleanor Janega

Narrated by: Samara Naeymi

Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

A vibrant and illuminating exploration of medieval thinking on women's beauty, sexuality, and behavior.

What makes for the ideal woman? How should she look, love, and be? In this high-spirited history, medievalist Eleanor Janega turns to the Middle Ages, the era that bridged the ancient world and modern society, to unfurl its suppositions about... Read more

Before We Were Trans

By: Dr. Kit Heyam

Narrated by: Dr. Kit Heyam

Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

A groundbreaking global history of gender nonconformity  

Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives.  
 
Before We Were Trans illuminates... Read more

Saving Time

By: Jenny Odell

Narrated by: Kristen Sieh

Length: 11 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The visionary author of How to Do Nothing returns to challenge the notion that ‘time is money.’ . . . Expect to feel changed by this radical way of seeing.”—Esquire

“One of the most important books I’ve read in my life.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense World

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Chicago... Read more

Heavy

By: Kiese Laymon

Narrated by: Kiese Laymon

Length: 6 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

*Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Broadly, Buzzfeed (Nonfiction), The Undefeated, Library Journal (Biography/Memoirs), The Washington Post (Nonfiction), Southern Living (Southern), Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times Critics*

In this powerful, provocative, and universally lauded memoir—winner... Read more

Take Back Your Brain

By: Kara Loewentheil

Narrated by: Kara Loewentheil

Length: 7 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

A manual for every woman who wants to stop endless negative self-talk, create unshakable confidence, and jump-start a life of joy and power. It all begins with your thoughts.

I never look good in tight skirts. I can’t ask for a raise or my boss will think I’m greedy. I’m getting too old to find a partner. I’m a bad mom. I’m always behind. I’ll... Read more

Fearing the Black Body

By: Sabrina Strings

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 7 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

How the female body has been racialized for over two hundred years

There is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor black women are particularly stigmatized as "diseased" and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than... Read more

Fresh Banana Leaves

By: Jessica Hernandez, Ph.D.

Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez

Length: 9 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

A 2022 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in Science & Technology

An Indigenous environmental scientist breaks down why western conservationism isn't working--and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors.

Despite the... Read more