Written by: James Watson with Andrew Berry A history of the science of genetics from the man who got famous for ‘discovering’ DNA. Interesting stories that I think I remember or that might be from high school. Length: 17.75 hrs 1/2004: What he said.
Written by: Many People A few speeches are great in both content and delivery. Some are good content but don’t sound so great. Many were pretty boring. I have to assume there will be even better speeches in the future, so the title feels a little misleading. Length: 1.75 hrs 11/2003: Fortunately this was short.
Written by: Gore Vidal A “semi-fictionalized” history of the United States from 1939-1954, focusing primarily on American politics and Franklin Roosevelt. While not entirely true, it does give a sufficiently accurate enough portrayal of the events of the time and how people thought about them so as to be useful in understanding the flavor of […]
Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns, and Dayton Duncan Follows his life and adventures through his private letters and pubic writings (and statements). Interesting facts about history, but more so showed how awesome Mark Twain was. He was a hilarious, and travelled the world for both inspiration and to create a giant canvas for […]
Written by: Walter Isaacson A great autobiography that teaches not just about Benjamin Franklin, but also the general era and other players during that time. Lots of insight into what he did and why (according to his journals) he did it. Franklin was huge into self-improvement, laying out detailed, long-term experiments and plans for himself […]
Written by: Rick Atkinson Primarily about the war in North Africa from 1942-1943, there is a lot of blowing shit up and people getting shot in the head and other parts. Lots of detailed history and first hand accounts. Length: 7 hrs 5/2003: Very interesting and engaging, plus I learned a lot.
Written by: Clayborne Carson He had a dream. He got some stuff changed. Then he got killed, and folks are still working on getting things right. Length: 10 hrs 7/2003: A great view into what was going on in his mind throughout his life and what motivated him. Very educational.
Written by: Eric Schlosser A look into 3 underground economies – marijuana, porn, and migrant farm workers. The contradictions and injustices revealed are both amazing and upsetting. Similar to “Fast Food Nation” though, the listener is left with a “Yeah, that’s pretty fucked up” without any clear notion of what to do about it. So […]
Written by: Mark Kurlansky This book is almost 14 hours long and is all about the history of salt. How awesome is that? Although crazy long, it was actually really interesting and there really is a pretty amazing story to be told. For basically ever prior to refrigeration, which is actually super new relatively, the […]
Written by: Bob Woodward I can’t believe we had this idiot for a president, and I can’t believe Bob Woodward sucks so bad now. I expected a hard-hitting, investigative piece where I would learn something about the ‘inner circle’, but it was no better than a crappy news report. Actually it was a lot worse, […]
whispered words from literary masters, cheesy hacks, inspirational gurus, and fluffy crap artists into my ears. These are there stories.