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The Age of Addiction
- How Bad Habits Became Big Business
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
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The Age of Addiction
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Publisher's summary
We live in an age of addiction, from compulsive gaming and shopping to binge eating and opioid abuse. Sugar can be as habit-forming as cocaine, researchers tell us, and social media apps are hooking our kids. But what can we do to resist temptations that insidiously and deliberately rewire our brains? Nothing, David Courtwright says, unless we understand the history and character of the global enterprises that create and cater to our bad habits.
The Age of Addiction chronicles the triumph of “limbic capitalism”, the growing network of competitive businesses targeting the brain pathways responsible for feeling, motivation, and long-term memory. We see its success in Steve Wynn’s groundbreaking casinos and Purdue Pharma’s pain pills, in McDonald’s engineered burgers and Tencent video games from China. All capitalize on the ancient quest to discover, cultivate, and refine new and habituating pleasures.
Courtwright holds out hope that limbic capitalism can be contained by organized opposition from across the political spectrum. Progressives, nationalists, and traditionalists have worked together against the purveyors of addiction before. They could do it again.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 77
Drink investigates the history of this Jekyll and Hyde of fluids, tracing mankind's love/hate relationship with alcohol from ancient Egypt to present day. Drink further documents the contribution of alcohol to the birth and growth of the United States, taking in the War of Independence, Pennsylvania Whiskey revolt, slave trade, and failed experiment of national Prohibition. Finally, it provides a history of the world's most famous drinks - and drinkers. Packed with trivia and colorful characters, Drink amounts to an intoxicating history of the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing!
- By Ben on 02-23-22
By: Iain Gately
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Milk of Paradise
- A History of Opium
- By: Lucy Inglis
- Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Poppy tears, opium, heroin, fentanyl: humankind has been in thrall to the ‘Milk of Paradise’ for millennia. The latex of papaver somniferum is a bringer of sleep, of pleasurable lethargy, of relief from pain - and hugely addictive. A commodity without rival, it is renewable, easy to extract, transport and refine, and subject to an insatiable global demand. No other substance in the world is as simple to produce or as profitable. It is the basis of a gargantuan industry built upon a shady underworld, but ultimately it is a farm-gate material that lives many lives ....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Historical gold mine....
- By Alednam A Uonopk on 01-29-20
By: Lucy Inglis
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Sugar
- The World Corrupted: From Slavery to Obesity
- By: James Walvin
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4 out of 5 stars 39
How did a simple commodity, once the prized monopoly of kings and princes, become an essential ingredient in the lives of millions, before mutating yet again into the cause of a global health epidemic? Prior to 1600, sugar was a costly luxury, the domain of the rich. But with the rise of the sugar colonies in the New World over the following century, sugar became cheap, ubiquitous, and an everyday necessity. Less than 50 years ago, few people suggested that sugar posed a global health problem.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I should have listened to the other reviews
- By L. Bergman on 12-31-18
By: James Walvin
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How to Smoke Pot (Properly)
- A Highbrow Guide to Getting High
- By: David Bienenstock
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
Once literally demonized as "the Devil's lettuce" and linked to all manner of deviant behavior by the establishment's shameless antimarijuana propaganda campaigns, Cannabis sativa has lately been enjoying a long-overdue Renaissance. So now that the squares at long last seem ready to rethink pot's place in polite society, how, exactly, can members of this vibrant, innovative, life-affirming culture proudly and properly emerge from the underground - without forgetting our roots or losing our cool?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great
- By Alejandro on 04-25-16
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Tobacco
- A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization
- By: Iain Gately
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 263
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 229
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 227
Tobacco was first cultivated and enjoyed by the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, who used it for medicinal, religious, and social purposes long before the arrival of Columbus. But when Europeans began to colonize the American continents, it became something else entirely - a cultural touchstone of pleasure and success and a coveted commodity that would transform the world economy forever.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting until a pro-smoking ending
- By Kelli on 12-25-20
By: Iain Gately
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Caffeinated
- How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts, and Hooks Us
- By: Murray Carpenter
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4 out of 5 stars 66
The most popular drug in America is a white powder. No, not that powder. This is caffeine in its most essential state. And Caffeinated reveals the little-known truth about this addictive, largely unregulated drug found in coffee, energy drinks, teas, colas, chocolate, and even pain relievers. Drawing on the latest research, Caffeinated brings us the inside perspective at the additive that Salt Sugar Fat overlooked.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Caffeine in all its myriad presentations
- By Bonny on 04-12-14
By: Murray Carpenter
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Empire of Things
- How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First
- By: Frank Trentmann
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 33 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
What we consume has become the defining feature of our lives: our economies live or die by spending, we are treated more as consumers than workers and even public services are presented to us as products in a supermarket. In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British Empire to the present.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An exhaustive attempt to get the story right
- By John on 03-09-16
By: Frank Trentmann
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Flowers in the Blood
- The Story of Opium
- By: Jeff Goldberg, Dean Latimer, William Burroughs - introduction
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
Opium has played a dramatic and varied role in human history, inspiring religious veneration, scientific exploration, the bitterest rancor, and the most fanciful ecstasy. Now, authors Jeff Goldberg and Dean Latimer have provided a complete, insightful history of opium. Flowers in the Blood lifts the veil of mystery that has surrounded opium down through the ages.
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4 out of 5 stars
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OPIATE DECRIMINALIZATION
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 06-18-14
By: Jeff Goldberg, and others
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Uncommon Grounds
- The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
- By: Mark Pendergrast
- Narrated by: Matthew Boston
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Uncommon Grounds tells the story of coffee from its discovery on a hill in ancient Abyssinia to the advent of Starbucks. In this updated edition of the classic work, Mark Pendergrast reviews the dramatic changes in coffee culture over the past decade, from the disastrous "Coffee Crisis" that caused global prices to plummet to the rise of the Fair Trade movement and the "third-wave" of quality-obsessed coffee connoisseurs.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Décent overarching review of coffee history digressing into its American commercialization
- By seajaywood on 05-23-19
By: Mark Pendergrast
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This is Your Country on Drugs
- The Secret History of Getting High in America
- By: Ryan Grim
- Narrated by: Milton Bagby
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4 out of 5 stars 42
Past antidrug campaigns actually encouraged drug use. A few years ago, America stopped dropping acid altogether. The meth epidemic peaked a long, long time ago. NAFTA opened the border and created a bonanza for cocaine and meth traffickers just as President Clinton knew it would. President Reagan may have inadvertently caused the crack epidemic. Kids today are doing fewer illegal drugs than kids from any time in the recent past, and for a surprising reason.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A good book but....
- By steve on 10-28-10
By: Ryan Grim
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Opium
- A History
- By: Martin Booth
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Known to mankind since prehistoric times, opium is arguably the oldest and most widely used narcotic. Opium: A History traces the drug's astounding impact on world culture - from its religious use by prehistoric peoples to its influence on the imaginations of the Romantic writers; from the earliest medical science to the Sino-British opium wars.
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5 out of 5 stars
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GREAT SUMMARY, WELL READ
- By Aidan on 01-21-20
By: Martin Booth
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A Brief History of Vice
- How Bad Behavior Built Civilization
- By: Robert Evans
- Narrated by: Tristan Morris
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 941
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 816
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 815
Guns, germs, and steel might have transformed us from hunter-gatherers into modern man, but booze, sex, trash talk, and tripping built our civilization. Cracked editor Robert Evans brings his signature dogged research and lively insight to uncover the many and magnificent ways vice has influenced history, from the prostitute-turned-empress who scored a major victory for women's rights to the beer that helped create - and destroy - South America's first empire.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Funny and somewhat informative
- By Neuron on 08-20-16
By: Robert Evans
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Socialism Sucks
- Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World
- By: Robert Lawson, Benjamin Powell
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 431
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 376
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 375
The bastard step-child of Milton Friedman and Anthony Bourdain, Socialism Sucks is a bar crawl through former, current, and wannabe socialist countries around the world. Free-market economists Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell travel to countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, and Sweden to investigate the dangers and idiocies of socialism - while drinking a lot of beer.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I learned more than I anticipated in a 4 + hr book
- By J D Rossi on 08-06-19
By: Robert Lawson, and others
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Smoke Signals
- A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational, and Scientific
- By: Martin A. Lee
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 491
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 423
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 430
Martin A. Lee traces the dramatic social history of marijuana, from its origins to its emergence in the 1960s as a defining force in a culture war that has never ceased. Lee describes how the illicit marijuana subculture overcame government opposition and morphed into a dynamic, multibillion-dollar industry. Colorful, illuminating, and at times irreverent, this is a fascinating listen for recreational users and patients, students and doctors, musicians and accountants, Baby Boomers and their kids, and anyone who has ever wondered about the secret life of this ubiquitous herb.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A hard book for me to rate
- By Blake on 05-08-13
By: Martin A. Lee
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Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
- By: Anne Case, Angus Deaton
- Narrated by: Kate Harper
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 181
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 146
Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row - a reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in modern times. In the past two decades, deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism have risen dramatically, and now claim hundreds of thousands of American lives each year - and they're still rising. Case and Deaton, known for first sounding the alarm about deaths of despair, explain the overwhelming surge in these deaths and shed light on the social and economic forces that are making life harder for the working class.
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2 out of 5 stars
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So many words, so little insight
- By Trebla on 03-22-20
By: Anne Case, and others
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Sweetness and Power
- The Place of Sugar in Modern History
- By: Sidney W. Mintz
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
In this eye-opening study, Sidney W. Mintz shows how Europeans and Americans transformed sugar from a rare foreign luxury to a commonplace necessity of modern life and how it changed the history of capitalism and industry. He discusses the production and consumption of sugar and reveals how closely interwoven sugar's origins are as a "slave" crop grown in Europe's tropical colonies, with its use first as an extravagant luxury for the aristocracy, then as a staple of the diet of the new industrial proletariat.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Dated but still worthwhile
- By Acteon on 11-14-19
By: Sidney W. Mintz
What listeners say about The Age of Addiction
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jai A. Evans
- 12-19-19
Good overview of historical causes of addiction.
A good overview of the causes and contibuation of addition and the economics of addiction promotion.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Fernando
- 05-06-23
Phenomenal
The story is a little rushed, but what Courtwright has to say is one of the most important stories we can talk about regarding human nature, capitalism and current global challenges. Knowing this information means being a much better prepared person in the 21st century, whatever your goals and duties.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Joe Moore
- 06-06-19
Warning: Liberal
You just had to get a dog in at Trump at the last minute, eh?
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- LK Mastermind
- 08-13-22
Boring narration
This is why most books should be read by their writers because they are passionate about the subject. The guy reading this book is as bore as I am listening to it. The writer made the subject sound interesting in an interview so I was interested, but he’s not doing the reading here.
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