World

If there is one belief that has united the left and the right, psychologists and philosophers, ancient thinkers and modern ones, it is the tacit assumption that humans are bad. It's a notion that drives newspaper headlines and guides the laws that shape our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Pinker, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed primarily by self-interest.

Today's most urgent problems are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planetwide action if we are to secure a long-term future. But humanity's story has always been on a global scale. Sachs takes listeners through a series of seven distinct waves of technological and institutional change, starting with the original settling of the planet by early modern humans through long-distance migration and ending with reflections on today's globalization. 

"Any kind of movement for freedom of Black people based solely within the confines of America is absolutely doomed to fail." Speeches and interviews of Malcolm X. 

Unique and compelling, Splash! sweeps across the whole of humankind's swimming history - and just like jumping into a pool on a hot summer's day, it has fun along the way. 

SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality instructional study guides for challenging works of literature. This audio study guide for Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford includes detailed summary and analysis of each chapter and an in-depth exploration of the book's multiple symbols, motifs, and themes such as family relations, kinship, and tradition versus innovation. Featured content also includes commentary on major characters, 25 important quotes, essay questions, and discussion topics.  

Seth Penalver is a free man, acquitted by a jury in the brutal 1994 Casey's Nickelodeon Murders after spending six years on Death Row. Pablo Ibar spent 16 years on Death Row before his conviction was thrown out. Soon, he'll get another chance to convince a jury of his innocence. Supporters in his father's native Spain have rallied to fund his defense, raising nearly $800,000. Can they overcome a solid eyewitness who says he saw Pablo driving away from the murder scene? And now there's new evidence: Pablo's DNA was found on a shirt left behind at Butch Casey's house, prosecutors say.

Was Pablo Ibar the man who showed his face to a security camera during the murders of Butch, Sharon and Marie? Police think so and begin to gather a case against him. Meanwhile, their search for the second killer surfaces two names — Alex Hernandez and Seth Penalver. But as prosecutors bring their suspects to trial, the apparent mountain of evidence they gathered begins to break down. The case is in jeopardy. Subscribe today so you don’t miss an episode. Visit FeloniousFlorida.com. Thank you to our sponsors: Audible — Get a 30-day trial and a free audiobook when you visit them at www.audible.

Theories around the killing of Butch Casey and his female guests begin to spin around. The public is consumed by talk of a connection to the murders days earlier of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman — and the arrest of Butch’s long-time friend, O.J. Simpson. But police are looking elsewhere and probe possible connections to the mob. Then, a violent home invasion not far away in Miami-Dade County breaks the case open. Subscribe today so you don’t miss an episode. Visit FeloniousFlorida.com.

Casimir Sucharsky Jr. — or Butch Casey, as he's known — is the flashy, well-known owner of the popular South Florida nightclub Casey’s Nickelodeon. After a night out at his bar in June 1994, he invites two young, attractive women back to his house for an after-hours party. As they share a bottle of wine, two intruders with a machine gun burst into the house and slay all three. Police discover the crime has been caught on a remarkable, 22-minute surveillance video. What they see on the tape is brutal and terrifying — and sets investigators on a frantic chase for suspects.

A true-crime podcast series that explores some of Florida’s most notorious and chilling crimes. Reported and hosted by Lisa Arthur and Juan Ortega, veteran reporters for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Premieres April 3 with a look at the Casey's Nickelodeon Murders of 1994 and the unsolved Boca Raton Mall Murders in 2007. Subscribe today to be the first to hear Felonious Florida. Visit FeloniousFlorida.com.

One crisp morning in Berlin, in 1906, a small group of soldiers were led on an extraordinary heist by a man they believed to be a Captain. So how did an ageing nobody in a fake uniform trick them into aiding him in the crime of the century? Some say we humans will obey orders from anyone who dresses the part... but the real reason why we fall for tricksters time and again is far more interesting. Fraudsters and charlatans reel us in slowly by using psychology against us. Read more about Tim's work at http://timharford.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.

Torrey Canyon was one of the biggest and best ships in the world - but its captain and crew still needlessly steered it towards a deadly reef known as The Seven Stones. This course seemed like utter madness, but the thinking that resulted in such a risky manoeuvre is something we are all prone to do when we fixate on a goal and a plan to get us there. Read more about Tim's work at http://timharford.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.

A British Lord wanted to build the best airship in the world - and so he had two rival design teams battle it out to win the juicy government contract. Competition is supposed to bring the best out of people, but run in the wrong way it can cause people (and the things they produce) to fall apart in the most horrifying ways. Read more about Tim's work at http://timharford.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.

Galileo tried to teach us that adding more and more layers to a system intended to avert disaster often makes catastrophe all the more likely to happen. His basic lesson has been ignored in nuclear power plants, financial markets and at the Oscars... all resulting in chaos. Read more about Tim's work at http://timharford.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.

Command of the oceans was crucial to winning World War II. By the start of 1942 Nazi Germany had conquered mainland Europe, and Imperial Japan had overrun Southeast Asia and much of the Pacific. How could Britain and distant America prevail in what had become a "war of continents"? In this definitive account, Evan Mawdsley traces events at sea from the first U-boat operations in 1939 to the surrender of Japan. He argues that the Allied counterattack involved not just decisive sea battles, but a long struggle to control shipping arteries and move armies across the sea. 

Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs and Steel examines the rise of civilization and the issues its development has raised throughout history....

As long as there has been fascism, there has been anti-fascism - also known as "antifa." Born out of resistance to Mussolini and Hitler in Europe during the 1920s and '30s....

In this landmark work, one of the world's most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its final absorption....

Yuval Noah Harari returns with an original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity's future and our quest to upgrade humans into gods....

In The End Is Always Near, Dan Carlin looks at questions and historical events that force us to consider what sounds like fantasy; that we might suffer the same fate that all previous eras did....  

It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures, and religions....

The dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics....

April 16th, the year is 1963. Birmingham, Alabama, has had a spring of nonviolent protests known as the Birmingham Campaign, seeking to draw attention to the segregation against blacks by the city government and downtown retailers....

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400....

An invaluable primer from Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, that will help anyone, expert and non-expert alike, navigate a time in which many of our biggest challenges come from the world beyond our borders....

For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world....

Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures....

Recruited by the US Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than 10,000 women served as codebreakers during World War II....

The evidence revealed in this book shows beyond reasonable doubt that an advanced civilization that flourished during the Ice Age was destroyed in the global cataclysms....

Harry Potter: A History of Magic reveals some of the hidden stories behind real-world magic and explores some of J.K. Rowling's magical inventions alongside their folkloric, cultural and historical forebears.... 

A masterly chronicle of the Battle of Arnhem, which marshaled the greatest armada of troop-carrying aircraft ever assembled and cost the Allies nearly twice as many casualties as D-day....

This national best seller is an entertaining, informative, and sometimes shocking expose of the way history is taught to American students....

A lively and engaging narrative history showing the common threads in the cultures that gave birth to our own....

The River of Doubt brings alive extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived....

So much of our human body is made up of salt that we'd be dead without it...

The publication of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt on September 14th, 2001 marks the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt becoming president.....

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography....

Years in the making, this is the definitive biography of the legendary black activist....

In 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramle, in what is now Jewish Israel....

Meriwether Lewis and his partner, William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights on their 1803 cross-country trip to unexplored West....

Hailed by critics as an American masterpiece, David McCullough's sweeping biography of Harry S. Truman captured the heart of the nation....

In this startling new book, the best-selling cognitive scientist Steven Pinker shows that the world of the past was much worse....

When three-month-old Lia Lee arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion....

A brilliant new theory of how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don't, by the author of the landmark best sellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse....