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FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Hello! And may we just say, we’re pretty grateful you opened this email. We know your inbox (like ours) can be overwhelming. But as Power Moves author Adam Grant (our favorite organizational psychologist—there we said it!) recently opined, we can’t forget that we live in a society and just let emails go ignored. Here’s what’s happening, society-wise and otherwise.

Stonehenge secrets: solved!

Modern scientists have long been stumped by Stonehenge’s many secrets. But now they’ve solved one of its most puzzling mysteries: where the iconic stones actually came from. A team headed up by a University College London archaeologist has finally found the exact location (!) of the bluestone quarries, 180 miles from the Stonehenge site. Now we can move on to other super urgent Stonehenge mysteries, such as why the stones came from so far away, and—perhaps most importantly—how we can use their powers to train our own minds.

Generation TV.

Every generation—and every generation of parents—has a scourge to contend with. For Gen X-ers like editor Courtney, it was cursing in music videos (were we ever so young and innocent?). Now it’s screen time, which according to a new study has more than doubled for children under two—but surprisingly, the illuminated box in question is not a phone or a tablet, but rather television. As overextended parents, we relate to the occasional lure of TV-as-babysitter (hi, umpteenth snow day of the season). But thanks to level-headed, well-researched works such as Anya Kamenetz’s The Art of Screen Time and Diana Graber’s Raising Humans in a Digital World, we’re not berating ourselves too much over it.

Bigtime comedy.

Editor Abby admits to being old enough to remember sneaking listens to comedy albums by Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory, which means privately listening to funny people tell funny stories is a long-treasured pastime for her. So she’s very psyched that Audible is adding to its deep well of original comedy thanks to a new collaboration with Lorne Michaels’s Broadway Video Enterprises for multiple audio-only original comedy programs. The first project will be a 10-episode absurdist medieval series called Heads Will Roll, created by Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon and her creative partner and sister Emily Lynne, and starring some famous voices, including Meryl Streep, Tim Gunn, Peter Dinklage, Audra McDonald, Queer Eye’s Fab Five, and more! We can’t wait to hear these brilliant stars do their thing.

Tingle, tingle little star.

If you experience autonomous sensory meridian response—a tingly feeling usually on the scalp or back, often in response to soothing sounds—you know all about ASMR. The rest of us are just fascinated by it. The New York Times recently covered the prevalence of ASMR videos, but some audiobooks trigger the sensation, and not just the ones designed to do so. Suggestions we’ve seen, via Reddit: The Rook, read by Susan Duerden; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, read by Simon Vance; and even Hitch-22, read by Christopher Hitchens. So if the upshot is that lovely voices make our brains feel good, consider us blissed out.
Till next week!
—the audible editors

Audiobooks in This Edition

Power Moves Audiobook By Adam Grant cover art
The Art of Screen Time Audiobook By Anya Kamenetz cover art
Raising Humans in a Digital World Audiobook By Diana Graber cover art
Pryor Convictions Audiobook By Richard Pryor cover art
Defining Moments in Black History Audiobook By Dick Gregory cover art
The Memory Code Audiobook By Dr. Lynne Kelly cover art