Human Speech

A revelatory and powerful testament of protest, courage, and imprisonment in America’s deportation regime. This program is read by the author with Daoud Heidami. “Are you Mahmoud Khalil?” The question marked the start of a politically charged odyssey that took the Palestinian graduate...

Forty years after his first book, David McCullough wrote and presented his speech, The Course of Human Events, in the 2003 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, in which he divulges his philosophy on writing, speaking, and history in his masterful storytelling style. In this Jefferson Lecture in...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A “visionary” (The Guardian) exploration of freedom—what it is, how it’s been misunderstood, and why it’s our only chance for survival—by the acclaimed Yale historian and author of On Tyranny “[Snyder’s] deep political and philosophical examination...

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST A gripping, deeply moving memoir of survival, education, and resistance by a student protestor–turned–political prisoner in post-revolution Egypt. “I will never be the same after reading Huna.”—Javier Zamora “A beautifully written portrait of a radical...

Bloomsbury presents The Descent: Witnessing Russia's Spiral into Madness Under Putin, written and read by Marc Bennetts An extraordinary first-hand account of Russia’s descent into totalitarianism, paranoia and madness. Marc Bennetts, foreign correspondent for The Times and The Sunday Times...

Two leading behavioral scientists argue we should reject “nudge” policies and stop blaming personal failure for society’s failures "Excellent. A master class on how to blend individual psychology with institutions, so that people are encouraged to get involved and develop solutions to our...

What makes us human? Why are we the only animals who wear clothes, drive cars, trawl the internet, and fly helicopters on Mars? It’s all because we’ve learnt to talk, yet remarkably, we still don’t know how we did it. Speech! suggests an answer that’s been hiding in plain sight - the simple yet radical shift that turned our analog grunts and shrieks into words. But, its consequences are far from simple: being able to share ideas through language was an evolutionary tipping point - it allowed us to link up our minds.

Brought to you by Penguin. A fresh and exciting approach to one of the most controversial subjects of our time ‘Free Speech!’ is a clarion call all over the world, yet what it means today is more contested than ever. Many cultures regard it as dangerous: in China, India, and across the...

An invaluable guide to understanding how the internet has broken our brains—and what we can do to fix it. "Vivid and unforgettable.” ―Jonathan Haidt, New York Times bestselling author of The Righteous Mind The original internet was not designed to make us upset, distracted, confused, and...

Aphantasia is described as a benign variation in human consciousness. How do we know? What if the absence of mental imagery means more than the inability to visualize voluntarily? Why was effortless imagery—the mental representation that appears automatically—never included in the definition? Drawing on scientific research, historical sources, and decades of lived observation, this book explores aphantasia, anauralia, and anendophasia through rarely asked questions: What exactly is absent? How can a deficit be just a curiosity? Why did neuroscience surround these definitions with ...

Brought to you by Penguin. A powerful and urgent explanation and vindication of our human rights and freedoms After the devastation of World War Two, the international community came together to enshrine fundamental rights to refuge, health, education and living standards, for privacy, fair...

“The best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made.”—P. J. O’Rourke Hailed as the “first freedom,” free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and...

In The Most Human Right, Eric Heinze explains why global human rights systems have failed. International organizations constantly report on how governments manage human goods, such as fair trials, humane conditions of detention, healthcare, or housing. But to appease autocratic regimes, experts have ignored the primacy of free speech. Heinze argues that goods become rights only when citizens can claim them publicly and fearlessly: free speech is the fundamental right, without which the very concept of a “right” makes no sense. 

The Words That Shook the World: 50 Speeches That Defined History "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat." "I have a dream." "Tear down this wall." Behind every great movement, every monumental shift in human rights, and every triumph of the human spirit, there is a voice. From the sun-drenched amphitheatres of Ancient Greece to the digital stages of the 21st century, The Words That Shook the World brings together the most consequential oratory ever delivered. This isn't just a list of speeches—it’s a journey through the hinge points of history. You will stand in the ...

Using anecdotes, commentaries, and scholarly articles, Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins conveys the merits of speaking positively, or Leshon Hatov, and the unfortunate results of negative speech, or Leshon Hara, in "The Power Of Human Speech - From The Jewish Perspective". More than 50 scholars and writers address the virtues of speaking positively verses using improper negative speech. Written from the Jewish perspective, Rabbi Elkins, the compiler and editor of this book, opens with the five categories of speech as defined by the Rambam: Required speech, Forbidden speech, Repulsive Speech, ...

In these essays, Canadian Catholic teacher and essayist Marie Brousseau addresses today’s most pressing moral controversies — from freedom of speech and religion to gender ideology, abortion, relativism, and beyond. With clarity, conviction, and compassion, she presents Catholic answers grounded in faith, science, and reason, offering a powerful defense of human dignity in our troubled age.

Can free speech coexist with an inclusive campus environment? Hardly a week goes by without another controversy over free speech on college campuses. On one side, there are increased demands to censor hateful, disrespectful, and bullying expression and to ensure an inclusive and nondiscriminatory learning environment. On the other side are traditional free speech advocates who charge that recent demands for censorship coddle students and threaten free inquiry.

Storytelling, a tradition that built human civilization, may soon destroy it Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to...

A brilliant examination of history and language that explains why AI, for all of its wonders, cannot truly speak. For all of history, the only creature on earth that could speak was man. Then suddenly, with the dawn of artificial intelligence, a machine could talk back. AI seems to do the very...

You know what you want to say. Does your voice carry it all the way to the listener? A clear recommendation can fade at the end. Warmth can become inaudible. A confident answer can turn rushed when the question gets difficult. The Human Voice Advantage gives physicians and executives a practical way to notice those patterns and test one useful correction at a time. Harvey Castro, MD, brings his perspective as a physician and speaker to a structured voice-performance practice system. The goal is a stronger version of your own natural voice: clear, adaptable, human, and comfortable. Inside, ...