-
Hold Fast
- The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website
- Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $29.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Hold Fast is the uncompromising story of Backpage.com, the world’s most scandalous website, and the rise and fall of alternative weekly newspapers nationwide.
Over four decades, Michael Lacey and his business partner James Larkin built the largest, most influential company in alternative media—a colossal chain of muckraking newspapers that included The Village Voice, LA Weekly, Phoenix New Times, Dallas Observer, Miami New Times, and others. These alternative newspapers published writers who were fierce investigators, stylish storytellers, and astute cultural critics. These papers also published loads and loads of ads, including page after page of so-called “adult ads”—ambiguously written ads that appeared to offer illegal sexual services, but were nonetheless protected by the First Amendment.
As lucrative classified ads moved to the internet, cutting a hole in the money bag of newspapers everywhere, Lacey and Larkin founded Backpage.com, a classifieds website that would become synonymous with sex ads and scandal. The Justice Department alleges that Lacey and Larkin weren’t just newspapermen. They were, prosecutors say, the biggest pimps in the history of the world.
Reported, written, and hosted by three writers who once worked for Lacey’s newspaper chain—Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, and Michael Mooney—Hold Fast is a romp through the weird history and boundary-pushing culture of alternative newspapers; the controversies surrounding Backpage.com and the government investigations; and fraught frontiers of free speech in America.
![About the Creator- Trevor Aaronson About the Creator- Trevor Aaronson](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/en_US/images/creative/Trevor_Aaronson-desktop.png)
About the Creator
![About the Creator- Sam Eifling About the Creator- Sam Eifling](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/en_US/images/creative/Sam_Eifling-desktop.png)
About the Creator
![About the Creator- Michael J. Mooney About the Creator- Michael J. Mooney](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/en_US/images/creative/Michael_J_Mooney-desktop.png)
About the Creator
Related to this topic
-
Dear Cousin: The Stalking of Susan Fensten
- By: Ventureland
- Narrated by: Susan Fensten
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dear Cousin: The Stalking of Susan Fensten is the gripping true story of one woman's quest for long lost family. After the deaths of her sister and estranged father, Susan searches for relatives on an early online genealogy forum. When she meets cousins from her grandfather's other family, they're everything she'd hoped for—until it all goes to hell.
-
-
Harrowing Case, Excellent Production
- By C Lopez on 07-12-24
By: Ventureland
-
Pulse
- The Untold Story
- By: Trevor Aaronson
- Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016, the shooter, Omar Mateen, murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others. The attack was the deadliest act of violence against the LGBTQ+ community in US history and the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11. But there’s a story you haven’t heard. The FBI had a secret history with the shooter and his father. To obscure that history, the FBI pushed a false story that the media dutifully carried—that the attacker was a secretly gay Islamist extremist who had chosen to target Pulse and planned the attack for weeks.
-
-
Heart wrenching
- By Kaylee Charles on 07-21-24
By: Trevor Aaronson
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
Coatbridge: The Disappearance of Moira Anderson
- By: Chalk and Blade
- Narrated by: Sandra Brown
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades, Sandra Brown’s life has been intertwined with someone she has never met: an eleven year-old girl named Moira Anderson – who disappeared from their hometown of Coatbridge, Scotland, in 1957. It became one of the oldest cold cases in Scottish history. Sandra lived just around the corner from Moira. She grew up hearing about the missing girl, whose memory haunted the town. But she never imagined that, one day, she would be the one trying to uncover what happened. Or that her search for answers would reveal secrets and lies so close to home.
-
-
Moving Story
- By White-Dobb on 07-05-24
By: Chalk and Blade
-
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
- A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
- By: Lori Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
-
-
It was like a hallmark movie being waterboarded into my ears for 15 hours
- By Amazon Customer on 10-01-19
By: Lori Gottlieb
-
Serial Killers: Real and Imagined
- By: Emily Zarka, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Emily Zarka
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Monster stories aren’t just meant to entertain. They’re meant to inform, even educate. Above all, they ask us to question our own humanity. Nowhere is this truer than in stories of serial killers. What are the origins of this monstrous archetype? Why are we so fascinated with such gruesome terror? What do they reveal about our fears and anxieties? Explore these and other questions in Serial Killers: Real and Imagined, where public scholar Emily Zarka looks at the serial-killer trope across history, from murky 17th-century legends to 21st-century true-crime obsessions.
-
-
Very informative
- By JudyP on 07-21-24
By: Emily Zarka, and others
-
Dear Cousin: The Stalking of Susan Fensten
- By: Ventureland
- Narrated by: Susan Fensten
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dear Cousin: The Stalking of Susan Fensten is the gripping true story of one woman's quest for long lost family. After the deaths of her sister and estranged father, Susan searches for relatives on an early online genealogy forum. When she meets cousins from her grandfather's other family, they're everything she'd hoped for—until it all goes to hell.
-
-
Harrowing Case, Excellent Production
- By C Lopez on 07-12-24
By: Ventureland
-
Pulse
- The Untold Story
- By: Trevor Aaronson
- Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016, the shooter, Omar Mateen, murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others. The attack was the deadliest act of violence against the LGBTQ+ community in US history and the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11. But there’s a story you haven’t heard. The FBI had a secret history with the shooter and his father. To obscure that history, the FBI pushed a false story that the media dutifully carried—that the attacker was a secretly gay Islamist extremist who had chosen to target Pulse and planned the attack for weeks.
-
-
Heart wrenching
- By Kaylee Charles on 07-21-24
By: Trevor Aaronson
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this award-winning Audible Studios production, Trevor Noah tells his wild coming-of-age tale during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa. It’s a story that begins with his mother throwing him from a moving van to save him from a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters, then follows the budding comedian’s path to self-discovery through episodes both poignant and comical.
-
-
Great book and perfect narration
- By MarilynArms on 12-15-16
By: Trevor Noah
-
Coatbridge: The Disappearance of Moira Anderson
- By: Chalk and Blade
- Narrated by: Sandra Brown
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades, Sandra Brown’s life has been intertwined with someone she has never met: an eleven year-old girl named Moira Anderson – who disappeared from their hometown of Coatbridge, Scotland, in 1957. It became one of the oldest cold cases in Scottish history. Sandra lived just around the corner from Moira. She grew up hearing about the missing girl, whose memory haunted the town. But she never imagined that, one day, she would be the one trying to uncover what happened. Or that her search for answers would reveal secrets and lies so close to home.
-
-
Moving Story
- By White-Dobb on 07-05-24
By: Chalk and Blade
-
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
- A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
- By: Lori Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
-
-
It was like a hallmark movie being waterboarded into my ears for 15 hours
- By Amazon Customer on 10-01-19
By: Lori Gottlieb
-
Serial Killers: Real and Imagined
- By: Emily Zarka, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Emily Zarka
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Monster stories aren’t just meant to entertain. They’re meant to inform, even educate. Above all, they ask us to question our own humanity. Nowhere is this truer than in stories of serial killers. What are the origins of this monstrous archetype? Why are we so fascinated with such gruesome terror? What do they reveal about our fears and anxieties? Explore these and other questions in Serial Killers: Real and Imagined, where public scholar Emily Zarka looks at the serial-killer trope across history, from murky 17th-century legends to 21st-century true-crime obsessions.
-
-
Very informative
- By JudyP on 07-21-24
By: Emily Zarka, and others
-
The Demon Next Door
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: Steve White
- Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Bryan Burrough recently made a shocking discovery: The small town of Temple, Texas, where he had grown up, had harbored a dark secret. One of his high school classmates, Danny Corwin, was a vicious serial killer. In this chilling tale, Burrough raises important questions of whether serial killers can be recognized before they kill or rehabilitated after they do. It is also a story of Texas politics and power that led the good citizens of the town of Temple to enable a demon who was their worst nightmare.
-
-
Odd narration choice
- By Amanda Fredericks on 03-08-19
By: Bryan Burrough
-
Letters from Guantánamo
- By: Mansoor Adayfi, Antonio Aiello
- Narrated by: Mansoor Adayfi, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Elias Khalil, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In weeks after the September 11 attacks, 18-year-old Mansoor Adayfi was kidnapped by Afghan militia and sold to US forces for bounty money. After months of interrogations, he was sent to the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as one of its first prisoners. Like the nearly 800 other men imprisoned at Guantanamo, Adayfi didn’t know why he was imprisoned or for how long. He had never seen a skyscraper and couldn’t imagine what the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center looked like, much less how they were destroyed.
-
-
An important reminder
- By Dave Heilman on 05-25-24
By: Mansoor Adayfi, and others
-
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
-
-
Golden Horde/Platinum Listen
- By Cynthia on 12-11-13
By: Jack Weatherford
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking listeners into the mind of Bankman-Fried.
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Drinking
- A Love Story
- By: Caroline Knapp
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen million Americans a year are plagued with alcoholism. Five million of them are women. Many of them, like Caroline Knapp, started in their early teens and began to use alcohol as "liquid armor", a way to protect themselves against the difficult realities of life. In this extraordinarily candid and revealing memoir, Knapp offers important insights not only about alcoholism, but about life itself and how we learn to cope with it.
-
-
The Big Picture of Alcohol Dependence
- By Karen K on 07-26-16
By: Caroline Knapp
-
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
-
-
Audible Masterpiece
- By Phoenician on 09-10-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
-
Helter Skelter
- The True Story of the Manson Murders
- By: Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 26 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the 20th century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Now available for the first time in unabridged audio, the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime is brought to life by acclaimed narrator Scott Brick.
-
-
Everything I remembered about the case was wrong..
- By karen on 06-22-12
By: Vincent Bugliosi, and others
-
My Story
- By: Marilyn Monroe
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marilyn Monroe had the most famous face of the 20th century. A legendary actress, comedienne, and sex symbol, she has been one of Hollywood’s most talked-about performers ever since she first crossed the silver screen. Her fame persisted long after her tragic death—but as time has gone by, it has become almost impossible to separate the legend of the woman born as Norma Jeane from the truth. Now, at last, Marilyn’s real story can be told.
-
-
Nice To Hear Norma Jean
- By Brooke R. Calder on 02-23-23
By: Marilyn Monroe
-
Exposed
- The Ashley Madison Hack
- By: Sophie Elmhirst, Maria Luisa Tucker
- Narrated by: Sophie Nélisse
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of people–looking to cheat on their partners–signed up for Ashley Madison in the early 2000s, seeking a private space to share their public desires. The promise of discretion was shattered in the summer of 2015, when anonymous hackers stole the company’s cache of user information and published it worldwide. The result? One of the most shocking data breaches of the internet age. Overnight, millions of unfaithful spouses had their real names, addresses and sexual preferences published online in a searchable database that anyone could browse.
-
-
Hard to feel sorry for the cheaters
- By Kim Kormylo on 02-21-24
By: Sophie Elmhirst, and others
-
Under the Bridge
- By: Rebecca Godfrey
- Narrated by: Rebecca Godfrey, Erin Moon, Mary Gaitskill - introduction
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One moonlit night, 14-year-old Reena Virk went to join friends at a party and never returned home. In this “tour de force of crime reportage” (Kirkus Reviews), acclaimed author Rebecca Godfrey takes us into the hidden world of the seven teenage girls - and boy - accused of a savage murder. As she follows the investigation and trials, Godfrey reveals the startling truth about the unlikely killers. Laced with lyricism and insight, Under the Bridge is an unforgettable look at a haunting modern tragedy.
-
-
Powerful Account of 8 Young Teens Killing Another
- By Mary Burnight on 08-16-19
By: Rebecca Godfrey
-
Finding Tamika
- By: Erika Alexander, Kevin Hart, Charlamagne Tha God, and others
- Narrated by: Erika Alexander
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black girls and women disappear every day, but not without a trace. Join actress and activist Erika Alexander in a neo-noir, true crime drama as she searches for Tamika Huston, a 24-year-old Black woman from Spartanburg, SC who went missing in 2004. Her case became a rallying cry for other missing Black women in America and led to a growing demand to expose a system that ignores missing girls and women of color.
-
-
Cynical conflation of two tragedies
- By Buretto on 03-26-22
By: Erika Alexander, and others
-
The Debutante
- By: Jon Ronson
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years ago, award-winning journalist Jon Ronson stumbled on the mystery of Carol Howe—a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant. In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
-
-
Interesting but not compelling
- By Gail Jester on 04-15-23
By: Jon Ronson
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Pulse
- The Untold Story
- By: Trevor Aaronson
- Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016, the shooter, Omar Mateen, murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others. The attack was the deadliest act of violence against the LGBTQ+ community in US history and the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11. But there’s a story you haven’t heard. The FBI had a secret history with the shooter and his father. To obscure that history, the FBI pushed a false story that the media dutifully carried—that the attacker was a secretly gay Islamist extremist who had chosen to target Pulse and planned the attack for weeks.
-
-
Heart wrenching
- By Kaylee Charles on 07-21-24
By: Trevor Aaronson
-
The Terror Factory
- Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism
- By: Trevor Aaronson
- Narrated by: Scott Drummond
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism exposes how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, built a network of more than 15,000 informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the Bureau can then claim it is winning the war on terror.
-
-
A must read
- By Ahmed Ebrahim on 10-08-20
By: Trevor Aaronson
-
"I'll Get You!" Drugs, Lies, and the Terrorizing of a PTA Mom (true crime)
- By: Riley J. Ford
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
TRUE CRIME! PTA president Kelli Peters had a normal, happy life in Orange County, California, where she volunteered at her daughter's school, carpooled, and took care of her family. When a school parent angrily accused Kelli of keeping her son waiting during the afterschool pick-up, it appeared to be a simple confrontation with an overprotective mother. Kelli soon learned, however, that she was the target of a twisted plot against her that involved drugs, lies, schemes, and a campaign to ruin her life. The vendetta led to reputations tarnished, careers lost, secret lives uncovered, two ...
-
-
Could have been good
- By Dante D. on 05-18-24
By: Riley J. Ford
-
Hell Hath No Fury
- A True Story of Wealth and Passion, Love and Envy, and a Woman Driven to the Ultimate Revenge
- By: Bryna Taubman
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dan Broderick was one of California's most successful attorneys; his wife, Betty, a beautiful socialite. But when Betty discovered Dan's hidden life, the façade of LaJolla's golden couple was shattered. What followed was a vicious five-year battle that finally ended in a shocking double murder. A Harvard Law School graduate, Dan manipulated the law to strip Betty of everything she loved: her home, her friends - even her children. When she frantically tried to fight back, he had her committed to a mental hospital.
-
-
No tears for Dan Broderick
- By Tia's Mom on 03-30-21
By: Bryna Taubman
-
The Magadh Mystery
- By: Christopher Doyle
- Narrated by: Swetanshu Bora, Dave Riddhi, Suyash Barve, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vidya is a young archaeologist who has spent her entire childhood listening to the stories of the Magadh Mystery, but neither Vidya nor her brother believed these stories. When Vidya’s father-like colleague found some inscriptions from the Magadh Dynasty during an excavation and was killed soon after, she had no choice but to set out on this journey to unravel the Magadh Mystery.
-
-
Fun adventure
- By Carol Bailey on 05-02-24
-
Early True Believers
- The Untold Story of Silicon Alley
- By: Vanessa Grigoriadis, Adam Fisher
- Narrated by: Vanessa Grigoriadis
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Early True Believers: The Untold Story of Silicon Alley is a 1990s saga of ambition and innovation set in Manhattan’s Silicon Alley, a swath of downtown that served as New York City’s nerve center of tech entrepreneurship. The series features the stories of a forgotten cohort of early internet visionaries, countercultural social networks, the digital gold rush, and the lavish events that came with it, including one held in an underground Tribeca bunker that abruptly ended in a police raid—a harbinger of the upheaval to come.
By: Vanessa Grigoriadis, and others
-
Pulse
- The Untold Story
- By: Trevor Aaronson
- Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016, the shooter, Omar Mateen, murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others. The attack was the deadliest act of violence against the LGBTQ+ community in US history and the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11. But there’s a story you haven’t heard. The FBI had a secret history with the shooter and his father. To obscure that history, the FBI pushed a false story that the media dutifully carried—that the attacker was a secretly gay Islamist extremist who had chosen to target Pulse and planned the attack for weeks.
-
-
Heart wrenching
- By Kaylee Charles on 07-21-24
By: Trevor Aaronson
-
The Terror Factory
- Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism
- By: Trevor Aaronson
- Narrated by: Scott Drummond
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism exposes how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, built a network of more than 15,000 informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the Bureau can then claim it is winning the war on terror.
-
-
A must read
- By Ahmed Ebrahim on 10-08-20
By: Trevor Aaronson
-
"I'll Get You!" Drugs, Lies, and the Terrorizing of a PTA Mom (true crime)
- By: Riley J. Ford
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
TRUE CRIME! PTA president Kelli Peters had a normal, happy life in Orange County, California, where she volunteered at her daughter's school, carpooled, and took care of her family. When a school parent angrily accused Kelli of keeping her son waiting during the afterschool pick-up, it appeared to be a simple confrontation with an overprotective mother. Kelli soon learned, however, that she was the target of a twisted plot against her that involved drugs, lies, schemes, and a campaign to ruin her life. The vendetta led to reputations tarnished, careers lost, secret lives uncovered, two ...
-
-
Could have been good
- By Dante D. on 05-18-24
By: Riley J. Ford
-
Hell Hath No Fury
- A True Story of Wealth and Passion, Love and Envy, and a Woman Driven to the Ultimate Revenge
- By: Bryna Taubman
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dan Broderick was one of California's most successful attorneys; his wife, Betty, a beautiful socialite. But when Betty discovered Dan's hidden life, the façade of LaJolla's golden couple was shattered. What followed was a vicious five-year battle that finally ended in a shocking double murder. A Harvard Law School graduate, Dan manipulated the law to strip Betty of everything she loved: her home, her friends - even her children. When she frantically tried to fight back, he had her committed to a mental hospital.
-
-
No tears for Dan Broderick
- By Tia's Mom on 03-30-21
By: Bryna Taubman
-
The Magadh Mystery
- By: Christopher Doyle
- Narrated by: Swetanshu Bora, Dave Riddhi, Suyash Barve, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vidya is a young archaeologist who has spent her entire childhood listening to the stories of the Magadh Mystery, but neither Vidya nor her brother believed these stories. When Vidya’s father-like colleague found some inscriptions from the Magadh Dynasty during an excavation and was killed soon after, she had no choice but to set out on this journey to unravel the Magadh Mystery.
-
-
Fun adventure
- By Carol Bailey on 05-02-24
-
Early True Believers
- The Untold Story of Silicon Alley
- By: Vanessa Grigoriadis, Adam Fisher
- Narrated by: Vanessa Grigoriadis
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Early True Believers: The Untold Story of Silicon Alley is a 1990s saga of ambition and innovation set in Manhattan’s Silicon Alley, a swath of downtown that served as New York City’s nerve center of tech entrepreneurship. The series features the stories of a forgotten cohort of early internet visionaries, countercultural social networks, the digital gold rush, and the lavish events that came with it, including one held in an underground Tribeca bunker that abruptly ended in a police raid—a harbinger of the upheaval to come.
By: Vanessa Grigoriadis, and others
-
Exposed
- The Ashley Madison Hack
- By: Sophie Elmhirst, Maria Luisa Tucker
- Narrated by: Sophie Nélisse
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of people–looking to cheat on their partners–signed up for Ashley Madison in the early 2000s, seeking a private space to share their public desires. The promise of discretion was shattered in the summer of 2015, when anonymous hackers stole the company’s cache of user information and published it worldwide. The result? One of the most shocking data breaches of the internet age. Overnight, millions of unfaithful spouses had their real names, addresses and sexual preferences published online in a searchable database that anyone could browse.
-
-
Hard to feel sorry for the cheaters
- By Kim Kormylo on 02-21-24
By: Sophie Elmhirst, and others
-
Darkness Visible
- Earworms
- By: Arvind Ethan David
- Narrated by: Kirsty Yates, Christian McKay, Miranda Richardson, and others
- Length: 38 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is June 1940. The war against Hitler’s forces is raging. And the tide is turning against the British. In this hour of despair, Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives a mysterious letter from an even more mysterious woman, offering a Faustian bargain and a promise of victory. But if Churchill accepts, will he be condemning his nation’s very soul?
-
-
I was enjoying this until…
- By Anonymous User on 01-14-24
-
Deputy Mayor Putin
- By: Maeve McQuillan
- Narrated by: Fiona Shaw, Gwilym Lee
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did a once faceless bureaucrat, a man whose own wife said he was born under the sign of the vampire, become the idealized face of Russian manhood and its authoritarian leader? Deputy Mayor Putin examines the man behind the myth. We will explore how Putin’s formative years shaped and drove him and how the supporting cast of characters he gathered along the way helped him get to the Kremlin’s inner sanctum.
-
-
Interesting
- By T J on 03-02-24
By: Maeve McQuillan
-
A Long Day in a Short Life
- By: Albert Maltz
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Albert Maltz’s novel captures the racial tension of America and the failure of the American dream. As time ticks along with indifference, the inmates of Washington’s District Jail now spend their lives numbed by a daily routine behind bars, shut out of society. Each prisoner has a story: some are charged with assault, murder and manslaughter, others with forgery, robbery and larceny; others still were simply born to certain parents at a certain time in a certain country.
By: Albert Maltz
-
Habits for Happiness at Work
- 10 Steps for Living Your Happiest Work Life
- By: Dr Tim Sharp
- Narrated by: Dr Tim Sharp
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Work is often treated as an activity that enables happiness on holidays or weekends. But most of us spend a large portion of our lives working – to live a happy life we need to be happy at work, not just outside of it. Changing your habits to prioritise happiness at work is the key. Dr Tim Sharp introduces you to 10 simple habits you can adopt in your own work life.
-
-
Common Sense
- By Shopping Sting on 07-14-21
By: Dr Tim Sharp
-
French & Saunders Titting About (Series 5)
- By: Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders
- Narrated by: Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once again, the legendary comedy duo unearth six vitally important subjects... and then tit about about them. From surviving on a desert island to being eaten by a cardboard crocodile, Dawn and Jennifer will entertain, inform and thoroughly tit about for your pleasure. (Batteries not included.)
-
-
Just what I needed
- By Jeanine on 07-26-24
By: Dawn French, and others
-
The Crimes of Dorian Gray
- By: Arvind Ethan David
- Narrated by: Lexi Underwood, Neil Brown Jr., Richard Schiff, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 42 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This gripping fictional true crime podcast delves into the story of the enigmatic Dorian Gray, a vigilante who changed the world, rewriting history in the blood of her victims. Her targets were the titans of their era—billionaires, movie stars, politicians. Dorian said they had one thing in common: they had all committed crimes against women. They were rapists, abusers, master manipulators. Dorian left evidence of their heinous offenses with their bodies, and then she vanished without a trace.
-
-
Riveting!
- By Theresa D. on 05-08-24
-
Habits for Greatness
- 30 Lessons from the Greats to Live Your Best Life Now
- By: Dr Tim Sharp
- Narrated by: Dr Tim Sharp
- Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While it may seem that chaos and confusion reigns today, humans have a long history of wisdom and inspiration. Dr Tim Sharp, aka Dr Happy, highlights practical lessons from some of the great thinkers of all time to show you the path to your best life now. Habits for Greatness teaches you 30 lessons from 30 of the greatest philosophies, religions, psychologists, creators, movements and even fictional characters to allow you to apply these lessons as lifestyle habits, so you can step into your greatness.
-
-
no thanks
- By Curt Mayberry on 03-29-22
By: Dr Tim Sharp
-
American Dreamer: Who Was Jay Gatsby?
- By: Blanchard House
- Narrated by: Joe Nocera
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just before the small-time bootlegger Max Gerlach died, he tried to reveal his secret: he was the inspiration for the mysterious Jay Gatsby. It’s a nice story, but was he telling the truth? Veteran reporter Joe Nocera and producer Poppy Damon investigate this century-old literary mystery and uncover untold secrets about the Great American Novel.
-
-
The investigation of the Great Gatsby book
- By beverly lescar on 07-11-24
By: Blanchard House
-
Letters to Our Robot Son
- By: Cadance Bell
- Narrated by: Stig Wemyss
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arto has a problem. For one, he's a robot. He’s awoken with no memory of who he is, with nothing but a mysterious letter, in a world bereft of those fleshy, talky things that made him. So why is he alone, and where have all the people gone? He stumbles upon a lost, cheeky kitten and selects it as his best friend for the adventure of a lifetime, trying to make sense of all this existence stuff. Just as Arto begins to fear he's the only sentient thing left on the whole planet, a cantankerous robot falls from the sky. She says she's his sister.
-
-
Cute sweet story
- By George Sutton on 04-16-24
By: Cadance Bell
-
How I Helped O. J. Get Away with Murder
- The Shocking Inside Story
- By: Mike Gilbert
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The shocking tale told in How I Helped O. J. Get Away with Murder is unlike anything you've read before. It isn't Mike Gilbert's "version" of what happened'; it's the unvarnished truth - the truth about O. J., the murders, and the infamous trial, not as Gilbert imagined or would like it to be, but how it actually was.
-
-
Wow
- By Erin on 06-11-10
By: Mike Gilbert
-
Chasing Boaz Manor
- By: Leah McLaren
- Narrated by: Serinda Swan
- Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boaz Manor was a finance wunderkind. He started a hedge-fund company in Canada and later burst onto Wall Street with a product that could transform the crypto market. By all accounts, he was incredibly hard-working. Possibly brilliant. And...a shameless con man who ended up wanted in multiple countries. Chasing Boaz Manor explores Boaz’s schemes through the perspective of those he left in his wake.
-
-
Drawn out and unresolved waste of time
- By DC on 06-06-24
By: Leah McLaren
What listeners say about Hold Fast
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ronda
- 06-02-24
Very interesting
I had never heard of this incident. It was very interesting. Times changed and the internet changed everything. I enjoyed the listen and learned a lot. Well done!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stacey J
- 04-17-24
Very engaging listen
Thank you to On The Media for highlighting this story and sending me to this story. Excellent listen!! I highly recommend!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SammyInCO
- 04-17-24
Exceptional
As a native of Phoenix, I only had half of the story. A wonderful and informative listen!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Miamimama
- 04-13-24
Blackbeard's diary basically
A well done capture of morally ambiguous pirates in the waning days of American journalism as we knew it. As someone privileged to ride along for a bit in the young writer churn& burn factory, I can attest Lacey and Co. were the best, the worst -- always a hell of a ride.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- kyungil
- 04-24-24
Raw and unfiltered
Absolutely love the storytelling. I would be listening and find myself absorbed in the story. Mike Lacey is what the story is…. Raw and unfiltered. The “no f*cks” given attitude really makes this a movie for your ears.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DHK
- 07-24-24
Before Backpage, there was journalism
Learning the history of gonzo journalism starting w/the 70s/80s, entrepreneurship, capitalism, and the reasons local alt-newspapers imploded is important for anyone who engages w/American society to understand. The story follows the typical newsworthy yet anticipated, 50-year culture cycle- beginning and ending on headlines reporting the latest method(s) to control women. Informative, educational story. Blissfully limited political content. Will be listening again for missed info.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- trisula
- 04-19-24
So good
Deep, nuanced, exactly like things used to be. Not telling you what to think, telling you what happened. Skepticism rules. Anything else and the reader thinks you take him for a rube.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephen Lemons, reader and scribe
- 04-29-24
1A R.I.P.
Backpage fell victim to a modern-day witch hunt and Messrs. Lacey and Larkin became the targets of a governmental overreach only surpassed by that wreaked on Julian Assange. The lesson? Freedom of speech is a chimera, and you defy the federal government at your peril. Backpage, a massive website filled with Constitutionally-protected speech, was intentionally taken down and destroyed so that it could not be rebuilt -- without so much as a warrant. Lacey, Larkin, and four co-defendants bravely endured the full prosecutorial weight of the U.S. government for more than five years. Larkin was hounded to suicide. Two worker bees at Backpage were fully acquitted, but not before having their names trashed, their lives ruined. Three men, all in their 70s, now face the prospect of death in prison. Even if their convictions are overturned on appeal, the government has extracted from each its pound of flesh and then some. I hope this podcast is the beginning of a paradigm shift in a media narrative that has unthinkingly echoed the talking points of the powerful and the mendacious.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tara N
- 04-17-24
An amazing, crazy ride. Highly recommend.
Stellar writing, stellar reporting, a larger-than-life cast of characters. Chronicles the rise and fall of alternative journalism through a variety of insane and fascinating stories while deftly explaining the legal clash of free speech and the Internet, the evolution of sex ads, and the fallout of it all. It’s surprising, it’ll make you think, it’ll crack you up, and it’ll stay with you long after Lacey’s final line.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Justin G
- 05-14-24
A Fascinating & Ultimately Tragic Story
I loved this book. I knew nothing about the particulars of this story, so it was all news to me and very compelling stuff. I hated to see how things turned out in the end for Mike Lacey and his partner Jim Larkin though, and how the people most effected by the legal and political circus that ended backpage.com were sex workers whose lives were made even harder. But politicians doing anything but demonizing sex workers is highly unlikely because the poor girls make such easy targets, for liberals & conservatives both, but I digress. Great listen, one that I highly recommend 😄👍
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful