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Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures
- A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World
- Narrated by: Cynthia Wallace
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
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Publisher's summary
Before Columbus's fateful voyage in 1492, no European had ever seen, much less tasted, tobacco or chocolate. Initially dismissed as dry leaves and an odd Indian drink, these two commodities came to conquer Europe on a scale unsurpassed by any other American resource or product. A fascinating story of contact, exploration, and exchange in the Atlantic world, Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures traces the ways in which these two goods of the Americas both changed and were changed by Europe.
Focusing on the Spanish Empire, Marcy Norton investigates how tobacco and chocolate became material and symbolic links to the pre-Hispanic past for colonized Indians and colonizing Europeans alike. Botanical ambassadors of the American continent, they also profoundly affected Europe. Tobacco, once condemned as proof of Indian diabolism, became the constant companion of clergymen and the single largest source of state revenue in Spain. Before coffee or tea became popular in Europe, chocolate was the drink that energized the fatigued and uplifted the depressed. However, no one could quite forget the pagan past of tobacco and chocolate, despite their apparent Europeanization: physicians relied on Mesoamerican medical systems for their understanding of tobacco; theologians looked to Aztec precedent to decide whether chocolate drinking violated Lenten fasts.
The struggle of scientists, theologians, and aficionados alike to reconcile notions of European superiority with the fact of American influence shaped key modern developments ranging from natural history to secularization. Norton considers the material, social, and cultural interaction between Europe and the Americas with historical depth and insight that goes beyond the portrayal of Columbian exchange simply as a matter of exploitation, infection, and conquest.
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-
Fascinating and Entertaining
- By Laura Carrington on 11-23-22
By: Bill Bryson
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Zombified: Real-World Lessons from Fictional Apocalypses
- By: Athena Aktipis, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Athena Aktipis
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 144
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 126
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 126
Athena Aktipis of Arizona State University is a self-professed apocalypse enthusiast, and as the host of the podcast Zombified, she knows the undead inside and out. With Zombified: Real-World Lessons from Fictional Apocalypses, she’s compiled her research and insights into a fascinating Audible Original that will have you thinking deeper about all those shambling, brain-hungry corpses in pop culture—not to mention our everyday lives. Drawing on years of research on zombies and zombification, these six lessons offer a fun way to explore and understand the many forces that influence us.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Free fun food for thought
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 10-07-23
By: Athena Aktipis, and others
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Caffeine
- How Caffeine Created the Modern World
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41,980
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36,168
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36,000
Michael Pollan, known for his best-selling nonfiction audio, including The Omnivores Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, conceived and wrote Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World as an Audible Original. In this controversial and exciting listen, Pollan explores caffeine’s power as the most-used drug in the world - and the only one we give to children (in soda pop) as a treat.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Leaves much to be desired
- By Melody H on 02-02-20
By: Michael Pollan
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The Daily Stoic
- 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
- By: Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,984
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,491
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2,456
Why have history's greatest minds - from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson along with today's top performers, from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities - embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise. The Daily Stoic offers a daily devotional of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not well made as audio
- By Andreas on 12-27-16
By: Ryan Holiday, and others
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The Man Who Killed Kennedy
- The Case Against LBJ
- By: Roger Stone
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,216
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,069
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,065
Lyndon Baines Johnson was a man of great ambition and enormous greed, both of which, in 1963, would threaten to destroy him. In the end, President Johnson would use power from his personal connections in Texas and from the underworld and from the government to escape an untimely end in politics and to seize even greater power. President Johnson, the thirty-sixth president of the United States, was the driving force behind a conspiracy to murder President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. In The Man Who Killed Kennedy, you will find out how and why he did it. Political consultant, strategist, and Libertarian Roger Stone has gathered documents and used his firsthand knowledge to construct the ultimate tome to prove that LBJ was not only involved in JFK's assassination, but was in fact the mastermind. With 2013 being the fiftieth anniversary of JFK's assassination, this is the perfect time for The Man Who Killed Kennedy to be available to readers. The research and information in this book is unprecedented, and as Roger Stone lived through it, he's the perfect person to bring it to everyone's attention.
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5 out of 5 stars
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COMPELLING BOOK - THE CROOKS ARE IN POWER
- By Theo Tsourdalakis on 12-01-13
By: Roger Stone
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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
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 11,648
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 10,347
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Story5 out of 5 stars 10,288
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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Audible Masterpiece
- By Phoenician on 09-10-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
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The Complete Book of Five Rings
- By: Miyamoto Musashi, Kenji Tokitsu - editor/translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,944
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,324
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,298
The Complete Book of Five Rings is an authoritative version of Musashi's classic The Book of Five Rings, translated and annotated by a modern martial arts master, Kenji Tokitsu. Tokitsu has spent most of his life researching the legendary samurai swordsman and his works, and in this book he illuminates this seminal text, along with several other works by Musashi.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best translation I have encountered.
- By DW on 05-27-16
By: Miyamoto Musashi, and others
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The Practicing Stoic
- By: Ward Farnsworth
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,861
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,253
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,205
The great insights of the Stoics are spread over a wide range of ancient sources. This book brings them all together for the first time. It systematically presents what the various Stoic philosophers said on every important topic, accompanied by an eloquent commentary that is clear and concise. The result is a set of philosophy lessons for everyone - the most valuable wisdom of ages past made available for our times, and for all time.
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4 out of 5 stars
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I would guess the book is better
- By Education Expert on 03-07-20
By: Ward Farnsworth
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Medieval Myths & Mysteries
- By: Dorsey Armstrong, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Dorsey Armstrong
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,521
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,984
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,958
The 10 enlightening (and often humorous) lectures of Medieval Myths and Mysteries will show you how far from the “dark” times of legend these centuries were. Uncover the facts about the Knights Templar. Reveal the truth behind the tales of legendary creatures like the Questing Beast and the unicorn. Trace the events of the Black Death and the ways it altered the world in its wake, and much more. With Professor Armstrong, you will dig deep into the ways that later generations reshaped the narrative of the medieval years and perpetuated the myths.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, but centered on Britain
- By Ximena on 04-10-20
By: Dorsey Armstrong, and others
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The Mastery of Self
- A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom
- By: Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
- Narrated by: Charlie Varon
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,192
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,456
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,436
The ancient Toltecs believed that life, as we perceive it, is a dream. We each live in our own personal dream, and these come together to form the dream of the planet, or the world in which we live. Problems arise when our perception of the dream becomes clouded with negativity, drama, and judgment (of ourselves and others), because it's in these moments of suffering that we have forgotten that we are the architects of our own reality and we have the power to change our dream if we choose.
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5 out of 5 stars
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listen.. .then listen again
- By Casiano on 12-22-16
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I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t)
- Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power
- By: Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,767
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,902
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,845
Based on seven years of ground-breaking research and hundreds of interviews, I Thought It Was Just Me shines a long-overdue light on an important truth: Our imperfections are what connect us to each other and to our humanity. Our vulnerabilities are not weaknesses; they are powerful reminders to keep our hearts and minds open to the reality that we're all in this together.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I'm sure its great if you are a mother ....
- By Leslie A Hill on 08-09-11
By: Brené Brown
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Finding Tamika
- By: Erika Alexander, Kevin Hart, Charlamagne Tha God, and others
- Narrated by: Erika Alexander
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,115
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,826
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,805
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.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Cynical conflation of two tragedies
- By Buretto on 03-26-22
By: Erika Alexander, and others
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Pipeline to Power
- The 40-Year Plan to Capture the Supreme Court
- By: Vicky Ward
- Narrated by: Vicky Ward
- Length: 4 hrs
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 152
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 151
Forty years ago, following the appointment of their professors to the federal bench, a tiny group of conservative law students at Yale Law School worried that their ideas might disappear from intellectual discourse in this bastion of liberal thought. They set out to fill that void. But they ended up achieving way more than that. Over the next few decades, the Federalist Society became an integral tool in the larger conservative movement, with political, judicial, and social repercussions ending in the conservative capture of the Supreme Court and the election of Donald Trump to the presidency.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Disturbingly Timely
- By pilatesgal on 09-24-23
By: Vicky Ward
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Kombucha Curious
- How a Drink Transformed My Life
- By: Duff McDonald
- Narrated by: Duff McDonald
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 116
It originated in Asia, moved to Europe, and is now consumed worldwide — a slightly-fermented tea that is purported to cure everything from indigestion to cancer. We’re talking about kombucha, which has exploded in popularity in the last quarter century. While the exact health benefits of kombucha remain unproven, it’s quite certain that the effervescent elixir provides its worldwide fans with a spiritual lift unlike any other drink.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful Audiobook Voice!
- By Sarah Gilmore on 10-15-23
By: Duff McDonald
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Buddhism for Beginners
- By: Thubten Chodron, His Holiness the Dalai Lama - foreword
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,106
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,790
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,770
This user’s guide to Buddhist basics takes the most commonly asked questions - beginning with “What is the essence of the Buddha’s teachings?” - and provides simple answers in plain English. Thubten Chodron’s responses to the questions that always seem to arise among people approaching Buddhism make this an exceptionally complete and accessible introduction - as well as a manual for living a more peaceful, mindful, and satisfying Life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing introduction to Buddhism
- By chad d on 07-02-15
By: Thubten Chodron, and others