Showing results by narrator "Jeffrey Kafer"

Terence McKenna hypothesizes that as the North African jungles receded, giving way to savannas and grasslands near the end of the most recent ice age, a branch of our arboreal primate ancestors left the forest canopy and began living in the open areas beyond. There they experimented with new varieties of foods as they adapted, physically and mentally, to the environment. Among the new foods found in this environment were psilocybin-containing mushrooms.

The human race has turned to dust. August Morrison faces it after rising from the depths of a dark matter research facility in Arizona. His co-workers. His daughter. All of them: dust. Friends and colleagues around the world don’t answer their phones. The city of Phoenix burns. He is alone. As a world without mankind starts to crumble, August fights not just for survival, but for his very sanity. On the other side of the country, Poe McDowell watches her parents crumble into dust just moments after being shoved inside a coffin-like device that spares her from the same fate.

Steven Rinella grew up in Twin Lake, Michigan, the son of a hunter who taught his three sons to love the natural world the way he did. As a child, Rinella devoured stories of the American wilderness, especially the exploits of his hero, Daniel Boone. He began fishing at the age of three and shot his first squirrel at eight and his first deer at thirteen. He chose the colleges he went to by their proximity to good hunting ground, and he experimented with living solely off wild meat. As an adult, he feeds his family from the food he hunts.

Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus, we don't like to talk, or even think, about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain". 

It was supposed to be just another mission. Buried deep in the rugged Alaskan wilderness lies a secret that could alter the future of mankind - a secret that billionaire Elizabeth Grey has invested millions in solving. But when the dig goes silent, an elite team of battle-hardened military contractors is brought in led by former Marine Max Ahlgren. While the mission to make contact and rescue a team of scientists and engineers working on an “archeological” project seems like an easy payday, once on ground, the team discovers the grizzly truth that this is no ordinary rescue.

 As his sister faces a critical moment, Captain Scott must chase his friends to regions he has yet to travel. Sometimes, you just have to take risks for those you care about. Sometimes, quite often. 

Jon Reznick is a "ghost": a black-ops specialist who takes his orders from shadowy handlers, and his salary from the US government. Still mourning the loss of his beloved wife on 9/11, he's dispatched to carry out a high-level hit. Reznick knows only that it must look like suicide. It's textbook. But the target is not the man Reznick expected. The whole setup is wrong. In an instant the operation is compromised, and Reznick is on the run with the man he was sent to kill.

The Hegemony has launched the invasion Tyler Barron and his Confederation comrades have feared, and all the Rim is ablaze with the fires of war and destruction. The Hegemony has brought its vast fleets, its advanced technology, and its endless legions of grim cyborg warriors to impose its system of rigid genetic hierarchy over all humanity on the Rim. The Confederation fleet is outnumbered and outmatched, but they will fight nevertheless, struggling and dying to hold back the onslaught any way they can.

Nathan Stone was killed in action while serving as a covert CIA operative. Or so everyone thought. In reality he’s become a ghost, a black-ops asset with a new identity and controlled by a secret government organization. The Commission has one aim: to hunt down and assassinate anti-establishment enemies of the state. Its number-one target is Senator Brad Crichton, an ambitious politician with growing support. Stone is ready to take him out, but his plan is soon compromised....

A senior American security adviser is missing, presumed kidnapped for his top-level military intelligence. FBI Assistant Director Martha Meyerstein needs to track him down before classified information gets into the wrong hands. She needs Jon Reznick on board. The former black-ops assassin is supposed to be on vacation with his daughter, but when Meyerstein calls, it doesn't pay to keep her waiting.

When black-ops asset Nathan Stone took out the heads of the Commission, a secret deep-state organization, he thought he’d destroyed them for good. Now he’s gone off the grid, trying to get as far away from his past as possible. But the Commission isn’t done with him yet. Lying low in a Miami bar, Stone knows something’s up when an alluring actress strikes up a conversation with him. His suspicions are correct. The Commission is hot on his trail, and Stone is soon forced to run deep into the heart of the Everglades with the terrified woman as his hostage. 

The White Fleet had been an expression of optimism, a grand expedition to explore the vast reaches of the long-dead empire. Tasked to uncover the secrets of the devastating Cataclysm and to seek and recover the advanced ancient technology that humanity had once possessed, it found something else instead. A new enemy. A vast domain, one with advanced technology, massive fleets, and a genetically-ordered society and hierarchy it intends to impose on all humanity everywhere. The Hegemony is like nothing Tyler Barron and his comrades have ever encountered - but the veteran admiral must find a way to fight the far superior enemy....

In the past decade, depression rates have skyrocketed, and one in four Americans will suffer from major depression at some point in their lives. Where have we gone wrong? Dr. Stephen S. Ilardi sheds light on our current predicament and reminds us that our bodies were never designed for the sleep-deprived, poorly nourished, frenzied pace of 21st-century life.

Captain Scott has lost his entire family, save his sister, who needs better medical care than the Aurora can provide. Nathan, his friends, and the crew of the Seiiki must leave the Karuzari fleet to fend for themselves while they try to find a way to save Miri.

The warrior culture of the Alliance has fragmented, and comrade fights comrade, brother kills brother. The Red Alliance forces, backed by the Union and its propaganda machine, have the advantage in numbers and position, and they are pushing forward, driving relentlessly toward the final attack. The Gray Alliance forces are weaker, trapped in the great Sentinel-2 fortress where they've established their headquarters. Their enemies have the larger fleets and armies and control of the homeworld...but the Grays have Tyler Barron and Dauntless.

Ambushed behind enemy lines and left for dead along with a handful of privates so green they actually respect his authority, Lance Cpl. Lucky Lee Savage has to master his inner demons, manage the ambitions of his foul-mouthed AI, and figure out what is tearing a hole in the fabric of space-time before everything goes tits up. As alien races arrive and the dynamic of the universe shifts, the original conspirators among mankind’s ranks prepare to turn the tide of change back in their favor. And they have everything they need right inside Lucky’s head.

When an ex-Delta Forces operative dies in a car wreck in Miami, the FBI dismiss it as a tragic accident. But Jon Reznick isn't so sure - especially when he learns that his teetotal former colleague was apparently drunk at the wheel. Reznick's one-man investigation quickly enters dangerous territory when it becomes clear that this was merely the first in a series of mysterious deaths.

After taking out a covert facility run by the Commission, a deep-state syndicate, Nathan Stone has made powerful enemies. He’s a black-ops asset - and he’s gone rogue. But the organization wants payback. Kidnapping Stone’s sister from a Florida psychiatric hospital, the Commission have their asset exactly where they want him. They instruct him to neutralize journalist Mark Mahoney, to whom Stone had previously leaked documents about the Commission and their deadly conspiracy. Now, Nathan Stone has a choice: neutralize Mahoney and kill the story for good, or lose the only family he has left....

War. The word spreads throughout the Confederation...the long-expected Union invasion has come. The enemy is strong, their fleets larger and more powerful than intelligence reports had predicted. They have broken through the forward defenses, sent the Confederation's proud fleets into an ignominious retreat.

Divorce is difficult under the best of circumstances. When your spouse has borderline personality disorder (BPD), narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), or is manipulative, divorcing can be especially complicated. While people with these tendencies may initially appear convincing and even charming to lawyers and judges, you know better - many of these "persuasive blamers" leverage false accusations, attempt to manipulate others, launch verbal and physical attacks, and do everything they can to get their way. Splitting is your legal and psychological guide to safely navigating a high-conflict divorce.