-
How to Survive a Plague
- The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS
- Narrated by: Rory O'Malley
- Length: 24 hrs and 28 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
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $27.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Body Counts
- A Memoir of Politics, Sex, Aids, and Survival
- By: Sean Strub
- Narrated by: David Drake
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the AIDS epidemic hit in the early 1980s, Strub was living in New York and soon found himself attending "more funerals than birthday parties". Scared and angry, he turned to radical activism to combat discrimination and demand research. Strub takes you through his own diagnosis and inside ACT UP, the organization that transformed a stigmatized cause into one of the defining political movements of our time.
-
-
An Inspiration to Act Up!
- By Susie on 08-18-15
By: Sean Strub
-
And the Band Played On
- Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously?
-
-
The subtitle says it all!
- By Jan Mitchell Johnson on 03-19-13
By: Randy Shilts
-
Let the Record Show
- A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
- By: Sarah Schulman
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Coleman Williams, Sarah Schulman
- Length: 27 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In just six years, ACT UP, New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, changed the world. Armed with rancor, desperation, intelligence, and creativity, it took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on the corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. Let the Record Show is a revelatory exploration - and long-overdue reassessment - of the coalition’s inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture.
-
-
Narration makes it difficult to enjoy
- By Katrine on 06-28-21
By: Sarah Schulman
-
Never Silent
- ACT UP and My Life in Activism
- By: Peter Staley
- Narrated by: Peter Staley
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1987, somebody shoved a flyer into the hand of Peter Staley: Massive AIDS demonstration, it announced. After four years on Wall Street as a closeted gay man, Staley was familiar with the homophobia common on trading floors. He also knew that he was not beyond the reach of HIV, having recently been diagnosed with AIDS-related complex. A week after the protest, Staley found his way to a packed meeting of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power - ACT UP - in the West Village. It would prove to be the best decision he ever made.
-
-
A story needed.
- By CJ on 02-03-23
By: Peter Staley
-
The Deviant's War
- The Homosexual vs. the United States of America
- By: Eric Cervini
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the US Military in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, DC. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny - like gay men and women for generations - was promptly dismissed from the military. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back.
-
-
Big Surprise
- By elwood on 08-01-20
By: Eric Cervini
-
All the Young Men
- A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South
- By: Ruth Coker Burks, Kevin Carr O'Leary
- Narrated by: Ruth Coker Burks
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1986, 26-year-old Ruth is visiting a friend at the hospital when she notices that the door to one of the hospital rooms is painted red. She witnesses nurses drawing straws to see who will tend to the patient inside, all of them reluctant to enter the room. Out of impulse, Ruth herself enters the quarantined space and immediately begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. Before she can even process what she’s done, word spreads in the community that Ruth is the only person willing to help these young men afflicted by AIDS.
-
-
If you listen to one book this year. THIS IS IT.
- By Labs4life on 12-04-20
By: Ruth Coker Burks, and others
-
Body Counts
- A Memoir of Politics, Sex, Aids, and Survival
- By: Sean Strub
- Narrated by: David Drake
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the AIDS epidemic hit in the early 1980s, Strub was living in New York and soon found himself attending "more funerals than birthday parties". Scared and angry, he turned to radical activism to combat discrimination and demand research. Strub takes you through his own diagnosis and inside ACT UP, the organization that transformed a stigmatized cause into one of the defining political movements of our time.
-
-
An Inspiration to Act Up!
- By Susie on 08-18-15
By: Sean Strub
-
And the Band Played On
- Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously?
-
-
The subtitle says it all!
- By Jan Mitchell Johnson on 03-19-13
By: Randy Shilts
-
Let the Record Show
- A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
- By: Sarah Schulman
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Coleman Williams, Sarah Schulman
- Length: 27 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In just six years, ACT UP, New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, changed the world. Armed with rancor, desperation, intelligence, and creativity, it took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on the corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. Let the Record Show is a revelatory exploration - and long-overdue reassessment - of the coalition’s inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture.
-
-
Narration makes it difficult to enjoy
- By Katrine on 06-28-21
By: Sarah Schulman
-
Never Silent
- ACT UP and My Life in Activism
- By: Peter Staley
- Narrated by: Peter Staley
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1987, somebody shoved a flyer into the hand of Peter Staley: Massive AIDS demonstration, it announced. After four years on Wall Street as a closeted gay man, Staley was familiar with the homophobia common on trading floors. He also knew that he was not beyond the reach of HIV, having recently been diagnosed with AIDS-related complex. A week after the protest, Staley found his way to a packed meeting of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power - ACT UP - in the West Village. It would prove to be the best decision he ever made.
-
-
A story needed.
- By CJ on 02-03-23
By: Peter Staley
-
The Deviant's War
- The Homosexual vs. the United States of America
- By: Eric Cervini
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the US Military in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, DC. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny - like gay men and women for generations - was promptly dismissed from the military. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back.
-
-
Big Surprise
- By elwood on 08-01-20
By: Eric Cervini
-
All the Young Men
- A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South
- By: Ruth Coker Burks, Kevin Carr O'Leary
- Narrated by: Ruth Coker Burks
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1986, 26-year-old Ruth is visiting a friend at the hospital when she notices that the door to one of the hospital rooms is painted red. She witnesses nurses drawing straws to see who will tend to the patient inside, all of them reluctant to enter the room. Out of impulse, Ruth herself enters the quarantined space and immediately begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. Before she can even process what she’s done, word spreads in the community that Ruth is the only person willing to help these young men afflicted by AIDS.
-
-
If you listen to one book this year. THIS IS IT.
- By Labs4life on 12-04-20
By: Ruth Coker Burks, and others
-
Serious Adverse Events
- An Uncensored History of AIDS
- By: Celia Farber, Mark Crispin Miller - foreword
- Narrated by: Caroline White
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On April 23, 1984, in a packed press conference room in Washington, DC, the secretary of health and human services declared “The probable cause of AIDS has been found.” By the next day, “probable” had fallen away, and the novel retrovirus later named HIV became forever lodged in global consciousness as “the AIDS virus.” Celia Farber, then an intrepid young reporter for SPIN magazine, was the only journalist to question the official narrative and dig into the science of AIDS.
-
-
Must read for critical thinkers
- By Anonymous User on 08-16-23
By: Celia Farber, and others
-
An African American and Latinx History of the United States
- By: Paul Ortiz
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning more than 200 years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into the story of the working class organizing against imperialism.
-
-
I had to return
- By Andrew Alvarez on 05-19-20
By: Paul Ortiz
-
The Great Influenza
- The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the winter of 1918, at the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision between modern science and epidemic disease.
-
-
Great book but very disturbing...
- By Tim on 01-15-09
By: John M. Barry
-
When We Rise
- My Life in the Movement
- By: Cleve Jones
- Narrated by: Cleve Jones
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From longtime activist Cleve Jones, here is a sweeping, beautifully written memoir about a full and remarkable American life. Jones brings to life the magnetic spell cast by 1970s San Francisco, the drama and heartbreak of the AIDS crisis and the vibrant generation of gay men lost to it, and his activist work on labor, immigration, and gay rights, which continues today.
-
-
It's a Blue Whale! Oh, Mary don"t ask!
- By Jimmy McBride on 12-12-16
By: Cleve Jones
-
Transgender History, Second Edition
- The Roots of Today's Revolution
- By: Susan Stryker
- Narrated by: Emily Cauldwell
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Covering American transgender history from the mid-20th century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events.
-
-
something for everyone to learn
- By Nick G on 03-12-19
By: Susan Stryker
-
Bad Blood
- Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
- By: John Carreyrou
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup “unicorn” promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.5 billion.
-
-
Extreme retaliation against former employees
- By LEE on 05-29-18
By: John Carreyrou
-
Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Richard A. McKay
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Patient Zero, Richard A. McKay presents a carefully documented and sensitively written account of the life of Gaetan Dugas, a gay man whose skin cancer diagnosis in 1980 took on very different meanings as the HIV/AIDS epidemic developed - and who received widespread posthumous infamy when he was incorrectly identified as patient zero of the North American outbreak.
-
-
A great revisionist history book
- By Maria José Celis on 05-04-23
By: Richard A. McKay
-
The Stonewall Reader
- By: New York Public Library, Edmund White
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
June 28, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library's archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots.
-
-
A good snapshot of LGBT history
- By Randy A. Wood on 09-28-19
By: New York Public Library, and others
-
Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
-
-
An outstanding story, highly recommended
- By S. Blakely on 06-22-17
By: David Grann
-
The Gay Revolution
- The Story of the Struggle
- By: Lillian Faderman
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 29 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Gay Revolution begins in the 1950s, when law classified gays and lesbians as criminals, the psychiatric profession saw them as mentally ill, the churches saw them as sinners, and society victimized them with irrational hatred. Against this dark backdrop, a few brave people began to fight back, paving the way for the revolutionary changes of the 1960s and beyond.
-
-
An outstanding book.
- By David Farley on 10-21-15
By: Lillian Faderman
-
Gay Bar
- Why We Went Out
- By: Jeremy Atherton Lin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Atherton Lin
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the era of Grindr and same-sex marriage, gay bars are closing down at an alarming rate. What, then, was the gay bar? Set between Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London, Gay Bar takes us on a time-traveling, transatlantic bar hop through pulsing nightclubs, after-work dives, hardcore leather bars, gay cafes, and saunas, asking what these places meant to their original clientele, what they meant to the author as a younger man, and what they mean now.
-
-
Gay Bar : A Review
- By Anonymous User on 05-17-21
-
Stonewall
- The Definitive Story of the LGBT Rights Uprising that Changed America
- By: Martin Duberman
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, was raided by police. But instead of responding with the typical compliance the NYPD expected, patrons and a growing crowd decided to fight back. The five days of rioting that ensued changed forever the face of gay and lesbian life. In Stonewall, renowned historian and activist Martin Duberman tells the full story of this pivotal moment in history.
-
-
Good portrayal of historical events
- By Lucas J Dollens on 05-10-24
By: Martin Duberman
Publisher's summary
A New York Times 2016 Notable Book
The definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic - from the creator of, and inspired by, the seminal documentary How to Survive a Plague.
A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments. Around the globe, 16 million people are alive today thanks to their efforts.
Not since the publication of Randy Shilts' classic And the Band Played On has a book measured the AIDS plague in such brutally human, intimate, and soaring terms.
In dramatic fashion, we witness the founding of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) and the rise of an underground drug market in opposition to the prohibitively expensive (and sometimes toxic) AZT. We watch as these activists learn to become their own researchers, lobbyists, drug smugglers, and clinicians, establishing their own newspapers, research journals, and laboratories, and as they go on to force reform in the nation's disease-fighting agencies.
With his unparalleled access to this community, David France illuminates the lives of extraordinary characters, including the closeted Wall Street trader turned activist, the high school dropout who found purpose battling pharmaceutical giants in New York, the South African physician who helped establish the first officially recognized buyers' club at the height of the epidemic, and the public relations executive fighting to save his own life for the sake of his young daughter.
Expansive yet richly detailed, this is an insider's account of a pivotal moment in the history of American civil rights. Powerful, heart-wrenching, and finally exhilarating, How to Survive a Plague is destined to become an essential part of the literature of AIDS.
Critic reviews
"Prepare to have your heart buoyed and broken in this riveting account.... This highly engaging account is a must-read for anyone interested in epidemiology, civil rights, gay rights, public health, and American history." (Library Journal)
"Powerful.... American history, memoir, public health, and a call-to-action are perfectly and passionately blended here. Spectacular and soulful." (Booklist)
"A lucid, urgent updating of Randy Shilts' And the Band Played On (1987) and a fine work of social history." (Kirkus)
More from the same
Author
Narrator
Related to this topic
-
Splendid Solution
- Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
- By: Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salk became a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. Now, at the fiftieth anniversary of the first national vaccination program, and as humanity is tantalizingly close to eradicating polio worldwide, comes this unforgettable chronicle. Salk's work was an unparalleled achievement, and it makes for a magnificent listen.
-
-
Excellent book
- By Tim on 08-10-06
By: Jeffrey Kluger
-
Polio
- An American Story
- By: David M. Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This comprehensive and gripping narrative, which received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history, covers all the challenges, characters, and controversies in America's relentless struggle against polio. Funded by philanthropy and grassroots contributions, Salk's killed-virus vaccine (1954) and Sabin's live-virus vaccine (1961) began to eradicate this dreaded disease.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Patricia B Tripoli on 07-22-08
-
The Desperate Hours
- One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines
- By: Marie Brenner
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 arrived in New York City. Before long, America’s largest metropolis was at war against a virus that mercilessly swept through its five boroughs. In The Desperate Hours, award-winning journalist Marie Brenner, having been granted unprecedented 18-month access to the entire New York-Presbyterian hospital system, tells the story of the doctors, nurses, residents, researchers, and suppliers who tried to save lives across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn and the northern periphery of the city.
-
-
Way too much politics
- By Josh on 07-18-22
By: Marie Brenner
-
Inferno
- A Doctor's Ebola Story
- By: Steven Hatch MD
- Narrated by: Steven Hatch MD
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Steven Hatch first came to Liberia in November 2013 to work at a hospital in Monrovia. Six months later, several of the physicians Dr. Hatch had mentored and served with were dead or barely clinging to life, and Ebola had become a world health emergency. Hundreds of victims perished each week; whole families were destroyed in a matter of days; so many died so quickly that the culturally taboo practice of cremation had to be instituted to dispose of the bodies.
-
-
Amazing.
- By Kirsten Lasley on 06-15-23
By: Steven Hatch MD
-
Paradise Falls
- The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
- By: Keith O'Brien
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
-
-
Informative!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-20-24
By: Keith O'Brien
-
The Good Death
- An Exploration of Dying in America
- By: Ann Neumann
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the death of her father, journalist and hospice volunteer Ann Neumann sets out to examine what it means to die well in the United States. When Ann Neumann's father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, she left her job and moved back to her hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She became his full-time caregiver - cooking, cleaning, and administering medications. When her father died, she was undone by the experience, by grief and the visceral quality of dying.
-
-
Ugh, so boring
- By Maranto on 05-13-19
By: Ann Neumann
-
Splendid Solution
- Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
- By: Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Salk became a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. Now, at the fiftieth anniversary of the first national vaccination program, and as humanity is tantalizingly close to eradicating polio worldwide, comes this unforgettable chronicle. Salk's work was an unparalleled achievement, and it makes for a magnificent listen.
-
-
Excellent book
- By Tim on 08-10-06
By: Jeffrey Kluger
-
Polio
- An American Story
- By: David M. Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This comprehensive and gripping narrative, which received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history, covers all the challenges, characters, and controversies in America's relentless struggle against polio. Funded by philanthropy and grassroots contributions, Salk's killed-virus vaccine (1954) and Sabin's live-virus vaccine (1961) began to eradicate this dreaded disease.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Patricia B Tripoli on 07-22-08
-
The Desperate Hours
- One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines
- By: Marie Brenner
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 arrived in New York City. Before long, America’s largest metropolis was at war against a virus that mercilessly swept through its five boroughs. In The Desperate Hours, award-winning journalist Marie Brenner, having been granted unprecedented 18-month access to the entire New York-Presbyterian hospital system, tells the story of the doctors, nurses, residents, researchers, and suppliers who tried to save lives across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn and the northern periphery of the city.
-
-
Way too much politics
- By Josh on 07-18-22
By: Marie Brenner
-
Inferno
- A Doctor's Ebola Story
- By: Steven Hatch MD
- Narrated by: Steven Hatch MD
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Steven Hatch first came to Liberia in November 2013 to work at a hospital in Monrovia. Six months later, several of the physicians Dr. Hatch had mentored and served with were dead or barely clinging to life, and Ebola had become a world health emergency. Hundreds of victims perished each week; whole families were destroyed in a matter of days; so many died so quickly that the culturally taboo practice of cremation had to be instituted to dispose of the bodies.
-
-
Amazing.
- By Kirsten Lasley on 06-15-23
By: Steven Hatch MD
-
Paradise Falls
- The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
- By: Keith O'Brien
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
-
-
Informative!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-20-24
By: Keith O'Brien
-
The Good Death
- An Exploration of Dying in America
- By: Ann Neumann
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the death of her father, journalist and hospice volunteer Ann Neumann sets out to examine what it means to die well in the United States. When Ann Neumann's father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, she left her job and moved back to her hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She became his full-time caregiver - cooking, cleaning, and administering medications. When her father died, she was undone by the experience, by grief and the visceral quality of dying.
-
-
Ugh, so boring
- By Maranto on 05-13-19
By: Ann Neumann
-
Truth Doesn't Have a Side
- My Alarming Discovery About the Danger of Contact Sports
- By: Dr. Bennet Omalu, Mark Tabb, Will Smith - foreword
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day in 2002 the 50-year old body of former Pittsburgh Steeler and hall of famer Mike Webster was laid on a cold table in front of pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu. Webster's body looked to Omalu like the body of a much older man, and the circumstances of his behavior prior to his death were clouded in mystery. But when Omalu cut into Webster's brain, it appeared to be normal. Something didn't add up.
-
-
Truly Enlightening
- By Marie on 01-31-20
By: Dr. Bennet Omalu, and others
-
The Birth of the Pill
- How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Gayle Hendrix
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We know it simply as "the pill", yet its genesis was anything but simple. Jonathan Eig's masterful narrative revolves around four principal characters: the fiery feminist Margaret Sanger, who was a champion of birth control in her campaign for the rights of women but neglected her own children in pursuit of free love; the beautiful Katharine McCormick, who owed her fortune to her wealthy husband, the son of the founder of International Harvester and a schizophrenic.
-
-
Overall Excellent Read
- By Rachel on 04-02-22
By: Jonathan Eig
-
Beating Back the Devil
- By: Maryn McKenna
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The universal instinct is to run from an outbreak of disease. These doctors run toward it. They always keep a bag packed. They seldom have more than 24 hours before they are dispatched. They are told only their country of destination and the epidemic they will tackle when they get there.
-
-
Interesting Stuff - Only criticism is pacing
- By Tim on 07-23-05
By: Maryn McKenna
-
Bellevue
- Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
- By: David Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 12-14-16
By: David Oshinsky
-
Bad City
- Peril and Power in the City of Angels
- By: Paul Pringle
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cool, overcast afternoon in April 2016, a salacious tip arrived at the L.A. Times that reporter Paul Pringle thought should have taken, at most, a few weeks to check out: a drug overdose at a fancy hotel involving one of the University of Southern California’s shiniest stars—Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the head of the prestigious medical school. Pringle, who’d long done battle with USC and its almost impenetrable culture of silence, knew reporting the story wouldn’t be a walk in the park. USC is the largest private employer in the city of L.A., and it casts a long shadow.
-
-
Wow.
- By Anna on 07-22-22
By: Paul Pringle
-
Five Days at Memorial
- Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
- By: Sheri Fink
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs.
-
-
Five Days in Hell/Years in Purgatory
- By Cynthia on 09-15-13
By: Sheri Fink
-
Promise Me, Dad
- A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose
- By: Joe Biden
- Narrated by: Joe Biden
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 2014, 13 members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past 40 years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before.
-
-
A Sad Memoir
- By Jean on 12-02-17
By: Joe Biden
-
Epic Measures
- One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients.
- By: Jeremy N. Smith
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moneyball meets medicine in this remarkable chronicle of one of the greatest scientific quests of our time - the groundbreaking program to answer the most essential question for humanity: How do we live and die? - and the visionary mastermind behind it.
-
-
Fabulously insightful read!
- By Dr. Jack E. Fincham on 10-08-15
By: Jeremy N. Smith
-
Inside Scientology
- The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
- By: Janet Reitman
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Scientology, created in 1954 by a prolific sci-fi writer named L. Ron Hubbard, claims to be the world's fastest-growing religion, with millions of members around the world and huge financial holdings. Its celebrity believers keep its profile high, and its teams of "volunteer ministers" offer aid at disaster sites such as Haiti and the World Trade Center. But Scientology is also a notably closed faith, harassing journalists and others through litigation and intimidation, even infiltrating the highest levels of government to further its goals.
-
-
My cup of tea.
- By MWMcCabe on 08-09-11
By: Janet Reitman
-
Going Clear
- Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Morton Sellers
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A clear-sighted revelation, a deep penetration into the world of Scientology by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, the now-classic study of al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attack. Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists—both famous and less well known—and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative ability to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology.
-
-
Shockingly Great
- By Michael on 01-27-13
By: Lawrence Wright
-
Charlatan
- America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him and the Age of Flimflam
- By: Pope Brock
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the enormously entertaining story of how a fraudulent surgeon made a fortune by inserting goats' testes into impotent American men. "Doctor" John Brinkley became a world renowned authority on sexual rejuvenation in the 1920s, with famous politicians and even royalty asking for his services.
-
-
nix the narrator
- By susan nenadic on 02-08-09
By: Pope Brock
-
The Fatal Strain
- On the Trail of Avian Flu and the Coming Pandemic
- By: Alan Sipress
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When avian flu began spreading across Asia in the early 2000s, it reawakened fears that had lain dormant for nearly a century. During the outbreak's deadliest years, Alan Sipress chased the virus as it infiltrated remote jungle villages and teeming cities and saw its mysteries elude the world's top scientists. In The Fatal Strain, Sipress details how socioeconomic and political realities in Asia make it the perfect petri dish in which the fast-mutating strain can become easily communicable among humans.
-
-
Narrator comments
- By Don on 01-10-10
By: Alan Sipress
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
And the Band Played On
- Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously?
-
-
The subtitle says it all!
- By Jan Mitchell Johnson on 03-19-13
By: Randy Shilts
-
Never Silent
- ACT UP and My Life in Activism
- By: Peter Staley
- Narrated by: Peter Staley
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1987, somebody shoved a flyer into the hand of Peter Staley: Massive AIDS demonstration, it announced. After four years on Wall Street as a closeted gay man, Staley was familiar with the homophobia common on trading floors. He also knew that he was not beyond the reach of HIV, having recently been diagnosed with AIDS-related complex. A week after the protest, Staley found his way to a packed meeting of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power - ACT UP - in the West Village. It would prove to be the best decision he ever made.
-
-
A story needed.
- By CJ on 02-03-23
By: Peter Staley
-
All the Young Men
- A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South
- By: Ruth Coker Burks, Kevin Carr O'Leary
- Narrated by: Ruth Coker Burks
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1986, 26-year-old Ruth is visiting a friend at the hospital when she notices that the door to one of the hospital rooms is painted red. She witnesses nurses drawing straws to see who will tend to the patient inside, all of them reluctant to enter the room. Out of impulse, Ruth herself enters the quarantined space and immediately begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. Before she can even process what she’s done, word spreads in the community that Ruth is the only person willing to help these young men afflicted by AIDS.
-
-
If you listen to one book this year. THIS IS IT.
- By Labs4life on 12-04-20
By: Ruth Coker Burks, and others
-
When We Rise
- My Life in the Movement
- By: Cleve Jones
- Narrated by: Cleve Jones
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From longtime activist Cleve Jones, here is a sweeping, beautifully written memoir about a full and remarkable American life. Jones brings to life the magnetic spell cast by 1970s San Francisco, the drama and heartbreak of the AIDS crisis and the vibrant generation of gay men lost to it, and his activist work on labor, immigration, and gay rights, which continues today.
-
-
It's a Blue Whale! Oh, Mary don"t ask!
- By Jimmy McBride on 12-12-16
By: Cleve Jones
-
Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Richard A. McKay
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Patient Zero, Richard A. McKay presents a carefully documented and sensitively written account of the life of Gaetan Dugas, a gay man whose skin cancer diagnosis in 1980 took on very different meanings as the HIV/AIDS epidemic developed - and who received widespread posthumous infamy when he was incorrectly identified as patient zero of the North American outbreak.
-
-
A great revisionist history book
- By Maria José Celis on 05-04-23
By: Richard A. McKay
-
Serious Adverse Events
- An Uncensored History of AIDS
- By: Celia Farber, Mark Crispin Miller - foreword
- Narrated by: Caroline White
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On April 23, 1984, in a packed press conference room in Washington, DC, the secretary of health and human services declared “The probable cause of AIDS has been found.” By the next day, “probable” had fallen away, and the novel retrovirus later named HIV became forever lodged in global consciousness as “the AIDS virus.” Celia Farber, then an intrepid young reporter for SPIN magazine, was the only journalist to question the official narrative and dig into the science of AIDS.
-
-
Must read for critical thinkers
- By Anonymous User on 08-16-23
By: Celia Farber, and others
-
And the Band Played On
- Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously?
-
-
The subtitle says it all!
- By Jan Mitchell Johnson on 03-19-13
By: Randy Shilts
-
Never Silent
- ACT UP and My Life in Activism
- By: Peter Staley
- Narrated by: Peter Staley
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1987, somebody shoved a flyer into the hand of Peter Staley: Massive AIDS demonstration, it announced. After four years on Wall Street as a closeted gay man, Staley was familiar with the homophobia common on trading floors. He also knew that he was not beyond the reach of HIV, having recently been diagnosed with AIDS-related complex. A week after the protest, Staley found his way to a packed meeting of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power - ACT UP - in the West Village. It would prove to be the best decision he ever made.
-
-
A story needed.
- By CJ on 02-03-23
By: Peter Staley
-
All the Young Men
- A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South
- By: Ruth Coker Burks, Kevin Carr O'Leary
- Narrated by: Ruth Coker Burks
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1986, 26-year-old Ruth is visiting a friend at the hospital when she notices that the door to one of the hospital rooms is painted red. She witnesses nurses drawing straws to see who will tend to the patient inside, all of them reluctant to enter the room. Out of impulse, Ruth herself enters the quarantined space and immediately begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. Before she can even process what she’s done, word spreads in the community that Ruth is the only person willing to help these young men afflicted by AIDS.
-
-
If you listen to one book this year. THIS IS IT.
- By Labs4life on 12-04-20
By: Ruth Coker Burks, and others
-
When We Rise
- My Life in the Movement
- By: Cleve Jones
- Narrated by: Cleve Jones
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From longtime activist Cleve Jones, here is a sweeping, beautifully written memoir about a full and remarkable American life. Jones brings to life the magnetic spell cast by 1970s San Francisco, the drama and heartbreak of the AIDS crisis and the vibrant generation of gay men lost to it, and his activist work on labor, immigration, and gay rights, which continues today.
-
-
It's a Blue Whale! Oh, Mary don"t ask!
- By Jimmy McBride on 12-12-16
By: Cleve Jones
-
Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Richard A. McKay
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Patient Zero, Richard A. McKay presents a carefully documented and sensitively written account of the life of Gaetan Dugas, a gay man whose skin cancer diagnosis in 1980 took on very different meanings as the HIV/AIDS epidemic developed - and who received widespread posthumous infamy when he was incorrectly identified as patient zero of the North American outbreak.
-
-
A great revisionist history book
- By Maria José Celis on 05-04-23
By: Richard A. McKay
-
Serious Adverse Events
- An Uncensored History of AIDS
- By: Celia Farber, Mark Crispin Miller - foreword
- Narrated by: Caroline White
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On April 23, 1984, in a packed press conference room in Washington, DC, the secretary of health and human services declared “The probable cause of AIDS has been found.” By the next day, “probable” had fallen away, and the novel retrovirus later named HIV became forever lodged in global consciousness as “the AIDS virus.” Celia Farber, then an intrepid young reporter for SPIN magazine, was the only journalist to question the official narrative and dig into the science of AIDS.
-
-
Must read for critical thinkers
- By Anonymous User on 08-16-23
By: Celia Farber, and others
What listeners say about How to Survive a Plague
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- frostiielf
- 06-14-21
If you're into this topic do not miss this
as someone who was already very interested in the topic oh, I could not get enough of this book. it might be overkill for anyone who is not interested in this level of detail.
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
- Kay M Hawklee
- 05-30-17
Read This Book!
It's almost hard to write a review for this excellent book, because there's just so much to it, all of it very well written. Not only is this an excellent and detailed account of the early years of the AIDS crisis, but it's a deeply personal account of the lives of the author, his friends and lovers, and other activists during that time. I wanted to thank the author at the end, for sharing so much of himself with his readers and truly opening a window into the horrors and also the amount of love and dedication that defined the AIDS crisis in New York in the 1980s. What the men and women activists accomplished during to save their loved ones and themselves was remarkable. This is a story that needs to be read at the very least, and probably should be shouted from the rooftops.
The narration was wonderful, and felt very personal. This was so dry, monotonous reading.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael
- 07-03-17
Sad story, beautifully told
This is a devastating history but wonderfully told. Rory O'Malley provides excellent narration. Should do more audiobooks.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 03-25-17
A book everyone should read/ hear
Amazing history of the AIDS crisis, at no point did I ever lose interest. It is heartbreaking and also inspiring.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joseph Dress
- 04-06-17
Controversial. Stunning. Inspirational.
Any additional comments?
Wow. Another good Audible. Definitely controversial but it's a stunning recollection how desperate citizens can overcome the ineptness and downright viciousness of government and leaders shown to the most needy.
The plague is done. The epidemic continues.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Navelgazing Writer
- 12-11-20
A View of Early AIDS Rarely Seen
I read this as research for something I am writing and it pulled me in fast, keeping me enthralled with both the social and scientific aspects of the birth of the AIDS movement in the US. I was there for some of it and my experiences are spot on for the beginning parts of the book, but it blossomed demonstrating the intense anger at the lack of concern everyone but the gay community had for their lives. Reading how ACT UP and the other groups were born was fantastic history for me to learn about.
What is interesting are the parallels between COVID-19 and the AIDS pandemics, how if it isn't white healthy men being eviscerated, no one seems to give a whit about them/us.
I will read this book again after I read other books from that time. It really has added to my knowledge about that very painful time.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jai Nitai Holzman
- 12-07-18
Moving, sometimes technical, sometimes emotion
This book does a great job of documenting the AIDS crisis from its first days. The author was part of the early NYC days and gives a view only a contemporary could give.
It expands on the documentary. If you're on the fence, I'd say give it a try. (You can always get your credit back, although this isn't great for the readers/performers.)
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Frank
- 06-12-18
Inspiring activism in the face of great odds
Though consistently dark, this book is rarely bleak, and it proves itself a landmark in queer historical literature. From throwing a giant condom over a politician’s house to creating an illegal drug market that was both a protest and a means to survive, the AIDS Epidemic activists disrupted society with a relentlessness far greater than the disease that ravaged their bodies. We typically regard this period of Queer History with appropriate reverence and gravity, but if I had to pick one word to describe the ACT UP movement, it would be this: Badass.
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
- Nathan
- 02-11-18
Very important read
Excellent firsthand account of a heroic struggle. Great listen. Listened during a week long house project and knocked it out in a week.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aileen
- 05-12-17
Powerful
This is an amazing story. It filled in many of the bits and pieces I remembered from my youth. I love the combination of memoir, epidemiology, and history, especially about the power of activism.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!