Discover the Best Audio Stories in Non-Fiction, Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Lost in Austin: The Evolution of an American City by Alex Hannaford

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/719666 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/719666] to listen full audiobooks. Title: Lost in Austin: The Evolution of an American City Author: Alex Hannaford Narrator: James Meunier Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 6 minutes Release date: October 1, 2024 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: A long-time Austinite and journalist’s exploration of the profound movements that have shaped Austin, Texas—charting the shifts within its vibrant music scene, the impact of rapid urbanization, and the challenges of gentrification—ultimately questioning what this city’s transformation signals for American urban identity. Austin isn’t what it used to be. This is a common sentiment amongst locals, offered with the same confused—and often disappointed—tone familiar to residents of Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco, where rapid growth and expansion have led to an urban identity crisis. Like those cities, Austin is known for its unique qualities: a thriving live music scene and housing affordability that historically made it a compelling home for creatives and self-described weirdos to roost. But now, as Big Tech infiltrates and climate change looms, Austin has become less familiar—and far less affordable. An exploration of the beloved city’s evolution, Lost in Austin also serves as a critical exploration of the transformation that has befallen one of America’s most beloved cities—and serves as a warning for what the homogenization of cities means for American urban identity. With a journalist’s perspective and the heart of an Austinite, Alex Hannaford delves into the consequences of the city’s rapid growth in chapters that chronicle the major movements permanently altering the city: a vanishing music scene, soaring property values, and the encroachment of major industry. Through keen reportage and extensive interviews, Lost in Austin unveils the toll of unchecked growth and the city’s shift from its rebellious spirit to commercialization. Through those stories—vibrant, colorful, and clearly full of love for this city—Hannaford raises a crucial question: How do American cities, once celebrated for their unique values, became casualties of their own rapid growth and success? And can they ever return to what they once were?

The Big Guy: How a President and His Son Sold Out America by Miranda Devine

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/722354 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/722354] to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Big Guy: How a President and His Son Sold Out America Author: Miranda Devine Narrator: Charles Constant Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 12 hours 38 minutes Release date: September 24, 2024 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: The New York Post columnist, Fox News contributor, and national bestselling author of Laptop from Hell returns with the explosive, definitive account of the Biden family scandals. It’s rare that a campaign season has anything like an IRS whistleblower and a California US attorney saying they were blocked from pursuing charges, foreign wire transfers of millions of dollars going to several members of politician’s family, suspicious slap-on-the-wrist plea deals, mounds of incrimination texts, a previously unacknowledged child with a stripper, and multiple congressional investigations. It’s unprecedented to have them all tied to one politician like Joe Biden. The federal government and the mainstream media have been selling the narrative for years that Hunter Biden is a good son with addiction problems who has suffered enough. But what if the Biden family has been involved in sketchy financial dealings and coverups that get bigger every passing year? Miranda Devine goes deep into the dark underbelly of American politics, where it’s okay to break the law as long as you follow the rest of the elite’s rules. With a surgeon’s precision she dissects the shady dealings of the Biden family in China and Eastern Europe, exposing the cover-up within the government and media. With meticulous research and insider sources, Devine uncovers the shocking truth about Joe Biden's involvement in his son Hunter's business dealings and the extent of their corruption. Many have argued that intelligence agents and social media companies tilted the 2020 election in Biden’s favor by hiding the contents of Hunter’s laptop. Devine goes beyond their coverage to “silence the truth” and in The Big Guy finally reveals the corruption within the Biden family and the government.

The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside? by Guy Shrubsole

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/718965 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/718965] to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside? Author: Guy Shrubsole Narrator: Guy Shrubsole Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 58 minutes Release date: September 12, 2024 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: 'Both dynamite and medicine' AMY-JANE BEER 'Brave and brilliant’ GEORGE MONBIOT 'Timely and rousing' THE TIMES For centuries we’ve been sold a lie: that you need to own the land to care for it. Just 1% of the population own half of England, and this tiny landowning elite like to present themselves as the rightful custodians of the countryside. They’re even paid billions of pounds of public money to be good stewards. But what happens when they just don’t care? A small number of landowners have laid waste to some of our most treasured landscapes, leaving our forests bare, our rivers polluted, our moorlands burned, and our fenlands drained. Here Guy Shrubsole journeys all over Britain to expose the damage done to our land, and meet the communities fighting back: the river guardians, small farmers and trespassing activists restoring our lost wildlife. Full of rage and hope, this is a bold vision for our nation’s wild places, and how we can treat them with the awe and attention they deserve. It’s time to demand better for nature. We can start by replacing the lie of the land with a profound truth: that any of us can care for the countryside, regardless of whether you own it. 'Urgent and essential' CAROLINE LUCAS 'Exhilarating, insightful' LEE SCHOFIELD

The Boy from Baghdad: My Journey from Waziriyah to Westminster by Nadhim Zahawi

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/721166 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/721166] to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Boy from Baghdad: My Journey from Waziriyah to Westminster Author: Nadhim Zahawi Narrator: Nadhim Zahawi Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 12 hours 5 minutes Release date: August 29, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 1 of Total 1 Ratings of Narrator: 4 of Total 1 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: ‘Very few people in parliament can match Nadhim’s childhood experience, his understanding of international affairs, his skills as a businessman and his passion for politics’ Rory Stewart 'From Baghdad to number 11 Downing Street: in any other country it would be fiction. You have to read it to believe it’ Jeffrey Archer An Observer Book of the Week Born and raised in Baghdad, Nadhim Zahawi arrived in the UK aged 12, having been forced to flee Iraq with his family, under threat from Saddam Hussein’s regime. In this candid and thoughtful memoir, Nadhim vividly recalls his upbringing in the Middle East, his family’s adjustment to their new life in Britain and his rise to Second Lord of the Treasury, one of the highest offices in his adoptive homeland. From his family home being repossessed in his teens to the incredible success of YouGov, and from the highs (and lows) of Jeffrey Archer’s mayoral campaign to overseeing Britain’s rollout as Minister for COVID Vaccine Deployment, Nadhim reflects on the setbacks faced and hurdles cleared that have reinforced his belief in the power of hard work and the benefits of an open, inclusive society. The Boy from Baghdad is the full and fascinating story of Nadhim’s personal, professional and political journey from Waziriyah to Westminster.

Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections by David Daley

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/703254 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/703254] to listen full audiobooks. Title: Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections Author: David Daley Narrator: Kevin Stillwell Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 17 hours 45 minutes Release date: August 6, 2024 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: “Chilling and convincing, Antidemocratic is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand American politics in 2024.” —Heather Cox Richardson, author of Democracy Awakening A riveting yet disturbing history of the fifty-year Republican plot to hijack voting rights in America, its profound implications for the 2024 presidential election, and the crucial role that Chief Justice John Roberts has played in determining how we vote. In 1981, a young lawyer, fresh out of Harvard law school, joined the Reagan administration’s Department of Justice, taking up a cause that had been fomenting in Republican circles for over a decade by that point. From his perch inside the Reagan DOJ, this lawyer would attempt to bring down one of the defining pieces of 20th century legislation—the Voting Rights Act. His name was John Roberts. Over thirty years later in 2013, these efforts by John Roberts and the conservative legal establishment culminated when Roberts, now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote Shelby County vs. Holder, one of the most consequential decisions of modern jurisprudence. A dramatic move that gutted the Voting Rights Act, Roberts’s decision—dangerously premised on the flawed notion that racism was a thing of the past—emboldened right-wing, antidemocratic voting laws around the country immediately. No modern court decision has done more to hand elections to Republicans than Shelby. Now lauded investigative reporter David Daley reveals the urgent story of this fifty-year Republican plot to end the Voting Rights Act and encourage minority rule in their party’s favor. From the bowels of Reagan’s DOJ to the walls of the conservative Federalist Society to the moneyed Republican resources bankrolling restrictive voting laws today, Daley reveals a hidden history as sweeping as it is troubling. Through careful research and exhaustive reporting, he connects Shelby to a well-funded, highly-coordinated right-wing effort to erode the power of minority voters and Democrats at the ballot box—an effort that has grown stronger with each election cycle. In the process Roberts and his conservative allies have enabled fringe conservative theories about our elections with the potential to shape the 2024 election and topple the foundations of our democracy. Timely and alarming, Daley offers a powerful message that, while Shelby was the misguided end of the Voting Rights Act, it was also the beginning of something far darker.