Big Oil and Gas Versus Democracy&mdash;Winner Take All &#160; In 2010, the words &ldquo;earthquake swarm&rdquo; entered the lexicon in Oklahoma. That same year, a trove of Michael Jackson memorabilia&mdash;including his iconic crystal-encrusted white glove&mdash;was sold at auction for over $1 million to a guy who was, officially, just the lowly forestry minister of the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea. And in 2014, Ukrainian revolutionaries raided the palace of their ousted president and found a zoo of peacocks, gilded toilets, and a floating restaurant modeled after a Spanish galleon. Unlikely as it might seem, there is a thread connecting these events, and Rachel Maddow follows it to its crooked source: the unimaginably lucrative and equally corrupting oil and gas industry. With her trademark black humor, Maddow takes us on a switchback journey around the globe, revealing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas along the way, and drawing a surprising conclusion about why the Russian government hacked the 2016 U.S. election. She deftly shows how Russia&rsquo;s rich reserves of crude have, paradoxically, stunted its growth, forcing Putin to maintain his power by spreading Russia&rsquo;s rot into its rivals, its neighbors, the West&rsquo;s most important alliances, and the United States. Chevron, BP, and a host of other industry players get their star turn, most notably ExxonMobil and the deceptively well-behaved Rex Tillerson. The oil and gas industry has weakened democracies in developed and developing countries, fouled oceans and rivers, and propped up authoritarian thieves and killers. But being outraged at it is, according to Maddow, &ldquo;like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle. You can&rsquo;t really blame the lion. It&rsquo;s in her nature.&rdquo; Blowout is a call to contain the lion: to stop subsidizing the wealthiest businesses on earth, to fight for transparency, and to check the influence of the world&rsquo;s most destructive industry and its enablers. The stakes have never been higher. As Maddow writes, &ldquo;Democracy either wins this one or disappears.&rdquo;

Blowout by Rachel Maddow, read by Rachel Maddow

Don't know about you, but we've really felt the need for a little more joy around here lately. We miss it, and as the world continues to turn upside down, we’re learning how to find it in new ways and in new places. So, Minisode Fifteen is dedicated to JOY, and the best thing about joy is that once you have a little of it you can find ways to pass it on, like a paper chain of joy spreading out across communities virtual and real. What's bringing you joy right now? Is reading a joyful act? Can finding joy be a practice? And as we get into what brings us joy, hopefully we’ll spread a little of that joy to you, and finally as usual give a few recommendations of things we’ve been into lately. This is our last show before we take our summer break in August, so we wish you all good things, and may you go to your joy.

Minisode Fifteen: Joy

OPRAH&rsquo;S BOOK CLUB PICK &bull;&#160;The Pulitzer Prize&ndash;winning, bestselling author of&#160;The Warmth of Other Suns&#160;examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. &#160; &ldquo;An instant American classic.&rdquo;&mdash;Dwight Garner, The New York Times &ldquo;As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power&mdash;which groups have it and which do not.&rdquo; &#160; In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. &#160; Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people&rsquo;s lives and behavior and the nation&rsquo;s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people&mdash;including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball&rsquo;s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others&mdash;she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing,&#160;Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents&#160;is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.

Caste (Oprah's Book Club) by Isabel Wilkerson, read by Robin Miles

Will Harris and Nick Makoha, prizewinning poets both, talk about Nick’s poems in the spring 2020 issue of The Poetry Review and how these poems exemplify his interest in song, story and myth, the parameters of self, reconfiguring the problem of the white lens, and how the act of writing poems produces unlooked-for discoveries. Nick gives electrifying readings of his poems ‘Codex 1’ and Codex 2, both published in the Review, and ‘Bird In Flames’ from his Forward-shortlisted debut Kingdom of Gravity.

Nick Makoha talks to Will Harris

Listen to an excerpt from ANXIOUS PEOPLE by Fredrik Backman and read by Marin Ireland

ANXIOUS PEOPLE Audiobook Excerpt

Listen to an excerpt from LIVE FREE OR DIE by Sean Hannity and read by Sean Hannity

LIVE FREE OR DIE Audiobook Excerpt

When life feels depleted, does God care? I’m facing an onslaught of challenges, will God help? When life grows dark and stormy, does God notice? I’m facing the fear of death, will God help me? The answer in the life-giving miracles in the Gospel of John is a resounding yes.

In this book, Max will help you:

* Realize that Jesus is walking with you and lifting you out of your storms.
* Dwell in the grace of the cross, the miracle of the empty tomb, and the assurance of restoration power.
* Believe that God is your ever-present source of help.
* Recognize that you are never without hope or strength because you are never, ever, alone.

Today, take courage that you are stronger than you think because God is nearer than you know.

Download Audiobook

YOU ARE NEVER ALONE by Max Lucado | Day One

Listen to Rob Bell's EVERYTHING IS SPIRITUAL audiobook excerpt, read by the author.

This program is read by the author.

From Rob Bell, the New York Times bestselling author of Love Wins

This audiobook is an invitation to see your life in a new way.

Because we each have a story we're telling-
about who and where we come from,
what we've been through,
and what it all means-or doesn't mean.

These stories we tell can easily feel disjointed and fragmented,
like an endless series of events are happening to us without 
any particular coherence or point.

Just, you know, life.

But for thousands of years there's been another way of understanding
this experience we're all having here,
one that goes directly to the heart of those age-old questions
Who are we? And
What are we doing here?
And what does it all mean?

In this compelling and surprisingly subversive memoir,
Rob shows us this ancient wisdom, taking us through his history
and the history of the universe to show us something about each
our histories-
how all of it matters,
how everything we've been through forms a connected whole,
and how it's all been headed somewhere the whole time.

From the farthest reaches of the universe to the smallest cells in our bodies, Rob invites
us to see that there's something more going on here, something bringing us together
and guiding us into greater and greater wonder and awe at our own existence, showing
us how this world we call home is way more dynamic and mysterious and meaningful than we ever realized.

If you've every found yourself thinking
There's got to be me more than this.
this audiobook is for you.

Can your life get more fascinating,
more meaningful,
filled with more and more possibilities
surprising you year after year after year?
This book says yes.
Because everything is spiritual. 

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Essentials

Buy the audiobook

Everything Is Spiritual by Rob Bell, audiobook excerpt

From the author of the bestselling More Beautiful Than Before comes an inspiring book about loss based on his most popular sermon. As the senior rabbi of one of the largest synagogues in the world, Steve Leder has learned over and over again the many ways death teaches us how to live and love more deeply by showing us not only what is gone but also the beauty of what remains. This inspiring and comforting book takes us on a journey through the experience of loss that is fundamental to everyone. Yet even after having sat beside thousands of deathbeds, Steve Leder the rabbi was not fully prepared for the loss of his own father. It was only then that Steve Leder the son truly learned how loss makes life beautiful by giving it meaning and touching us with love that we had not felt before. Enriched by Rabbi Leder's irreverence, vulnerability, and wicked sense of humor, this heartfelt narrative is filled with laughter and tears, the wisdom of millennia and modernity, and, most of all, an unfolding of the profound and simple truth that in loss we gain more than we ever imagined. Available for purchase at: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D8J4D8Z?tag=randohouseinc7911-20">Amazon</a><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/?ean=9780593187562">Barnes & Noble</a><a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-8373827-10747236?SID=PRHD39095A662--9780593187562&url=http://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780593187562">Books A Million</a><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2186/9780593187555?prhc=PRHD39095A662">Bookshop.org</a><a href="http://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/book/9780593187555?utm_source=prh&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_term=301&utm_content=PRHD39095A662--9780593187555&utm_campaign=9780593187555">Hudson Booksellers</a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780593187555?aff=penguinrandom">IndieBound</a><a href="http://www.powells.com/book/-9780593187555?utm_source=randomhouse&utm_campaign=randomhouse&utm_content=PRHD39095A662--9780593187555">Powell's</a><a href="http://goto.target.com/c/128773/81938/2092?subId1=PRHD39095A662--9780593187555&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.target.com%2Fs%3FsearchTerm%3D9780593187555">Target</a><a href="https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=9780593187555">Walmart</a><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1524211087?at=11l3IH&ct=PRHD39095A662--9780593187562">Apple Books</a><a href="https://google.prf.hn/click/camref:1011ld4r/pubref:PRHD39095A662--9780593187562/destination:https://play.google.com/store/search?q=9780593187562&c=books">Google Play Store</a><a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=VD9*lkiWNd8&offerid=258185.12829781935712206&type=2&u1=PRHD39095A662--9780593187562}&murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kobo.com%2Fsearch%3FQuery%3D9780593187562">Kobo</a>

The Beauty of What Remains by Steve Leder, read by Steve Leder

Listen to an excerpt from DARK TIDES by Philippa Gregory and read by Louise Brealey

DARK TIDES Audiobook Excerpt

From the beginning of time, there have been many monumental questions that have perplexed the human race such as: Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? And... Who’s on first? 

In The History of Sketch Comedy, Emmy and Peabody-winning actor, writer and producer Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele, The Prom, Jingle Jangle) embarks listeners on an epic, insightful and utterly entertaining voyage through the annals of sketch comedy. Key takes us from the early flatulence jokes of Ancient Greece and the acting troupes of Europe in the 1500s, to the rise of The Second City in Chicago and his own comedy origins on the ball fields near Detroit’s 8 Mile. Equal parts masterclass, personal odyssey and virtuoso performance; Key dissects the landmark characters, concepts and performers that pushed the boundaries and forged new ground in the comedy pantheon, and along the way reveals his own experiences of discovering and being influenced by them. Over the course of ten half-hour chapters, one of the most beloved voices of our time treats listeners to a private, millennia-spanning interpretation of sketch comedy history, from its humble past to its immodest present.

The History of Sketch Comedy Trailer

Harper Audio proudly traces its roots back to 1952, when Dylan Thomas first recorded for our Caedmon label. For more than five decades, HarperAudio/Caedmon has been synonymous not only with distinguished poets reading their works, but also with equally distinguished authors and readers performing classic and contemporary texts.

YOU ARE NEVER ALONE by Max Lucado | Day One

HarperAudio US