Name: LIVE FREE OR DIE Audiobook Excerpt by Simon & Schuster Audio
Duration: 4 min 30 s
Description: Listen to an excerpt from LIVE FREE OR DIE by Sean Hannity and read by Sean Hannity

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

We're still on our summer break, so we wanted to use this chance to bring you a re-run of one of our favourite shows from our archive. In 2018, we spoke to Thomas Page McBee about his book Amateur, which tells the true story of his quest to become the first trans man to box at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The theme of the show is Masculinity: what makes a man? Why do men fight? Is there a crisis of masculinity? These are some of the questions that authors from Ernest Hemingway to Grayson Perry have asked, and questions that Thomas Page McBee addresses head on in his searching, beautiful and wise book.

Literary Friction - RE-RUN: Masculinity with Thomas Page McBee

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

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light comes a riveting novel about the choices that alter the course of our lives. Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She&rsquo;s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: Prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong. Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, in which she helps ease the transition between life and death for her clients. But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made. After the crash landing, the airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation to wherever they want to go. The obvious&#160;destination is to fly home,&#160;but she could take another path:&#160;return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways&mdash;the first known map of the afterlife. As the story unfolds, Dawn&rsquo;s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them. Dawn must confront the questions she&rsquo;s never truly asked: What does a life well lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices . . . or do our choices make us? And who would you be if you hadn&rsquo;t turned out to be the person you are right now?

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult, read by Patti Murin

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

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

DARK TIDES Audiobook Excerpt

Twelve early pieces never before collected that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of Joan Didion. Mostly drawn from the earliest part of her astonishing five-decade career, the wide-ranging pieces in this collection include Didion writing about a Gamblers Anonymous meeting, a visit to San Simeon, and a reunion of WWII veterans in Las Vegas, and about topics ranging from Nancy Reagan to Robert Mapplethorpe to Martha Stewart. Here are subjects Didion has long written about -- the press, politics, California robber barons, women, the act of writing, and her own self-doubt. Each piece is classic Didion: incisive and, in new light, stunningly prescient.

Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion, read by Kimberly Farr

Listen to exclusive excerpts from our amazing collection of audiobooks! Plus go behind-the-scenes of the recordings with our bestselling authors and award-wining narrators. For more information, like us on Facebook.com/SimonAudio and follow us on Twitter @SimonAudio. Happy listening!

LIVE FREE OR DIE Audiobook Excerpt

Simon & Schuster Audio

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