
Project Mind Control
Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA
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
3 months free
Buy for $14.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Pete Cross
-
By:
-
John Lisle
About this listen
The inside story of the CIA’s secret mind control project, MKULTRA, using never-before-seen testimony from the perpetrators themselves.
Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s most cunning chemist. As head of the infamous MKULTRA project, he oversaw an assortment of dangerous—even deadly—experiments. Among them: dosing unwitting strangers with mind-bending drugs, torturing mental patients through sensory deprivation, and steering the movements of animals via electrodes implanted into their brains. His goal was to develop methods of mind control that could turn someone into a real-life “Manchurian candidate.”
In conjunction with MKULTRA, Gottlieb also plotted the assassination of foreign leaders and created spy gear for undercover agents. The details of his career, however, have long been shrouded in mystery. Upon retiring from the CIA in 1973, he tossed his files into an incinerator. As a result, much of what happened under MKULTRA was thought to be lost—until now.
Historian John Lisle has uncovered dozens of depositions containing new information about MKULTRA, straight from the mouths of its perpetrators. For the first time, Gottlieb and his underlings divulge what they did, why they did it, how they got away with it, and much more. Additionally, Lisle highlights the dramatic story of MKULTRA’s victims, from their terrible treatment to their dogged pursuit of justice.
The consequences of MKULTRA still reverberate throughout American society. Project Mind Control is the definitive account of this most disturbing of chapters in CIA history.
"Listeners will be transfixed"—AudioFile on The Dirty Tricks Department
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
©2025 John Lisle (P)2025 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Blood in the Water
- The Untold Story of a Family Tragedy
- By: Casey Sherman
- Narrated by: Casey Sherman
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Nathan Carman, a young man with a complicated past, is miraculously rescued from a lifeboat bobbing in the unforgiving North Atlantic, questions swirl about the fate of his mother, who is presumed to have drowned when their fishing boat sank. Nathan is in remarkably good shape for being lost at sea for a week, and his account of what exactly happened out there on the waves raises questions from family members and law enforcement.
-
-
That I did begin to wonder if Nathan was guilty, unfortunately ultimately despite questions I do believe he was guilty.
- By Jennifer G. on 05-28-25
By: Casey Sherman
-
The Genesis 6 Conspiracy: How Secret Societies and the Descendants of Giants Plan to Enslave Humankind
- Gary Wayne’s Genesis 6 Conspiracy, Book 1
- By: Gary Wayne
- Narrated by: Co-Pilot Audio Solutions, Mel Jackson
- Length: 34 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are giants among us, passing largely unnoticed, intent on carrying out a secret plan to enslave all humanity. They may not look like giants today, but their bloodlines extend all the way back to the Nephilim—the offspring of angels who mated with human women described in Genesis 6 when giants roamed the land. Gary Wayne, author of The Genesis 6 Conspiracy: How Secret Societies and the Descendants of Giants Plan to Enslave Humankind, details the role of modern-day Nephilim in Satan's plan to install the Antichrist at the End of Days.
-
-
Weird Noises: Suspicious to Me
- By Anonymous User on 01-28-25
By: Gary Wayne
-
The Instability of Truth
- Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion
- By: Rebecca Lemov
- Narrated by: Patty Nieman
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Because brainwashing affects both the world and our observation of the world, we often don’t recognize it while it’s happening—unless we know where to look. As Rebecca Lemov writes in The Instability of Truth, “Brainwashing erases itself.” What we call brainwashing is more common than we think; it is not so much what happens to other people as what can happen to anyone.
-
-
Great research. But too hard to listen to.
- By Claudia on 05-19-25
By: Rebecca Lemov
-
Practical Magick
- Ancient Tradition and Modern Practice
- By: Mitch Horowitz
- Narrated by: Mitch Horowitz
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Simplicity,” wrote legendary occultist Jack Parsons, “has been the key to victory in all the idea wars and, at present, Magick does not have it.” In Practical Magick, acclaimed historian and esotericist Mitch Horowitz responds to this call, distilling magick to its core essentials. Drawing upon ancient, Hermetic, Renaissance-era, and modern sources, Mitch dissects the building blocks of magick and provides formulas of immediacy, simplicity, and potency.
-
-
A call to Adventure
- By Mp on 03-31-25
By: Mitch Horowitz
-
Murder the Truth
- Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
- By: David Enrich
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
-
-
The current threat against journalists
- By Kirk Writes on 04-04-25
By: David Enrich
-
Apple in China
- The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
- By: Patrick McGee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For listeners of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs and Chris Miller’s Chip War, a riveting look at how Apple helped build China’s dominance in electronics assembly and manufacturing only to find itself trapped in a relationship with an authoritarian state making ever-increasing demands.
-
-
Performance is so robotic it’s distracting.
- By robert Campbell on 05-29-25
By: Patrick McGee
-
Blood in the Water
- The Untold Story of a Family Tragedy
- By: Casey Sherman
- Narrated by: Casey Sherman
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Nathan Carman, a young man with a complicated past, is miraculously rescued from a lifeboat bobbing in the unforgiving North Atlantic, questions swirl about the fate of his mother, who is presumed to have drowned when their fishing boat sank. Nathan is in remarkably good shape for being lost at sea for a week, and his account of what exactly happened out there on the waves raises questions from family members and law enforcement.
-
-
That I did begin to wonder if Nathan was guilty, unfortunately ultimately despite questions I do believe he was guilty.
- By Jennifer G. on 05-28-25
By: Casey Sherman
-
The Genesis 6 Conspiracy: How Secret Societies and the Descendants of Giants Plan to Enslave Humankind
- Gary Wayne’s Genesis 6 Conspiracy, Book 1
- By: Gary Wayne
- Narrated by: Co-Pilot Audio Solutions, Mel Jackson
- Length: 34 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are giants among us, passing largely unnoticed, intent on carrying out a secret plan to enslave all humanity. They may not look like giants today, but their bloodlines extend all the way back to the Nephilim—the offspring of angels who mated with human women described in Genesis 6 when giants roamed the land. Gary Wayne, author of The Genesis 6 Conspiracy: How Secret Societies and the Descendants of Giants Plan to Enslave Humankind, details the role of modern-day Nephilim in Satan's plan to install the Antichrist at the End of Days.
-
-
Weird Noises: Suspicious to Me
- By Anonymous User on 01-28-25
By: Gary Wayne
-
The Instability of Truth
- Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion
- By: Rebecca Lemov
- Narrated by: Patty Nieman
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Because brainwashing affects both the world and our observation of the world, we often don’t recognize it while it’s happening—unless we know where to look. As Rebecca Lemov writes in The Instability of Truth, “Brainwashing erases itself.” What we call brainwashing is more common than we think; it is not so much what happens to other people as what can happen to anyone.
-
-
Great research. But too hard to listen to.
- By Claudia on 05-19-25
By: Rebecca Lemov
-
Practical Magick
- Ancient Tradition and Modern Practice
- By: Mitch Horowitz
- Narrated by: Mitch Horowitz
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Simplicity,” wrote legendary occultist Jack Parsons, “has been the key to victory in all the idea wars and, at present, Magick does not have it.” In Practical Magick, acclaimed historian and esotericist Mitch Horowitz responds to this call, distilling magick to its core essentials. Drawing upon ancient, Hermetic, Renaissance-era, and modern sources, Mitch dissects the building blocks of magick and provides formulas of immediacy, simplicity, and potency.
-
-
A call to Adventure
- By Mp on 03-31-25
By: Mitch Horowitz
-
Murder the Truth
- Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
- By: David Enrich
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
-
-
The current threat against journalists
- By Kirk Writes on 04-04-25
By: David Enrich
-
Apple in China
- The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
- By: Patrick McGee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For listeners of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs and Chris Miller’s Chip War, a riveting look at how Apple helped build China’s dominance in electronics assembly and manufacturing only to find itself trapped in a relationship with an authoritarian state making ever-increasing demands.
-
-
Performance is so robotic it’s distracting.
- By robert Campbell on 05-29-25
By: Patrick McGee
-
Code Name: Pale Horse
- How I Went Undercover to Expose America's Nazis
- By: Scott Payne, Michelle Shephard - contributor
- Narrated by: Scott Payne
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Scott Payne was growing up, he never envisioned a future that included what happened on Halloween night 2019. Out in the woods of Georgia, he tried desperately to save a goat from being sacrificed in a ritual by a group of neo-Nazis without revealing that he was actually an undercover agent. Now, this retired FBI agent reveals how and why he infiltrated the rapidly growing American Nazi group, The Base. Known as the “Hillbilly Donnie Brasco,” Payne was guided through some of the most terrifying assignments in the FBI’s history by his devotion to his family and his Christian faith.
-
-
Exciting edge of your seat story
- By Merissa on 05-19-25
By: Scott Payne, and others
-
Murderland
- Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Patty Nieman
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial murderer of women in American history, surrounded by his hunting grounds and mountain body dumps, in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and ’80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?
-
-
Toxic
- By Jennifer Clark on 06-24-25
By: Caroline Fraser
-
Murder in the Dollhouse
- The Jennifer Dulos Story
- By: Rich Cohen
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rich Cohen’s Murder in the Dollhouse is the chilling story of Jennifer Dulos, a beautiful, rich suburban mother who dropped her kids off at the New Canaan Country School one morning and vanished. Her body has never been found. Dulos was in the midst of an ugly divorce—one of the most contentious in Connecticut state history. The couple, a beautiful, highly connected pair, met at Brown University, had five children, and led what appeared to be a charmed life. In the wake of her disappearance, Dulos’s husband and his girlfriend were arrested.
-
-
Author
- By cannot open on 06-28-25
By: Rich Cohen
-
The Fourth Mind
- By: Whitley Strieber
- Narrated by: Whitley Strieber
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Fourth Mind is the first book ever to explore the anatomy, brains, genetics, beliefs and capabilities of the unknown entities the author refers to as "the visitors." He maintains that they have a set of abilities he describes as a "fourth mind" that include such powers as telepathy, levitation, the ability to move heavy objects without machinery, and many others. He then shows that there is a rich store of evidence that mankind once possessed these same powers, and that hidden knowledge of them has persisted into the 20th century.
-
-
Much needed
- By Michael on 03-08-25
By: Whitley Strieber
-
Technofeudalism
- What Killed Capitalism
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China. Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.
-
-
The narration is literally the worst.
- By Shakeiad on 09-24-24
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
The Dirty Tricks Department
- Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
- By: John Lisle
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room where he waited to meet the man who had summoned him. After a disconcerting amount of time, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the OSS, walked in the door. Following this life-changing encounter, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.
-
-
amazing book finished in less than a week
- By xander on 03-17-23
By: John Lisle
-
The Ipcress File
- By: Len Deighton
- Narrated by: James Lailey
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A high-ranking scientist has been kidnapped, and a secret British intelligence agency has just recruited Deighton’s iconic unnamed protagonist—later christened Harry Palmer—to find out why. His search begins in a grimy Soho club and brings him to the other side of the world. When he ends up amongst the Soviets in Beirut, what seemed a straightforward mission turns into something far more sinister.
-
-
Why is this such a popular book?
- By MLC on 05-18-24
By: Len Deighton
-
The Golden Bough
- A Study in Magic and Religion
- By: Sir James George Frazer
- Narrated by: Andrew Cullum
- Length: 44 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Golden Bough, the monumental study of religious rites and practices in ‘primitive’ societies, was one of the earliest influential texts in anthropology. Its author, Sir James Frazer, surveyed the wide range of cultural habits, taboos and beliefs in communities across the world concluding that there was an observable pattern in the way magic developed into religion, though formal expression emerged in different ways.
-
-
Epic
- By Mississippi Hippy on 08-01-23
-
Erasing History
- By: Jason Stanley
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combining historical research with an in-depth analysis of our modern political landscape, Erasing History issues a dire warning for America and the world: the worst fascist movements of humanity’s past began in schools; the same place so many of today’s right-wing political parties have trained their most vicious attacks. Yale professor Jason Stanley exposes the true danger of the right’s tactics and traces their inspirations and funding back to some of the most dangerous ideas of human history.
-
-
The bias attitude of the author
- By Elizabeth ohanna on 09-30-24
By: Jason Stanley
-
Project MK-Ultra
- The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the early days of human warfare, which may date back to the Stone Age, combatants have sought to gain an advantage through the acquisition of secret information. With the growth of technology, a parallel advantage was sought through the application of numerous types of torture. In the 19th century, the concept of manipulation was added to military tactics, an attempt to influence the minds of assassins, double agents, and world leaders alike to act against their natures.
-
-
Messi g with your mind
- By Ruth Valenzuela on 12-10-24
-
The Abyss
- Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, John Hopkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bestselling author Max Hastings offers a welcome re-evaluation of one of the most gripping and tense international events in modern history—the Cuban Missile Crisis—providing a people-focused narrative that explores the attitudes and conduct of Russians, Cubans, Americans, and a terrified world that followed each moment as it unfolded.
-
-
Good book, but has some issues
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-10-22
By: Max Hastings
-
Witness to a Prosecution
- The Myth of Michael Milken
- By: Richard Sandler
- Narrated by: Richard Sandler
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1986, the SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York began an investigation into Michael Milken, Drexel Burnham Lambert, and its High Yield and Convertible Bond Department, a department Michael created and was head of. Michael was the most successful and innovative financier of his time. Drexel, an upstart investment bank was also the most successful securities firm on Wall Street, thanks to Michael.
-
-
A must-read about government corruption
- By Anonymous User on 03-19-25
By: Richard Sandler
Critic reviews
“Enthralling … a stark portrait of horrifying government abuse.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Readers are shown how distressingly easy it is for normally decent people to justify heinous acts in the name of patriotism, an idea that has resonance in the present day. Lisle’s account can be read on multiple levels, from true-life spy thriller to dark history, from which vital lessons can be drawn, but it's unsettling on any level.”—Booklist
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Dirty Tricks Department
- Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
- By: John Lisle
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room where he waited to meet the man who had summoned him. After a disconcerting amount of time, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the OSS, walked in the door. Following this life-changing encounter, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.
-
-
amazing book finished in less than a week
- By xander on 03-17-23
By: John Lisle
-
The Little Book of Data
- Understanding the Powerful Analytics That Fuel AI, Make or Break Careers, and Could Just End Up Saving the World
- By: Justin Evans
- Narrated by: Justin Evans
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Little Book of Data, each chapter illustrates one of the core principles of solving problems with data by featuring an expert who has solved a big problem with data—from the entrepreneur creating a “loneliness score” to the epidemiologist trying to save lives by finding disease “hotspots.”
By: Justin Evans
-
Goliath's Curse
- The History and Future of Societal Collapse
- By: Luke Kemp
- Narrated by: Luke Kemp
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stepping back to look at our precariously interdependent global society of today—with the threat of nuclear war ever present, the world getting hotter and hotter, and the rapid creation of dangerous algorithms—one couldn’t be blamed for asking: Will we make it? Addressing this question with the seriousness it demands, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp conducts a historical autopsy that stretches over 300,000 years, from our beginnings as a species to early attempts at cities to Egypt, Rome, and on into our cloudy future.
By: Luke Kemp
-
Whack Job
- A History of Axe Murder
- By: Rachel McCarthy James
- Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture.
-
-
Mistitled
- By Anonymous User on 06-12-25
-
Poisoner in Chief
- Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: James Linkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States.
-
-
Narration not great
- By VelvetLedbetter on 09-20-19
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Outclassed
- How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back
- By: Joan C. Williams
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The far right manipulates class anger to undercut progressive goals and liberals often inadvertently play into their hands. In Outclassed, Joan C. Williams explains how to reverse that process by bridging the “diploma divide”, while maintaining core progressive values. She offers college-educated Americans insights into how their values reflect their lives and their lives reflect their privilege.
By: Joan C. Williams
-
The Dirty Tricks Department
- Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
- By: John Lisle
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room where he waited to meet the man who had summoned him. After a disconcerting amount of time, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the OSS, walked in the door. Following this life-changing encounter, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.
-
-
amazing book finished in less than a week
- By xander on 03-17-23
By: John Lisle
-
The Little Book of Data
- Understanding the Powerful Analytics That Fuel AI, Make or Break Careers, and Could Just End Up Saving the World
- By: Justin Evans
- Narrated by: Justin Evans
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Little Book of Data, each chapter illustrates one of the core principles of solving problems with data by featuring an expert who has solved a big problem with data—from the entrepreneur creating a “loneliness score” to the epidemiologist trying to save lives by finding disease “hotspots.”
By: Justin Evans
-
Goliath's Curse
- The History and Future of Societal Collapse
- By: Luke Kemp
- Narrated by: Luke Kemp
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stepping back to look at our precariously interdependent global society of today—with the threat of nuclear war ever present, the world getting hotter and hotter, and the rapid creation of dangerous algorithms—one couldn’t be blamed for asking: Will we make it? Addressing this question with the seriousness it demands, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp conducts a historical autopsy that stretches over 300,000 years, from our beginnings as a species to early attempts at cities to Egypt, Rome, and on into our cloudy future.
By: Luke Kemp
-
Whack Job
- A History of Axe Murder
- By: Rachel McCarthy James
- Narrated by: Jennifer Pickens
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture.
-
-
Mistitled
- By Anonymous User on 06-12-25
-
Poisoner in Chief
- Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: James Linkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States.
-
-
Narration not great
- By VelvetLedbetter on 09-20-19
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Outclassed
- How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back
- By: Joan C. Williams
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The far right manipulates class anger to undercut progressive goals and liberals often inadvertently play into their hands. In Outclassed, Joan C. Williams explains how to reverse that process by bridging the “diploma divide”, while maintaining core progressive values. She offers college-educated Americans insights into how their values reflect their lives and their lives reflect their privilege.
By: Joan C. Williams
-
All Roads Lead to Rome
- Why We Think of the Roman Empire Daily
- By: Rhiannon Garth Jones
- Narrated by: Sarah Durham
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rhiannon Garth-Jones explores Rome's enduring legacy through three core themes: religion, empire, and culture. Each chapter examines how Rome’s history, governance, and mythology have been reimagined throughout centuries, and how these interpretations continue to shape our modern world.
-
Authority
- Essays
- By: Andrea Long Chu
- Narrated by: Andrea Long Chu
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since her canonical 2017 essay “On Liking Women,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Andrea Long Chu has established herself as a public intellectual straight out of the 1960s. With devastating wit and polemical clarity, she defies the imperative to leave politics out of art, instead modeling how the left might brave the culture wars without throwing in with the cynics and doomsayers. Authority brings together Chu’s critical work across a wide range of media—novels, television, theater, video games—as well as an acclaimed tetralogy of literary essays first published in n+1.
-
-
Her book reviews are fantastic
- By NMwritergal on 05-24-25
By: Andrea Long Chu
-
Sing to Me
- A Novel
- By: Jesse Browner
- Narrated by: Samara Naeymi
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His family farm and the surrounding community now emptied by war, young Hani embarks on an epic quest–assisted by a brooding yet brilliant donkey–to find his lost sister in the ruins of Troy. Some war stories transcend time and circumstance, and so it is with the resourceful and heartbroken Hani, who must employ every bit of intelligence, every scrap of ingenuity, and ultimately every ounce of his spirit and humor to withstand the forces of civilization’s collapse.
By: Jesse Browner
-
Aggregated Discontent
- Confessions of the Last Normal Woman
- By: Harron Walker
- Narrated by: Harron Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In sixteen wholly original essays that blend memoir, cultural criticism, investigative journalism, and a dash of fanfiction, Walker places her own experiences within the larger context of the pressing and underdiscussed aspects of contemporary American womanhood that make up daily life. She explores the allure and violence of assimilating into white womanhood in all its hegemonic glory, exposes the ways in which the truth of trans women's reproductive healthcare is erased in favor of reactionary narratives, and considers how our agency is stripped from us—purely on account of our bodies.
By: Harron Walker
-
Murderland
- Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Patty Nieman
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial murderer of women in American history, surrounded by his hunting grounds and mountain body dumps, in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and ’80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?
-
-
Toxic
- By Jennifer Clark on 06-24-25
By: Caroline Fraser
-
Operation Mockingbird
- The Controversial History of the CIA’s Efforts to Manipulate American Media Outlets
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Freedom of the press isn’t just a fundamental right in America but a key part of the democratic process. When the United States secured its independence against Britain in the War of Independence in 1783, there was no certainty about what the new country would look like in terms of national governance. In 1787, delegates from the various states convened in Philadelphia to draft a constitution that would define this.
-
-
Limited
- By Cozz on 11-27-24
-
So Many Stars
- An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
- By: Caro De Robertis
- Narrated by: Caro De Robertis
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world. This singular project collects the testimonies of twenty elders, each a glimmering thread in a luminous tapestry, preserving their words for future generations—who can more fully exist in the world today because of these very trailblazers.
-
-
Groundbreaking Collection
- By Andre on 06-14-25
By: Caro De Robertis
-
Feeders
- By: Matt Serafini
- Narrated by: Devon Sorvari
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a video depicting the brutal murder of a former classmate leaks online, Kylie Bennington’s—whose dreams of becoming a successful influencer remain frustratingly elusive—curiosity gets the better of her, leading to the discovery of an off-the-grid social media app called MonoLife. As it turns out, there are certain cryptic rules in the user agreement that must be adhered to, such as interacting with other users at least twice daily or risk losing it all…and never, ever speaking of MonoLife’s existence to non-users or risk dire consequences.
By: Matt Serafini
-
Palestine
- A Four Thousand Year History
- By: Nur Masalha
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history.
-
-
More political manifesto than history book
- By Peter Deane on 12-06-22
By: Nur Masalha
-
Project MK-Ultra
- The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the early days of human warfare, which may date back to the Stone Age, combatants have sought to gain an advantage through the acquisition of secret information. With the growth of technology, a parallel advantage was sought through the application of numerous types of torture. In the 19th century, the concept of manipulation was added to military tactics, an attempt to influence the minds of assassins, double agents, and world leaders alike to act against their natures.
-
-
Messi g with your mind
- By Ruth Valenzuela on 12-10-24
-
Empire of AI
- Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
- By: Karen Hao
- Narrated by: Karen Hao
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When AI expert and investigative journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, the organization was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely mercantile, and potentially dangerous, forces. What could go wrong?
-
-
Well-researched. Timely. Informative. Karen is brilliant and kind!
- By Kahlil Andrews on 05-25-25
By: Karen Hao
-
Little Bosses Everywhere
- How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America
- By: Bridget Read
- Narrated by: Nikki Massoud
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Little Bosses Everywhere, journalist Bridget Read tells the gripping story of multilevel marketing in full for the first time, winding from sunny postwar California, where a failed salesman started a vitamin business, through the devoutly religious suburbs of Michigan, where the industry built its political influence, to stadium-size conventions where today’s top sellers preach to die-hard recruits. MLM has enriched powerful people, like the DeVos and Van Andel families, Warren Buffett, and President Donald Trump, all while eroding public institutions and the social safety net.
-
-
Well researched.
- By Donald Schuster on 05-08-25
By: Bridget Read
John Lisle is a history professor and sticks to what he can document --the print edition has a big bibliography. Dispite that constraint, he has managed to tell a suspenseful tale of the psychopathic career of Sydney Gottlieb. Just when you think Gottlieb couldn't think of another way to conduct immoral experiments on Americans, there is something more! It's as if you're looking into Gottlieb's head. If you like nonfiction and spy novels, this is a must read.
Riveting and shocking
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I don’t think I’ll continue.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.