Showing results by narrator "Neil" in All Categories

Two families. Two faces of America. An act of violence with far-reaching consequences. Gus Voorhees is a pioneer in the advancement of women's reproductive rights and a controversial abortion provider in the American Midwest. One morning as he arrives at his clinic, he is ambushed by a hardline Christian, Luther Dunphy, and shot dead. The killing leaves in its wake two fatherless families: the Voorheeses, who are affluent, highly educated, secular and pro-choice, and the Dunphys, their opposite on all counts.

James Holden has reached the maximum level there is for a human. That's perfect, because he's the only one of his kind: a wandering warrior, without control of his destination, tossed between universes by gods who've failed to tell him why. James is the lone Judge on a new world in need of someone to balance the scales. He isn't afraid to do so with extreme prejudice. As the Chief Justice, he has to right the wrongs the innocent can't fix themselves.

In this major new BBC radio series, Neil MacGregor investigates the role and expression of shared beliefs through time and around the world. One of the central facts of human existence is that every society shares a set of beliefs and assumptions - a faith, an ideology, a religion - that goes far beyond the life of the individual. These beliefs are an essential part of a shared identity. They have a unique power to define - and to divide - us, and are a driving force in the politics of much of the world today.

If you happen to find a map in a dead buccaneer's sea trunk, you can't very well ignore it, not if you are Jim Hawkins and his friends Dr. Livesey, Captain Smollett, and Squire Trelawney! But even with a map, buried treasures are not easy things to come by.

On the edge of Cherringham lies St. Francis' Convent, home of the Sisters of St. Francis, a small Catholic teaching order. Here a handful of nuns worship, contemplate, and pray. And here one Easter the beloved local priest Father Byrne meets his unexpected demise. The circumstances of the death are suspicious, and soon Jack and Sarah are on the case: what secrets did Father Byrne take to the grave? Who wanted him dead? And is religious faith ever a guarantee of innocence?

The listening of bedtime stories is a unique form of enchantment that takes place in the silent moments leading up to sleep, when everything becomes calm and the stars in the night sky begin to wink softly. Parents and other caregivers have been telling stories to their kids before bed for years, combining comfort, imagination, and camaraderie into one treasured custom.

Most of us face the same questions every day: What do I want? How can I get it? How can I live more happily and work more efficiently? This updated edition of the international bestseller distils into a single volume the fifty best decision-making models used on MBA courses, and elsewhere, that will help you tackle these important questions - from the well known (the Eisenhower matrix for time management) to the less familiar but equally useful (the Swiss Cheese model). It will even show you how to remember everything you'll have learned by the end of it.

As the day of Grace's wedding approaches, it seems nothing can get in the way of the happy Cherringham event. But just days before, her father Len is suddenly arrested on suspicion of murder - a murder committed 30 years ago, and a thousand miles away. Could Len actually have committed the crime? And can Jack and Sarah unearth the truth in time for him to walk his daughter down the aisle? Set in the sleepy English village of Cherringham, the detective series brings together an unlikely sleuthing duo: English web designer Sarah and American ex-cop Jack.

Beelzebub, the prince of demons, is bored. It's his destiny to one day rule the dark underworld known as the Red Realm, but it's sooo boring down there. All he wants to do is lay around all day in the lava pits (ahhh), boss everyone around (rude!), and maybe play a cruel prank (or two). But Beelzebub's father has had it with his son's nasty attitude. No one backtalks the Red King. NO ONE. A disgraced Beelzebub is banished by his father and cursed to spend his days in the worst place either of them can imagine. EARTH.

Chris Bathum was a respected therapist, addiction specialist, and founder of one of the fastest-growing rehabilitation chains in America. But Bathum was a total fraud: he was a homicidal meth-head with a history of sexually abusing his patients, scamming insurance companies, and eliminating whistle-blowers. Like Rose Stahl. But this intended victim would be his last. Stahl would risk her life to bring down the monster she and so many other people in need had once trusted for their salvation.

In most forms of meditation, the meditator is instructed to let go of thoughts as they arise. As a result thinking is often taken unnecessarily to be something misguided or evil. This approach is misguided, says Jason Siff. In fact if we allow thoughts to arise and become mindful of the thoughts themselves, we gain tranquility and insight just as in other methods without having to reject our natural mental processes.

The thing about Artem... It's a damn hard city to live in if you haven't got creds, and for creds, you need opportunities. The thing about opportunities... They're thin on the ground for Orcs, one of the most reviled races in the sprawling city. If you happen to be an Orc left for dead on the frontlines of Artem's roving monster problem and stranded outside its immense city walls, then you're doubly screwed—like Oshbob. The thing about Oshbob... He's tough, and he's pissed! With a will to survive like few others, he's determined never to be subject to the whims of the elite ever again.

Liam was waiting for his father to come home from work when the house shook, and two moons appeared overhead. Stranded within a land where he doesn't speak the language and people are set on attacking him, he must survive in this new land where nothing makes sense. A gorgeous princess holds the key to him learning about this new world he has found himself in, and little of it is good news. First up, learning why people keep attacking his house.

Dying the first time sucked. Matt's trying to avoid a repeat performance. Having to save the world after being reincarnated is rather enjoyable. In a soul-crushing responsibility kind of way. For Matt, joining Earth's last line of defense in a magical realm might just be what he was re-born for.

When the Zakro Corporation attempts to build a mammoth supermarket outside Cherringham, the whole village is up in arms. But the accidental death of lead environmentalist Sam Lewis seems to hand victory to the developers. Could Sam's opposition to the project be the real reason he died? When Jack and Sarah take on the case, they will learn that what looked like an accident was - in fact - one very wild murder.

Nearly 100,000 US soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan at the height of the campaign, fighting the longest war in the nation's history. But what do Americans know about the land where this conflict is taking place? Many have come to have a grasp of the people, history, and geography of Iraq, but Afghanistan remains a mystery. Historian Brian Glyn Williams, who has traveled to Afghanistan frequently over the past decade, provides essential background to the war, tracing the rise, fall, and reemergence of the Taliban.

When the lifeless body of crime journalist Tom Pinder is fished out of the river near Jack's barge, it seems that the hardened old drinker may just have had one too many... and accidentally slipped to a watery death. But Pinder's young colleague doesn't buy that explanation, and asks Jack and Sarah to investigate. As they dig deep into the stories that Pinder was working on, Jack and Sarah soon discover that he had made some very dangerous enemies prepared to stop at nothing to keep a dangerous truth buried.

When Ed Finnlay - computer programmer and devoted father of two - goes missing, there's not a lot the local police can do. After all, Ed himself told them he would be gone... for quite some time. As the weeks go by with no news, his wife reaches out to Jack and Sarah for help. But they soon learn that there are odd secrets about this missing husband and that he might not only be gone, but also in serious danger. Can Jack and Sarah do what seems impossible.

A provocative collection of literary horror stories by one of America’s most acclaimed and inventive writers whose unique prose “can be soul-shaking” (New Yorker).

The church lies at the center of God's purpose. Christ gave himself 'to purify for himself a people that are his own'. But when we think about church, there's the tension between the ideal and the reality. The former is beautiful: God's special treasure, the covenant community, a haven of love and peace. The latter? A motley rabble needing constant rebuke and exhortation. Here we focus on the ideal, on what God intends his church to be, while all the time keeping in view the reality, so that we can grasp the changes that need to be made.