Showing results by narrator "Rob Shapiro" in All Categories

"Imagine if a Martian showed up, all big ears and big nose like a child’s drawing, and he asked to be baptized. How would you react?" Pope Francis posed that question - without insisting on an answer! - to provoke deeper reflection about inclusiveness and diversity in the Church. But it's not the first time that question has been asked.

Guys often approach life like it’s a pickup football game. They make up the rules as they go. They are sloppy rather than disciplined. Many lose interest and simply watch from the sidelines. Yet a man who knows who he was made to be and what he’s pursuing is a powerful force indeed. In Rise of the Servant Kings, Ken Harrison, the chairman of Promise Keepers and a former Los Angeles police officer, gives men the keys to success and gets them into the battle.

The Great Recession that began in 2007 is now more than four years old - and counting. Some 24 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed, and at recent rates of job creation we won’t be back to normal levels of employment until late this decade. This is a tragedy. Do we have to accept it? "No!" is the resounding answer given by Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman in this call to arms. We have seen this situation before and we know how to fix it; all we lack is the political will to take action.

Lyme disease is one of the fastest-growing infectious diseases in the United States, and millions of people worldwide suffer from its shape-shifting symptoms. Now, in The Lyme Solution, Dr. Darin Ingels shares his revolutionary approach to treating and healing acute and chronic Lyme. Drawing on his experience as a naturopathic physician who has treated thousands of cases, and as a patient, Ingels reveals that Lyme is an autoimmune disease as much as it is an infection.

For human Amy Francis, the secluded cabin in Deep Creek is the haven she needs to map out a fresh new start. She never expected her heart to be reawakened by a distraction like Griff Martin. Commanding yet gentle, too ferociously sensual too ignore, it's clear that patrolling the forest is more than a job to Griff - it's a means of survival. But what Amy doesn't realize is she's reawakened the beast within him.

Goldblum has become one of Hollywood’s most enduring actors, someone who only seems to grow more famous, more heralded, more beloved through the decades, even though he’s always followed his own, strange muse. The guy primarily plays jazz music these days, but is more famous than ever. Actor, pianist, husband, father, style icon, meme. Goldblum contains multitudes, but why? What does he mean?

A woman in her forties is a victim of a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem market. Her body lies nameless in a hospital morgue. She had apparently worked as a cleaning woman at a bakery, but there is no record of her employment. When a Jerusalem daily accuses the bakery of "gross negligence and inhumanity toward an employee," the bakery's owner, overwhelmed by guilt, entrusts the task of identifying and burying the victim to a human resources man. He's at first reluctant to take on the job, but as the facts of the woman's life take shape—she was an engineer from the former Soviet Union.

Joel Simon, who in nearly two decades at the Committee to Protect Journalists has worked on dozens of hostages cases, delves into the heated hostage policy debate. We Want to Negotiate is an exploration of the ethical, legal, and strategic considerations of a bedeviling question: Should governments pay ransom to terrorists?

When a Delaware real estate mogul is murdered, Reverend Candice Miller is called to minister to the grieving family. She quickly realizes that the killer has adopted the symbolism of sin eating, a Victorian-era religious ritual, as a calling card. Newspaper journalist Brian Wilder wants the scoop on the killing, including the meaning behind the mysterious loaf of bread left with the corpse.

Daniel and his younger brother grew up in an abusive home. Daniel escaped. Now an established stunt rider, he intends to go back to rescue his brother. But then one jump goes horribly wrong . . . He recovers to find himself in Iowa, unscathed, yet his life has drastically changed. His best friend won’t answer his calls. Even his girlfriend is hiding something. Increasingly terrified, he clings to the one thing he knows: He must pick up his brother in San Francisco. In five days.

The Infodemic lays bare the mechanisms of modern censorship and shows how they were used to undermine the response to the greatest global pandemic in a century. Beginning in China, the book charts the onslaught of COVID censorship through Iran, Russia, India, Egypt, Brazil, India, and inside the Trump White House. Modern censors not only restrict the flow of information but also open the floodgates to overwhelm the public with lies and half truths.

On the Road Less Traveled is the inspirational story of Edmund A. Hajim, an American financier and philanthropist who rises from dire childhood circumstances to achieve professional success and personal fulfillment. At age three, Hajim is kidnapped by his father, driven from St. Louis to Los Angeles, and told that his mother is dead. His father soon abandons him in order to seek employment - mostly in vain - leaving his son behind in a string of foster homes and orphanages.

For the visitors to Wilsonville, the largest theme park in the world, the day began with a smile. By day's end, they will wonder if they will be able to escape with their lives. Retired Delta Force operator, Master Sergeant Jonathan "Jad" Bell, is Wilsonville's lead undercover security officer. The threat begins with the announcement of a hidden dirty bomb, but quickly becomes far, far worse. Jad scrambles to assess the threat and protect the visitors. He will come face to face with a villain he may not be able to stop.

Ben Katchor retells the history of where we choose to eat - a history that starts with the first man who was allowed to enter a walled garden and encouraged by the garden's owner to enjoy its fruits. He examines the biblical milk-and-meat taboo, the first vegetarian practices, and the invention of the restaurant. Katchor illuminates the historical confluence of events and ideas that led to the development of a “milekhdike (dairy) personality” and the proliferation of dairy restaurants in America.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great--the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction listeners and that always includes the hero's childhood influences. This book features I. M. Pei, the award-winning Chinese American architect whose projects include the John F. Kennedy Library and the pyramid at the Louvre.

Uh-oh! Squish’s friend Pod just hasn’t been himself lately. One minute he’s happy-dancing; the next he’s sobbing in his soup. What’s going on? (Hint: “mitosis” is the process that splits single-celled organisms. That’s right, splits.) It is truly Pod vs. Pod - and may the best Pod, umm, win?

Uh-oh! A deadly disease is spreading through Small Pond! People are dropping like flies! And yikes - it looks like Squish is patient number one. Will this epic epidemic be the end of everyone’s favorite amoeba? (And if it is, who will he leave his comic collection to?) Find out the answers in the seventh hilarious Squish adapted-for-audio novel: Deadly Disease of Doom!

Gulp! A scary new movie has everyone talking - and Squish is spooked out of his cellular mind! But it’s just a movie, right? Right?! Will Squish be eaten alive by a terrifying movie monster? Will his friends think he’s (gasp!) totally chicken? And can Squish’s comic book hero, Super Amoeba, defeat his creepiest foe yet? Find out the answers to these questions and more in the sixth Squish adapted-for-audio novel: Fear the Amoeba - saving the world, one cell at a time!

Beep! Beep! Squish can't get enough of his awesome new video game Mitosis! (Mitosis is what happens when cells divide. Who says video games can't be educational?) In fact, he may even be obsessed! He plays at home...at school...even in his sleep! Are video games taking over Squish's life?! And can Squish's favorite comic book hero, Super Amoeba, stop the Creeping Black Mold that's taking over Small Pond?

It's soccer season! But the Waterfleas (Hey, it could be worse - Okay, maybe it couldn't.) are getting pummelled game after game. Squish knows winning isn't everything, but it's something right? Can Squish turn the losing streak around when he becomes team captain? Will Pod figure out how to harness the power of lightning? And how can amoebas play soccer when they don't have any feet? Find out in the electrifyingly funny Squish, Book 4: Captain Disaster - saving the world, one cell at a time!