検索キーワード： 制作 "Little, Brown Audio" 政治学・社会科学

Here's an irreverent and hilarious reference guide to all the people, ideas, and institutions that pollute our lives. Because you don't have to be old to be grumpy. Read by the stars of Channel 4's Green Wing.

Our brains evolved to solve the survival problems of our Stone Age ancestors, so when faced with modern-day situations that are less extreme, they often encounter a mismatch. Our primitive brains put us on the wrong foot by responding to stimuli that - in prehistoric times - would have prompted behaviour that was beneficial. If you've ever felt an anxious fight-or-flight response to a presenting at a board meeting, equivalent to facing imminent death by sabre-toothed tiger, then you have experienced a mismatch.

When Sara Zaske moved from Oregon to Berlin with her husband and toddler, she was surprised to discover that German parents give their children a great deal of freedom. In Berlin, kids walk to school by themselves, ride the subway alone, cut food with sharp knives and even play with fire. German parents did not share her parental fears, and their children were thriving.

A generation after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world is once again on the edge of chaos. Demonstrations have broken out from Belgium to Brazil led by angry citizens demanding a greater say in their political and economic future, better education, healthcare and living standards. The bottom line of this outrage is the same: people are demanding their governments do more to improve their lives faster, something which policymakers are unable to deliver under conditions of anaemic growth. 

In this expansion of the 2017 commencement speech she gave at her hometown Langley High, Lauren Graham, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, reflects on growing up, pursuing your dreams, and living in the here and now. 'Whatever path you choose, whatever career you decide to go after, the important thing is that you keep finding joy in what you're doing, especially when the joy isn't finding you.' In her hilarious, relatable voice, Graham reminds us to be curious and compassionate, no matter where life takes us or what we've yet to achieve. Grounded and inspiring, here is a comforting road map to a happy life.

Harry Patch, the last British soldier alive to have fought in the trenches of the First World War, is now 109 years old and one of very few people who can directly recall the horror of that conflict. After a rural childhood in Somerset, Harry left school in 1913 to become a plumber. Three years later he was fighting in the mud and trenches during the Battle of Passchendaele. He saw a great many of his comrades die, and in one dreadful moment the shell that wounded him killed his three closest friends.

In her much-anticipated autobiography, Cherie Blair takes the reader on a fascinating journey from her childhood in working-class Liverpool to the heart of the British legal system and then, as the wife of the prime minister, to 10 Downing Street.

In The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Luce makes a larger statement about the weakening of western hegemony and the crisis of democratic liberalism - of which Donald Trump and his European counterparts are not the cause, but a symptom. Luce argues that we are on a menacing trajectory brought about by ignorance of what it took to build the West, arrogance towards society's losers, and complacency about our system's durability - attitudes that have been emerging since the fall of the Berlin Wall, treated by the West as an absolute triumph over the East.

Fred and Rose West are virtually unique in British criminal history: a husband and wife who loved and killed together. During their long relationship, the Wests murdered a series of young women, burying the remains of nine victims under their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, including those of their daughter. What was left of Fred West's eight-year-old stepdaughter was dug up from under the Wests' previous Gloucester home; his first wife and nanny were buried in open country. 

In the summer of 2006, Colour-Sargeant Kailash Limbu's platoon was sent to relieve and occupy a police compound in the town of Now Zad in Helmand. He was told to prepare for a 48-hour operation. In the end he and his men were under siege for 31 days - one of the longest such sieges in the whole of the Afghan campaign.

China's Great Wall of Debt is a penetrating examination of the country's opaque financial system and the complex factors - demographic shifts, urbanisation, industrialisation, a pervasive over-reliance on debt-fuelled investments - that have brought the country to the brink of crisis. Anchored by stories of China's cities and its people, from factory workers and displaced farmers to government officials and entrepreneurs, the narrative will take readers inside the country's ghost cities, zombie companies, start-ups, and regulatory institutions as McMahon explains how things got so bad, why fixing the problems is so hard, and what the economic outlook means for China and for the rest of us. 

One morning in October 2013, 19-year-old Ayan Juma and her 16-year-old sister, Leila, left their family home in Oslo. Later that day they sent an email to their parents. 'Peace, God's mercy and blessings upon you, Mum and Dad... Please do not be cross with us....' Leila and Ayan had decided to travel to Syria 'and help out down there as best we can'. They had been planning for months. By the time their desperate father, Sadiq, tracks them to Turkey, they have already crossed the border.

As the head of Open Learning at MIT, Sanjay Sarma has a daunting job description: to fling open the doors of the MIT experience for the benefit of the wider world. But if you're going to undertake such an ambitious project, you must first ask: how exactly does learning work? What conditions are most conducive? Are our traditional classroom methods - lecture, homework, test, repeat - effective? And if not, which techniques are? Grasp takes listeners across multiple frontiers, from fundamental neuroscience to cognitive psychology and beyond, as it explores the future of learning.

Throughout history, depopulation was the product of catastrophe: ice ages, plagues, the collapse of civilisations. This time, however, we're thinning ourselves deliberately, by choosing to have fewer babies than we need to replace ourselves. In much of the developed and developing world, that decline is already underway, as urbanisation, women's empowerment, and waning religiosity lead to smaller and smaller families. In Empty Planet, Ibbitson and Bricker draw on a wealth of research and firsthand reporting to illustrate the dramatic consequences of this population decline.

Masculinity has reached a moment of crisis. From the erosion of unifying institutions, such as marriage, to a rise in male suicide rates, the last century and a half has been a particularly turbulent time to be a man. Increasing numbers of men are finding themselves anchorless, uprooted from the conventions and certainties of their forefathers. Today masculinity itself has come under attack, relentlessly maligned in the media. Now, more than ever, the long and perilous journey from infant to old age is fraught with strange complexities, moral dichotomies and maddening contradictions.

David was the first black Briton to study at Harvard Law School and practised as a barrister before entering politics. He has served as the Member of Parliament for Tottenham since 2000. Today, David is one of Parliament's most prominent and successful campaigners for social justice. He led the campaign for Windrush British citizens to be granted British citizenship and has been at the forefront of the fight for justice for the families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. 

In the last two decades the uses of the term nationalism have increased steeply with the rising tide of nationalist parties. In this collection of historian Eric Hobsbawm's writing on nationalism, we see some of the critical historical insights he brings to bear on this contentious subject, which is more than ever relevant as we stand on the doorstep of an age when the internet and the globalisation of capital threaten to blow away many national boundaries while, as a reaction, nationalism seems to re-emerge with renewed strength. 

What is it like to be a wife of a politician in modern-day Britain? Sasha Swire finally lifts the lid. For more than two decades she has kept a secret diary detailing the trials and tribulations of being a political plus-one; the travel, the security, the challenges to family life and the unpredictable events. A professional partner as well as a life partner and one with strong political opinions herself, she detonates the image of the dutiful stereotype.  

What would lockdown internet sensation Britney Spears, aka Jackie Weaver, do? Are you tired of being patronised, talked over and told to read the standing orders? (Perhaps not that last one). For every woman who has endured that I-know-what's-best-for-you tone, this is the audiobook for you. The feminist political icon we didn't know we needed, the indomitable Jackie Weaver shares her own standing orders for life. This is an essential handbook for getting things done without fuss, keeping cool in the face of adversity and pressing mute on the noise. 

We all want to lead a happy life. Traditionally, when in need of guidance, comfort or inspiration, many people turn to religion. But there has been another way to learn how to live well - the humanist way - and in today's more secular world, it is more relevant than ever. In The Little Book of Humanism, Alice Roberts and Andrew Copson share over 2,000 years of humanist wisdom through an uplifting collection of stories, quotes and meditations on how to live an ethical and fulfilling life, grounded in reason and humanity.