Showing results by narrator "Michael Butler" in All Categories

Much of the attention paid to Trump's rise to power has focused on his corrosive personality and divisive style of governing. But he alone is not the problem. The vulnerability is much broader and deeper. The ascendance of Trump is the culmination of nearly 250 years of political reforms that gradually ceded party nominations to small cliques of ideologically motivated party activists, interest groups, and donors. Author Lawrence Jacobs provides a highly engaging history of political reforms since the late-eighteenth century that over time dangerously weakened democracy.

Leaders tend to obstinately stick to the leadership style that brought them most success in the past, usually one of two extreme styles: functional leadership that focuses on operational excellence or smart leadership that focuses on growth. When a leader's focus is too functional, the organization becomes introverted and can focus too much on bottom-line profitability while missing out on top-line growth opportunities.

For Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School's Spoken Word Club, there is one phrase that reigns supreme: Respect the Mic. It's been the club's call to arms since its inception in 1999. As its founder Peter Kahn says, "It's a call of pride and history and tradition and hope." This vivid new collection of poetry and prose - curated by award-winning and bestselling poets Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Peter Kahn, and Dan "Sully" Sullivan - illuminates just that, uplifting the incredible legacy this community has cultivated.

John Schulian, a much-honored sportswriter for nearly forty years, takes us back to a time when our greatest athletes stood before us as human beings, not remote gods. In this compelling collection, Schulian paints prose portraits to remind fans of what today's cloistered stars won't share with them. The result is an audiobook guaranteed to stir memories for the generation that was - and to leave subsequent generations wishing they had it so good.

It begins as innocent fun. Tempting, enchanting...even, at times, sweet. It doesn’t take long, however, before things change. You feel yourself being lured. A haunting - or haunted - voice whispers your name in the darkest of hours. Seduces you. Entices you. Beckons you. You’re addicted...and there’s no turning back. In this collection of 20 stories, Brandon Ford takes the listener on an extended journey, one that begins in a sun-kissed meadow and ends in a shadowed wood, where razor-clawed creatures prey.

The Colonial Theater, a single-screen movie house on the edge of town, is holding a special midnight screening of a brand new splatter flick. But before the opening titles make it to the screen, the popcorn-laden aisles run red with blood as a masked killer begins slaughtering the moviegoers with the aid of a spiked meat tenderizer.

In this groundbreaking ethnographic analysis of crypto economies and their global markets and communities, Koray Caliskan offers an inside view of how cryptocurrencies are made and traded. He argues that cryptocurrency should be understood as "data money," a historically novel money type, created as the right to send data privately over an accounting infrastructure called blockchain.

Laursen's book relates the event-filled life of a brilliant and complex figure, including his victory over a possibly career-ending disability, his tumultuous second marriage, his struggles with the scientific establishment, and the fascinating story of the making of The Joy of Sex.

Sean Gryphon has fought demons, werewolves, and other monsters that would give most people Lovecraftian nightmares without a second thought. He's tired of fighting, tired of killing, and most of all tired of protecting the human race when they seem intent on destroying themselves. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball. For Sean, that curve ball comes in the form of an ancient manuscript and the woman who found it.

A newly restored special edition of a cult horror film sparks the curiosities of genre devotee Nick Eliot, when he discovers some troubling remarks concerning the lead actress during the director’s commentary track. After a small bit of research, Nick discovers that star Kelly Christopher not only vanished from the Hollywood scene after the film’s release, but has no online presence whatsoever. No social media accounts, personal website, nothing.

Explaining the world around us, and the life within it, is one of the most uniquely human drives, and the most celebrated activity of science. Good explanations are what provide accurate causal accounts of the things we wonder at, but explanation's earthly origins haven't grounded it: we have used it to account for the grandest and most wondrous mysteries in the natural world. Explanations give us a sense of understanding, but an explanation that feels right doesn't mean it is true.

Under the current administration, not only are the civil rights of foreigners in jeopardy, but those of U.S. citizens. A public defender for 29 years, Steven Wax interweaves the stories of two men that he represented: Brandon Mayfield, an American-born lawyer and family man, arrested as a suspected terrorist after a fingerprint was incorrectly traced back to him by the FBI; and Adel Hamad, a Sudanese hospital administrator taken from his apartment to a Pakistani prison and then flown in chains to the United States military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Case Files of the Paranormal is a journey into reports that range from spirit activity, cryptid creatures, alien encounters, and legends that haunt the minds of those who have experienced this phenomenon. Author (The New Jersey Paranormal Project Spirit Voices: Investigations in Search of the Paranormal) and paranormal researcher Richard Moschella will open the case files of the New Jersey Paranormal Project so you may hear firsthand encounters of the paranormal from the very people who experienced them.

Earth, the Vacation Planet, thrives in its multifaceted beauty everywhere but inside the overcrowded cities humanity has been confined to. Meanwhile, an alien senator with a quest for power hits the obliteration button for every city whose rioters have gone too far. One by one, the last human reservations are being blinked out of existence.

The scene is the children's ward of a great hospital, and the story of a profoundly moving account of a young doctor's involvement in the life of Mary Berquam, an enchanting 11 year old girl affected with leukemia. He learns how to be a better, more compassionate doctor from this child.

Retired LAPD detective Mike Travis has put thousands of miles between himself and his former life by sailing to Kona, Hawaii, where he runs a private yacht charter business and co-owns a coffee farm. But once a cop, always a cop—especially when someone he cares about needs his help. When a local girl goes missing, her fundamentalist parents don't even file a report. She is eighteen, after all, and seems to be rebelling against her strict upbringing. But Travis knows the dangers that lurk for young women.

Cam returns home to South Carolina after escaping an attempted frame for double murder. Now trying to start a new career as a private investigator, Cam starts to remember there really is no place like home.

In today's fast-moving and competitive business environment, strong leadership, insightful strategy, and effective innovation are critical links to staying ahead of your competition. Getting your business house in order can often be complicated, but does it really have to be? How do you take MBA 101 lessons, great models, and exceptional concepts and put them into play in the real world? Business Strategy: Plan, Execute, Win! strives to answers these questions in an educational and entertaining format.

Secrets and Leaks examines the complex relationships among executive power, national security, and secrecy. State secrecy is vital for national security, but it can also be used to conceal wrongdoing. How then can we ensure that this power is used responsibly?

What is the future of news? That question takes on greater urgency with each passing year, and has triggered no shortage of controversy among journalists, scholars, and the public - some warning of serious journalism's imminent demise as traditional business models collapse, others anticipating its rebirth as networked citizens participate in the news process. What remains clear is that in our media shift from analog to digital, from one-way to increasingly many-to-many forms of communication, we need to rethink much of what we know about journalism - who produces it, under what conditions, and with what kind of impact in society.