Showing results by narrator "Patrick Hopkins" in All Categories

No organization is totally free from destructive friction; the forces that make it harder, more complicated and sometimes downright impossible to get things done. Drawing on years of research and featuring case studies on the likes of Uber, Netflix and Boeing, The Friction Project teaches listeners how to become 'friction fixers'. Stanford professors Sutton and Rao unpack how we should think and act like trustees of others' time. They provide friction forensics to help listeners identify where to avert and repair bad friction, and where to maintain and inject good friction.

A pioneer in the field of criminal xenoarchaeology, Aphra recognises no law, has no fear and possesses no impulse control. To her, the true worth of the galactic relics she discovers isn’t found in a museum, but in an arsenal. This viewpoint has led to a lot of misunderstandings. After her latest plan goes horribly wrong, her criminal past is on the verge of catching up to her, when suddenly Darth Vader, terror of the galaxy, swoops in with his lightsaber ignited and...saves her life?

After 9/11, mental health professionals flocked to New York to handle what everyone assumed would be a flood of trauma cases. Oddly, the flood never came. In The End of Trauma, pioneering psychologist George A. Bonanno argues that we failed to predict the psychological response to 9/11 because most of what we understand about trauma is wrong. For starters, it’s not nearly as common as we think.

It seems obvious that pleasure leads to happiness - and pain does the opposite. And yet we are irresistibly drawn to a host of experiences that truly hurt, from the exhilarating fear of horror movies or extreme sport, to the wrenching sadness of a song or novel, to the gruelling challenges of exercise, work, creativity and having a family. In The Sweet Spot, pre-eminent psychologist Paul Bloom explores the pleasures of suffering and explains why the activities that provide most satisfaction are often the ones that involve greatest sacrifice.

Amber Benson has no idea what to do for the rest of her life, let alone what major to pick for college. So when she inherits an apartment in Manhattan from a grandmother she never knew, she moves there faster than a New York minute. Her plan to find herself is soon derailed—on the subway, where she’s attacked by demons. Even crazier? She defends herself with something she never knew existed: magic.

A trio of experts on high-tech business strategy and innovation reveal the principles that have made platform businesses the most valuable firms in the world and the first trillion-dollar companies.

Whilst working on a spreadsheet for a New York-based PR firm, Gerald has his consciousness uploaded into his company's Slack channel. He posts for help, but his colleagues assume it's an elaborate joke to exploit the new working-from-home policy and, now that Gerald's productivity is through the roof, his bosses are only too happy to let him work from...wherever he says he is. Faced with the looming abyss of a disembodied life online, Gerald enlists co-worker Pradeep to care for his body and Slackbot, the service's AI assistant, to help him navigate his new digital reality.

The prestigious annual story anthology, featuring prize-winning stories by Kate DiCamillo, Jess Walter, Dave Eggers, Allegra Goodman, Jai Chakrabarti, Francisco Gonzalez, and more.

Detective Mitch Tanner's life hangs in the balance. He clings to the daughter in his care. He agonizes over the disappearance of his son and estranged wife. Twelve months has yet to turn up a solid lead. While investigating the apparent accidental death of Dusty Anne Miller, Mitch and his partner Sam Foster find themselves in the middle of a fiendish plan that strikes too close to home. Running out of time, he plummets into the depths of darkness. And from there, he vows to bring the masterminds down, no matter the consequences.

As Tanner rips apart a drug gang in Arizona, he thinks back on an episode from his past. Cody and Romeo help Spenser fulfill a contract while in Tucson, Arizona in 1998. Twenty years later, in New York City, Tanner believes he's seen a man whom he and Romeo killed long ago. In 1998, Cody and Romeo train hard, then face tests that will decide their fate. In the present, Tanner seeks vengeance on a man who once tried to kill him.

While suspended from the Philadelphia Police Department, Mitch Tanner travels to Savannah, Georgia, to visit Cassie, the medium who assisted on his last case, in hopes of uncovering a clue to the whereabouts of his estranged wife and son. When he arrives in Savannah, he finds himself embroiled in a triple homicide and kidnapping that Cassie has been called upon to assist in by the local detectives. It isn't long before the case gets personal. Very personal. Now, Mitch is in a race against the clock to stop a deranged madman before he kills again.

Detective David Wolf’s slow winter in the Colorado Rockies is interrupted by two events: a mountain lion attack in a remote trailer park, and a wealthy man coming into headquarters to report the robbery of three valuable paintings.

No Shadows in the Desert reveals the untold story of the behind-the-scenes fight against ISIS - one coordinated by heads of state and ultimately fought in the alleyways and open deserts of the Middle Eastern battlefield by spies and soldiers. Samuel M. Katz draws upon his sources within the global intelligence and counterterrorism community, as well as the international special operations and espionage fraternity, to tell the story of the covert campaign against ISIS by the operatives who ventured deeply and secretly into enemy territory.

Sergeant David Wolf has put his Special Forces days long behind him, settling down as a cop in the small ski resort town of Rocky Points, Colorado. He's a good cop who's seen bad days before, but none quite like this. As if narrowly escaping an attempt on his life, his addict ex-wife being back in the picture, and complications to his all-but-certain appointment to sheriff weren't enough, he's just received word that his brother has committed suicide in the Alps of Italy.

Brynn’s happy ending has gone up in flames. She’s newly divorced and living with a roommate – Josh – to afford her mortgage. At least she’s got Carson’s Cove to binge - her beloved 90s teenage soap. So when a birthday cake shows up on her and Josh’s doorstep, Brynn makes a wish for her own happily-ever-after. The next morning, she doesn't wake up in her apartment. She's in Carson's Cove... and Josh is there too. Except they're not Brynn and Josh; they're the sweetheart and the bad boy. Will they stick to the script, or will real love change the story forever?

Chief Detective David Wolf is called to a crime scene next to the Chautauqua River, where a woman resident of Rocky Points has been murdered. The killer has left a well-known signature not seen for years - a severed ear. For Wolf, the gruesome display is a surprise, but so is the FBI beating the local department to the scene. Three days earlier a truck is unearthed from south of Durango, Colorado. Within it is DNA evidence linking to killings in southwest Colorado that have stumped the FBI for years.

William Deresiewicz, a leading critic of the arts and of contemporary culture, set out to answer those questions. Based on interviews with artists of all kinds, The Death of the Artist argues that we are in the midst of an epochal transformation. If artists were artisans in the Renaissance, bohemians in the 19th century, and professionals in the 20th, a new paradigm is emerging in the digital age, one that is changing our fundamental ideas about the nature of art and the role of the artist in society.

When Isabel Marshall moved away from her hometown with hopes of making a name for herself in Los Angeles, she didn’t mean to abandon her roots, but that’s what happened. Now, four years later and having amassed an interior design empire, Isabel must return to Mapleton to film a home renovation special for her TV show. While most of the village welcomes her with open arms, her family and the ex-boyfriend she left in her dust are another story.

Old houses share their secrets only if they survive. Trading the corporate ladder for a stepladder, Lee McColgan commits to preserving the ramshackle Loring House, built in 1702, using period materials and methods and on a holiday deadline. But his enchantment withers as he discovers the massive repairs it needs. A small kitchen fix reveals that the structure’s rotten frame could collapse at any moment. In a bathroom, mold appears and spreads. He fights deteriorating bricks, frozen pipes, shattered windows, a punctured foundation, and even an airborne chimney cap.

The bicycle is a vestige of the Victorian era, seemingly out of pace with our age of smartphones and ridesharing apps and driverless cars. Yet we live on a bicycle planet. Across the world, more people travel by bicycle than by any other form of transportation. Almost anyone can learn to ride a bike—and nearly everyone does. In Two Wheels Good, writer and critic Jody Rosen reshapes our understanding of this ubiquitous machine, an ever-present force in humanity's life and dreamlife, and a flashpoint in culture wars for more for than 200 years.