Higher Life

It is now known that we live in a galaxy with more planets than stars. The Milky Way alone encompasses 30 trillion potential home planets. Scientists Trefil and Summers bring listeners on a marvelous experimental voyage through the possibilities of life-unlike anything we have experienced so far - that could exist on planets outside our own solar system.

We are naturally drawn to smooth, harmonious movement. Both social and physical graces have been taught since the dawn of civilization. Yet grace seems forgotten in our pushy, hectic modern world. Sarah L. Kaufman argues that we bring it back. She celebrates grace in the way bodies move, exploring how to stand, walk, and dress well. She deplores the rarity of grace among public figures and glories in it where found (Beyoncé at a fashion show).

When Amy B. Scher was struck with undiagnosed late-stage, chronic Lyme disease, the best physicians in America labeled her condition incurable and potentially terminal. Deteriorating rapidly, she went on a search to save her own life - from the top experts in Los Angeles and the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis to a state-of-the-art hospital in Chicago. After exhausting all of her options in the US, she discovered a possible cure - but it was highly experimental, available only in India, and had as much of a probability of killing her as it did of curing her.

Seventeen-year-old Riggle is living in rural Indiana with his uncle and uncle's girlfriend after the death of both of his parents. Now his uncle has gone missing, probably on a drug binge. It's Monday, and $800 in rent is due Friday. Riggle, who's been suspended from school, has to either find his uncle or get the money together himself. His mission exposes him to a motley group of Opioid locals - encounters by turns perplexing, harrowing, and heartening. Meanwhile, Riggle marks each day by remembering the mythology his late mother invented for him about how the days got their names.

Are you tired of the daily commute and dreaming of a flexible career that lets you work from anywhere in the world? Perhaps you've tried applying for remote positions but keep getting rejected, or you're overwhelmed by the countless online job platforms and don't know where to start. This comprehensive guide breaks down the exact steps successful remote workers have used to land high-paying virtual positions, teaching you how to stand out in a competitive market and build a thriving location-independent career.

Why do so many of us commit to the wrong person? Most believe that attraction and compatibility are the keys to relationship success when, in reality, these are red flags in 15-20% of the population. When it comes to love, the brain is irrational and shortsighted. We make decisions based on incomplete information, biased understanding, and strong emotion. Love truly is blind. That's why you need dating radar - it gives you a way to detect hazards you might otherwise miss by recognizing:

Matthew is a 16-year-old living in Jackson Heights, Queens, in 1976. After he loses his two most important male role models, his father and grandfather, his mother uses her inheritance to uproot Matthew and herself to a posh apartment building in Manhattan. Although only three miles away from his boyhood home, "the city" is a completely new and strange world to Matthew. He soon befriends (and becomes a quasi-assistant to) Lou Reed, who lives with his transgender girlfriend, Rachel, in the same building.

Resilience isn’t a trait—it’s a system. Most people wait for life to calm down before they fix their habits. High performers know better. They design systems that function under pressure, not after it. Resilience by Design is a sharp, no-fluff guide to building durable routines, adaptable thinking, and long-term stability—even in unpredictable environments. This book doesn’t offer motivational fluff or empty affirmations. Instead, it gives you methodical, proven frameworks for managing energy, making decisions under stress, handling setbacks, and future-proofing your habits, ...

The seven-foot Dirk Nowitzki is one of the great players in basketball history. With a devastating fadeaway and unexpected agility, the Dallas Mavericks superstar helped to pioneer the modern three-shooting game and became a global ambassador for the sport. Award-winning novelist and sportswriter Thomas Pletzinger traveled with Nowitzki for more than seven years, seeking the secret of his success and longevity. In novelistic detail, Pletzinger tells the dramatic story of how a lanky kid from the German suburbs became a top-five all-time scorer and NBA champion.

The Tall Book is a celebration of the tall-advantaged, which notes and explores the myriad benefits that come with living large - from the simple pleasures of being able to see over crowds at a parade, to the professional joys of earning more money, and having others perceive you as a natural leader. The Tall Book also offers well-researched explanations into the great unanswered questions of tallness, including: Why are people tall to begin with? How have tall people figured throughout history?

When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of 300 people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period - people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.

In her career as a science reporter, Nell Greenfieldboyce has reported from inside a space shuttle, the bottom of a coal mine, and the control room of a particle collider; she's presented news on the color of dinosaur eggs, ice worms that live on mountaintop glaciers, and signs of life on Venus. In this, her debut book, she delivers a wholly original collection of powerful, emotionally raw, and unforgettable personal essays that probe the places where science touches our lives most intimately.

Author Gary Jansen knows how difficult it can be to create significant, sustainable change in our lives. Sometimes we feel too overwhelmed to even start, and in other cases this self-work seems like one more burden. In his new book he offers an answer that he calls "microshifting" - small, incremental adjustments that gradually reshape our deeply rooted patterns. With a blend of masterful storytelling and dozens of practical tips, MicroShifts suggests simple, small changes across many aspects of our lives-everything from how we greet others to how we try to talk to God - to generate big results physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Sylvia Browne showed us how to get in touch with departed loved ones in The Other Side and Back and Life on The Other Side. In Visits from the Afterlife, Browne journeys even deeper into The Other Side. She describes visitations with ghosts and travels to haunted homes and ships possessed by the otherworldly forces who walk their deserted decks. Through these spiritual visits, she explains the reasons behind many of the world's most bizarre and mysterious hauntings.

In The Aligned Mindset, Dr. Sohee Jun responds to the critical and pressing professional and personal anxieties that keep you up at night. Through real stories interwoven with in-depth interviews and qualitative data, high-powered women open up about the mistakes they’ve made, successes they’ve found, and the critical mindset shifts and practical lessons they’ve learned in their own professional journeys.

No longer dismissed as relics of the hippie era, a new generation has lionized the Dead for creating a culture that paved the way for social networking, free music swapping, and the uncompromising anticorporate attitude of indie rock. Now, fifty years after the band first began changing rock 'n' roll both sonically and psychically, So Many Roads paints the most vivid portrait yet of the Grateful Dead, one of the most enduring institutions in American music and culture.

What if you went to a school where it was actually all right to be who you really are? That's the enchanting place David Levithan has created in his highly acclaimed first novel. But even if the gay kids and the straight kids all get along just fine, even if it's all right for the quarterback to be a cross dresser named Infinite Darlene and the cheerleaders to ride Harleys into the pep rally, the road to true love is still a strange and winding path, as Paul discovers when he meets the boy of his dreams.

Drawing on 40 years of research and stories, Sylvia Browne gives us an exploratory look at how animals "live" after death on the Other Side. From our pets' never-ending loyalty, heroic deeds, and comedic behavior to how animals see spirits, Browne shares heartwarming and tear-jerking tales about pets from across the country and around the world.

LaserWriter II is a coming-of-age tale set in the legendary '90s indie NYC Mac repair shop TekServe - a voyage back in time to when the internet was new, when New York City was gritty, and when Apple made off-beat computers for weirdos. Our guide is Claire, a 19-year-old who barely speaks to her bohemian coworkers, but knows when it's time to snap on an antistatic bracelet.

Drawing on the latest theory and research, this book explains why people procrastinate, and provides practical, evidence-based strategies to help you stop delaying, complete your tasks, and fulfill your potential. At the heart of procrastination are your emotions and ability to regulate your mood. In this book you will learn how to dial down negative emotions, and replace old habits with new ones that can help you stay on track with your tasks and goals.