Showing results by narrator "Chris Newman" in All Categories

The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is “one of those tech demi-gods with whom we’re all on a first name basis.” Bix is forty, with four kids, restless, and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Own Your Unconscious”—which allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes.

From the #1 national bestselling author of 'Indian' in the Cabinet and True Reconciliation, a truly unique history of our land—powerful, devastating, remarkable—as told through the voices of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

The Netherlands had a great century in the 1600s, until it all ended about three-fourths of the way along. Trading was all around; business was good. Their vast empire that reached across the world made money from spices, raw materials, metals, and so much more, with an extensive network of ships and merchants, and an entire army fleet. The Dutch Golden Era was a time in Dutch history varying from about 1588 (the start of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the "Catastrophe Year"), throughout which Dutch trade, science, and art, and the Dutch armed force, were amongst the world's best.

Claude Monet has been the icon for the impressionist movement. His family life wasn’t perfect, but despite all obstacles, the French genius painter has left us a legacy and a new perspective on realism and technique in their purest forms. In this guide, we’ll go over his youth, his style, his methods, his most famous paintings, and many of the reasons why he made the decisions he made.

The war between the Protestant Netherlands, mostly led by William of Orange, and Catholic Spain was one of the marks in Dutch history. This war had determined the beliefs of many people who now lived along the three rivers that went through the country. Most of the people north of the rivers were Protestant, and most of the believers below them (even throughout Belgium as well) were Catholic. This was no coincidence. The war in the 1600s had become a symbol of Dutch resistance, independence, and the royal family (of Orange).

The following cruel dictators, mass murderers, torturers, and sadists from an extensive world history will be described and discussed in further detail: Adolf Eichmann, Benito Mussolini, Enver Pasha, Francisco Pizarro, Josef Mengele, Oliver Cromwell, Paul Joseph Goebbels, Pol Pot, Robespierre, Rudolf Hoess, and Torquemada.

It's 2010. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. He's 40, with four kids, and restless when he stumbles into a conversation with mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or 'externalising' memory. Within a decade, Bix's new technology, Own Your Unconscious—that allows you access to every memory you've ever had, and to share every memory in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes. But not everyone.

Pol Pot was a Cambodian political leader and revolutionary who worked as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 till 1979. He was a key member of Cambodia's communist party, the Khmer Rouge, from 1963 to 1997, and acted as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981. He was a Marxist-Leninist and a Khmer nationalist. Cambodia was changed into a one-party communist state under his management, and the Cambodian genocide happened.

It’s a hard name to pronounce, but hey, it’s been the legend of Native American peoples for centuries. Was it a man? Was it a god? Was it a white person? Or, was it some animal or strange thing? Quetzalcoatl is an Aztec divine being whose name originates from the Nahuatl language and meaning "valuable snake" or "Quetzal-feathered snake".

Mother Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, typically referred to as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in the Catholic Church, was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary. She was born in Skopje (today the capital of North Macedonia), which was then part of the Ottoman Empire's Kosovo Vilayet. After 18 years in Skopje, she went to Ireland and ultimately to India, where she spent the remainder of her life. Teresa formed the Missionaries of Charity in the year 1950, a Roman Catholic spiritual order with about 4,500 nuns active in about 133 nations in the year 2012.

The infamous double murder that inspired elementary school rhymes is a controversial one: partially because of the insidious nature and grossness of the crime and on the other hand because some people still believe the defendant is innocent. There are many reasons to believe why Lizzie killed both her parents with an axe, and there are some that could be used to argue that she didn’t.

There are doers and there are preachers. The people who were executing orders or abusing people in World War Two wouldn’t have been able to commit any atrocities if the country hadn’t warmed up to an inhumane narrative. That’s where propaganda came in. Propaganda has long been part of various countries and societies to make the population believe something, and to find culprits, create feelings of animosity, and glorify local leaders or military campaigns.

During the Spanish inquisition, being called a heretic, a witch, or a sinner meant business. It could mean the end of your life. And so, it is with a tragic view on the past that we see countless innocent victims being accused of something they never did, with no bad intentions or rebellious behavior, and nonetheless being executed in brutal manners. One of the proponents of this system, and an active executioner, was Thomas de Torquemada, a completely insane, cruel man who had become notorious for his methods of hunting down and taking out supposed anti-church offenders.

The Dutch East India Company, officially the United East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie; VOC), was a megacorporation created in the early 17th century by a government-directed merger of many competing Dutch trade services. You might think that Amazon or Google is big, but the VOC is still thought to be the world's biggest corporation in documented history.

Michel de Nostredame, referred to as Nostradamus in Latin, was a French astronomer, doctor, and presumed seer mostly known for his work Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains supposedly predicting future events, which was first released in the year 1555. In this audiobook, let’s take a look at what he predicted, and if any of it came true.

Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and writer who was commonly seen as one of the best mathematicians, physicists, and most prominent researchers of perpetuity. He was hailed as a natural theorist in his time. He was a considerable player in the knowledge thought movement. In the year 1687, he wrote Mathematical Concepts of Natural Philosophy, which established classical mechanics. Newton also made considerable advances in optics, and he shares credit for developing infinitesimal calculus with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Conquistadores (or Conquistadors) were the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors who invaded parts of the world that hadn’t been discovered by the Europeans before the 16th century. Some were incentivized by greed, lust, and dominance, which caused them to pillage, steal, and enslave the indigenous people they encountered. In this audiobook, you will learn more about one infamous sadist in particular: Francisco Pizarro, who abused and attacked the Peruvian peoples, acted as an inquisitor for the Catholic Church, and inflicted physical and psychological wounds on his subjects.

We all have a typical image of Vikings, from the horns on their helmets to the beards and the clothes they wear. Their ships have a certain charm, and their reputation is that they were brutal, raw, and believed in multiple gods. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore some of the details about the Viking history. What did they do? How did they treat their women? Where did they go to conquer other nations? These are some of the questions we will answer.

There is no doubt that Michelangelo is one of the most influential artists of all time, together with some other Renaissance geniuses, such as Leonardo and Rafael. Michelangelo had a vision, a dream, and the talent to carry out those imaginations. His life, in our perspective, is a compilation of great works of art, architecture, sculptures, paintings, and intricate movements, contrast, colors, and anatomy of the human body. Religious and thematic symbolism are intertwined in his frescos and structures. Let us learn more about this great artist.

Don't think that because it is such a small country with only about 17 million people, it should be neglected. The Netherlands has a long history, with a high influence on our cultures, trading routes, the stock market, business, and art. The Dutch were all over the world. They "owned" and colonized a big portion of what was then the known world. They were among the first settlers, had the biggest haven, and biggest fleet for some time. The Dutch East-Indian Trading Company, or VOC, is probably the biggest or at least one of the biggest companies that has ever existed.