Nonfiction4Life
251 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 38 ratingsNonfiction authors share compelling true stories & books with great ideas for living well. In addition to discussing captivating biographies & memoirs, these writers promote business & entrepreneurship, foster community-building, encourage health & wellness, strengthen home & family, and nurture personal development. Regardless of the genre, all the books we feature are insightful, inspiring, and uplifting. In the end, we save you time by curating long-standing classics, sleepers, and new releases. At Nonfiction4Life, we believe there's something for everyone!
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Episodes
Repost N4L 036: "Vitamin N" by Richard Louv
May 20, 2022 07:20 - 39 minutes - 54.6 MBRichard Louv, co-founder of the San Diego-based Children & Nature Network, author Richard Louv adds Vitamin N to his growing list of books encouraging us to get outside. Aimed especially at families eager to share nature with their kids, Louv’s practical guidebook offers "500 Ways to Enrich the Health & Happiness of Your Family & Community." All are appropriate for Earth Day, but they're also fitting throughout the year. Through his 2008 landmark book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our C...
N4L 187: "Splitting" by Amanda Ellison
May 11, 2022 19:00 - 43 minutes - 60.1 MBAmanda Ellison, a leading neuroscientist and physiologist at Durham University in the UK, explains head pain in her book Splitting: The Inside Story of Headaches. What is the point of pain, especially the kind we suffer from headaches? Ellison addresses this age-old question and, combining humor with wide-ranging research, she also defines all kinds of headaches—from a “brain freeze” to much more serious cluster headaches—and their possible remedies. Those with a science background wil...
N4L 186: "Thrivers" by Dr. Michele Borba
April 27, 2022 13:00 - 40 minutes - 56 MBIn her latest book, Thrivers, child psychologist Dr. Michele Borba identifies seven teachable strengths that can safeguard kids for now and the future. To find these traits, Dr. Borba combed scientific studies on resilience, spoke to dozens of researchers and experts in the field, and interviewed more than 100 young people from all walks of life. Each strength is like a superpower that helps protect kids against the depression and anxiety that threatens to derail them. Better yet, when the...
N4L 185: "The Epic Mentor Guide" by Illana Raia
April 20, 2022 07:01 - 26 minutes - 37 MBAs a Forbes Next 1000 entrepreneur and founder of the mentorship program Etre, Illana Raia connects girls directly to the leaders they want to meet and encourages them to ask the questions that are really on their minds. The result is The Epic Mentor Guide, a treasure trove of never-before-seen work/life advice from 180 boss women, each successful in her own sphere of influence. Raia’s book includes advice from female astronauts, news anchors, CEOs, surgeons, engineers, Olympians, Wall Str...
N4L 184: "Going Remote" by Matthew E. Kahn
March 30, 2022 07:00 - 36 minutes - 50.7 MBUrban economist Dr. Matthew Kahn in his latest book, “GOING REMOTE: How the Flexible Work Economy Can Improve Our Lives and our Cities,” shows us how the urban landscape is shifting in our favor. Whether we’re working from home, in person, or in a hybrid fashion, Kahn explains how the pandemic has created opportunities for everyone to have more freedom. In fact, according to Kahn, the rise of remote work presents especially valuable chances for flexibility and equity in the lives of women,...
N4L 074: Repost - "Thanks a Thousand" by A. J. Jacobs
November 22, 2021 15:46 - 38 minutes - 52.7 MBOn a dare from his son, author A.J. Jacobs set out to thank everyone who contributed to bringing him a cup of coffee. The result is his book, “Thanks A Thousand,” and a TEDTalk viewed by more than a million people. Jacobs’s “Gratitude Journey,” a timely exploration of our interconnectedness, illustrates our need to eschew tribalism and recognize the staggering number of people who make our everyday lives wonderful. Read more on our website. BUY Thanks A Thousand: A Gratitude Journey (...
N4L 183: “We Gather Together” by Denise Kiernan
November 08, 2021 08:01 - 44 minutes - 61.2 MBSUMMARY In "WE GATHER TOGETHER: A Nation Divided, A President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace," beloved bestselling author Denise Kiernan turns her passion for history and unparalleled research to a topic that couldn’t be timelier: gratitude. Spanning centuries, "WE GATHER TOGETHER" is anchored amid the strife of the Civil War and driven by the fascinating story of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widowed mother with no formal schooling who became one of the 19th ...
N4L 182: "Stronger Through Adversity" by Dr. Joseph Michelli
October 13, 2021 03:35 - 33 minutes - 45.9 MBHow have some businesses managed to thrive during the Covid-19 pandemic? New York Times #1 bestselling author Joseph Michelli scours 140-plus businesses worldwide to collect lessons in his latest book, Stronger Through Adversity: World-Class Leaders Share Pandemic-Tested Lessons on Thriving During the Toughest Challenges. With his own life as “proof that you can become stronger through adversity,” Michelli identifies 20 ways organizations have managed to turn breakdowns into breakthroughs du...
N4L 181: "Forgive for Good" by Dr. Fred Luskin
September 30, 2021 12:52 - 39 minutes - 54.4 MBSUMMARY Dr. Fred Luskin, author of the bestselling book Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness, founded and currently serves as Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects. His forgiveness work has been applied the world over in veteran’s hospitals, churches, in resolving legal disputes, with cancer patients as psychoeducation, and in psychotherapy. Luskin has had extraordinary success helping people recover from the murder of their family members a...
N4L 094: Repost - "Elderhood" by Louise Aronson
September 10, 2021 14:04 - 38 minutes - 53.6 MBSUMMARY Harvard-trained geriatrician and award-winning author Louis Aronson introduces a revolutionary perspective on growing old in her book, “ELDERHOOD: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life.” Sharing stories from her personal and professional life, and drawing from history, Aronson offers clarity and understanding about “elderhood,” the third and final stage of life after childhood and adulthood and a period that can span up to 40 years or more. With new insights i...
N4L 180: "Leadership Moments from NASA" by Dr. Dave Williams
September 01, 2021 07:01 - 35 minutes - 48.9 MBSUMMARY Canadian astronaut, author, and CEO Dave Williams in Leadership Moments from NASA: Achieving the Impossible examines the resilient culture and diverse leadership styles at NASA. In an organization where decisions can literally be matters of life and death, leadership styles matter! Using oral histories and interviews, Dave Williams and his co-author Elizabeth Howell help us understand many triumphs and tragedies spanning more than 50 years of space exploration. We learn how NASA ...
N4L 179: "In My Mother's Footsteps" by Mona Hajjar Halaby
August 25, 2021 11:19 - 37 minutes - 51.4 MBSUMMARY "In My Mother's Footsteps" by Mona Hajjar Halaby layers the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict with honest recollections of a Palestinian mother and daughter who both lived in their homeland at different times. Leaving California to spend a year teaching conflict resolution to schoolchildren in Ramallah, Halaby keeps a journal of her observations, feelings, experiences, and impressions of the challenges of living in a militarized, occupied town. This sabbatical gives her a chan...
N4L 178: "Subtract" by Leidy Klotz
August 16, 2021 14:57 - 40 minutes - 56.1 MBSUMMARY In his book “Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less,” Leidy Klotz shows how we systematically overlook the concept of taking away. Instead, we tend to default to fixing through adding. Moreover, additive ideas come to mind quickly and easily; subtractive ideas require more cognitive effort. So, Professor Klotz from the University of Virginia, where he directs the Convergent Behavioral Science Initiative, has pioneered behavioral research pinpointing how and why we underutilize th...
N4L 060: Repost - "How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick" by Letty Cottin Pogrebin
August 04, 2021 07:01 - 37 minutes - 52.3 MBAt age 70, Letty Cottin Pogrebin felt fit as a fiddle on that fateful day she walked three miles to her routine mammogram. A founding editor of Ms. (magazine) and women’s rights activist, she had energy and to spare until she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Facing six weeks of radiation treatment, she was now obligated to join others in the waiting room of Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City. So, putting on her journalist hat, she began interviewing fellow patients. The result? How t...
N4L 60: Repost - "How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick" by Letty Cottin Pogrebin
August 04, 2021 07:01 - 37 minutes - 52.3 MBAt age 70, Letty Cottin Pogrebin felt fit as a fiddle on that fateful day she walked three miles to her routine mammogram. A founding editor of Ms. (magazine) and women’s rights activist, she had energy and to spare until she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Facing six weeks of radiation treatment, she was now obligated to join others in the waiting room of Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City. So, putting on her journalist hat, she began interviewing fellow patients. The result? How t...
N4L Repost 60: "How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick" by Letty Cottin Pogrebin
August 04, 2021 07:01 - 37 minutes - 52.3 MBAt age 70, Letty Cottin Pogrebin felt fit as a fiddle on that fateful day she walked three miles to her routine mammogram. A founding editor of Ms. (magazine) and women’s rights activist, she had energy and to spare until she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Facing six weeks of radiation treatment, she was now obligated to join others in the waiting room of Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City. So, putting on her journalist hat, she began interviewing fellow patients. The result? How t...
N4L 177: "House of Music" by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason
July 07, 2021 07:01 - 36 minutes - 49.8 MBSUMMARY In her breakout memoir “HOUSE OF MUSIC,” Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, opens up about what it takes to create a family of Black classical musicians in a Britain divided by class and race. Mother to seven extremely gifted children, she describes the difficulties of navigating the professional world of classical music while raising a musical family in a normal home in Nottingham, England. Rising above a family history pocked by prejudice and riddled with racism, she and her husband Stuart ...
N4L 176: "One by One by One" by Aaron Berkowitz
June 23, 2021 07:01 - 45 minutes - 62 MBSUMMARY In his memoir ONE BY ONE BY ONE, Dr. Aaron Berkowitz traces his journey as a young doctor grappling to bridge the gap between one of the world’s richest countries and one of the world’s poorest. On assignment in Haiti with Partners in Health, he meets Janel, a 23-year-old man with the largest brain tumor he or any of his colleagues at Harvard Medical School have ever seen. Trying to make the first big save of his medical career as a neurosurgeon, and determined to “to bring the ben...
N4L 175: "All Thirteen" by Christina Soontornvat
June 02, 2021 02:56 - 40 minutes - 55.4 MBSUMMARY Christina Soontornvat thrills readers of all ages with her 2021 Newbery Honor Book, All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team. Winner of numerous nonfiction awards, All Thirteen is a gripping page-turner. What begins as a simple afternoon adventure for teenage boys exploring a cave escalates into a global life-or-death mission to save a soccer team and their coach. Of Thai descent, Soontornvat happened to visit Thailand on the same day the boys were l...
N4L 174: "Ask More" by Frank Sesno
May 27, 2021 05:51 - 39 minutes - 53.9 MBSUMMARY Emmy award–winning journalist and media expert Frank Sesno teaches how to question others in his book, Ask More: The Power of Questions to Open Doors, Uncover Solutions, and Spark Change. Sesno shares the secret sauce to asking the right question at the right time. Mastering this simple skill sets apart successful people in all disciplines from the pack. With more than three decades of diverse journalistic reporting under his belt, Sesno knows how to use questions to break down b...
N4L 039: Repost - “Find the Good” by Heather Lende
May 20, 2021 04:54 - 42 minutes - 58.1 MBSUMMARY For more than 20 years, Heather Lende has written obituaries for the Chilkat Valley News in the tiny town of Haines, Alaska. Now, the New York Times bestselling author weaves her own life lessons together with recollections of the deceased. And we get Find the Good: Unexpected Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer, a gentle, insightful memoir mixed with humor and sensitivity. More than a storyteller, Lende is a “story catcher” who knows the challenge of describing life with wo...
N4L 173: “The Power of Kindness” by Dr. Brian Goldman
May 12, 2021 06:10 - 46 minutes - 63.8 MBSUMMARY “The Power of Kindness: Why Empathy Is Essential in Everyday Life” by Dr. Brian Goldman is the result of a veteran ER physician questioning his empathy quotient. Concerned his ability to be kind has diminished, Goldman travels the world looking for stories and data about empathy. Relieved to learn neuroscientists believe humans are hard-wired to experience empathy, he investigates why kindness is so vital to our very existence. KEY TERMS Empathy – the ability or capacity to imag...
N4L 172: "The Parlay Effect" by Anne Devereux-Mills
May 05, 2021 07:01 - 39 minutes - 53.8 MBSUMMARY Anne Devereux-Mills, once a powerful New York advertising executive, captures her story of creating authentic female connections in her book, “The Parlay Effect: How Female Connection Can Change the World.” After experiencing a “trifecta of setbacks”—losing her job, health, and last child (to college)—Devereux-Mills found herself in a new city with no real female friends. Tired of transactional relationships, she was hungry for “four quarters instead of a hundred pennies.” So, s...
N4L 104: Repost - "Balanced and Barefoot" by Angela Hanscom
April 28, 2021 04:01 - 35 minutes - 49.5 MBSUMMARY Pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom, author of “Balanced and Barefoot,” urges parents, teachers, and administrators to embrace “free play” for children of all ages. Today, without merry-go-rounds and teeter-totters, time to roll down hills and get dirty, these modern kids are experiencing an alarming increase in sensory and emotional disorders. But Hanscom, comes to their rescue with “Balanced and Barefoot,” a book full of compelling reasons to encourage unrestrained ou...
N4L 171: "Strong Like Water" by Laila Tarraf
April 20, 2021 22:40 - 38 minutes - 52.9 MBSUMMARY “Strong Like Water: How I Found the Courage to Lead with Love in Business and in Life,” by new author Laila Tarraf chronicles one woman’s painful struggle with emotional trauma. The eldest of three children of Lebanese immigrant parents, Tarraf takes on the dual role of mediator between a warring mother and father and bridge between two cultures and languages. Finally, in her forties, when life serves up the crushing loss of her husband and both parents in quick succession, Tarraf ...
N4L 170: "Unstoppable" by Joshua M. Greene
April 07, 2021 12:52 - 32 minutes - 45.4 MBSUMMARY Not just another rags-to-riches story, “Unstoppable” by Joshua M. Greene is the unbelievable true story of “Siggi B. Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend.” Initially reluctant to write another dark Holocaust-survivor story, Greene, was surprised to find the post-Auschwitz life of Siggi B. Wilzig full of great hope. A force of nature, this Holocaust survivor not only became a business behemoth in both the oil and bankin...
N4L 169: "LifeLines" by Melissa Bernstein
March 24, 2021 19:01 - 44 minutes - 60.8 MBSUMMARY Co-founder of the toy company Melissa & Doug, Melissa Bernstein reveals the raw truth she's hidden most of her life: for more than 50 years, she's grappled with existential anxiety and depression, bringing her to the brink of self-harm. In her book, "LifeLines: An Inspirational Journey from Profound Darkness to Radiant Light," released March 16, 2021, Bernstein reveals the raw truth she's hidden most of her life. Both haunting and hopeful, LifeLines is an unfiltered look at one ...
N4L 168: "How We Got to the Moon" by John Rocco
March 11, 2021 06:04 - 41 minutes - 57.3 MBJohn Rocco, #1 New York Times bestselling children’s author and illustrator, shares his recent release, How We Got to the Moon. Organized in seven sections, the book takes readers from age ten to 99 through the years of Apollo, a decade of serious space exploration. Using vivid illustrations and just the right amount of technical and historical information, Rocco highlights famous people such as Werner von Braun and President John F. Kennedy and many, many of the lesser-known 400,000 who h...
N4L 167: "The Problem of Alzheimer's" by Jason Karlawish
February 24, 2021 08:01 - 53 minutes - 74.3 MBSUMMARY In The Problem of Alzheimer's: How Science, Culture, and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It, Jason Karlawish, physician and writer, combines deep research with personal practice as Co-Director of the Penn Memory Center. Part case studies, part history, part present assessment, and part future projection, Karlawish’s book presents a strong argument for recognizing Alzheimer’s disease as a crisis. However, listing numerous biomedical breakthrough...
N4L 166: "Passports and Pacifiers" by Kaitlyn Jain
February 17, 2021 05:44 - 35 minutes - 49.8 MBSUMMARY In her book Passports and Pacifiers: Traveling the World, One Tantrum at a Time, Kaitlyn Jain, mother of four and a world traveler, shares her travel tips and family adventures. On every trip, Jain brings along her positive attitude and sense of humor while she and her husband balance careful planning with spontaneity. To afford their globetrotting, the Jains find deals and hone their parenting and packing skills. Part memoir, part guide Passports and Pacifiers is sure to inspire e...
NFL 027: Repost - "Happy Together" by Suzann & James Pawelski
February 14, 2021 08:01 - 48 minutes - 68.5 MBSUMMARY To be happy together, whether you’re starting a new relationship, weathering difficult times, or jump-starting a long-term marriage, Suzie and James Pawelski can help. Their book, Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts, isn’t the typical approach to romance. But this husband-and-wife research team has found how to ignite (or reignite) passion. KEY POINTS Together, the Pawelskis identify four key areas crucial to building and sustaining...
N4L 165: "A Mother's Grace" by Michelle Moore
February 03, 2021 08:01 - 35 minutes - 50.9 MBSUMMARY A Mother’s Grace: Healing the World One Woman at a Time, by Michelle Moore, includes a collection of inspiring stories of a dozen everyday women who have transformed grief, crisis, and tragedy into an extraordinary passion to lift, love, and heal others. Linking arms with these contributing authors, Moore has formed the award-winning nonprofit Mother’s Grace, a consortium of women-led agencies that stand at-the-ready to offer families in crisis both financial and emotional support....
N4L - Listen Again - 125: "Tiny Habits" by BJ Fogg
January 31, 2021 06:23 - 40 minutes - 57.1 MBSUMMARY Dr. BJ Fogg, founder and director of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University, unveils his breakout book, Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. A bright yellow sheath striping the book cover boldly claims, “This Book Will Change Your Life!” Inside the book, Fogg explodes myths promoting traditional approaches to change, explaining why old ideas such as exercising willpower, strengthening resolve, and getting motivated just don’t work. In their place, we learn...
N4L Listen Again - #125: "Tiny Habits" by BJ Fogg
January 31, 2021 06:23 - 40 minutes - 57.1 MBSUMMARY Dr. BJ Fogg, founder and director of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University, unveils his breakout book, Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. A bright yellow sheath striping the book cover boldly claims, “This Book Will Change Your Life!” Inside the book, Fogg explodes myths promoting traditional approaches to change, explaining why old ideas such as exercising willpower, strengthening resolve, and getting motivated just don’t work. In their place, we learn...
N4L 125: Repost - "Tiny Habits" by BJ Fogg
January 31, 2021 06:23 - 40 minutes - 57.1 MBSUMMARY Dr. BJ Fogg, founder and director of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University, unveils his breakout book, Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. A bright yellow sheath striping the book cover boldly claims, “This Book Will Change Your Life!” Inside the book, Fogg explodes myths promoting traditional approaches to change, explaining why old ideas such as exercising willpower, strengthening resolve, and getting motivated just don’t work. In their place, we learn...
N4L 164: "Everyday Bias" by Howard Ross
January 13, 2021 08:01 - 45 minutes - 64.6 MBSUMMARY Howard Ross, a lifelong social justice advocate, has authored the Washington Post bestseller, Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives. Smashing long-time myths we hold dear, Ross addresses the many faces of unconscious bias. His book offers a plethora of data and anecdotes illustrating the urgency to develop a greater awareness of our own irrational beliefs and leanings. In short, Ross lays out a strong case for watching ourselves more car...
N4L 163: "One Step Closer" by Ryan S. Atkins
December 31, 2020 05:59 - 36 minutes - 52.3 MBSUMMARY Ryan Atkins shares the true and difficult journey with quadriplegia in his memoir, One Step Closer: How a Life-Altering Accident Led Me to Everything I Almost Missed. A college student in 2009, Atkins has the world by the tail. But a freak car accident leaves him paralyzed below the shoulders, changing his life fundamentally. Even after working and fighting harder than most to regain his mobility, physical miracles continue to elude him. So, he has to reach deeper for help, hope, a...
N4L 162: "Role Reversal" by Iris Waichler
December 16, 2020 08:01 - 43 minutes - 61.3 MBSUMMARY In her award-winning book, Role Reversal: How to Take Care of Yourself and Your Aging Parents, Iris Waichler blends her personal experience with her professional expertise as a licensed clinical social worker and patient advocate for over 40 years. Her book is designed to help caregivers who are now 53 million strong in America, 90 percent of whom are adult children or spouses. Realizing caregivers lose a loved one twice, the author teaches how to cope with and overcome the overwhe...
N4L 161: "Gone" by Linda K. Olson
November 11, 2020 08:01 - 34 minutes - 48.3 MBSUMMARY Radiologist, author, and speaker Linda K. Olson shares the story of becoming a triple amputee in her new book, Gone. On the cusp of becoming doctors, Olson and her husband are hit by a train in Germany, leaving Linda without three limbs. Uttered by her husband Dave just after the accident, the words “If you can do it, I can do it” become the couple’s mantra. Olson’s book, “A Memoir of Love, Body, and Taking Back My Life,” takes us through the arduous years of healing and rehab to t...
N4L 160: "HumanKind" by Brad Aronson
November 04, 2020 08:01 - 41 minutes - 58.7 MBSUMMARY Brad Aronson, author of the National Bestseller HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act a Time, discovered content when his wife was recovering from leukemia. Inspired by the many demonstrations of "humankindness" that supported their family through this dark time, he began writing a blog. Then, realizing that even the smallest of gestures from friends and strangers can lift, Aronson began seeking out simple acts of kindness across the globe. Collecting these good deeds of ever...
N4L 159: Reluctant Genius" by Charlotte Gray
October 28, 2020 07:01 - 37 minutes - 52.3 MBSUMMARY Much-decorated professor and accomplished author, Charlotte Gray chronicles Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention. Bell originally hailed from Scotland, emigrated to Canada for better health, and eventually settled in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) where he acted virtually solo while inventing what we know as the modern telephone. Although Bell felt miserable having to keep careful notes, his writings proved essential to his landmark patent, which ultim...
N4L 159: "Reluctant Genius" by Charlotte Gray
October 28, 2020 07:01 - 37 minutes - 52.3 MBSUMMARY Much-decorated professor and accomplished author, Charlotte Gray chronicles Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention. Bell originally hailed from Scotland, emigrated to Canada for better health, and eventually settled in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) where he acted virtually solo while inventing what we know as the modern telephone. Although Bell felt miserable having to keep careful notes, his writings proved essential to his landmark patent, which ultim...
N4L 158: "The Smallest Lights in the Universe" by Sara Seager
October 21, 2020 07:01 - 29 minutes - 42.3 MBSUMMARY In her memoir, The Smallest Lights in the Universe, author and astrophysicist Sara Seager shares her journey exploring both outer and inner space. An MIT professor standing on the cutting edge of discovering exoplanets, she is widowed at age 40 and plunged into deep grief. But with patience, time, and the help of a tight-knit widows’ group, Seager finds small lights to grasp while pulling herself out of overwhelming sorrow. When the piercing pain subsides, new connections serve as ...
N4L 157: "Flying Free" by Cecilia Aragon
October 14, 2020 07:01 - 40 minutes - 56.8 MBAuthor Cecilia Rodriguez Aragon, once a shy, timid child riddled by fear, shares her breakout memoir, Flying Free: My Victory over Fear to Become the First Latina Pilot on the US Aerobatic Team. Her book, 20 years in the making, features Aragon facing her fears head-on through learning to fly. With fierce determination matching her mathematical superpower, she becomes the first Latina pilot to secure a place on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team. But her journey to "flying free" incl...
N4L 156: "On With the Butter!" by Heidi Herman
September 25, 2020 03:47 - 29 minutes - 41.8 MBSUMMARY Heidi Herman serves up her latest book, On With the Butter! Spread More Living onto Everyday Life. Taking the title from an Icelandic expression meaning “Carry on, keep doing what you’re doing, forge ahead, and keep moving!” and inspired by her nonagenarian mother who lived by this mantra, Herman compiles dozens of ideas to fully embrace each day with enthusiasm and curiosity. She includes both spontaneous and planned activities for a rich life filled with zest, offering a wide var...
N4L 155: "Observe to Unmask" by Pushpendra Mehta
September 16, 2020 18:44 - 38 minutes - 54.8 MBSUMMARY Little did Pushpendra Mehta know that by answering one simple question on Quora, his book, Observe to Unmask: 100 Small Things to Know People Better, would emerge. The question: “What small thing can tell you a lot about a person?” Mehta’s answer would get over 1 million views and lead to his collecting bits of wisdom for understanding human nature. As a writer, marketer, and mentor, Mehta has been a lifelong observer, watching for subtle clues about people hidden behind their “...
N4L 154: "Late Bloomers" by Rich Karlgaard
September 09, 2020 07:01 - 39 minutes - 56 MBGiving hope to the average achiever, Rich Karlgaard shares his latest book, "Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement." He observes, “We’ve created a new system of snobbery based on IQ scores and elite university degrees. To mitigate this crisis, we must stop excessively glorifying precocious achievement and seeing human development as a ‘fast track’ on ramp for early success. Not only is it unjust to the majority of us, it’s profoundly inhumane.” Why...
N4L 153: "You Are Your Child's First Teacher" by Rahima Dancy
September 02, 2020 15:00 - 33 minutes - 47.6 MBSUMMARY Early childhood and parent educator Rahima Dancy encourages parents to trust themselves in the 3rd edition of her book You Are Your Child's First Teacher: Encouraging Your Child's Natural Development from Birth to Age Six. Since its first edition, the book now includes advice about technology and even how to teach while the children are around--an environment millions of parents find themselves in during the pandemic. However, long before this worldwide situation emerged, Dancy ...
N4L 152: "Reader Come Home" by Maryanne Wolf
August 12, 2020 07:01 - 38 minutes - 54.3 MBSUMMARY Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, by Maryanne Wolf, includes a treatise for deep reading in a world that has shifted from print to digital medium. In her book, Wolf addresses a myriad of attendant issues, concerns, and questions about the future of reading. While explaining the complexity surrounding the acquisition of reading skills, she also extols the virtues and joys of moving from information and knowledge to wisdom. Packed with research as well as sage ...
N4L 151: "Purpose, Passion, and Pajamas" by Genevieve Piturro
August 05, 2020 07:01 - 39 minutes - 55.8 MBSUMMARY When Genevieve Piturro, jumped off the New York City corporate ladder, she didn’t know her burning passion to deliver pajamas and books to children in shelters would turn into the wildly successful, nationwide nonprofit Pajama Program. Her book, Purpose, Passion, and Pajamas: How to Transform Your Life, Embrace the Human Connection, and Lead with Meaning, tells the story of her rocky-road journey. Since 2001, Pajama Program has delivered over seven million pajamas and books to ch...