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The Case Against Travel

by Agnes Callard ...

Series series ERIS gems
“Although people like to talk about their travels, few of us like to listen to them. Such talk resembles academic writing and reports of dreams: forms of communication driven more by the needs of the producer than the consumer.”In The Case Against Travel the philosopher Agnes Callard launches a vigorous assault on the idea that there is something transformative or ennobling about recreational ... Read more

$1.99 USD

“Although people like to talk about their travels, few of us like to listen to them. Such talk resembles academic writing and reports of dreams: forms of communication driven more by the needs of the producer than the consumer.”In The Case Against Travel the philosopher Agnes Callard launches a vigorous assault on the idea that there is something transformative or ennobling about recreational
... Read more
Open Socrates

The Case for a Philosophical Life

by Agnes Callard ...

**A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice“Charming, intelligent.… Open Socrates encourages us to recognize how little we know, and to start thinking.” ?Jennifer Szalai,?New York Times Book ReviewAn iconoclastic philosopher revives Socrates for our time, showing how we can answer—and, in the first place, ask—life’s most important questions.**Socrates has been hiding in plain sight. We call him ... Read more

$13.99 USD

Also available as: Audiobook

**A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice“Charming, intelligent.… Open Socrates encourages us to recognize how little we know, and to start thinking.” ?Jennifer Szalai,?New York Times Book ReviewAn iconoclastic philosopher revives Socrates for our time, showing how we can answer—and, in the first place, ask—life’s most important questions.**Socrates has been hiding in plain sight. We call him
... Read more

Also available as: Audiobook
Aspiration

The Agency of Becoming

by Agnes Callard ...

Becoming someone is a learning process; and what we learn is the new values around which, if we succeed, our lives will come to turn. Agents transform themselves in the process of, for example, becoming parents, embarking on careers, or acquiring a passion for music or politics. How can such activity be rational, if the reason for engaging in the relevant pursuit is only available to the person ... Read more

$34.19 USD

Becoming someone is a learning process; and what we learn is the new values around which, if we succeed, our lives will come to turn. Agents transform themselves in the process of, for example, becoming parents, embarking on careers, or acquiring a passion for music or politics. How can such activity be rational, if the reason for engaging in the relevant pursuit is only available to the person
... Read more
Audiobook

Open Socrates

The Case for a Philosophical Life

by Agnes Callard ...

Narrated by Agnes Callard ...

Unabridged

12 hours 14 min

An iconoclastic philosopher revives Socrates for our time, showing how we can answer—and, in the first place, ask—life’s most important questions.Socrates has been hiding in plain sight. We call him the father of Western philosophy, but what exactly are his philosophical views? He is famous for his humility, but readers often find him arrogant and condescending. We parrot his claim that “the ... Read more

$25.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Also available as: eBook

An iconoclastic philosopher revives Socrates for our time, showing how we can answer—and, in the first place, ask—life’s most important questions.Socrates has been hiding in plain sight. We call him the father of Western philosophy, but what exactly are his philosophical views? He is famous for his humility, but readers often find him arrogant and condescending. We parrot his claim that “the
... Read more

Also available as: eBook
On Anger

by Agnes Callard, et al ...

Anger looms large in our public lives. Should it?Reflecting on two millennia of debates about the value of anger, Agnes Callard contends that efforts to distinguish righteous forms of anger from unjust vengeance, or appropriate responses to wrongdoing from inappropriate ones, are misguided. What if, she asks, anger is not a bug of human life, but a feature—an emotion that, for all its troubling ... Read more

$14.99 USD

Anger looms large in our public lives. Should it?Reflecting on two millennia of debates about the value of anger, Agnes Callard contends that efforts to distinguish righteous forms of anger from unjust vengeance, or appropriate responses to wrongdoing from inappropriate ones, are misguided. What if, she asks, anger is not a bug of human life, but a feature—an emotion that, for all its troubling
... Read more

Audiobook

A History of the World in 50 Pieces

An Official Radio 3 book

by Tom Service ...

Narrated by Tom Service ...

Unabridged

6 hours 12 min

**Brought to you by Penguin.Explore how music has changed our world through 50 pieces across classical, folk and world traditions with BBC presenter Tom Service, in this official Radio 3 compendium.**Music transports us and defines us. As a form of expression, it has been passed down through oral tradition, musical notation and recordings in a chain of connection that spans the globe, across the ... Read more

$18.99 USD

Also available as: eBook

**Brought to you by Penguin.Explore how music has changed our world through 50 pieces across classical, folk and world traditions with BBC presenter Tom Service, in this official Radio 3 compendium.**Music transports us and defines us. As a form of expression, it has been passed down through oral tradition, musical notation and recordings in a chain of connection that spans the globe, across the
... Read more

Also available as: eBook
Audiobook

The Future of Truth

by Werner Herzog ...

Narrated by Werner Herzog ...

Unabridged

3 hours 39 min

**Named a Best Book of 2025 by BloombergFrom legendary filmmaker and author Werner Herzog, a compact, effervescent, and deeply personal exploration of art, philosophy, and history that unravels one of our most elusive and contested questions: What is truth—and how to find it in our “post-truth” era?**For over half a century, Werner Herzog has challenged, enriched, and expanded our understanding of ... Read more

$15.99 USD

Also available as: eBook

**Named a Best Book of 2025 by BloombergFrom legendary filmmaker and author Werner Herzog, a compact, effervescent, and deeply personal exploration of art, philosophy, and history that unravels one of our most elusive and contested questions: What is truth—and how to find it in our “post-truth” era?**For over half a century, Werner Herzog has challenged, enriched, and expanded our understanding of
... Read more

Also available as: eBook
Audiobook

Speed

How It Explains the World

by Vaclav Smil ...

Narrated by Joe Jameson ...

Unabridged

11 hours 9 min

A data-driven, scientific account of our need for speed—exploring a wide range of topics including evolution, transportation, and technologyIn a world obsessed with efficiency, perhaps nothing is valued as highly as being fast. Some of our greatest achievements include building planes that break the sound barrier and creating computers that process data at the touch of a button. With signature ... Read more

$23.00 USD

Also available as: eBook

A data-driven, scientific account of our need for speed—exploring a wide range of topics including evolution, transportation, and technologyIn a world obsessed with efficiency, perhaps nothing is valued as highly as being fast. Some of our greatest achievements include building planes that break the sound barrier and creating computers that process data at the touch of a button. With signature
... Read more

Also available as: eBook
Speed

How It Explains the World

by Vaclav Smil ...

A data-driven, scientific account of our need for speed—exploring a wide range of topics including evolution, transportation, and technologyIn a world obsessed with efficiency, perhaps nothing is valued as highly as being fast. Some of our greatest achievements include building planes that break the sound barrier and creating computers that process data at the touch of a button. With signature ... Read more

$14.99 USD

Also available as: Audiobook

A data-driven, scientific account of our need for speed—exploring a wide range of topics including evolution, transportation, and technologyIn a world obsessed with efficiency, perhaps nothing is valued as highly as being fast. Some of our greatest achievements include building planes that break the sound barrier and creating computers that process data at the touch of a button. With signature
... Read more

Also available as: Audiobook
Audiobook

The Aristocracy of Talent

How Meritocracy Made the Modern World

by Adrian Wooldridge ...

Narrated by Jonathan Cowley ...

Unabridged

18 hours 8 min

The Times (UK) book of the year!Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed ... Read more

$24.99 USD

Also available as: eBook

The Times (UK) book of the year!Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?In The Aristocracy of Talent, esteemed
... Read more

Also available as: eBook
Audiobook

The Last Bell

Life, Death and Boxing

by Donald McRae ...

Narrated by Ronald McIntosh ...

Unabridged

16 hours 22 min

Winner of the Pinsent Masons Sports Writing Award at the Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards 2026Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2025'Thoroughly encapsulates the current state of the hurt business' Telegraph**, Best Books of 2025**For fifty years Donald McRae has followed boxing. As criminality and corruption spread, his love for the sport dimmed. In 2018, grieving ... ... Read more

$31.99 USD

Also available as: eBook

Winner of the Pinsent Masons Sports Writing Award at the Charles Tyrwhitt Sports Book Awards 2026Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2025'Thoroughly encapsulates the current state of the hurt business' Telegraph**, Best Books of 2025**For fifty years Donald McRae has followed boxing. As criminality and corruption spread, his love for the sport dimmed. In 2018, grieving ...
... Read more

Also available as: eBook
Audiobook

The Edges of the World

At the margins of life, lands and history

by Charles Foster ...

Narrated by Charles Foster ...

Unabridged

8 hours 32 min

Brought to you by Penguin.We tend to think that everything important comes from the centre: from big cities, from established orthodoxies in the sciences and the arts, from the Establishment in all its forms. We think this because the centre tells us it is so, but it's a lie. It is only at the edges that we think, innovate and thrive.This book travels to the frontiers of human culture and ... Read more

$18.99 USD

Also available as: eBook

Brought to you by Penguin.We tend to think that everything important comes from the centre: from big cities, from established orthodoxies in the sciences and the arts, from the Establishment in all its forms. We think this because the centre tells us it is so, but it's a lie. It is only at the edges that we think, innovate and thrive.This book travels to the frontiers of human culture and
... Read more

Also available as: eBook

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The Case Against Travel

Open Socrates

Aspiration

Open Socrates

On Anger

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A History of the World in 50 Pieces

The Future of Truth

Speed

Speed

The Aristocracy of Talent

The Last Bell

The Edges of the World

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