-
Adults in the Room
- My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $42.52
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Greek Revolution
- 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe
- By: Mark Mazower
- Narrated by: John Lee, Mark Mazower
- Length: 20 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Mark Mazower shows us in his enthralling and definitive new account, myths about the Greek War of Independence outpaced the facts from the very beginning, and for good reason. This was an unlikely cause, against long odds, a disorganized collection of Greek patriots up against what was still one of the most storied empires in the world, the Ottomans. The revolutionaries needed all the help they could get.
-
-
Excellent, had it not been for the narrator
- By Jean N on 05-15-22
By: Mark Mazower
-
Talking to My Daughter About the Economy
- Or, How Capitalism Works - and How It Fails
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yanis Varoufakis has appeared before heads of nations, assemblies of experts, and countless students around the world. Now, he faces his most important - and difficult - audience yet. Using clear language and vivid examples, Varoufakis offers a series of letters to his young daughter about the economy: how it operates, where it came from, how it benefits some while impoverishing others. Taking bankers and politicians to task, he explains the historical origins of inequality among and within nations, questions the pervasive notion that everything has its price, and shows why economic instability is a chronic risk.
-
-
Super Digestible
- By Sean on 06-30-22
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
And the Weak Suffer What They Must?
- Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor teaching in Austin, Texas, was elected to the Greek parliament with more votes than any other member of parliament. He was appointed finance minister, and, in the whirlwind five months that followed, everything he had warned about was confirmed as the "troika" (the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, and European Commission) stonewalled his efforts to resolve Greece's economic crisis.
-
-
interesting perspective
- By Jamila on 07-12-20
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
Secondhand Time
- The Last of the Soviets
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Bela Shayevich - translator
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin, Mark Bramhall, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing "a new kind of literary genre", describing her work as "a history of emotions - a history of the soul". Alexievich's distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation.
-
-
The Heart, Soul & Iron Fist Of Russia
- By Sara on 02-22-17
By: Svetlana Alexievich, and others
-
The Jakarta Method
- Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World
- By: Vincent Bevins
- Narrated by: Tim Paige
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1965, the US government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the 20th century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful.
-
-
Great book, but the narration has serious flaws
- By Prof. Neil Larsen on 08-03-20
By: Vincent Bevins
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution - from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality - and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
-
Embarrassingly Bad
- By Jason on 11-15-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
The Greek Revolution
- 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe
- By: Mark Mazower
- Narrated by: John Lee, Mark Mazower
- Length: 20 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Mark Mazower shows us in his enthralling and definitive new account, myths about the Greek War of Independence outpaced the facts from the very beginning, and for good reason. This was an unlikely cause, against long odds, a disorganized collection of Greek patriots up against what was still one of the most storied empires in the world, the Ottomans. The revolutionaries needed all the help they could get.
-
-
Excellent, had it not been for the narrator
- By Jean N on 05-15-22
By: Mark Mazower
-
Talking to My Daughter About the Economy
- Or, How Capitalism Works - and How It Fails
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yanis Varoufakis has appeared before heads of nations, assemblies of experts, and countless students around the world. Now, he faces his most important - and difficult - audience yet. Using clear language and vivid examples, Varoufakis offers a series of letters to his young daughter about the economy: how it operates, where it came from, how it benefits some while impoverishing others. Taking bankers and politicians to task, he explains the historical origins of inequality among and within nations, questions the pervasive notion that everything has its price, and shows why economic instability is a chronic risk.
-
-
Super Digestible
- By Sean on 06-30-22
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
And the Weak Suffer What They Must?
- Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor teaching in Austin, Texas, was elected to the Greek parliament with more votes than any other member of parliament. He was appointed finance minister, and, in the whirlwind five months that followed, everything he had warned about was confirmed as the "troika" (the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, and European Commission) stonewalled his efforts to resolve Greece's economic crisis.
-
-
interesting perspective
- By Jamila on 07-12-20
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
Secondhand Time
- The Last of the Soviets
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Bela Shayevich - translator
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin, Mark Bramhall, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing "a new kind of literary genre", describing her work as "a history of emotions - a history of the soul". Alexievich's distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation.
-
-
The Heart, Soul & Iron Fist Of Russia
- By Sara on 02-22-17
By: Svetlana Alexievich, and others
-
The Jakarta Method
- Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World
- By: Vincent Bevins
- Narrated by: Tim Paige
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1965, the US government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the 20th century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful.
-
-
Great book, but the narration has serious flaws
- By Prof. Neil Larsen on 08-03-20
By: Vincent Bevins
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution - from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality - and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
-
Embarrassingly Bad
- By Jason on 11-15-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
21st Century Monetary Policy
- The Federal Reserve from the Great Inflation to COVID-19
- By: Ben S. Bernanke
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A former chair of the Federal Reserve explains the transformation of one our most powerful and consequential institutions.
-
-
don't buy, horrible narration
- By Mr. Incognito on 05-18-22
By: Ben S. Bernanke
-
Who Rules the World?
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Brian Jones
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an incisive, thorough analysis of the current international situation, Noam Chomsky argues that the United States, through its military-first policies and its unstinting devotion to maintaining a world-spanning empire, is both risking catastrophe and wrecking the global commons.
-
-
Why this narrator was a poor choice
- By A Green on 03-24-17
By: Noam Chomsky
-
Freezing Order
- A True Story of Russian Money Laundering, State-Sponsored Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath
- By: Bill Browder
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail in 2009, Browder cast aside his business career and made it his life’s mission to pursue justice for Sergei. One of the first steps of that mission was to uncover who had killed Sergei and profited from the $230 million corruption scheme that he had exposed. As Browder and his team tracked the money that flowed out of Russia—through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas—they discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was one of the beneficiaries of the crime.
-
-
Red Notice Part II —- The Empire Struck Out
- By R. Alembik on 04-16-22
By: Bill Browder
-
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
- By: Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer - translator
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories.
-
-
Data-Driven Books which Lie about Data are Useless
- By Ben on 11-02-19
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
-
Heaven in Disorder
- By: Slavoj Zizek
- Narrated by: Will Tulin
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As we emerge (though perhaps only temporarily) from the pandemic, other crises move center stage: outrageous inequality, climate disaster, desperate refugees, mounting tensions of a new cold war. The abiding motif of our time is relentless chaos.
-
-
Great book with very interesting political analysis
- By Nicholas on 01-21-22
By: Slavoj Zizek
-
The Shock Doctrine
- The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her ground-breaking reporting, Naomi Klein introduced the term "disaster capitalism". Whether covering Baghdad after the U.S. occupation, Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, or New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed something remarkably similar. People still reeling from catastrophe were being hit again, this time with economic "shock treatment": losing their land and homes to rapid-fire corporate makeovers.
-
-
read w/Confessions of an Economic Hitman books.
- By Tom on 10-08-11
By: Naomi Klein
-
Crashed
- How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Simon Vance, Adam Tooze
- Length: 25 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Current events have deep roots, and the key to navigating today’s roiling policies lies in the events that started it all — the 2008 economic crisis and its aftermath. Despite initial attempts to downplay the crisis as a local incident, what happened on Wall Street beginning in 2008 was, in fact, a dramatic caesura of global significance that spiraled around the world, from the financial markets of the UK and Europe to the factories and dockyards of Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
-
-
Very left biased book on the crash
- By Christopher Strachan on 08-29-19
By: Adam Tooze
-
Manufacturing Consent
- The Political Economy of the Mass Media
- By: Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this pathbreaking work, now with a new introduction, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
-
-
Eye opening
- By EFM on 03-24-18
By: Edward S. Herman, and others
-
The Real Anthony Fauci
- Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
- By: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Narrated by: Bruce Wagner
- Length: 27 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Real Anthony Fauci details how Fauci, Gates, and their cohorts use their control of media outlets, scientific journals, key government and quasi-governmental agencies, global intelligence agencies, and influential scientists and physicians to flood the public with fearful propaganda about COVID-19 virulence and pathogenesis, and to muzzle debate and ruthlessly censor dissent.
-
-
Truly pushing it
- By Marquis Burge on 01-17-22
-
Democracy at Work
- A Cure for Capitalism
- By: Richard D. Wolff
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Capitalism as a system has spawned deepening economic crisis alongside its bought-and-paid-for political establishment. Neither serves the needs of our society. Whether it is secure, well-paid, and meaningful jobs or a sustainable relationship with the natural environment that we depend on, our society is not delivering the results people need and deserve.
-
-
Excellent explanation of socialistic economics
- By Joseph J. Iii Sackman on 08-15-19
By: Richard D. Wolff
-
The Sublime Object of Ideology
- By: Slavoj Žižek
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Slavoj Žižek's first book is a provocative and original work looking at the question of human agency in a postmodern world. In a thrilling tour de force that made his name, he explores the ideological fantasies of wholeness and exclusion which make up human society.
-
-
Great Listen
- By Anonymous User on 04-17-21
By: Slavoj Žižek
-
Capital and Ideology
- By: Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer - translator
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 48 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Piketty’s best-selling Capital in the Twenty-First Century galvanized global debate about inequality. In this audacious follow-up, Piketty challenges us to revolutionize how we think about politics, ideology, and history. He exposes the ideas that have sustained inequality for the past millennium, reveals why the shallow politics of right and left are failing us today, and outlines the structure of a fairer economic system.
-
-
Big thinking at its finest
- By Amazon Customer on 03-20-20
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
Publisher's Summary
A number one Sunday Times best seller transformed into an illuminating, dynamic audiobook.
What happens when you take on the establishment? In Adults in the Room, renowned economist and former finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis gives the full, blistering account of his momentous clash with the mightiest economic and political forces on earth.
After being swept into power with the leftwing Syriza party, Varoufakis attempts to renegotiate Greece's relationship with the EU - and sparks a spectacular battle with global implications. Varoufakis' new position sends him ricocheting between mass demonstrations in Athens, closed-door negotiations in drab EU and IMF offices, and furtive meetings with power brokers in Washington, DC. He consults and quarrels with Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron, Christine Legarde, the economists Larry Summers and Jeffrey Sachs, and others as he struggles to relieve Greece's debt crisis without resorting to punishing austerity measures. But, despite the mass support of the Greek people and the simple logic of Varoufakis' arguments, he succeeds only in provoking the fury of Europe's elite.
Varoufakis' unvarnished memoir is an urgent warning that the economic policies once embraced by the EU and the White House have failed - and spawned authoritarianism, populist revolt, and instability throughout the Western world. Adults in the Room is an extraordinary tale of brinkmanship, hypocrisy, collusion, and betrayal that will shake the global establishment to its foundations.
A must-listen for anyone interested in current events and the delicate web of global economics.
Critic Reviews
What listeners say about Adults in the Room
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Boris
- 05-24-18
The best listening book ever
This has been the most enjoyable book to listen to ever. The author gives play-by-play chronological account of the Greek radical left government's negotiations with the European troika in 2015 to re-structure the Greek debt. This book "listens" like a thriller or spy novel, it kept me on the edge of my seat. I could not put it down and I listened to the whole thing straight through, till wee hours of the morning. I was extremely disappointed that the book ended. What the book has to say about how the key EU institutions function will blow your mind, including the fact that the all-powerful European Commission [which is part of the troika] is completely and utterly subservient to German interest to which it is both a fig leaf and a door mat. You will be blown away to find out the Europe is run not by democratically elected institutions but by so-called advisory bodies where all the power is held and all members are "graduates" of Goldman Sachs.
The huge downside is that now I am pessimistic about being able to find an audio book that will keep me as captivated as this one. I listened to quite a few audio books and I can tell that chances of that happening are very small. My biases? - I have been extremely interested in the subject of Greek debt as I think it is and will continue to be among the most significant political and economic stories of our time. The fate of Europe and its democracy, and by extension the fate of the entire world, will for generations be shaped by how the Greek crisis will eventually be handled. That said, [and Varoufakis will tell you this himself], the story of the Greeks is by now over as it is indeed just beginning. We now have DEM 25, an all European democratic party that might save and remake Europe forever. Hope this review was helpful. Best, JL
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dimitris
- 10-08-19
Very interesting but listen with caution.
Varoufakis is an intelligent man and a talented writer. But, being a Greek myself and having lived through this story, as I was listening to the audiobook I was always aware of what should be obvious: That there are many sides to this story. I don't have the financial knowledge to evaluate all his arguments, so I won't get into that. Other people have.
In my opinion, Varoufakis' lack of substantial self-reflection and self-criticism (which I think is evident in this book) is a pity. He would have been more useful if he had more. I'm not saying this audiobook isn't worth listening to. It definitely is. I'm saying that it would be extremely naive to listen to this without keeping in mind that this is only one side of a very complicated story.
The narration is excellent.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Will Szal
- 01-18-19
Horrifyingly Excruciating
I was prompted to read this book after listening to an interview by Daniel Denvir on Jacobin's "The Dig" podcast with Varoufakis and Brazilian presidential candidate Fernando Haddad at the New School in New York City. I've already read "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?" but have yet to read his latest title.
This is play-by-play of Varoufakis' six months as Minister of Finance in Greece in 2015, surrounding their third bailout.
Varoufakis' goal as finance minister was to restructure Greece's debt so that it was more sustainable. For reasons which this book does not adequately elucidate, this was not an objective of the troika. Given this scenario, Varoufakis planned on Grexit, but his prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, chickened out on the plan and repeated the failures of the previous administration.
The narrative is excruciating. There are moments of hope repeatedly through the text, chronically dashed. If you're interested in learning about international finance, it is a worthwhile text.
The surprising hero of the book in Bernie Sanders, who repeatedly had Greece's back. Apparently Sanders and Varoufakis recently launched an initiative called the Progressive International as a tonic to the spread of rightwing nationalism.
I'm left wondering what the Venn diagram of Varoufakis, Mark Blyth, Mary Mellor, and Andrew Ross might look like.
In conclusion, it seems we're much closer to World War III than I would have wished. Trump's election is entirely explicable given Greece's story.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- R. M. Duarte Afonso
- 03-26-18
Fascinating insights of the inner world of politics
May not add much concretely to one's life...but if one cares to know how the inner world of politics and democracy (or lack of) works...this is a must read. Varoufakis is definitey rare a breath of fresh air. Thanks for writing it
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael
- 11-25-17
Outstanding and timely
I was expecting to read about the failures of austerity, the naked hypocrisy of European technocrats, and the doomed left populist movement. What I was not expecting was a edge of the seat journalistic thriller. The author manages to build suspense while using extreme detail to fully flesh out the high stakes context in every scene. One memorable passage involves a heated, multi day negotiation over the addition or subtraction of a single word in a document without ever losing the narrative thread.
The narrator was excellent, with strong pacing, impeccable pronunciation, and believable but not over the top accents.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- K R D
- 04-22-21
A Breathtakingly Riveting Book, Even Though Readers Know The Ending Before They Read It.
This Is Without Doubt, The Best Political Memoirs I Have Ever Read.
Yanis Varoufakis takes us through one of the most shameful episodes in European history. Even though I knew the ending before I read it, the book is thrilling, enlightening and jarring. Although Mr Varoufakis never says this, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that what Germany has done to Greece since 2009, is an economic version of what it did to them in the 1940s. (Indeed, it is difficult to think of any ambition laid out in Mein Kampf that has not been achieved).One day, this will happen to Italy and ultimately to France.
Varoufakis reveals that the EU and its Euro are merely tools for German domination.
I am no communist, far from it in fact, but just as Marx’s analysis of capitalism was uncomfortably accurate, this book reveals the fascistic and undemocratic nature of the EU, along with the bureaucrats who control it.
This is a Greek tragedy, both literally and figuratively. It is also a masterpiece.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
- rczach
- 02-23-20
Outstanding Account
The author takes you inside the halls of power & banking detailing how the German bankers worked to sideline Greek democracy and foreshadow what they have planned for France , the rest of Europe, and the world.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 02-16-20
A must read.
Yanis is a great story teller, the problem is that this story is non-fiction. The book gives a glimps of the so called neo-liberalisme that is currently sufficating Europe and the ideals we should hold true in the face of vested interest doing everything in its power to hold back progress and just policy. Must read!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christopher Skye
- 10-08-19
Forget your money, they want your life.
Varoufakis gives amazingly clear documentation of how the illiberal establishment of the Eurozone enslaved Greece
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Blair C
- 08-25-19
Alternative History
ever wonder what really happens at the highest levels of government and finance.
here's a blow by blow of the workings of the 2015 Greek Debt Crisis by an insider.
great story, worth every minute invested in it.
1 person found this helpful