
Frostbite
How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nicola Twilley
-
By:
-
Nicola Twilley
About this listen
"Engrossing...hard to put down."—The New York Times Book Review
“Frostbite is a perfectly executed cold fusion of science, history, and literary verve . . . as a fellow nonfiction writer, I bow down. This is how it's done.”—Mary Roach, author of Fuzz and Stiff
An engaging and far-reaching exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific mystery to globe-spanning infrastructure, and an essential investigation into how it has remade our entire relationship with food—for better and for worse
How often do we open the fridge or peer into the freezer with the expectation that we’ll find something fresh and ready to eat? It’s an everyday act—but just a century ago, eating food that had been refrigerated was cause for both fear and excitement. The introduction of artificial refrigeration overturned millennia of dietary history, launching a new chapter in human nutrition. We could now overcome not just rot, but seasonality and geography. Tomatoes in January? Avocados in Shanghai? All possible.
In Frostbite, New Yorker contributor and cohost of the award-winning podcast Gastropod Nicola Twilley takes listeners on a tour of the cold chain from farm to fridge, visiting off-the-beaten-path landmarks such as Missouri’s subterranean cheese caves, the banana-ripening rooms of New York City, and the vast refrigerated tanks that store the nation’s orange juice reserves. Today, nearly three-quarters of everything on the average American plate is processed, shipped, stored, and sold under refrigeration. It’s impossible to make sense of our food system without understanding the all-but-invisible network of thermal control that underpins it. Twilley’s eye-opening book is the first to reveal the transformative impact refrigeration has had on our health and our guts; our farms, tables, kitchens, and cities; global economics and politics; and even our environment.
In the developed world, we’ve reaped the benefits of refrigeration for more than a century, but the costs are catching up with us. We’ve eroded our connection to our food and redefined what “fresh” means. More important, refrigeration is one of the leading contributors to climate change. As the developing world races to build a US-style cold chain, Twilley asks: Can we reduce our dependence on refrigeration? Should we? A deeply researched and reported, original, and entertaining dive into the most important invention in the history of food and drink, Frostbite makes the case for a recalibration of our relationship with the fridge—and how our future might depend on it.
©2024 Nicola Twilley (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Around the World in Eighty Games
- From Tarot to Tic-Tac-Toe, Catan to Chutes and Ladders, a Mathematician Unlocks the Secrets of the World's Greatest Games
- By: Marcus du Sautoy
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning millennia, oceans and continents, countries and cultures, Around the World in Eighty Games gleefully explores how mathematics and games have always been deeply intertwined. Renowned mathematician Marcus du Sautoy investigates how games provided the first opportunities for deep mathematical insight into the world, how understanding math can help us play games better, and how both math and games are integral to human psychology and culture.
-
-
Overall, a very entertaining read.
- By Matt on 11-13-23
By: Marcus du Sautoy
-
Twelve Trees
- The Deep Roots of Our Future
- By: Daniel Lewis
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world today is undergoing the most rapid environmental transformation in human history—from climate change to deforestation. Scientists, ethnobotanists, indigenous peoples, and collectives of all kinds are closely studying trees and their biology to understand how and why trees function individually and collectively in the ways they do. In Twelve Trees, Daniel Lewis, curator and historian at one of the world’s most renowned research libraries, travels the world to learn about these trees in their habitats.
-
-
lots of detail
- By David M Hazelton on 03-06-25
By: Daniel Lewis
-
Alien Earths
- The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos
- By: Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Riveting and timely, a look at the research that is transforming our understanding of the cosmos in the quest to discover whether we are alone.
-
-
I really enjoyed her perspective on the subject
- By Vladimir Randy Jeune on 11-02-24
-
A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth
- The Making of the Port of Los Angeles and America
- By: James Tejani
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Port of Los Angeles is all around us. Objects we use on a daily basis pass through it: furniture, apparel, electronics, automobiles, and much more. Yet despite its centrality to our world, the port and the story of its making have been neglected in histories of the United States. In A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth, historian James Tejani corrects that significant omission, charting the port's rise out of the mud and salt marsh of San Pedro estuary.
-
-
Understanding hindered by the reader
- By Ronald on 04-15-25
By: James Tejani
-
Life as No One Knows It
- The Physics of Life's Emergence
- By: Sara Imari Walker
- Narrated by: Sara Imari Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like. In Life as No One Knows It, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is.
-
-
Fascinating thought patterns
- By John linden on 09-10-24
-
Wild Chocolate
- Across the Americas in Search of Cacao's Soul
- By: Rowan Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Sam Rushton
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chasing chocolate down the supply chain and back through history, Jacobsen travels the rainforests of the Amazon and Central America to find the chocolate makers, activists, and indigenous leaders who are bucking the system that long ago abandoned wild and heirloom cacao in favor of high-yield, low-flavor varietals preferred by Big Chocolate.
-
-
A Gem!
- By Eliza Martin on 02-03-25
By: Rowan Jacobsen
-
Around the World in Eighty Games
- From Tarot to Tic-Tac-Toe, Catan to Chutes and Ladders, a Mathematician Unlocks the Secrets of the World's Greatest Games
- By: Marcus du Sautoy
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning millennia, oceans and continents, countries and cultures, Around the World in Eighty Games gleefully explores how mathematics and games have always been deeply intertwined. Renowned mathematician Marcus du Sautoy investigates how games provided the first opportunities for deep mathematical insight into the world, how understanding math can help us play games better, and how both math and games are integral to human psychology and culture.
-
-
Overall, a very entertaining read.
- By Matt on 11-13-23
By: Marcus du Sautoy
-
Twelve Trees
- The Deep Roots of Our Future
- By: Daniel Lewis
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world today is undergoing the most rapid environmental transformation in human history—from climate change to deforestation. Scientists, ethnobotanists, indigenous peoples, and collectives of all kinds are closely studying trees and their biology to understand how and why trees function individually and collectively in the ways they do. In Twelve Trees, Daniel Lewis, curator and historian at one of the world’s most renowned research libraries, travels the world to learn about these trees in their habitats.
-
-
lots of detail
- By David M Hazelton on 03-06-25
By: Daniel Lewis
-
Alien Earths
- The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos
- By: Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Riveting and timely, a look at the research that is transforming our understanding of the cosmos in the quest to discover whether we are alone.
-
-
I really enjoyed her perspective on the subject
- By Vladimir Randy Jeune on 11-02-24
-
A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth
- The Making of the Port of Los Angeles and America
- By: James Tejani
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Port of Los Angeles is all around us. Objects we use on a daily basis pass through it: furniture, apparel, electronics, automobiles, and much more. Yet despite its centrality to our world, the port and the story of its making have been neglected in histories of the United States. In A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth, historian James Tejani corrects that significant omission, charting the port's rise out of the mud and salt marsh of San Pedro estuary.
-
-
Understanding hindered by the reader
- By Ronald on 04-15-25
By: James Tejani
-
Life as No One Knows It
- The Physics of Life's Emergence
- By: Sara Imari Walker
- Narrated by: Sara Imari Walker
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is life? This is among the most difficult open problems in science, right up there with the nature of consciousness and the existence of matter. All the definitions we have fall short. None help us understand how life originates or the full range of possibilities for what life on other planets might look like. In Life as No One Knows It, physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker argues that solving the origin of life requires radical new thinking and an experimentally testable theory for what life is.
-
-
Fascinating thought patterns
- By John linden on 09-10-24
-
Wild Chocolate
- Across the Americas in Search of Cacao's Soul
- By: Rowan Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Sam Rushton
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chasing chocolate down the supply chain and back through history, Jacobsen travels the rainforests of the Amazon and Central America to find the chocolate makers, activists, and indigenous leaders who are bucking the system that long ago abandoned wild and heirloom cacao in favor of high-yield, low-flavor varietals preferred by Big Chocolate.
-
-
A Gem!
- By Eliza Martin on 02-03-25
By: Rowan Jacobsen
-
The Library
- A Fragile History
- By: Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes, or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident.
-
-
Stays on point
- By Alex on 04-29-23
By: Andrew Pettegree, and others
-
Civilized to Death
- The Price of Progress
- By: Christopher Ryan
- Narrated by: Christopher Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most of us have instinctive evidence the world is ending - balmy December days, face-to-face conversation replaced with heads-to-screens zomboidism, a world at constant war, a political system in disarray. We hear some myths and lies so frequently that they feel like truths: Civilization is humankind’s greatest accomplishment. Progress is undeniable. Count your blessings. You’re lucky to be alive here and now. Civilized to Death counters the idea that progress is inherently good, arguing that the "progress" defining our age is analogous to an advancing disease.
-
-
I couldn't stop listening.
- By Andrew in Ohio on 10-08-19
By: Christopher Ryan
-
Turning to Stone
- Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks
- By: Marcia Bjornerud
- Narrated by: Rebecca Stern
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth has been reinventing itself for more than four billion years, keeping a record of its experiments in the form of rocks. Yet most of us live our lives on the planet with no idea of its extraordinary history, unable to interpret the language of the rocks that surround us. Geologist Marcia Bjornerud believes that our lives can be enriched by understanding our heritage on this old and creative planet. Contrary to their reputation, rocks have eventful lives—and they intersect with our own in surprising ways.
-
-
Very unusual book by a profound writer
- By F Shaw on 09-17-24
By: Marcia Bjornerud
-
Hiroshima
- The Last Witnesses (Embers, Book 1)
- By: M. G. Sheftall
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this vividly rendered historical narrative, M. G. Sheftall layers the stories of hibakusha—the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors—in harrowing detail, to give a minute-by-minute report of August 6, 1945, in the leadup and aftermath of the world-changing bombing mission of Paul Tibbets, Enola Gay, and Little Boy.
-
-
EXCELLENT
- By JK on 04-29-25
By: M. G. Sheftall
-
Rogues and Scholars
- A History of the London Art World: 1945-2000
- By: James Stourton
- Narrated by: Charles Armstrong
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On October 15, 1958, Sotheby's of Bond Street staged an "event sale” of seven Impressionist paintings. The seven lots went for £781,000—at the time the highest price for a single sale. The event established London as the world center of the art market and Sotheby's as an international auction house. It began a shift in power from the dealers to the auctioneers and paved the way for Impressionist paintings to dominate the market for the next forty years.
By: James Stourton
-
T
- The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us
- By: Carole Hooven
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through riveting personal stories and the latest research, Harvard evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven shows how testosterone drives the behavior of the sexes apart and how understanding the science behind this hormone is empowering for all.
-
-
I wanted more science
- By L on 09-04-21
By: Carole Hooven
-
Pax
- War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. Pax is a captivating narrative history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland shows ancient Rome in all its glory
-
-
Great book!
- By Mic on 09-27-23
By: Tom Holland
-
Written in Bone
- Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind
- By: Sue Black
- Narrated by: Sue Black
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her memoir All That Remains, internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist Dame Sue Black recounted her life lived eye to eye with the Grim Reaper. During the course of it, she offered a primer on the basics of identifying human remains, plenty of insights into the fascinating processes of death, and a sober, compassionate understanding of its inescapable presence in our existence. Now in this book, Black builds on that memoir, taking us on a guided tour of the human skeleton and explaining how each person's life history is revealed in their bones.
-
-
A very human story by a very believable human
- By Gary on 09-21-21
By: Sue Black
-
Becoming Earth
- How Our Planet Came to Life
- By: Ferris Jabr
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of humanity’s oldest beliefs is that our world is alive. Though once ridiculed by some scientists, the idea of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. We, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth—we are Earth, an outgrowth of its structure and an engine of its evolution. Life and its environment have coevolved for billions of years, transforming a lump of orbiting rock into a cosmic oasis—a planet that breathes, metabolizes, and regulates its climate.
-
-
Fascinating and well researched
- By Amazon Customer on 07-10-24
By: Ferris Jabr
-
The Weimar Years
- Rise and Fall 1918–1933
- By: Frank McDonough
- Narrated by: Paul McGann
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Established in 1918–19, in the wake of Germany’s catastrophic defeat in the First World War and the revolution that followed swiftly on its heels, the Weimar Republic ushered in widespread social reform, a radical cultural flowering and the most democratic conditions the German people had ever known. The Weimar Years is a vivid narrative of a dramatic period in German history. Year by year, from 1918 to 1933, Frank McDonough covers the major events in both domestic and foreign policy and the personalities who shaped them, together with developments in music, art, theatre and literature.
-
-
I learned a ton
- By Phyllis on 12-30-24
By: Frank McDonough
-
Invitation to a Banquet
- The Story of Chinese Food
- By: Fuchsia Dunlop
- Narrated by: Fuchsia Dunlop
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chinese was the earliest truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese laborers began to settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese has the curious distinction of being both one of the world's best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking ensured that few foreigners experienced anything of its richness and sophistication—but today that is beginning to change.
-
-
Knowledgeable and awful
- By ilaria m on 11-16-23
By: Fuchsia Dunlop
-
Barons
- Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry
- By: Austin Frerick, Eric Schlosser - foreword by
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barons is the story of seven corporate titans, their rise to power, and the consequences for everyone else. Take Mike McCloskey, chairman of Fair Oaks Farms. In a few short decades, he went from managing a modest dairy herd to running the Disneyland of agriculture. Mike benefited from deregulation of the American food industry, a phenomenon that has consolidated wealth in the hands of select tycoons, and along the way, hollowed out the nation's rural towns and local businesses.
-
-
Amazing book! Truly an enlightened view of the current food supply in the US.
- By Schuyler Ankele on 03-22-25
By: Austin Frerick, and others
Critic reviews
“[Nicola Twilley] tells the fascinating story of refrigeration and tracks its effects on eating habits, family dynamics and much else. Along the way, she skillfully introduces us to the people who helped make refrigeration a key feature of everyday life and who now work at the chilly front lines of the modern economy.”—Wall Street Journal
“Just the fact that we can keep things cold—food, ourselves, drink—changes everything about the way we live . . . It’s smart and it’s fun . . . A book about cold is the perfect summer book.”—Science Friday, Best Science Books of Summer 2024
“Twilley’s style weaves storytelling with a series of well-timed narrative combination punches . . . This is bravura technique. You read through once, not unappreciatively, and then—boom—you go back and read it again, your mind racing to embrace the ramifications . . . Still, Frostbite wears its politics lightly, trusting the reader to conjure their own indignation. The style is accessible, informative and infectiously readable. Yet all the time, the book is quietly inspiring a desire for change. You will not know you’ve been evangelised but you will reach a point where you walk into the fruit and veg aisle on your weekly shop, look at a carton of 'fresh' orange juice or pick up a vac-packed chicken and feel overcome with a kind of despairing nausea.”—Financial Times
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Lapidarium
- The Secret Lives of Stones
- By: Hettie Judah
- Narrated by: Nina Wadia
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stones have furnished our earliest technologies and our first art materials. As jewelry and talismans, they have accompanied us in our journeys into the afterlife. We have carried stones over vast distances, erecting temples with them where we gathered to worship our gods. The earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Michelangelo climbed mountains in Tuscany searching for the sugar-white marble that would yield his sculptures.
-
-
Lovely Bite-Sized Stories
- By Anonymous User on 07-20-23
By: Hettie Judah
-
Still Life with Bones
- Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains
- By: Alexa Hagerty
- Narrated by: Rose Akroyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout Guatemala’s thirty-six-year armed conflict, state forces killed more than two hundred thousand people. Argentina’s military dictatorship disappeared up to thirty thousand people. In the wake of genocidal violence, families of the missing searched for the truth. Young scientists joined their fight against impunity. Gathering evidence in the face of intimidation and death threats, they pioneered the field of forensic exhumation for human rights.
-
-
Disturbing and Hard to Listen To
- By Alain R Gardner on 06-09-23
By: Alexa Hagerty
-
Hidden in Plain View
- A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad
- By: Jacqueline L. Tobin, Raymond G. Dobard, Cuesta Benberry, and others
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards, Leon Nixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1993, Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.
-
-
Wonderful listen.
- By Jane Wolfe on 11-27-24
By: Jacqueline L. Tobin, and others
-
The Rising
- The Twenty-Year Battle to Rebuild the World Trade Center
- By: Larry Silverstein
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 destroyed the World Trade Center, New Yorkers and Americans faced a critical set of questions: What should be done with the site? Could the towers be replaced? And how best to memorialize those lost on that day? For Larry Silverstein, a lifelong New Yorker who had signed a lease for the properties just a few months before the attacks, the answer was clear: America had to rebuild as quickly as possible.
-
-
Starts great before it morphs quickly into Larry Silverstein paying homage to himself
- By Xj517 on 10-11-24
-
The Walls Have Ears
- The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II
- By: Helen Fry
- Narrated by: Jean Gilpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the outbreak of World War II, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to set up a top secret operation: German prisoners' cells were to be bugged and listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations. This mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at three further sites - and provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology being developed by the Nazis. In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operation.
-
-
inresting look into a secret world.
- By Christopher Daniels on 05-22-20
By: Helen Fry
-
Money for Nothing
- The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
- By: Thomas Levenson
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the heart of the Scientific Revolution, when new theories promised to explain the affairs of the universe, Britain was broke, facing a mountain of debt accumulated in war after war it could not afford. But that same Scientific Revolution - the kind of thinking that helped Isaac Newton solve the mysteries of the cosmos - would soon lead clever, if not always scrupulous, men to try to figure a way out of Britain’s financial troubles.
-
-
Financial innovation's first song of the siren.
- By Michael Barnett on 09-06-20
By: Thomas Levenson
-
Lapidarium
- The Secret Lives of Stones
- By: Hettie Judah
- Narrated by: Nina Wadia
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stones have furnished our earliest technologies and our first art materials. As jewelry and talismans, they have accompanied us in our journeys into the afterlife. We have carried stones over vast distances, erecting temples with them where we gathered to worship our gods. The earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Michelangelo climbed mountains in Tuscany searching for the sugar-white marble that would yield his sculptures.
-
-
Lovely Bite-Sized Stories
- By Anonymous User on 07-20-23
By: Hettie Judah
-
Still Life with Bones
- Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains
- By: Alexa Hagerty
- Narrated by: Rose Akroyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout Guatemala’s thirty-six-year armed conflict, state forces killed more than two hundred thousand people. Argentina’s military dictatorship disappeared up to thirty thousand people. In the wake of genocidal violence, families of the missing searched for the truth. Young scientists joined their fight against impunity. Gathering evidence in the face of intimidation and death threats, they pioneered the field of forensic exhumation for human rights.
-
-
Disturbing and Hard to Listen To
- By Alain R Gardner on 06-09-23
By: Alexa Hagerty
-
Hidden in Plain View
- A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad
- By: Jacqueline L. Tobin, Raymond G. Dobard, Cuesta Benberry, and others
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards, Leon Nixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1993, Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.
-
-
Wonderful listen.
- By Jane Wolfe on 11-27-24
By: Jacqueline L. Tobin, and others
-
The Rising
- The Twenty-Year Battle to Rebuild the World Trade Center
- By: Larry Silverstein
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 destroyed the World Trade Center, New Yorkers and Americans faced a critical set of questions: What should be done with the site? Could the towers be replaced? And how best to memorialize those lost on that day? For Larry Silverstein, a lifelong New Yorker who had signed a lease for the properties just a few months before the attacks, the answer was clear: America had to rebuild as quickly as possible.
-
-
Starts great before it morphs quickly into Larry Silverstein paying homage to himself
- By Xj517 on 10-11-24
-
The Walls Have Ears
- The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II
- By: Helen Fry
- Narrated by: Jean Gilpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the outbreak of World War II, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to set up a top secret operation: German prisoners' cells were to be bugged and listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations. This mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at three further sites - and provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology being developed by the Nazis. In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operation.
-
-
inresting look into a secret world.
- By Christopher Daniels on 05-22-20
By: Helen Fry
-
Money for Nothing
- The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
- By: Thomas Levenson
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the heart of the Scientific Revolution, when new theories promised to explain the affairs of the universe, Britain was broke, facing a mountain of debt accumulated in war after war it could not afford. But that same Scientific Revolution - the kind of thinking that helped Isaac Newton solve the mysteries of the cosmos - would soon lead clever, if not always scrupulous, men to try to figure a way out of Britain’s financial troubles.
-
-
Financial innovation's first song of the siren.
- By Michael Barnett on 09-06-20
By: Thomas Levenson
-
The Unidentified
- Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained
- By: Colin Dickey
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational - in fringe - is on the rise: from Atlantis to aliens, from Flat Earth to the Loch Ness monster, the list goes on. It seems the more our maps of the known world get filled in, the more we crave mysterious locations full of strange creatures. Enter Colin Dickey, cultural historian and tour guide of the weird.
-
-
Skeptic's Analysis of Weird America
- By Adrian on 11-23-20
By: Colin Dickey
-
The Urge
- Our History of Addiction
- By: Carl Erik Fisher
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a psychiatrist in training fresh from medical school, Carl Erik Fisher found himself face-to-face with an addiction crisis that nearly cost him everything. Desperate to make sense of his condition, he turned to the history of addiction, learning that our society’s current quagmire is only part of a centuries-old struggle to treat addictive behavior.
-
-
Nailed it
- By Paully on 11-23-22
By: Carl Erik Fisher
-
The Quiet Before
- On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- By: Gal Beckerman
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We tend to think of revolutions as loud: frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. But the ideas fueling them have traditionally been conceived in much quieter spaces, in the small, secluded corners where a vanguard can whisper among themselves, imagine alternate realities, and deliberate about how to achieve their goals. This extraordinary book is a search for those spaces, over centuries and across continents, and a warning that—in a world dominated by social media—they might soon go extinct.
-
-
Thoughtful Survey with No Magic Solutions
- By Haim Watzman on 04-25-22
By: Gal Beckerman
-
Cities
- The First 6,000 Years
- By: Monica L. Smith
- Narrated by: Monica L. Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A sweeping history of cities through the millennia - from Mesopotamia to Manhattan - and how they have propelled Homo sapiens to dominance.
-
-
Written for a child
- By virginia on 07-22-21
By: Monica L. Smith
-
Superior
- The Return of Race Science
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Hannah Melbourn
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Superior tells the disturbing story of the persistent thread of belief in biological racial differences in the world of science. If the vast majority of scientists and scholars disavowed these ideas and considered race a social construct, it was an idea that still managed to somehow survive in the way scientists thought about human variation and genetics. Dissecting the statements and work of contemporary scientists studying human biodiversity, Angela Saini shows us how, again and again, even mainstream scientists cling to the idea that race is biologically real.
-
-
Lots of great info, underwhelming narrative
- By Amazon Customer on 04-08-21
By: Angela Saini
-
We Were Illegal
- Uncovering a Texas Family's Mythmaking and Migration
- By: Jessica Goudeau
- Narrated by: Jessica Goudeau
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over seven generations, Jessica Goudeau’s family members were church elders, preachers, Sunday school teachers and potluck organizers. Her great-grandfather helped establish a Christian university in Abilene, Texas, which she attended along with her grandparents, parents, siblings, and cousins. Her family's legacy—a word she heard often growing up—was rooted in faithfulness, righteousness, and the hard work that built the great state of Texas.
-
-
Very good read
- By Physicist on Violin on 08-11-24
By: Jessica Goudeau
-
I Want You to Know We're Still Here
- A Post-Holocaust Memoir
- By: Esther Safran Foer
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer, Esther Safran Foer
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married, and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching.
-
-
Interesting but…
- By mk on 08-23-21
-
Enemy of All Mankind
- A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event - the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew - and its surprising repercussions across time and space.
-
-
Slow
- By Gary V Howell on 06-07-20
By: Steven Johnson
-
Our Moon
- How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are
- By: Rebecca Boyle
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many of us know that the Moon pulls on our oceans, driving the tides, but did you know that it smells like gunpowder? Or that it was essential to the development of science and religion? Acclaimed journalist Rebecca Boyle takes listeners on a dazzling tour to reveal the intimate role that our 4.51-billion-year-old companion has played in our biological and cultural evolution.
-
-
Interesting but with annoyances
- By J. Pegg on 04-13-24
By: Rebecca Boyle
-
What You Have Heard Is True
- A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
- By: Carolyn Forché
- Narrated by: Carolyn Forché
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What You Have Heard is True is a devastating, lyrical, and visionary memoir about a young woman’s brave choice to engage with horror in order to help others. Written by one of the most gifted poets of her generation, this is the story of a woman’s radical act of empathy, and her fateful encounter with an intriguing man who changes the course of her life.
-
-
Beautiful story
- By Norhilda on 05-09-19
By: Carolyn Forché
-
The Map of Knowledge
- A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found
- By: Violet Moller
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundations of modern knowledge - philosophy, math, astronomy, geography - were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed. Yet some texts did survive and The Map of Knowledge explores the role played by seven cities around the Mediterranean....
-
-
Terrible narration.
- By nathan535 on 11-05-19
By: Violet Moller
-
Untold Power
- The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson
- By: Rebecca Boggs Roberts
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While this nation has yet to elect its first woman president—and though history has downplayed her role—just over a century ago a woman became the nation’s first acting president. In fact, she was born in 1872, and her name was Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. For the first time, we have a biography that takes an unflinching look at the woman whose ascent mirrors that of many powerful American women before and since, one full of the compromises and complicities women have undertaken throughout time in order to find security for themselves and make their mark on history.
-
-
Readers voice lacked Edith’s strength
- By Heidi on 08-01-24
What listeners say about Frostbite
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 01-11-25
refrigeration IS fascinating!
This is a worthy book. Great info/great reading. A timely topic I knew nothing about.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cowgirl
- 03-14-25
Very good book, narration distracts
Narration sounds like an automaton… I’m not sure I believe this is the author. Regardless, I almost couldn’t finish this good story because of the terrible listening experience.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. Cole
- 01-18-25
Fascinating
Loved the eye-opening history of cooling our food. Forever changed how I will see the food on my table and in our markets
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jennifer Wardell
- 07-05-24
So interesting
Great book! Highly recommend to those who love learning about food and history. Enjoyed the performance as well.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ben Lake
- 10-21-24
Incredibly fascinating
There are so many pearls of knowledge in this book: a deep and thorough analysis into a topic we all take for granted.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- PurlTwo
- 12-01-24
Influences
How much refrigeration influences world view.
Also why Whole Foods cost more. Than Walmart for the same products.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TheDudeWhoBrews
- 06-28-24
Excellent listen. So much depth
The author, who is also the narrator, is an excellent and entertaining communicator. I have been a long time of the podcast Gastropod, which she is a cohost of, and this was a very enjoyable deep dive into a topic that she is clearly very passionate about.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Monica Horvat
- 09-22-24
Professional approach
I liked the way the author links science, social developments and politics to make images of the future from the point of view of different actors
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- adele cabot
- 10-15-24
The content of the book stood out the most.
Fascinating and exhaustive report/story of refrigeration - the pros and cons and the dangers to our environment. I listened to the audio book, read by the author. It’s a must read for anyone who’s notice or is aware of climate change and who also enjoys an ice cold beer. Sometimes there are more details than I could absorb, but that’s ok because overall it’s important info for us all.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- L. Lombard
- 12-02-24
New ideas about history.
Lots of issues I had not thought of and concepts that were new to me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!