Hell-Bent
Obsession, Pain and the Search for Something Like Transcendence in Bikram Yoga
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 $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Ben Lorr
-
By:
-
Benjamin Lorr
About this listen
Author Benjamin Lorr wandered into a yoga studio - and fell down a rabbit hole. Hell-Bent explores a fascinating, often surreal world at the extremes of American yoga. Benjamin Lorr walked into his first yoga studio on a whim, overweight and curious, and quickly found the yoga reinventing his life. He was studying Bikram Yoga (or "hot yoga") when a run-in with a master and competitive yoga champion led him into an obsessive subculture - a group of yogis for whom eight hours of practice a day in 110-degree heat was just the beginning. So begins a journey.
Populated by athletic prodigies, wide-eyed celebrities, legitimate medical miracles, and predatory hucksters, it's a nation-spanning trip - from the jam-packed studios of New York to the athletic performance labs of the University of Oregon to the stage at the National Yoga Asana Championship, where Lorr competes for glory.
The culmination of two years of research, and featuring hundreds of interviews with yogis, scientists, doctors, and scholars, Hell-Bent is a wild exploration. A look at the science behind a controversial practice, a story of greed, narcissism, and corruption, and a mind-bending tale of personal transformation, it is an audiobook that will not only challenge your conception of yoga, but will change the way you view the fragile, inspirational limits of the human body itself.
©2012 Benjamin Lorr (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Secret Life of Groceries
- The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket
- By: Benjamin Lorr
- Narrated by: Benjamin Lorr
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American supermarket is an everyday miracle. But what does it take to run one? What are the inner workings of product delivery and distribution? Who sets the price? And who suffers for the convenience and efficiency we’ve come to expect? In this rollicking exposé, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on this highly secretive industry.
-
-
Fucking Exceptional
- By Amazon Customer on 02-23-21
By: Benjamin Lorr
-
Wild and Precious
- A Celebration of Mary Oliver
- By: Mary Oliver, Sophia Bush - contributor, Ross Gay - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Sophia Bush
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver is a first of its kind audio commemoration of one of the greatest poets in modern history. Actress and activist Sophia Bush guides listeners on a journey of contemplation and discovery into the artistry of Mary Oliver as remembered by many who were most greatly impacted by it.
-
-
I was looking for poetry
- By Dani on 08-19-23
By: Mary Oliver, and others
-
First You Write a Sentence
- The Elements of Reading, Writing...and Life
- By: Joe Moran
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether dealing with finding the ideal word, building a sentence, or constructing a paragraph, First You Write a Sentence informs by light example: much richer than a style guide, it can be listened to not only for instruction but for pleasure and delight. And along the way, it shows how good writing can help us notice the world, make ourselves known to others, and live more meaningful lives. It's an elegant gem in praise of the English sentence.
-
-
Dull
- By Rachel on 05-07-24
By: Joe Moran
-
The Hungry Brain
- Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat
- By: Stephan J. Guyenet Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one wants to overeat. And certainly no one wants to overeat for years, become overweight, and end up with a high risk of diabetes or heart disease--yet two thirds of Americans do precisely that. Even though we know better, we often eat too much. Why does our behavior betray our own intentions to be lean and healthy? The problem, argues obesity and neuroscience researcher Stephan J. Guyenet, is not necessarily a lack of willpower or an incorrect understanding of what to eat.
-
-
Absolute Terrible
- By Innate on 06-11-17
-
Be Useful
- Seven Tools for Life
- By: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Narrated by: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world’s greatest bodybuilder. The world’s highest-paid movie star. The leader of the world’s sixth-largest economy. That these are the same person sounds like the setup to a joke, but this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this did not happen by accident. Arnold’s stratospheric success happened as part of a process. As the result of clear vision, big thinking, hard work, direct communication, resilient problem-solving, open-minded curiosity, and a commitment to giving back. All of it guided by the one lesson Arnold’s father hammered into him above all: be useful.
-
-
A Clear Concise picture of vision and purpose
- By Empress Karen on 10-10-23
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
The Secret Life of Groceries
- The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket
- By: Benjamin Lorr
- Narrated by: Benjamin Lorr
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American supermarket is an everyday miracle. But what does it take to run one? What are the inner workings of product delivery and distribution? Who sets the price? And who suffers for the convenience and efficiency we’ve come to expect? In this rollicking exposé, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on this highly secretive industry.
-
-
Fucking Exceptional
- By Amazon Customer on 02-23-21
By: Benjamin Lorr
-
Wild and Precious
- A Celebration of Mary Oliver
- By: Mary Oliver, Sophia Bush - contributor, Ross Gay - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Sophia Bush
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver is a first of its kind audio commemoration of one of the greatest poets in modern history. Actress and activist Sophia Bush guides listeners on a journey of contemplation and discovery into the artistry of Mary Oliver as remembered by many who were most greatly impacted by it.
-
-
I was looking for poetry
- By Dani on 08-19-23
By: Mary Oliver, and others
-
First You Write a Sentence
- The Elements of Reading, Writing...and Life
- By: Joe Moran
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether dealing with finding the ideal word, building a sentence, or constructing a paragraph, First You Write a Sentence informs by light example: much richer than a style guide, it can be listened to not only for instruction but for pleasure and delight. And along the way, it shows how good writing can help us notice the world, make ourselves known to others, and live more meaningful lives. It's an elegant gem in praise of the English sentence.
-
-
Dull
- By Rachel on 05-07-24
By: Joe Moran
-
The Hungry Brain
- Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat
- By: Stephan J. Guyenet Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Aaron Abano
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one wants to overeat. And certainly no one wants to overeat for years, become overweight, and end up with a high risk of diabetes or heart disease--yet two thirds of Americans do precisely that. Even though we know better, we often eat too much. Why does our behavior betray our own intentions to be lean and healthy? The problem, argues obesity and neuroscience researcher Stephan J. Guyenet, is not necessarily a lack of willpower or an incorrect understanding of what to eat.
-
-
Absolute Terrible
- By Innate on 06-11-17
-
Be Useful
- Seven Tools for Life
- By: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Narrated by: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world’s greatest bodybuilder. The world’s highest-paid movie star. The leader of the world’s sixth-largest economy. That these are the same person sounds like the setup to a joke, but this is no joke. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this did not happen by accident. Arnold’s stratospheric success happened as part of a process. As the result of clear vision, big thinking, hard work, direct communication, resilient problem-solving, open-minded curiosity, and a commitment to giving back. All of it guided by the one lesson Arnold’s father hammered into him above all: be useful.
-
-
A Clear Concise picture of vision and purpose
- By Empress Karen on 10-10-23
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Light on Life
- The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom
- By: John J. Evans, Douglas Abrams, B. K. S. Iyengar
- Narrated by: Patricia Walden
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yoga's popularity is soaring, but its widespread acceptance as an exercise for physical fitness and the recognition of its health benefits have not been matched by an understanding of the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual development that the yogic tradition can also offer. In Light on Life, B.K.S. Iyengar explains this new and more complete understanding of the yogic journey.
-
-
Audible, please give us more like this book
- By Pamela on 07-21-11
By: John J. Evans, and others
-
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult
- A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere
- By: Maria Bamford
- Narrated by: Maria Bamford
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it. In Bamford’s “trademark blend of disarming intimacy and dark whimsy” (Publishers Weekly), Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult brings us on a quest to participate in something.
-
-
Hilarious and sincere
- By B. Bazzell on 09-06-23
By: Maria Bamford
-
Number Go Up
- Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
- By: Zeke Faux
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. Giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady endorsed it, and TV ads hailed it as the future of money. Hardly anyone knew how it worked—but why bother with the particulars when everyone was making a fortune from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or some other bizarrely named “digital asset”? As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year globe-spanning quest.
-
-
Phenomenal story
- By Michael on 10-05-23
By: Zeke Faux
-
The Right Kind of Wrong
- By: Amy C. Edmondson
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures”: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often. The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well. After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely.
-
-
Very pop psy
- By Student-prime on 09-28-23
By: Amy C. Edmondson
-
Trail of the Lost
- The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Kristi Burns
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a park ranger with the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, from Yosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the support of the agency, Andrea grew frustrated with the service's bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, and left the force after twelve years. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left off: three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail.
-
-
Much ado about nothing
- By Linda Harmon on 10-01-23
By: Andrea Lankford
-
Your Table Is Ready
- Tales of a New York City Maître D'
- By: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
- Narrated by: Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the glamorous to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen—or just to gawk—at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run. His phone number was passed around among those who wanted to curry favor, during the decades when restaurants replaced clubs and theater as, well, theater in the most visible, vibrant city in the world. Besides dropping us back into a vanished time, Your Table Is Ready takes us places we’d never be able to get into on our own.
-
-
Accurately crass and heart felt
- By Amazon Customer on 01-10-23
-
Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses
- A Practical Workbook for Integrating Themes, Ideas, and Inspiration into Your Class
- By: Sage Rountree, Alexandra Desiato
- Narrated by: Sage Rountree, Angie Kane
- Length: 4 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Experienced yoga instructors Sage Rountree and Alexandra DeSiato give yoga teachers the tools to find their voice and tap in to innate wisdom. The authors offer ready-made, detailed themes to use in classes and provide flexible templates for building a toolkit of themes for future use. Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses offers guidance for both new and experienced teachers starting with a section on voice, authenticity, emulation, phrasing, practice, repetition, and finding inspiration.
-
-
For the Peak Performance and spiritual yogis
- By ZenMonkey on 12-28-21
By: Sage Rountree, and others
-
The Devil's Highway
- A True Story
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a "book of the year" in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.
-
-
My Favorite Author to Listen to
- By C. F. Eastman on 03-08-18
-
Yoga for Witches
- By: Sarah Robinson
- Narrated by: Sarah Robinson
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yoga for Witches explores a new kind of journey, connecting two powerful spiritual disciplines, with enchanting effects! Witchcraft and yoga share many similarities that are, for the first time, explored in combination, in this groundbreaking new title from Sarah Robinson, certified yoga instructor and experienced witch. Yoga for Witches shares exercises, poses and the knowledge you need to connect to your own special magic and inner power.
-
-
interesting.
- By Amazonuser on 02-07-22
By: Sarah Robinson
-
Homicide
- A Year on the Killing Streets
- By: David Simon
- Narrated by: Reed Diamond
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A highly acclaimed journalistic masterpiece and true crime classic, Homicide illustrates a year in the life of the detectives of the Homicide Unit in the city of Baltimore. David Simon, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, spent 4 years on the police beat before taking a leave of absence to write this book.
-
-
It's abridged!
- By Chris on 09-09-08
By: David Simon
-
Perfectly Imperfect
- By: Baron Baptiste
- Narrated by: Baron Baptiste
- Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A little over a decade ago, Baron Baptiste published his seminal book, Journey into Power. The first of its kind, it introduced the world to Baptiste Yoga, his signature method that marries a lifetime of studying with some of the world's most renowned yoga masters with his uniquely powerful approach to inner and outer transformation. Since then, yoga has steadily moved into the mainstream in our culture, and Baron's unique contribution has played a key role.
-
-
Easy, Quick, EFFECTIVE
- By Deebee on 03-20-17
By: Baron Baptiste
-
The Least of Us
- By: Sam Quinones
- Narrated by: Tom Jordan
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author of Dreamland, a searing follow-up that explores the terrifying next stages of the opioid epidemic and the quiet yet ardent stories of community repair.
-
-
Top tier journalism and 100% honest
- By Anonymous User on 11-24-21
By: Sam Quinones
Related to this topic
-
Going Om
- Real Life Stories On and Off the Yoga Mat
- By: Melissa Carroll - editor
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky, Luke Daniels, Allyson Johnson, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With candid, witty, and compelling experiences of yoga from renowned memoirists, including Cheryl Strayed (author of the number one New York Times best-seller Wild), Claire Dederer (author of national best-seller Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses), Dinty W. Moore (author of The Accidental Buddhist), Neal Pollack (author of Stretch: The Making of a Yoga Dude) and many others, Going Om shares a range of observations about this popular practice.
-
-
a couple of good stories, but overall just eh
- By Melissa on 05-31-16
-
This Is How I Save My Life
- From California to India, a True Story of Finding Everything When You Are Willing to Try Anything
- By: Amy B. Scher
- Narrated by: Amy B. Scher
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Amy B. Scher was struck with undiagnosed late-stage, chronic Lyme disease, the best physicians in America labeled her condition incurable and potentially terminal. Deteriorating rapidly, she went on a search to save her own life - from the top experts in Los Angeles and the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis to a state-of-the-art hospital in Chicago. After exhausting all of her options in the US, she discovered a possible cure - but it was highly experimental, available only in India, and had as much of a probability of killing her as it did of curing her.
-
-
A great comfort
- By Sue on 07-07-18
By: Amy B. Scher
-
The Book of Help
- A Memoir in Remedies
- By: Megan Griswold
- Narrated by: Megan Griswold
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir-in-remedies by a self-described "professional soul-searcher" that details a journey of self-discovery through more than 160 tonics, seminars, regimens, and transformative therapies. With a voice that is at once intimate and hilarious, Megan captures the openness and honesty necessary for people to take a new path in life. Listeners will open the audiobook with curiosity about all the different healing therapies that Megan tries, but leave with a new understanding of themselves.
-
-
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride has some serious competition!
- By Elisa R. Goodman on 02-15-19
By: Megan Griswold
-
Expecting Adam
- A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
- By: Martha Beck
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the moment Martha and her husband, John, conceived their second child, all hell broke loose. They were a couple obsessed with success. After years of matching IQs and test scores with less driven peers, they had two Harvard degrees apiece and were gunning for more. But the dream had begun to disintegrate. Then, when their unborn son, Adam, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, doctors, advisers, and friends in the Harvard community warned them not to keep the baby.
-
-
True Life Fairy Tale
- By Desarae on 11-27-13
By: Martha Beck
-
Not Fade Away
- A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found
- By: Rebecca Alexander, Sascha Alper
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-four-year-old Rebecca Alexander is a psychotherapist, a spin instructor, a volunteer, and an athlete. She is also almost completely blind, with significantly deteriorated hearing. Not Fade Away is a deeply moving exploration of the obstacles we all face-physical, psychological, and philosophical. Rebecca's story is an exquisite reminder to live each day to its fullest.
-
-
Loved this!
- By Daryl on 11-24-14
By: Rebecca Alexander, and others
-
Raising the Barre
- Big Dreams, False Starts, and My Midlife Quest to Dance the Nutcracker
- By: Lauren Kessler
- Narrated by: Hollis McCarthy
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lauren Kessler was 12, her ballet instructor crushed not just her dreams of being a ballerina but also her youthful self-assurance. Now, many decades and three children later, Kessler embarks on a journey to join a professional company to perform in The Nutcracker. Raising the Barre is more than just one woman's story; it is a story about shaking things up, taking risks, and ignoring good sense and forgetting how old you are and how you're "supposed" to act.
-
-
Smug
- By Claudette on 02-07-20
By: Lauren Kessler
-
Going Om
- Real Life Stories On and Off the Yoga Mat
- By: Melissa Carroll - editor
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky, Luke Daniels, Allyson Johnson, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With candid, witty, and compelling experiences of yoga from renowned memoirists, including Cheryl Strayed (author of the number one New York Times best-seller Wild), Claire Dederer (author of national best-seller Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses), Dinty W. Moore (author of The Accidental Buddhist), Neal Pollack (author of Stretch: The Making of a Yoga Dude) and many others, Going Om shares a range of observations about this popular practice.
-
-
a couple of good stories, but overall just eh
- By Melissa on 05-31-16
-
This Is How I Save My Life
- From California to India, a True Story of Finding Everything When You Are Willing to Try Anything
- By: Amy B. Scher
- Narrated by: Amy B. Scher
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Amy B. Scher was struck with undiagnosed late-stage, chronic Lyme disease, the best physicians in America labeled her condition incurable and potentially terminal. Deteriorating rapidly, she went on a search to save her own life - from the top experts in Los Angeles and the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis to a state-of-the-art hospital in Chicago. After exhausting all of her options in the US, she discovered a possible cure - but it was highly experimental, available only in India, and had as much of a probability of killing her as it did of curing her.
-
-
A great comfort
- By Sue on 07-07-18
By: Amy B. Scher
-
The Book of Help
- A Memoir in Remedies
- By: Megan Griswold
- Narrated by: Megan Griswold
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir-in-remedies by a self-described "professional soul-searcher" that details a journey of self-discovery through more than 160 tonics, seminars, regimens, and transformative therapies. With a voice that is at once intimate and hilarious, Megan captures the openness and honesty necessary for people to take a new path in life. Listeners will open the audiobook with curiosity about all the different healing therapies that Megan tries, but leave with a new understanding of themselves.
-
-
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride has some serious competition!
- By Elisa R. Goodman on 02-15-19
By: Megan Griswold
-
Expecting Adam
- A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
- By: Martha Beck
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the moment Martha and her husband, John, conceived their second child, all hell broke loose. They were a couple obsessed with success. After years of matching IQs and test scores with less driven peers, they had two Harvard degrees apiece and were gunning for more. But the dream had begun to disintegrate. Then, when their unborn son, Adam, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, doctors, advisers, and friends in the Harvard community warned them not to keep the baby.
-
-
True Life Fairy Tale
- By Desarae on 11-27-13
By: Martha Beck
-
Not Fade Away
- A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found
- By: Rebecca Alexander, Sascha Alper
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty-four-year-old Rebecca Alexander is a psychotherapist, a spin instructor, a volunteer, and an athlete. She is also almost completely blind, with significantly deteriorated hearing. Not Fade Away is a deeply moving exploration of the obstacles we all face-physical, psychological, and philosophical. Rebecca's story is an exquisite reminder to live each day to its fullest.
-
-
Loved this!
- By Daryl on 11-24-14
By: Rebecca Alexander, and others
-
Raising the Barre
- Big Dreams, False Starts, and My Midlife Quest to Dance the Nutcracker
- By: Lauren Kessler
- Narrated by: Hollis McCarthy
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lauren Kessler was 12, her ballet instructor crushed not just her dreams of being a ballerina but also her youthful self-assurance. Now, many decades and three children later, Kessler embarks on a journey to join a professional company to perform in The Nutcracker. Raising the Barre is more than just one woman's story; it is a story about shaking things up, taking risks, and ignoring good sense and forgetting how old you are and how you're "supposed" to act.
-
-
Smug
- By Claudette on 02-07-20
By: Lauren Kessler
-
Cat Daddy
- What the World's Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean
- By: Jackson Galaxy, Joel Derfner
- Narrated by: Jackson Galaxy
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, Galaxy tells the poignant story of his 13-year relationship with a petite gray-and-white short-haired cat named Benny, and gives singular advice for living with, caring for, and loving the feline in your home. When Benny arrived in his life, Galaxy was a down-and-out rock musician with not too much more going on than a part-time job at an animal shelter and a drug problem. Benny's previous owner brought the cat to the shelter in a cardboard box to give him up.
-
-
10 Stars!!!
- By Dawn J on 12-04-12
By: Jackson Galaxy, and others
-
On My Own Two Feet
- From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life
- By: Amy Purdy, Michelle Burford
- Narrated by: Amy Purdy, Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this poignant and uplifting memoir, Dancing with the Stars sensation Amy Purdy reveals the story of how losing her legs led her to find a spiritual path. When the Las Vegas native was just nineteen, she came down with bacterial meningitis and was given less than a two percent chance of survival. In a near-death experience, she saw three figures who told her: “You can come with us, or you can stay. No matter what happens in your life, it's all going to make sense in the end." In that moment, Amy chose to live.
-
-
A Powerful Memoir of Truimph over Tragedy
- By ElizOF on 01-31-22
By: Amy Purdy, and others
-
Don't Leave Me This Way
- Or When I Get Back on My Feet You'll Be Sorry
- By: Julia Fox Garrison
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julia Fox Garrison refused to listen to the professionals she called Dr. Jerk and Dr. Panic, who - after she suffered a massive, debilitating stroke at age thirty-seven - told her she’d probably die, or to Nurse Doom, who ignored her emergency call button. Instead she heeded the advice of kind, gifted Dr. Neuro, who promised her he would “treat your mind as well as your body.” Julia figured if she could somehow manage to get herself into a wheelchair, at least she’d always find parking. But after many, many months of hospitalization and rehab, Julia not only got into a wheelchair, but she got back out.
-
-
Heroic Story
- By Pamela Harvey on 02-29-12
-
My Year with Eleanor
- A Memoir
- By: Noelle Hancock
- Narrated by: Emily Beresford
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After losing her high-octane job as an entertainment blogger, Noelle Hancock was lost. About to turn 29, she'd spent her career writing about celebrities' lives and had forgotten how to live her own. Unemployed and full of self-doubt, she had no idea what she wanted out of life. She feared change - in fact, she feared almost everything. Once confident and ambitious, she had become crippled by anxiety, lacking the courage required even to attend a dinner party - until inspiration struck one day in the form of a quote on a chalkboard in a coffee shop.
-
-
Right on time!
- By Leah on 02-19-18
By: Noelle Hancock
-
Fierce
- How Competing for Myself Changed Everything
- By: Aly Raisman
- Narrated by: Natalie Roy Camargo, Aly Raisman
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover Aly Raisman's inspiring story of dedication, perseverance, and learning to think positive even in the toughest times on her path to gold medal success in two Olympic Games - and beyond. Aly Raisman first stepped onto a gymnastics mat as a toddler in a "mommy and me" gymnastics class. No one could have predicted then that 16 years later, she'd be standing on an Olympic podium, having achieved her dreams.
-
-
Excellent gymnastics memoir
- By Brittany Cook on 11-21-17
By: Aly Raisman
-
Running Like a Girl
- Notes on Learning to Run
- By: Alexandra Heminsley
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Until five years ago, Alexandra Heminsley was decidedly not a runner. Nor was she athletic in any sense of the word. She was an ordinary, curvy woman who was convinced that sports of any kind, especially running, were beyond her. But she's made running part of her life, and gets to reap the rewards: not just the obvious things, like a touch of weight loss, health and glowing skin, but self-belief, and immeasurable daily pleasure.
-
-
Meh... not what I thought...
- By Maria on 12-03-14
-
Fear Less
- Living Beyond Fear, Anxiety, Anger, and Addiction
- By: Dean Sluyter
- Narrated by: Dean Sluyter
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These days there's so much fear in the air, you can almost taste it - along with all the varieties of anxiety, anger, and addiction that grow out of it. How can you navigate your way through the fear and confusion, and find your way to peace? In Fear Less, acclaimed teacher and award-winning author Dean Sluyter shows how to use simple meditative techniques and subtle tweaks of body, mind, and breath to open your life to deep, relaxed confidence.
-
-
Omfg this is so good!
- By Sergio on 05-10-18
By: Dean Sluyter
-
Open
- An Autobiography
- By: Andre Agassi
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography. Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match and every relationship. Never before has the inner game of tennis and the outer game of fame been so precisely limned. In clear, taut prose, Agassi evokes his loyal brother, his wise coach, his gentle trainer, all the people who help him regain his balance and find love at last with Stefanie Graf.
-
-
Just an Incredible Story!
- By Patrick on 12-13-09
By: Andre Agassi
-
An Intimate Life
- Sex, Love, and My Journey as a Surrogate Partner
- By: Cheryl Cohen-Greene
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past 40 years, Cheryl Cohen Greene has worked as a surrogate partner, helping clients to confront, consider, and ultimately accept their sexuality. In this riveting memoir, Cohen Greene shares some of her most moving cases, and also reveals her own sexual coming-of-age. Beginning with a rigid Catholic upbringing in the 1950s, where she was taught to think sex and sexual desires were unnatural and wrong, Cohen Greene struggled to reconcile her sexual identity.
-
-
The Tender Memoir of a Sex Surrogate
- By Susie on 12-06-12
-
Course Correction
- A Story of Rowing and Resilience in the Wake of Title IX
- By: Ginny Gilder
- Narrated by: Janis Ian
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From her first strokes as a novice, Ginny Gilder found herself in a new world, training with Olympic rowers and participating in the famous Title IX naked protest, which helped define the movement for equality in college sports. Short, asthmatic, and stubborn, Gilder made the team against all odds and for the next 10 years devoted herself to answering a seemingly simple question: how badly do you want to go fast?
-
-
Every young woman should read this book
- By BCE on 11-13-17
By: Ginny Gilder
-
Way of the Peaceful Warrior
- A Book That Changes Lives
- By: Dan Millman
- Narrated by: Dan Millman
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audio edition of the international best seller Way of the Peaceful Warrior is based on the story of Dan Millman, a world-class gymnast who has it all, but is troubled by a vague sense of dissatisfaction with his everyday life. He meets an eccentric old mentor named Socrates, who sets him on a spiritual odyssey that will ultimately deliver or destroy him. Along the way Dan encounters realms of light and darkness, of romance and magic, as he learns what it means to live as a peaceful warrior.
-
-
My Favorite Audiobook
- By Knucks on 01-06-10
By: Dan Millman
-
Laughing at My Nightmare
- By: Shane Burcaw
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With acerbic wit and a hilarious voice, Shane Burcaw's Laughing at My Nightmare describes the challenges he faces as a 21-year-old with spinal muscular atrophy. From awkward handshakes to having a girlfriend and everything in between, Shane handles his situation with humor and a "you-only-live-once" perspective on life. While he does talk about everyday issues that are relatable to teens, he also offers an eye-opening perspective on what it is like to have a life threatening disease
-
-
Insightful and unflinchingly honest
- By Abby Goldsmith on 11-09-14
By: Shane Burcaw