Our bedtime stories are designed to let you drift off with no nagging feeling that you need to listen through to the end. Their purpose is to let you slowly fall into peaceful, restful sleep. With that in mind, we present actor Broadway and big-screen star Phillipa Soo reading Chinese fables and folk stories. These traditional tales have a long oral history dating back to the Middle Kingdom of old.

An exhilarating journey into the mind and spirit of a remarkable man, a legendary teacher, and a masterful storyteller, conducted by TV journalist Bill Moyers for their acclaimed PBS series.

Candlewick is a young boy who’s an orphan, and he longs to belong to a family. He envies Pinocchio and the other children in his village for their good luck and fortune, while his caretaker is a strict restaurant owner who treats him like a servant. One day, he’s invited to go to a magical place with promises of fun and a place where he’s free to be whoever he wants to be, but it all comes with a price.

Many people today think the Bible, the most influential book in world history, is not only outdated but irrelevant, irrational, and even immoral. This explanation of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, demonstrates clearly and powerfully that the opposite is true. The Bible remains profoundly relevant - both to the great issues of our day and to each individual life. It is the greatest moral guide and source of wisdom ever written.

This extraordinary document represents a new form of historical research and straightens out many open questions and misinterpretations. It takes the form of direct dialogues between a modern researcher and a member of the Qumran Essene community. Alive around the time of Christ, this community has become the focus of ideas about the connection of Jesus' teachings to earlier traditions.

For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes.

With eloquent simplicity, one of the world's last Native American medicine men demonstrates how traditional tribal wisdom can help us maintain spiritual and physical health in today's world.

It’s the late 1960s, and two lovers converge on an arid patch of earth in South India. John Walker is the handsome scion of a powerful East-Coast American family. Diane Maes is a beautiful hippie from Belgium. They have come to build a new world - Auroville, an international utopian community for thousands of people. Their faith is strong, the future bright. So how do John and Diane end up dying two decades later, on the same day, on a cracked concrete floor in a thatch hut by a remote canyon? This is the mystery Akash Kapur sets out to solve in Better to Have Gone.

Ben orders daily room service while living in a five-star hotel. Olivia collects luxury-brand sneakers worn by celebrities. Dakota jets off to Rome when she needs to avoid drama at school. Welcome to the inner circle of New York’s richest families, where academia is an obsession, wealth does nothing to soothe status anxiety and parents will try just about anything to gain a competitive edge in the college admissions rat race.

Colorful stories about and profound teachings of Patrul Rinpoche, one of the most impactful teachers and thinkers in the Tibetan tradition from the 19th century.

The Magic of Self-Respect is the second volume in a series titled Authentic Living. So much of the experience of everyday life, says Osho in this insightful guide, is shaped by religious and social conditioning - and we are not even aware of the fact.

Kabbalah For Dummies presents a balanced perspective of Kabbalah as an "umbrella" for a complex assemblage of mystical Jewish teachings and codification techniques. Kabbalah for Dummies also shows how Kabbalah simultaneously presents an approach to the study of text, the performance of ritual, and the experience of worship, as well as how the listener can apply its teaching to everyday life.

The dominant religion of India, "Hinduism" refers to a wide variety of religious traditions and philosophies that have developed over thousands of years. Today, the United States is home to approximately one million Hindus. If you've heard of this ancient religion and are looking for a reference that explains the intricacies of the customs, practices, and teachings of this ancient spiritual system, Hinduism for Dummies is for you!

This Is My God is Herman Wouk's famous introduction to Judaism completely updated and revised with a new chapter, "Israel at 40". A miracle of brevity, it guides listeners through the world's oldest practicing religion with all the power, clarity, and wit of Wouk's celebrated novels.

Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton is a Maasai tribesman of Kenya. In this fascinating autobiography, he shares stories about growing up in his nomadic tribe - from licking sweat off cows’ noses to survive a drought, to facing down a lion at age 14, to playing soccer for the president of Kenya. The only member of his family to receive a formal education, Joseph sometimes lived as much as 40 miles away from school. While at school, he learned about Western culture and traditions.

Religion is central to the lives of millions of people around the globe. But how did the great religions begin, and what do their followers believe? Religions of the World tells the remarkable story of some of the faiths which have helped to shape the way we live today. Aimed at younger listeners, it introduces the history and scriptures, beliefs and customs of some of humanity’s most enduring religious traditions, and looks at their place in the lives of men, women and children across the world.

This extraordinary document represents a new form of historical research and straightens out many open questions and misinterpretations. It takes the form of direct dialogues between a modern researcher and a member of the Qumran Essene community. Alive around the time of Christ, this community has become the focus of ideas about the connection of Jesus' teachings to earlier traditions.

Renowned linguistic anthropologist Don Kulick first went to study the tiny jungle village of Gapun in New Guinea over 30 years ago to document how it was that their native language, Tayap, was dying. But you can't study a language without settling in among the people, understanding how they speak every day, and even more, how they live. This book takes us inside the village as Kulick came to know it, revealing what it is like to live in a difficult-to-get-to village of 200 people, carved out like a cleft in the middle of a swamp, in the middle of a tropical rainforest.

On the surface, this is a biography of an accomplished seeker who mastered the practices of yoga and brought a system for understanding the mysteries of body, mind, and spirit to students in the West. But, like the life of Swami Rama, this audiobook offers more than a sequence of astonishing events. As you read the stories of authentic guru-disciple relationships Swami Rama had both with his master and with his own students, you will see how the spiritual wisdom is transmitted through generations. This book also serves as a guide to advanced practices of yoga and tantra not commonly understood in modern times.

With eloquent simplicity, one of the world's last Native American medicine men demonstrates how traditional tribal wisdom can help us maintain spiritual and physical health in today's world.

Of Kenya's largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu, Ngugi wa Thiongo was born in 1938 in the backlands of his country (Kiambu district) to a father whose four wives bore him two dozen or so children. Ngugi was the fifth child of the third wife. His father was a peasant farmer forced to become a squatter after the British Imperial Act of 1915. Before going off to school, he had what was then considered a bizarre and inexplicable thirst for learning....

Huston Smith, the man who brought the world's religions to the West, was born almost a century ago to missionary parents in China during the perilous rise of the Communist Party. Smith's lifelong spiritual journey brought him face-to-face with many of the people who shaped the 20th century. His extraordinary travels around the globe have taken him to the world's holiest places, where he has practiced religion with many of the great spiritual leaders of our time.

The mysticism and fairy folklore of Celtic England, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Brittany, and Wales is explored in this production, which focuses on interviews conducted with everyday citizens about their beliefs, sightings, and encounters in the early 20th century, followed by an anthropological examination of evidence. It is an exploration of the spirit world, of the Sidhe, the "good people", who are claimed to interact mischievously with the populace - sometimes even abducting them and leaving only the victims' clothes behind, transporting them far distances, and killing livestock.

Let Sandi Toksvig guide you on an eclectic meander through the calendar, illuminating neglected corners of history to tell tales of the fascinating figures you didn't learn about at school. From popes who gave birth during papal processions, to the inventor of Scrabble, to pioneering civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, who refused to give up her seat on a train decades before Rosa Parks was born. As witty and entertaining as it is instructive, this is an essential companion to each day of the year.

This is the story of Tenzin Palmo, the daughter of a fishmonger from London's East End who became a Tibetan nun. After meditating for 12 years in a cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas, she became a world-renowned spiritual leader and champion of the right of women to achieve spiritual enlightenment.

A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the best-selling author of Nothing to Envy.

From the rising of the morning sun to the summer flooding of the Nile River, the ancient Egyptians believed powerful gods and goddesses ruled over every aspect of their daily lives. This Egyptian mythology guide takes you on a trip through the sands of time to explore the world of pharaohs and sphinxes - ancient Egypt!

For the first time, in Fifth Sun, the history of the Aztecs is offered in all its complexity based solely on the texts written by the indigenous people themselves. Camilla Townsend presents an accessible and humanized depiction of these native Mexicans, rather than seeing them as the exotic, bloody figures of European stereotypes.

This captivating audiobook will take you on a beautiful journey through the fascinating world of Greek mythology. From the beginning of the cosmos to the Odyssey, be ready to venture into an exciting world of love, loyalty, infidelity, vengeance, deception, and intrigue!

An exhilarating journey into the mind and spirit of a remarkable man, a legendary teacher, and a masterful storyteller, conducted by TV journalist Bill Moyers for their acclaimed PBS series.