
The Golden Hour
A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood
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Narrated by:
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Matthew Specktor
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By:
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Matthew Specktor
About this listen
A personal and cultural exploration of the struggles between art and business at the heart of modern Hollywood, through the eyes of the talent that shaped it
Matthew Specktor grew up in the film industry: the son of legendary CAA superagent Fred Specktor, his childhood was one where Beau Bridges came over for dinner, Martin Sheen’s daughter was his close friend, and Marlon Brando left long messages on the family answering machine. He would eventually spend time working in Hollywood himself, first as a reluctant studio executive and later as a screenwriter.
Now, with The Golden Hour, Specktor blends memoir, cultural criticism, and narrative history to tell the story of the modern motion picture industry—illuminating the conflict between art and business that has played out over the last seventy-five years in Hollywood. Braiding his own story with that of his father, mother (a talented screenwriter whose career was cut short), and figures ranging from Jack Nicholson to CAA’s Michael Ovitz, Specktor reveals how Hollywood became a laboratory for the eternal struggle between art, labor, and capital.
Beginning with the rise of Music Corporation of America in the 1950s, The Golden Hour lays out a series of clashes between fathers and sons, talent agents and studio heads, artists, activists, unions, and corporations. With vivid prose and immersive scenes, Specktor shows how Hollywood grew from the epicenter of American cultural life to a full-fledged multinational concern—and what this shift has meant for the nation’s place in the world. At once a book about the movie business and an intimate family drama, The Golden Hour is a sweeping portrait of the American Century.
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"Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life." When Prince spoke those words over celestial organ sounds in the opening moments of "Let's Go Crazy," he wasn't just inaugurating yet another Billboard Hot 100 hit—one of forty-seven in his career; he was also giving voice to the deep-seated and richly complex spiritual underpinning of his art.
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An Anthem to the Soul of Prince
- By Ruth King on 05-05-25
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Sister, Sinner
- The Miraculous, Scandalous Story of Aimee Semple McPherson
- By: Claire Hoffman
- Narrated by: Carmen Seantel
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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On a spring day in 1926, Aimee Semple McPherson wandered into the Pacific Ocean and vanished. Weeks later she reappeared in the desert, claiming to have been kidnapped. A national media frenzy and months of investigation ensued. Who was this woman? America’s most famous evangelist, McPherson was a sophisticated marketer who used spectacle, storytelling, and the newest technology—including her own radio station—to bring God’s message to the masses.
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A gentle, but honest reflection
- By Nicolle on 04-26-25
By: Claire Hoffman
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Hubris Maximus
- The Shattering of Elon Musk
- By: Faiz Siddiqui
- Narrated by: André Santana
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At a moment when America’s tech gods are more influential than ever, Hubris Maximus is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of lionizing magnetic leaders. Washington Post journalist Faiz Siddiqui offers a gripping, detailed portrait of a singularly messy and lucrative period in Musk’s career, as well as a case study in the power of using one’s platform to shape the public narrative in a world that can’t turn away from its screens.
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intriguing
- By Avox on 04-24-25
By: Faiz Siddiqui
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Dreams
- The Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac
- By: Mark Blake
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Fleetwood Mac has had a groundbreaking career spanning over fifty years and includes some of the bestselling albums and greatest hits of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. But the band's unique story is one of enormous triumph and also deep tragedy. There has never been a band in the history of music riven with as much romantic drama, sexual tension, and incredible highs and lows as Fleetwood Mac. Dreams is a must-listen for casual Fleetwood Mac fans and die-hard devotees alike.
By: Mark Blake
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The Acid Queen
- The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary
- By: Susannah Cahalan
- Narrated by: Susannah Cahalan
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory. She was a beatnik, a psychonaut, and a true believer who tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time.
By: Susannah Cahalan
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The World of Nancy Kwan
- A Memoir by Hollywood's Asian Superstar
- By: Nancy Kwan, Deborah Davis - contributor, Kevin Kwan - foreword
- Narrated by: Nancy Kwan, Kevin Kwan
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Never allowing show business to change her, Kwan persevered in an industry where everything was stacked against her, breaking through barriers and becoming a beacon of hope to generations of Asians who aspired to be seen. The World of Nancy Kwan is a multi-faceted personal history of an iconic actress whose triumphant rise and resilience illuminates the broader history of Hollywood and how the only way forward is to stay true to oneself.
By: Nancy Kwan, and others
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What Is Ancient History?
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Michael Langan
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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It's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.
By: Walter Scheidel
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Depraved Obsession
- The Gripping True Story of Law Enforcement’s Hunt for a Sadistic Serial Killer
- By: Rodney Sadler
- Narrated by: James Matthews Vannoy
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
During his nearly fifteen-year reign of terror, Ronald Lloyd Bailey’s depraved obsession with sexual sadism held communities across southeast Michigan in a shroud of fear. From the early 1970’s to the mid-1980’s, the former patient at one of Michigan’s foremost psychiatric hospitals, abducted as many as fifteen teens and over time became a sadistic serial killer.
By: Rodney Sadler
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Run the Song
- Writing About Running About Listening
- By: Ben Ratliff
- Narrated by: Ben Ratliff
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Run the Song is also the story of how a professional critic, frustrated with conventional modes of criticism, finds his way back to a deeper relationship with music. When stumped or preoccupied by a piece of music, Ratliff starts to think that perhaps running can tell him more about what he’s listening to—let’s run it, he’ll say. And with that, the listener in turn is invited to listen alongside one of the great listeners of our day in this wildly inventive and consistently thought-provoking chronicle of a profoundly unsettling time.
By: Ben Ratliff
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Gandolfini
- Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend
- By: Jason Bailey
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In Gandolfini, critic and historian Jason Bailey traces the twinned stories of the man and the unforgettable roles he played. Gandolfini’s roots were working class, raised in northern New Jersey as the son of Italian immigrants, and acting was something he loved for a long time before he could see it as a career. It wasn’t until he was well into his bohemian twenties that he dedicated himself to a life on the stage and screen.
By: Jason Bailey
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Pre-Code Essentials
- Must-See Cinema from Hollywood's Untamed Era, 1930-1934
- By: Kim Luperi, Danny Reid
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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With unparalleled freedom in the Golden Age of Hollywood, movies produced during the “pre-Code” era between 1930 and 1934 dealt with a wide range of social issues, including sexual freedom, incarceration, organized crime, race, and class. Films of the period include beloved classics like King Kong (1933) but also lesser-known penetrating cinema like I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) and Wild Boys of the Road (1933). These films, produced at the height of the Great Depression, boast work by women directors, featured diverse leads, and pushed the limits of contemporary social norms.
By: Kim Luperi, and others